cloned SS drive - at boot up - No Boot Device available ?

[maryeleek]

I have a Dell Studio XPS 8100 with windows 7pro. All hardware drivers are current and operating properly.

I am attempting to switch out my 1TB WD hard drive with a 1TB Samsung 850Pro SS drive. My cloning went smoothly. For my 'initial' attempt at cloning, I used the EZGig cloning software off of a prepared CD created from software on their website. Under the advanced options, I turned on Verify and then ran the cloning software last night. This morning the message on the screen reported a successful clone. Closed the software, removed the dvd from the drive and the usb cable used to attach the SS drive for cloning and booted the computer using my original hard drive. All appears well with my system.

Turned off the computer and unplugged.

Next I opened my case and installed the Samsung 850 pro SS drive in place of the Western Digital HD using the same power and sata cables. Plugged in the power and attempted to boot from the new SS drive. Received the message that 'No Boot Device available'. So rebooted and went into the set up menu. Under the Boot configuration for hard drives (? I think that was the name of the sub menu), my new SS drive was being shown in the second position, with the first position being occupied by a DVD drive).

I moved the SS Samsung drive into the first boot position and tried again to boot but it is still not booting into windows. I can see it flash by the screen where Windows is highlighted as the OS and then there is just a single blinking white character in the upper left hand portion of the black screen and the boot up goes no further. Should I wait awhile? I'm turning the computer off after a few seconds as it seems to go no further.

I can disconnect and reconnect my WD hard drive and the boot up completes. I don't know what else to look for or try. Are there other settings that should be checked and or changed when switching from a mechanical hard drive to a SS drive?

My sincere thanks for your advice.

MEL

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Why did you choose EZGig?? I've never heard of it. Was it included with the Samsung SSD?

Moving from an HDD to an SSD should be transparent without issues. I suspect you'd have the same problems if moving from HDD to HDD.

Are you able to do a clean Windows install to the SSD if it came to that?

Offhand, I'd try to do a clone with Macrium.

If that failed, I'd try to restore a Macrium image of the HDD to the SSD.

If that failed, I'd do a clean install.

 

[maryeleek]

I've had a reply from the Dell Users Forum that because of the way Dell sets up their HD's, it is iffy as to whether a clone will boot. No other information regarding why was posted but I have to say I've read of this possibility in several forum posts.

The reason I tried EZgig was because of the many reviews of successful clones. It is the software that ships with some brands of SS drives but not Samsung. It cost me nothing to try so I thought I'd try it.

Yes, I could do a clean install of Windows. I purchased my own copy of Windows 7Pro so no issues there.

I agree that I should probably attempt a clone with Marcium Reflect.

Thank you for the suggestion of attempting a restore of an image if the clone doesn't work. This is something I would not have thought to try.

Sigh, if I have to do a clean install, I think I might consider the purchase of a new computer. The reason I've put off moving on to newer technology is because I just didn't want to have to reinstall and customize all of my software. Sometimes there is no easy way!

I imagine many forum members are thinking, after all the time I'm spending trying to make things easy, I will likely have wasted more time than simply doing a clean install! This may turn out to be true but I also dislike being defeated at something that should be fairly straightforward.

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply.

MEL

 

[Wandering one]

As an of the wall thought is the SSD active? Reboot with original drive and make sure before you set it up as the primary drive. Art.

 

[maryeleek]

I believe it was active as I could see it listed in the boot sequence (if I'm remembering correctly, it was identified as a Samsung SS drive) and the attempt to boot from this drive actually began the boot process. It reached a point in the boot process where it stalled and would go no further. Would it have gotten that far if the SS drive wasn't being seen?

Thank you so much for your interest in my problem. The cloned drive was verified so it should be an exact copy. Why it won't boot is a mystery. Assuming my problem is because of the way Dell prepares their drive, it seems wrong that something that should be rather simple to do by the owner of their product is made difficult (and or) impossible because of their action.

MEL

 

[Wandering one]

Did not mean to check if you can see disc in BIOS. You need to check in disc management to see if the partition where the boot files are located is flagged as 'active'. This is what the BIOS looks for to start the boot process. As I know enough about computers to really get someone in trouble, but not too good on the explanations for someone else to follow, I will leave this alone and let someone like perhaps Gregrocker to sort you out.

 

[rvcjew]

More than likely whatever you cloned with did not see dell's hidden recovery partition and hidden mbr location. Dell makes their own modified mbrs so it loads that partition up then that loads your is partition. When you cloned the disk that partition no longer sees the same disk id and is broke. Boot into a live Linux os (puppy would work) then use gparted to make the flag on your os partition active. If your confused post a image of what gparted shows in puppy first.