Cloning HD to SDD - Windows 7 64bit - won't boot

[EBDundov]

I am trying to clone my internal boot HD (Windows 7 64bit) to a new Samsung SSD. Both disks are the same size (256GB). I am using Macrium Reflect free version. It clones fine, all 3 partitiions (Dell Fat, Recover, and NTFS), no errors. Tried this twice. Both times, when I put the new drive in the laptop, I get a blinking cursor in the top left corner. It never even loads Windows. The only difference I do see between the old and new drives is the NTFS partition is slightly smaller in the SSD than the original HD (170.72GB vs. 174.12GB), but the host shows the same number of files/folders.

 

[popatim]

did you miss the system partition?
boot with the old drive installed and go to disk management (run diskmgmt.msc) and see how many partitions its showing.

 

[EBDundov]

It is showing the same 3 that Reflect is showing. There is 40MB (Dell partition) 17.80 GB Recovery partition and 215.04 GB NTFS that contains: boot, page file, crash dump, and primary partition.

 

[popatim]

Is there another drive showing as system?

I digress - with the new drive in the laptop, boot from the installl disk and run startup repair.

 

[EBDundov]

Is there another drive showing as system?

I digress - with the new drive in the laptop, boot from the installl disk and run startup repair.

Yes, sorry... the recovery partition (17.8 GB NTFS) is broken down to (System, Active, Primary Partition).

This is a Dell laptop that came with Windows installed. I don't have an install disk. I guess I can create one somehow?

 

[randomstar]

Boot from a windows 7 CD, wiht the SSD installed, and go through an automatic repair. it will all run then generally.
I have to do that just about every time - pretty much any windows 7 cd will work.

 

[EBDundov]

Boot from a windows 7 CD, wiht the SSD installed, and go through an automatic repair. it will all run then generally.
I have to do that just about every time - pretty much any windows 7 cd will work.

What is installed on my laptop is Windows 7 Pro 64bit (work computer), which is what I put on the SSD. The only Windows 7 CD I have is from my personal computer and it is a Windows Home Premium 64bit UPGRADE version. You think this will work?

 

[randomstar]

should work fine. have done that more than once..

Boot from a windows 7 CD, wiht the SSD installed, and go through an automatic repair. it will all run then generally.
I have to do that just about every time - pretty much any windows 7 cd will work.

What is installed on my laptop is Windows 7 Pro 64bit (work computer), which is what I put on the SSD. The only Windows 7 CD I have is from my personal computer and it is a Windows Home Premium 64bit UPGRADE version. You think this will work?

 

[EBDundov]

should work fine. have done that more than once..

Boot from a windows 7 CD, wiht the SSD installed, and go through an automatic repair. it will all run then generally.
I have to do that just about every time - pretty much any windows 7 cd will work.

What is installed on my laptop is Windows 7 Pro 64bit (work computer), which is what I put on the SSD. The only Windows 7 CD I have is from my personal computer and it is a Windows Home Premium 64bit UPGRADE version. You think this will work?

It is telling me that it can't find system files on the computer. I put my original main drive back in and rebooted. I put my SSD in my secondary slot. I went back in Macrim Reflect. I think I see the problem. It shows that my Recovery partition, where the systems files are supposed to be, as 6.88 GB out of 17.8 GB. In disk management it is 17.8 GB and has the system files in there (Recovery - Active, system, primary). Macrim only shows it as Recovery - NTFS Active and only 6.88 GB out of 17.8 with the rest free. So, this is what it copied onto the SSD. I don't know why Macrim is not seeing everything that is there.

 

[Y0GI]

I just installed a Samsung 840 Pro in my system. I used the Samsung "Data Migration" software to clone my C: drive to the new SSD. At first, it didn't work but then it finally prompted me for an update and it worked like a charm! Very smooth and trouble free! My new SSD works great and all of my software on the original HDD transferred over without a problem.

You may want to give this a try. Just be sure to update the program or download the latest version from Samsung.

Yogi

 

[randomstar]

was looking around and see lots of people with that issue when using Macrium.. I use GHOST 8.4 (?) (yeah, i know it is old, but I have it and it works)
also have used the WD tools and samsung utilities with success.

should work fine. have done that more than once..

Boot from a windows 7 CD, wiht the SSD installed, and go through an automatic repair. it will all run then generally.
I have to do that just about every time - pretty much any windows 7 cd will work.

What is installed on my laptop is Windows 7 Pro 64bit (work computer), which is what I put on the SSD. The only Windows 7 CD I have is from my personal computer and it is a Windows Home Premium 64bit UPGRADE version. You think this will work?

It is telling me that it can't find system files on the computer. I put my original main drive back in and rebooted. I put my SSD in my secondary slot. I went back in Macrim Reflect. I think I see the problem. It shows that my Recovery partition, where the systems files are supposed to be, as 6.88 GB out of 17.8 GB. In disk management it is 17.8 GB and has the system files in there (Recovery - Active, system, primary). Macrim only shows it as Recovery - NTFS Active and only 6.88 GB out of 17.8 with the rest free. So, this is what it copied onto the SSD. I don't know why Macrim is not seeing everything that is there.

 

[EBDundov]

I just installed a Samsung 840 Pro in my system. I used the Samsung "Data Migration" software to clone my C: drive to the new SSD. At first, it didn't work but then it finally prompted me for an update and it worked like a charm! Very smooth and trouble free! My new SSD works great and all of my software on the original HDD transferred over without a problem.

You may want to give this a try. Just be sure to update the program or download the latest version from Samsung.

Yogi

Thanks. I'm going to give that a try.

 

[EBDundov]

was looking around and see lots of people with that issue when using Macrium.. I use GHOST 8.4 (?) (yeah, i know it is old, but I have it and it works)
also have used the WD tools and samsung utilities with success.

should work fine. have done that more than once..

Boot from a windows 7 CD, wiht the SSD installed, and go through an automatic repair. it will all run then generally.
I have to do that just about every time - pretty much any windows 7 cd will work.

What is installed on my laptop is Windows 7 Pro 64bit (work computer), which is what I put on the SSD. The only Windows 7 CD I have is from my personal computer and it is a Windows Home Premium 64bit UPGRADE version. You think this will work?

It is telling me that it can't find system files on the computer. I put my original main drive back in and rebooted. I put my SSD in my secondary slot. I went back in Macrim Reflect. I think I see the problem. It shows that my Recovery partition, where the systems files are supposed to be, as 6.88 GB out of 17.8 GB. In disk management it is 17.8 GB and has the system files in there (Recovery - Active, system, primary). Macrim only shows it as Recovery - NTFS Active and only 6.88 GB out of 17.8 with the rest free. So, this is what it copied onto the SSD. I don't know why Macrim is not seeing everything that is there.

Thanks for checking. I'm going to try Yogi's response and use the Samsung tool. I will post back on my results!

 

[Y0GI]

I just installed a Samsung 840 Pro in my system. I used the Samsung "Data Migration" software to clone my C: drive to the new SSD. At first, it didn't work but then it finally prompted me for an update and it worked like a charm! Very smooth and trouble free! My new SSD works great and all of my software on the original HDD transferred over without a problem.

You may want to give this a try. Just be sure to update the program or download the latest version from Samsung.

Yogi

Thanks. I'm going to give that a try.

You're welcome!

Good luck, and let us know how it goes for you.

Yogi

 

[EBDundov]

I just installed a Samsung 840 Pro in my system. I used the Samsung "Data Migration" software to clone my C: drive to the new SSD. At first, it didn't work but then it finally prompted me for an update and it worked like a charm! Very smooth and trouble free! My new SSD works great and all of my software on the original HDD transferred over without a problem.

You may want to give this a try. Just be sure to update the program or download the latest version from Samsung.

Yogi

Thanks. I'm going to give that a try.

You're welcome!

Good luck, and let us know how it goes for you.

Yogi

Well, not so good! This time when I tried to boot I get the following:
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel Boot agent.
No Boot Device Found. Press any key to reboot the machine.

When I hit F12 to get into bios settings, it doesn't show the HD at all. Only the internal NIC card. I called Samsung. They think the fact that it is not even showing a drive, that there might be something wrong with it and they are sending me a new one. So, I am hoping that's the problem. Guess I will find out next week when I get the new one! I will start out using the Samsung Migration Utility, though. I'll post again with my results.

 

[Y0GI]

Sorry to see that you're having trouble. Sounds like excellent service from Samsung.

Good luck with the new drive. Keep us posted!

Yogi

 

[popatim]

Wow. What and adventure.

 

[EBDundov]

Sorry to see that you're having trouble. Sounds like excellent service from Samsung.

Good luck with the new drive. Keep us posted!

Yogi

Well, folks... this is finally resolved! And with quite a low tech solution. ;-) The new drive did not work either. But, at first I thought it was working because my laptop boot up when I first put the SSD into my primary drive slot. But, I realized after, that I had my original Windows SATA drive in my secondary drive tray instead of my supplemental data drive. So, it was booting off of that. I took that out, and had my original problem. I also noticed that when it boot up from my secondary drive, that Windows didn't see any other drive, i.e. my primary slot. That got me thinking. When I put the SSD in to the primary slot, it always seems like it was 'loose'... like it wasn't connecting to anything. I mentioned this to Samsung support and they told me that this Samsung Pro 840 SSD is 7mm in height and my drive slot is 9.5mm! He suggested I attach a piece of cardboard to make up the difference. Well, it actually took 3 pieces of cardboard before it would boot, but it finally did. So, there you have it. The solution was cardboard

 

[Y0GI]

Sorry to see that you're having trouble. Sounds like excellent service from Samsung.

Good luck with the new drive. Keep us posted!

Yogi

Well, folks... this is finally resolved! And with quite a low tech solution. ;-) The new drive did not work either. But, at first I thought it was working because my laptop boot up when I first put the SSD into my primary drive slot. But, I realized after, that I had my original Windows SATA drive in my secondary drive tray instead of my supplemental data drive. So, it was booting off of that. I took that out, and had my original problem. I also noticed that when it boot up from my secondary drive, that Windows didn't see any other drive, i.e. my primary slot. That got me thinking. When I put the SSD in to the primary slot, it always seems like it was 'loose'... like it wasn't connecting to anything. I mentioned this to Samsung support and they told me that this Samsung Pro 840 SSD is 7mm in height and my drive slot is 9.5mm! He suggested I attach a piece of cardboard to make up the difference. Well, it actually took 3 pieces of cardboard before it would boot, but it finally did. So, there you have it. The solution was cardboard

Glad to hear that you got it worked out!

Thanks for the feedback!

Yogi