Don't worry about the port to which you attach the SSD. The port0 story has only some relevance when you make a fresh install of Win7. The reason I explained earlier - because the installer likes to put the bootmgr on the disk with the lowest port.
But when you transfer the OS with an image. the port number has no relevance.
"PS: I am currently in Europe. So my answers may have a time delay because of the time difference."
- where do you think Holland is, dude
I'm getting Macronis right now.
Keej, I've just used EasyBCD to copy the boot info to C:
It says to reboot & alter the bios now, do I need to do that BEFORE I image C: with Macrium or can it wait?
Also, Partition Wizard still shows D: as Active & Boot but C: now shows as Active & System is that right?
I'll "rehearse" the imaging while I wait. It's kewl, I'm not in Amsterdam for the tulips & museums
(It must be 4:20 somewhere right now)
Last edited by LionOfNarnia; 06 Jul 2012 at 06:35.
Hmm, sorry, I did not focus on your NL location.
Yes, now you have both the SSD and the 1TB disk active. That is OK. As I said, the bootmgr was only copied to the SSD. You can still boot from the 1TB HDD.
AHCI you can set at any time. Hopefully it will give you a small performance boost. But I would do it at the very end.
Imaging running now - hope I didn't need the reboot/bios tweak first!
e2a - imaging sucessful, now restoring image to new SSD, resizing partition to full size of disk.
Maybe 20 minutes to wait
Last edited by LionOfNarnia; 06 Jul 2012 at 07:28.
Well, so far so good....
..one WEIRD thing though - whilst restoring, my 'memory meter' (sidebar gadget) was jammed against the red-line (12GB) but even after it finished it's still at 93% so even this browser window is V E R Y slow to respond
Here's a snip of the 'new' set-up from Partition Wizard...
I did the full Macrium 'rescue disk' thing too, just for safety, btw.
I'm not re-booting quite yet, just a few more questions, just to be sure...
So, if I'm following it all right, I now have THREE 'bootable' disks - C: D: & F: ..assuming everything goes OK & when I've told BIOS to look for the "F:" drive first, it actually does boot up into Windows...
1) How can I be sure it booted from F:?
2) Can I 'get rid of' the 100MB section on D:? Best way?
3) Any pitfalls about re-lettering the drives so the new SSD becomes C: & the old SSD becomes say X:?
4) Simplest way to get the old SSD non-bootable & ready to have 'Skyrim' installed on it?
I did warn you that this would take a bit of hand-holding!
e2a - would this be a reasonable upgrade to replace the 1TB Hitachi? I'm kinda running out of space everywhere! - Seagate Barracuda 2TB SATA-600 7200rpm 64MB €120
1. To be 100% sure, disconnect the other disks.
2. Not reallly any need to do that - not worth it. And reusing the space requires an OEM product.
3. No need to reletter. The running OS will always be C.
4. Reformat
e2a. I would get an additional disk - even one that is eSata attached if you have no more free ports.
.
Between Wimbledon semi-finals I nipped out to 'computerland' & got the 2TB Seagate. I have 2 spare SATA ports but no power cables left so I'll connect it externally with my USB-SATA kit until I'm sure about everything else.
When I got back, I took the plunge & hit the reboot button.....
Well, not a disaster so far. With a couple of scares it did reboot to Windows after the BIOS tweaks.
Speaking of which, I had a look at all the options I could see & nowhere did I see mention of an ACHI option.
I think it must be still considering D: as the primary, though coz I ran WEI & it still gives 5.9
Here's what Partition Wizard shows now-
F: shows as boot which is good but didn't you say it would automatically set the OS drive as C:?
Anyway, what I'm going to do next is to disconnect the SATA cables to all but the DVD-R & the new SSD & see if it boots. If not I'll replug 1st the D: then the C: to see what happens.
Fingers crossed!
Don't worry about AHCI. That is not a must have. SSDs work very well in IDE mode. Let's first see whether it works at all. Then we can worry about the nits.
Sorry, I'm not handing out any cigars yet
I disconnected all the SATA cables bar F: & DVD-R
On Boot (splash screen?) I got "Preparing your desktop" for about 2 minutes, then to a plain pale blue screen with a (working) mouse-cursor and small white text in the bottom left corner saying
Windows 7
Build 7601
This copy of windows is not genuine
(It bloody well is, I have the disk, it's REAL Microsoft, not just an oem thing)
no response to LM RM or the three-key death-grip (ctrl alt del) just a plain screen and a mouse cursor. No icons, no 'start button', nothing.
I powered down by the front-panel button, then the switch on the PSU.
Waited 2 minutes then connected the D: drive & rebooted.
EXACTLY the same as above.
Then connected the E: drive
Same again
Then connected the C: drive
The bios hung up on "Autodetecting USB Mass Storage Devices Dev #01:"
pressed F11 to get back to bios, went "exit without saving"
Got to splash screen but windows hung up on "please wait"
Rebooted from front panel.
Got the "Windows Recovery Error" screen, used "start windows normally"
It did, that's how I'm able to post, but I've got a pop-up box on the desktop saying "Microsoft Windows - you must re-start your computer to apply these changes....".
I'll do that as soon as I post this. I'll be at work in an hour, I have use of a lappy there so can check my mail/this forum from time to time.
But what the heck has gone 'wrong' and what can I do about it?
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