Cloned hard Disc will not work in new machine

[chriscs]

Hi,
I would be very grateful if someone could help with this:

I recently cloned my hard disc, which has Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux installed, in order to transfer it to a new, faster machine.

The software that I used would only clone the Windows partitions so I cloned them and then created partitions for the Linux distribution and installed it.

I then tested the new hard disc in the machine I had just used and found that the new hard disc behaved exactly like the old one.

I then transferred the clone to the new computer and when I started it up I got the menu offering me a choice between Windows 7 and Ubuntu. When I selected Ubuntu the new machine booted into Ubuntu but when I selected Windows it got as far as "Starting Windows" and the coloured "bits" started to move and then it stopped.

When I rebooted I got a choice between "Boot Windows Normally" and "Run Startup Repair". I chose the latter and after about 20 minutes Windows announced that it could not repair the problem.

I then inserted the Windows installation disc and chose "Repair Computer" and selected the command prompt and 'bootrec /fixmbr' which didn't work them I did "bootrec /fixboot" that didn't work either.

Next I ran Paragon Rescue which said that it had fixed the problem but it hadn't - Windows still would not boot

What is there left to try to get this machine running?

If anyone could help I would be very grateful

 

[essenbe]

chriscs, your problem is most likely that the drivers for the hardware on the old machine are trying to run the hardware on the new machine. That does not usually work very well. You are allways better off doing a clean install (http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1649-clean-install-windows-7-a.html)

 

[chriscs]

Hi essembe,

Thanks for your reply. You are right; it is a question of the drivers. I put the drive back into the old machine and it booted without any trouble.
I want to avoid having to reinstall Windows because that will mean re-installing MS Office and a lot of other things as well.

I tried using 'sysprep' on the new disc to obtain a 'generalised version of Windows which is said to make the disc boot up using default drivers and it appeared to be working but then Windows gave a typically helpful message: "Fatal error" but did not give any further information.
I had thought of installing the drivers for the new disc and motherboard while it is still in the old machine but hesitate to do that in case I end up with a totally useless drive. Is it feasible to do that, does anyone know?

 

[essenbe]

You would need to install the new drivers on the new hardware. How much time have you been doing this, and it still doesn't work? You could have done a clean install in the time you have been trying to 'fix' this drive. I do them all the time. If you get all of your installation disks and installers from downloaded programs together, it will go much faster and easier. Download all of your Motherboard drivers from your Motherboard's web site, for your particular board and put them on a USB flash drive. The most time consuming thing will be the installing updates. Once that is done, you can be operational in a couple of hours. When done, you will be glad you did. Sysprep will work if done right, but you will still be better off with a clean install.

 

[gregrocker]

You can Adjust Win7 to boot on new hardware with Paragon Adaptive Restore CD
which is a lot less trouble than SysPrep and always works. If not then you need to confirm the Partition Marked Active then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times.