Issues booting to an old HDD using SATA to USB adapter

[vpro]

Hello

I recently purchased a SATA to USB adapter in order to get some files from my old hard drives to my new laptop. The adapter works fine and I can access all the files of my old HDD's.

I also want to boot to my old hard drive but there seems to be something wrong. I changed the boot order in BIOS and selected the SATA to USB device as first option but when my laptop tries to boot, I only get the Windows 7 logo and then it restarts and asks to 'Repair computer' or 'Start Windows Normally'. I selected both options but it always ends up doing the same thing over and over. What could be the issue for that since my hard drive was booting just fine on my old computer?

Thanks

 

[georgeks]

"... my hard drive was booting just fine on my old computer"

What computer was that? Was it the laptop you are now trying to boot?

 

[vpro]

No that was my previous PC but I don't use it anymore because of broken motherboard, and I want to access my old hard drives on the laptop I recently purchased.

 

[georgeks]

Then it cannot boot that laptop.

You cannot just put a Windows HDD on any system and expect it to boot.

 

[vpro]

Why not? Since my laptop recognizes that HDD as bootable device why is it not able to boot it?

 

[alphaniner]

There's some behind the scenes configuration that's necessary for Windows to boot, and moving to different hardware generally invalidates that configuration. Though I have to admit, I always assumed Repair Computer was more generic & robust.

You may be able to repair the boot process with Windows Repair Disc or such. But even then you'd still have deal with uninstalling drivers for the old hardware, installing drivers for the new hardware, and possibly re-activate Windows.

 

[georgeks]

It is a bootable device, as any HDD or USB stick will be recognized as such, even when there is nothing on it.
That does not mean that it can be booted from in the state it is.

 

[maxseven]

Why not? Since my laptop recognizes that HDD as bootable device why is it not able to boot it?

I agree with the previous two posters. Your old, failed motherboard had different hardware such that the drivers on the HDD are seriously incorrect for booting your new PC, so wrong that Repair alone can't fix the problem.

It seems the best you can do with it is to be able to mount it and at least recover files off of it, though this doesn't help much with programs that may be exclusive to this drive.

FYI Acronis True Image (and probably other products as well) has a feature called Universal Restore which can take an old image backup of a C:\ (system) drive and restore it to a new computer, applying whatever new drivers are needed on-the-fly for the new hardware. This type of backup is the only way I know of to be able to deal with that "worst of problems" that you suffered, namely a motherboard failure.