Cloning with Macrium free

We need a pic of Windows Disk Management.

Type "Disk Management" into the start button search box and follow the link. Take a screen shot showing the new SSD.

Most likely, you just have a bunch of unallocated space that can be easily corrected, but the pic is needed to confirm.

That looks as expected. You've got a bunch of unallocated space.

Go back to Disk Management.

Select the E partition in the bottom section.

Go to action menu, then all tasks, then extend volume.

Extend it to take up all of that unallocated space. Let it complete. Then take a new picture and post it.

meganfurley said:

Hi ignatzatsonic,

Is it now ready to be swapped for the old hard drive?

No. The only reason your PC still starts is because the old drive is still connected. You need to get to where it will start with the old drive disconnected.

Notice in your last picture: the recovery partition on the old drive is marked "active". The recovery partition on the new drive is NOT marked active.

Also notice in your last picture: the recovery partition on your old disk is marked "system", but the recovery partition on the new disk is NOT marked system. This means that your boot files are still on the old disk. You won't be able to boot from the new disk UNTIL the boot files are on the new disk.

So--you need to remove the active flag from the old recovery partition, mark the new recovery partition as active, and then get the boot files onto the new SSD.

There are a couple of ways to do this.

I assume you do NOT have a standard Windows installation disc. Correct me if you do.

Assuming you don't: you can disconnect the old drive (literally, disconnect the two cables plugged into it), then try to start the PC and press the F8 key repeatedly as it tries to start. That should bring up a menu of advanced boot options. Choose "repair your computer" and then look for "startup repair". The PC may restart as the repair is underway. You may have to run through this procedure up to 3 times.

That should get the system files onto the new SSD.

Then you'd need to go back to Windows Disk Management (with the old drive still disconnected) and check things out. The new SSD should be marked as "active" and "system" on some partition.

Post a picture of what you see in Disk Management then.

Here's a couple of tutorials that walk you through it.

Advanced Boot Options

System Recovery Options

If the above fails, you might have to use an application called "EasyBCD" to copy the boot files to the new drive, but try the above first.