Solved I'm trying to make a new hard drive bootable

[Stumann]

I recently got a new, larger hard drive (2tb). I cloned (not a copied) the original to the new hard drive, but Win7 won't boot from the new hard drive. It seems like I've done this in the past with success, but I'm stumped why it won't work now. I have Windows 7 Home Premium, I used Reflect Cloning to make the clone hard drive. Am I going about this wrong?

 

[gregrocker]

Did you unplug all other drives and assure the target hard drive is set first to boot in BIOS setup?

Sometimes it requires confirming the Partition Marked Active is System Reserved (if you have it) or C
then running Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

 

[whs]

Is the drive MBR or GPT. Check in disk management.

 

[Stumann]

Sure enough, it's GPT not MBR. Any easy way to change it?

 

[whs]

If you right click on the same place, there should be an option to convert to MBR.

 

[whs]

Greg, he only wants to transfer a Windows 7 system which is certainly MBR. He cloned it with Macrium.

 

[gregrocker]

How do you know for sure source is MBR, Wolfgang? If it is then that's a good guess!

Stuman, please confirm the source drive is MBR and the clone target drive is GPT. If so then as suggested convert the clone to MBR and try cloning again. If cloning fails try imaging instead.

 

[whs]

Nah, that's a new disk he bought and did not know that it was GPT. Apparently the Macrium clone worked OK but then it did not boot - I guess because that is not an UEFI system.

 

[AddRAM]

The windows 7 install he cloned was most certainly on a MBR partitioned drive, and the new 2 TB should have been setup as MBR before even starting.

When installing a brand new drive, it always asks you how you want it initialized. Should have been seen and setup as MBR.

 

[Stumann]

I'm going to start over and make sure it's MBR this time. I may have overlooked a step the first time. I was just hoping there was a simple way to change it, but it doesn't look like it. There seem to be a few partition programs out there that will do that, but I think it's just as easy to start over.

 

[Stumann]

Success!! I had to change it to MBR in Windows Disk Management and redo the cloning and it works. Thanks to all that helped!!

 

[chopr1mt]

The same thing happened to me and I found this. Hope it helps! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9w3MNl-Ejk

 

[chopr1mt]

lol... good deal and I guess im a little slow today!! oops

 

[whs]

Success!! I had to change it to MBR in Windows Disk Management and redo the cloning and it works. Thanks to all that helped!!

I am glad it worked. Such a little thing can sometimes throw us off track.

 

[AddRAM]

Bingo, glad you have it working