Transferring Win7 to a SSD using Linux - boot error


  1. Posts : 19
    LMDE, Win7 x64
       #1

    Transferring Win7 to a SSD using Linux - boot error


    I'm trying to transfer Win7 to a SSD. The partition table on the HD, as seen by Linux, is:

    sdb1: 50 GB - NTFS Win7
    sdb2: 430 GB (approx) - NTFS user data
    sdb3: 20 GB - EXT4 Debian Linux

    Note that I partitioned manually before installing Windows, so it didn't create its own "System Reserved" 100MB partition.

    The bootloader is grub2.

    I tried a couple of ready-made solutions I read about online, but one failed outright and the other gave me a bootloop. So I decided to do things by myself. Using Gparted I created the following partition table on the SSD:

    sda1: 50 GB - NTFS
    sda2: however much was left less 20 GB - NTFS user data
    sda3: 20 GB - EXT4

    I then ran a Linux live and used dd to do a full image of partition 1 on the HD to the SSD (dd if=sdb1 of=sda1 bs=1M).

    At this point, since sda1 was only full by 30 gigs and the user data gets stored on the other partition, I shrunk it down to 36 gigs and expanded the data partition. I didn't mind the 20 empty gigs on the HD, but they get significant on the SSD. I only shrunk the end of sda1, I didn't actually move it (I learned about the whole SSD aligning issue later, and I'll do it after all this is sorted).

    I then disconnected the HD and did a fresh install of Debian on sda3. It saw the Windows partition and put in grub2.

    At this point rebooting in Debian works, but if I reboot in Windows it fails to boot and complains about a missing device. If I reconnect the HD and boot Windows from the SSD, it loads it from the HD.

    Clearly it still thinks it's installed on the hard disk and looks there for the system files even though the boot process starts on the SSD. Is there an easy way to fix this (I don't know, editing a system configuration file)? If not, would a repair from the Windows install DVD fix it?
      My Computer


  2. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
       #2
      My Computer


 

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