Getting HDD access denied when upgrading to Win10 on top of Win7

[Bimmere38]

HI there, Been a long time fan of this forum. Great information.
Hoping that someone or some experienced peoples here can help me with something I'm seeing on one PC.

Now I've done this once before with a older 2008 era PC which I had Win 7 installed on physical drive. I then cloned this drive to another separate physical drive, I believe some one I had added the cloned drive info to the 1st Windows boot code though it was so long about I don't remember the exact steps I took for getting the PC to dual boot which is what I also wanted. I believe the EasyBCD Edit app may have been used though I can't remember. However, after that was setup and it dual booted ever since, I was able to use a version of Windows 10 I have and let it install over the top of Windows 7 on the 2nd physical drive as I wanted to install Win10 over on top of Win7 that was already setup with apps and such. And also I had a dual boot system. This older PC is a ATA BIOS system.

Now spring forward to a refurbished HP z600 I got for someones birthday a few years ago. Came with Win7 x64. I've since cloned everything to SSDs. The Windows 7 is on a separate 500Gb SSD from the 2nd 500Gb SSD that holds all user data there. The partitions on the SSD are Recovery, System Reserved and Windows 7 main partition.

I took the Windows 7 SSD and cloned it to a HDD test drive as I didn't want to mess anything up on the Master SSD. The cloned HDD drive boots correctly. I attempted to use the Windows 10 upgrade disk as I had used before on the other PC. The installation started and I believe the PC may have booted once, though I can't be sure. I do know that the installation seem to be progressing then at some point the installation stops and I get a installation failed message and it saying the cause of the failure is that the installation failed to gain access to the HDD. There may have been a error code but I don't recall this as it's been a while since I last tried this and now I'm trying to do this again.

I presume this access denied to HDD failure maybe something at the partition formatting level on the z600 where this is not need on my older ATA PC maybe? I don't have a recovery partition on the older PC. Just the System Reserved partition.

So yesterday I thought that maybe I should do a clean install of windows 7 on a new test HDD on the z600 PC, then clone only the Master Win7 partition over to the test HDD from the master and see if the newer boot formatted HDD would boot to the cloned Win7 partition. Thought this might work but it didn't. The PC boots past BIOS, Checks to boot to CD/DVD which I have enabled, then stops at Boot HDD goes no further. Just sits there. So I presume I missing a step here or there would be a better way to trouble shoot or perform this process.

So what I'm looking for is to clone the Win7 on this z600 PC to a separate drive, Then install Windows 10 over the top of Win7 on this separate drive successfully. Then configure the boot manger or MBR or what ever I need to configure, for both Windows versions on each separate drive for dual boot operation. Just trying to avoid having to install Windows 10 from a clean install standpoint if possible with out having the user needing to set up Windows 10 fully with apps and such.

I have been using Norton Ghost and Avanti's True Image apps on bootable CD for cloning and imaging. If there is a better imaging app or solution out there to help on this, please let me know as well.

I see there maybe some help with this as I read this thread and there is some apps out there that may help with this:
Moving Win 7 to new drive

If there is someone or some peoples out here that can give me some direction, specific steps to process this in the best way, please let me know. Any help is appreciated on this. I believe all this can be done, just need the necessary info, steps and process to do it.

Thank you for your time and efforts.

 

[Megahertz07]

If you're cloning a Win 7 installation from one computer on a drive and installing on a second computer and then trying to downgrade to win 10 it wont activate as the Win 7 on a different computer also won't activate.

My suggestion is to do a Clean Install Windows 10 on the HDD, deleting all partitions till you have one and only one unallocatedspace and then proceed.

When asked for a Win 10 key, put the original Win 7 key found on the COA sticker.

 

[Bimmere38]

No, this Windows installation is on same PC, HP z600. Win 7 is already installed on it. I'm hoping to make a clone of this partition on a separate drive. Then get it to boot on same PC, z600. Then sure that the Windows 10 installation setup can access this separate drive correctly during it's installation, and install Windows 10 on top of this Win 7 installation on the separate drive. Windows 10 installation is having problems accessing the driving during it's setup routine. I feel it's trying to access the boot partitions or mbr or boot manager that's already on the Win7 master drive and for some reason, can't gain access.

 

[Megahertz07]

Clone the Win 7 drive (not a partition) to another drive.
Detach all other drives and leave only the cloned drive
Boot from it and run win 10 setup.exe to start downgrading.

 

[SIW2]

Clone the Win 7 drive (not a partition) to another drive.

 

[Bimmere38]

Ok, so did the clone and removed all other drives accept for new cloned drive using Arconis True Image. Did a Manual and AS IS clone on a slightly larger drive. Cloned drive booted normally into Win 7. This time I used a recently bought Win10 DVD I got. Last time I tried this same process, I used a 1st generation Windows 10 image file that was downloaded from MS back then. I believe this may have been the problem as this time, using the newer Win10 DVD, it actually installed on top of Win 7 and is working. Took a couple of hours including the clone and the installation.

So what would be the best and easiest way to include the Master Win7 drive back into the PC and include it as a bootable selection in the Windows 10 boot manager screen? I presume I could possibly use EasyBCD? Or would there be something better that I can get the drive configured to dual boot now? Please let me know.

Thank you for all help. Glad I'm able to get this far.

UPDATE: Well maybe something concerning here. After updating the video drivers on the cloned drive and making sure the Admin and main user accounts are working ok, I decided to install the DATA drive that's was in the bottom slot. The main user account data folders are pointed at the DATA Drive (D when it was on Win7. (MyDocs,Dekstop and etc.) I noticed that on first boot up the screen when blank and didn't boot right. I removed the DATA drive and let the clone Win 10 drive boot and it booted ok. The main users account keeps asking for the D Drive as the Desktop folder is located there on Win7. So I powered OFF the PC and re-installed the DATA drive. I thought maybe the drive wasn't seated right. It is. Turned ON the PC and Win10 boots to the boot logo with spinning dots is all and nothing else. No drive LED activity after that. After leaving it there for 5 minutes while editing this post, I looked over and Win10 gave a blue screen of death message but soon disappeared and the PC rebooted. Something Win10 doesn't like.

I'll remove the Win10 drive and put back the Master Win7 drive and the DATA drive to be sure it boots correctly. I hoped that just re-installing the DATA D drive would just plug in play.
Master Win7 and DATA drives work back in there original spots.
What am I missing? No sure how to proceed from here.

 

[SIW2]

I decided to install the DATA drive that's was in the bottom slot. The main user accounts folders as pointed at the DATA Drive (D

You might need to change the bios boot order to set the cloned win 10 disk first, or swap the sata connectors.

If you are still having the problem after that, that indicates win10 is having trouble loading the user info from the disk that contains your data drive.

 

[Bimmere38]

Ok so I have the Master Win7 in top slot and DATA drive in bottom slot, I connected the WIN10 cloaned drive to one of the other open SATA ports. PC still boots to Win7 of course. I installed EasyBCD just to see if it saw anything. I shows Win7 and a Unknown entry however I believe that entry is the Recovery entry as this is what I see In the Advanced Start UP and Recovery along with the Windows 7 entry in Win7.

Wondering if I should have installed Win10 on top of Win7 with the data drive installed at install time.

I'll try changing the default boot order and see what happens.

Is there something I can do to add the windows 7 boot drive entry to the Win10 boot entry or should I try adding Win10 to the Win7 boot entry? I understand that if I can't get Win10 to boot correct with the data drive, I may have to start over and install Win10 with the data drive attached. Hoping I don't have to.

 

[Bimmere38]

OK so after exiting from Master Win7 drive and setting Boot Order to the Cloned Win10 drive. I booted to the Win10 logo and said "Preparing Automatic Repair" with the spinning dots bot I see no HDD LED activity at all. Just sitting there. As I was typing this the screen went blank and now shows a Choose your keyboard layout. Won't accept a keyboard input and seems hung here. Mouse has LED but no mouse on screen.

Wondering if I should boot to the Win10 install DVD and try a Start Up repair there.

 

[Megahertz07]

You may have to change drive letters
- Boot from the Win 7 drive, open disk manager (C:\Windows\System32\diskmgmt.msc) and select the Win 10 drive.
- Remove the drive letter (no letter) or select a letter other than D:
- Select the data drive and assign drive letter as D:

- Boot from the Win 10 drive, open disk manager (C:\Windows\System32\diskmgmt.msc) and select the Win 7 drive.
- Remove the drive letter (no letter) or select a letter other than D:
- Select the data drive and assign drive letter as D:

 

[SIW2]

IIrc how acronis operates:

If you had the source and cloned disk both mounted, you likely now need to use nt6repair which you linked to earlier. Run it from within the original win7 .

Do the FIX first. Select the win10 partition in the dropdown. Click FIX

Then use the auto boot repair to correct the boot menu entry on the win 10 disk:

select the active partition on the win10 disk, and the windows partition on the win10 disk in the relevant dropdowns. Click APPLY

If you also want to add a boot menu entry for win10 to your win7 installation:
Select the Active partition on the win7 disk. Select the win10 partition. Click APPLY

 

[Bimmere38]

You may have to change drive letters
- Boot from the Win 7 drive, open disk manager (C:\Windows\System32\diskmgmt.msc) and select the Win 10 drive.
- Remove the drive letter (no letter) or select a letter other than D:
- Select the data drive and assign drive letter as D:
This is already configured when I boot to the Win7 Master drive. This configuration works.
Win 10 is see has drive E when it's connected.
- Boot from the Win 10 drive, open disk manager (C:\Windows\System32\diskmgmt.msc) and select the Win 7 drive.
- Remove the drive letter (no letter) or select a letter other than D:
- Select the data drive and assign drive letter as D:

Not sure if I can get into Win10 with DATA drive installed let alone with the Master Win7 as the Win10 drive is not booting to the log in screen with the DATA drive installed.

I Just removed both Win7 and DATA drives and Win 10 is at the preparing automatic repair boot screen.
I'm going to try to boot into the Win10 DVD and see if it can repair the start up from here.

Man so close.

 

[Bimmere38]

You may have to change drive letters
- Boot from the Win 7 drive, open disk manager (C:\Windows\System32\diskmgmt.msc) and select the Win 10 drive.
- Remove the drive letter (no letter) or select a letter other than D:
- Select the data drive and assign drive letter as D:

This is the default configuration when the Master Win7 and Data drives are installed. So this is working.
- Boot from the Win 10 drive, open disk manager (C:\Windows\System32\diskmgmt.msc) and select the Win 7 drive.
- Remove the drive letter (no letter) or select a letter other than D:
- Select the data drive and assign drive letter as D:

Well would be if I could get Win10 to boot correctly with the DATA drive installed but it won't so I can't effect this change.

So, the cloned drive is busted now, won't boot at all by it self. I forgot that Win7 saw the drive as needed to scanned during it's boot process and I didn't make it over to cancel that and I started scanning and then noticed it was deleting files that I couldn't see as it was going so fast on the screen so I presume Win7 corrupted the cloned drive.

I've got another cloned Win7 drive I did as back up today just in case. I'm thinking of starting over, this time let Win10 install from the main users account instead of the Administration account is I did earlier today. I'm thinking maybe this may either work or reveal that something on the DATA drive and the user account is causing Win10 to not like something. I'll make sure the drives lets are set right. This make sense? I'm wondering if I should set the users folder for D:\Desktop back to default location prior to Installing Win10, then if and when Win10 gets installed fully, change it back to the D drive afterwards. I may do this on this re-try.
Making a clone back up of the D DATA drive just in case. Will use the cloned drive and not the Master Data drive.
If there is something else I should configure prior or check prior to starting over, please let me know. This wasn't this hard last time I did this. Wonder what is bothering Win10 now.

 

[Bimmere38]

Hey, I noticed that the DATA drive has a Active partition set on it. Wondering if I should change this? Not needed I presume? Its a Primary partition.

 

[SIW2]

Hey, I noticed that the DATA drive has a Active partition set on it. Wondering if I should change this? Not needed I presume? Its a Primary partition.

It shouldnt be needed, you can set it inactive. But if you set the win10 disk first in bios boot order as I suggested, it doesn't play any part.

 

[Bimmere38]

Ok, Thought I'd ask.
Ya I've got the Cloned Win7 disk set to boot first in priority in BIOS currently.

So I'm on the new cloned drive and I have the cloned DATA drive installed as well. I changed the main Users Desktop folder location back to default for just in case.

I'm at the Blue screen of the installation process now. Its copying over files from the Win10 DVD.

Fingers crossed.

 

[Bimmere38]

Well that didn't work. I got thru the Blue screen installation process, took a while, then rebooted to the Win 10 boot logo with spinning dots and that hung there for a long time, didn't progress to the next installation phase. The screen when dark then came up with the Choose your keyboard lay out. This time I was able to select something then the next screen it said Troubleshoot your PC or Shut down the PC.

I shut down the PC and removed the DATA D drive and turned ON the PC. This time the cloned win7 drive booted to Win7 and before I got to the log in screen it displayed the following message in a window:
We couldn't install windows 10.
We've set your PC back to the way it was right before you started installing Windows 10.
0xC1900101 - 0x20017
The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during BOOT operation

The win 7 clone drive booted and logged in ok after that. Something on the DATA drive is causing something to not work or maybe the user account. I might format a drive for EXTENDED partition format and NO Active flag set and see if that changes anything.
I'm done for the day, spent last friggen 7 hours on this.
I'll try again maybe tomorrow.
I noticed that the BIOS on this z600 was at 3.19 and 3.61 was available so I went ahead and updated the BIOS. I'll see if this changes anything. PC is booting ok with Master drives back installed. I think I'll try installing Win10 over Win7 using main users account with out the data drive. See if I can get there first. If I can, then I might setup a new non active extended partition drive and copy the data from the master and then install it. What a hassle.
Thanks for your guys help so far.

- - - Updated - - -

So I'm updating this to let you all know I'm going to plan B on the PC. Even after doing more searching on that error that came up and following some information regarding that, WIn10 still won't install on top of Win7. Theres something on this PC/Win7 build that Win10 just doesn't like so giving up and trying anymore. Spent another 4 hours trying the suggestions regarding the error message and trying one last time and it's not working. So I'll put Win10 on a separate drive and then add a Win7 entry to it's boot manager and the user will just need to setup Win10 from scratch.

I presume some of this good info is still applicable?
"If you had the source and cloned disk both mounted, you likely now need to use nt6repair which you linked to earlier. Run it from within the original win7 .

Do the FIX first. Select the win10 partition in the dropdown. Click FIX

Then use the auto boot repair to correct the boot menu entry on the win 10 disk:

select the active partition on the win10 disk, and the windows partition on the win10 disk in the relevant dropdowns. Click APPLY

If you also want to add a boot menu entry for win10 to your win7 installation:
Select the Active partition on the win7 disk. Select the win10 partition. Click APPLY"

Please let me know if any of these steps differ with using a clean install of Win10 on a separate drive and getting Win7 entry into the boot manager.

Thank you for all your help.