Can't repair a Win7 on an USB drive

Hello all!

I have a mechanical disk with a Win7 installation with its 2 partitions: 100MB (system reserved) and the other one with all files and programs installed.

I recently bought an SSD and wanted to replace it. I was pretending to make an image of the mechanical disk and then restore it on the brand new SSD. I did so, connecting this SSD with an USB external enclosure.

The issue is that, upon plugging the SSD (with the Windows already restored) via USB while running the first Windows, I thing the OS initialized the disk and wiped its MBR, so it cannot boot anymore.

I have tried to repair it. I boot with the windows DVD to use restore tools with bootrec command and several parameters without any result, but it only sees the fixed disk. Not the USB one. So I'm really stuck.

¿Any idea?

Thanks!

Welcome to the Forum

Didn't understand what is the problem.
You are talking about a Laptop or the desktop?
You cloned the entire disk (HDD to SSD) or just some partitions?
Witch disk you lost the MBR, the HDD or the SSD?
Did you take off the HDD and replaced with the SSD after cloning or you tried to boot from the USB?

Hello, @Megahertz07

It's only one Laptop.
I didn't clone, but I made an Image of 3 partitions from de HDD:
1. System Reserved
2. Windows Installation
3. Data
I lost the MBR of the HDD once I plugged it through a USB enclosure from a fresh install of Windows on my new SSD.
I replaced my HDD by my SSD once I restored my previous backup (from HDD to SSD). But, since I had already plugged my SSD into windows via USB BEFORE replacing it, my MBR was lost and didn't boot.

Thanks for your help!

Try boot repair.
With only the SSD installed to the SATA port of the laptop, boot from the installation disk, go to boot repair and see if it can fix it.

Megahertz07 said:

Try boot repair.
With only the SSD installed to the SATA port of the laptop, boot from the installation disk, go to boot repair and see if it can fix it.

It worked like a charm.

Thanks a million! :)

Good to hear it is working.

Please mark this post as solved.