So I'm trying to do a hard drive upgrade to my girlfriend's PC. It currently has: C: 80GB (win 7 drive) D: 320GB E: 1TB (Windows 8.1 - 64 bit) I'm looking to clone the 80gb drive to a new 120GB SSD. (Using Acronis 2014) The cloning process went fine, but the system won't boot on the SSD. I get that "MBR is missing" error at boot-up. As I looked into why, it seems the tiny windows (100mb?) installation partition that I usually see on the C drive is on the 320GB "D" drive on her PC, not on the 80GB "C" drive (with OS) that I'm cloning. Is that normal or possibly why I'm having problems? I've tried to use the windows start-up repair tools and that doesn't fix the booting problem either. Any ideas on how I can clone this OS over to SSD? I've yet to have an SSD upgrade go smoothly (or as intended). This is my third try. It'd be nice to not re-install windows.
Try booting to the repair console using DVD/USB, open command prompt and type: BootRec.exe /fixmbr Try booting again Other commands you might need if you have multiple HDDs /FixBoot Writes a boot sector onto the system partition to start Windows /ScanOs Scans all disks for Windows installations and displays them to you. /RebuildBcd Scans all disks for Windows installations and prompts you to pick the ones you want to add to the BCD.
Thanks for the input. I just now tried all of that a shot as well as disconnecting all other HDDs and trying all of it again. With HDDs disconnected, all of those commands completed successfully. Still not working though, I'm getting a different error now at least. (cannot locate windows installation) error message instead. lol I may throw in the towel after work and just start exporting registry entries for some of the many games on her system I'd like to not have to re-install again.
Odds are some of the boot files were on one of the different partitions. Also give Macrium Reflect a try and perhaps clone the entire disk if that's possible? (choose "forensic copy" in advanced, had some issues, especially on MAC's with extending partitions afterwards if I didn't tick that option on)
Done the cloning twice (Win7 and Win8) with Easeus, no problems at all. http://www.partition-tool.com/copy-wizard/migrate-os-to-ssd.htm
...meanwhile, I added a Zalman cooler to her i7 2600K. Upon restart, I had no mouse/keyboard in windows (only in bios) on any usb port. :3eyes: After fighting with that for awhile, I decided to throw in the towel (rather than her PC, that p180 case is heavy!) and install windows to the SSD. All is working as it should now, albeit after being a pain in the arse... Appreciate the assistance.
TIP in case other people check this thread: When installing Windows, disconnect all the other HDD's (that's only temporarily). Pill Monster poses a valid question with "What drive is first in the BIOS?". Even if Windows is installed on a certain HDD, the actual BOOT files could be installed on another HDD, making your Windows unbootable when you remove this HDD. Installing Windows with ONLY the HDD connected (or powered on) that you want Windows installed on, will resolve this and Windows will place the BOOT files on the same HDD. That's the simplest solution anyways.
I always pre format a raw drive in gparted just to make sure that annoying 100MB partition isn't created. That way, the boot files are on the partition you subsequently back up.
You don't need to. Just install the OS normally but skip the format option in the GUI. Windows will do it automajically while installing and you'll be left without a 100mb partition. That's only a recovery partition btw, the boot partition could be somewhere else (theoretically). As Corrupt said it depends on how the OS was installed. I think in OP's case D drive was used to run the installer, hence no files on C:. Boot files can be transferred to any and all drives using the bcdboot command, but I was too lazy to explain it.. lol I have no idea why MS did it that way, quite possibly it's some bug or anomaly never fixed. But it's a PITA to disconnect the drives that's for sure. Hope they fixed it with 8.1....maybe someone can tell me?
I can't recall how the OS was installed as her PC was somewhat Frankensteined together over a year ago with a bunch of spare parts and has since been refitted again C2D-->i7, 8800GTS-->GTX760, etc. I've cloned standard drives without issue in the past, it's these SSDs that really give me grief. As mentioned above, you have to unplug every other HDD to simply install windows on an SSD. That was lesson one the first time I got an SSD with a new build (no cloning). Nice to rid her system of that godawful slow 80GB HDD that hails from the dawn of man. When the first caveman ventured out into the vast openness, even he was slowed by his prehistoric 80GB HDD.
So long as your main Windows install drive is set to primary and connected to the first SATA port, you can leave other drives installed during 8.x's install and boot files are put on the same drive Problem seems to happen when your storage drive / non windows drive is connected to a lower numbered SATA port, Windows puts the boot files on the first drive, even if its not the one you're installing windows to Happened with 7 too iirc
Seems to work fine, Ive got 2 partitions on my main drive and it always installs everything to the main windows partition, granted my windows partition is the first one, not tried installing to the 2nd partition as it's holding my technet ISOs and stuff, be interesting to see if it still installs them to the first one
When install is is run from a partitioned drive, that partition becomes the boot drive and the OS is loaded onto the next logical partition. So the 2TB disk you split down the middle now has a 1TB boot partition and 1TB system partition "d" drive. Used to infuriate me when I first did W7 upgrades and rollouts etc. Had a picture in my head of an MS dev leaning back in his office chair grinning: "U mad bro?" lol Edit Actually one thing didn't ask op is if boot partition was set to active... not that it matters now.
How did you know I had a 2TB HDD? lol No actual delete option, but you can remove the icon from personalisation like normal
C,F..... and D. I see what u did there. Annoying isn't it?. So to reclaim space u still have to reduce the bin size to 1mb...
lol yea because there was no partition on the C:\ when I installed Windows, so F was the next free letter once I created the 400GB lol - Yep, annoying, not tried changing it after remembering things stopping working last time I tried that - Im not too OCD about it though Doesn't seem to make any difference to free space whichever size you allocate the recycle bin, I just checked and mine was set to something like 79GB, dropped it to 20GB and HDD free space remained the same Seems to just be the size it allows the bin to hold before it perm deletes instead
