SSD drive help

[Bruce427]

Hello,

Recently, on my nine month old HP Laptop DV7T (Windows 7 Home Permium) I replaced the factory HDD with a Crucial M4 256 gig SSD. I purchased the cloning kit because it included a routine that did the 4K alignment.

After cloning the HDD to the SSD I swapped the drives and the Crucial SSD booted right up and I have had no issues with it working. I immediately created a system image backup of the new SSD on an external HDD.

However, a few days ago I had occasion to want to reload the system image back on to the SSD (due to a corrupted iTunes). When I told Windows to recover from a factory image (and rebooted), I didn't get the usual screen asking me to select a system image, but got a screen saying:
_____________________

Windows has failed to start. A recent hardware of software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:

1. Insert your Windows installation disc and restart your computer.
2. Choose your language
3. Click "repair your computer."

At the bottom of the screen another message says: The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.

_____________________

HP computers do not come with a copy of the Windows installation disc. So I phoned Crucial thinking there might have been a problem with the cloning software. Crucial told me that the cloning software would make an exact copy of the HDD, and told me it was probably a Windows issue and referred me to Microsoft. Microsoft told me that since the copy of Windows came on the laptop, and that I didn't purchase it directly from them, that I would have to pay for any support -- then they referred me to HP. l called HP and they told me that since the Crucial SSD did not originally come from them, they could not help me.

So here I am with a laptop that operates fine in all other respects, but will not allow me to recover from a system image. It also does not recognize the system repair disc.

More information: I installed a Crucial M4 128 gig SSD on my wife's laptop (using the Crucial cloning software). It too works fine but has the same issue with the system image. So the problem seems to be associated with changing from from hard drives to SSDs.

Can anyone help me with this?

Thank you.

 

[rdc85]

can u get into the bios? set the first boot drive to the external hdd / the device name (backup system drive) and boot from it..

some cloning software need to create rescue disk (bootable disk with only system and software to do recovery) so u might need to do that first... (it doesn't have to be disk, flash disk could work to.)

later just boot from rescue disk and do a recovery......

 

[badam]

If I understand right, the system is not recognizing the HDD that has the system image on it? And you want to use that system image to restore windows, and now windows wont start and you get that error message? If so can you copy the system image to a usb and make the usb bootable, you may be able to then boot from that to repair the sdd.. go here and scroll down to option #3
http://www.petri.co.il/restore-windows-7-from-backup-image.htm

 

[Bruce427]

That's not quite what is happening.

What is happening is this: After I boot up normally, and go to Advanced Recovery Methods, and select "restore from a previously created system image," the computer reboots and goes to the screen mentioned in my original post and displays the message -- Windows has failed to start -- and tells me to do steps 1, 2, and 3. It's not that Windows simply does not recognize the **particular** HDD with the system image, its that (on this screen) it does not recognize ANY external drive/device.

When first powered up, the computer boots up normally and works fine -- and recognizes ALL external devices. But when I go to Advanced Recovery Methods and select "restore from a previously created system image," after the computer reboots I get the screen mentioned above and (at that screen) the computer will not recognize ANY external devices.

It tells me to install the Windows installation disc and Click "repair your computer," but HP does not provide a Windows disc with their computers.

I think it may be that -- when trying to recover from a system image -- Windows may be "looking" to reboot from the original HDD that I swapped out for the SSD, and when it cannot find it, Windows gives me the screen mentioned above. I think this might be the problem because there is another message at the bottom of the screen saying: "The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible." I am guessing that the "required device inaccessible" is the original HDD and Windows (for some reason) does not understand that it has been swapped out for the SSD.

Is there any way to "tell" Windows to "look" for the SSD when rebooting from Advanced Recovery Methods? The ONLY time I experience any problem is when rebooting from the from Advanced Recovery Methods area. In all other aspects, the computer operates fine.

 

[ddobrev]

Have the same problem with Corsair Force 3 SSD. After clone with Acronis Disk image I get in windows, rebooting works fine, but after I install even one windows update and I get the "device inaccessible" message. From then on - nothing helps - startup repair, fixmbr, restore to last good snapshot ..
Any hint what can we do is appreciated.

 

[jemm]

The best practice is to make a fresh install when adding a SSD, if you have the OS in a disk or USB device.

 

[ddobrev]

Yeah, Mesa knows that. However it will take me weeks to get everything installed and migrated properly, thus i was hoping to be able to do this easy like with the previos HDD-> HDD change.
Oh well, the weekend is coming.