Moving OS to a different drive

[spankyham]

Hi there,
I am currently running Windows 7 on a 60gb hard drive. The OS is taking up too much space so i wish to move it to a larger SSD.

I am running into a few issues trying to do this and would appreciate some help.

I've set it to boot from the new drive after using 'Macrium Reflect' to clone the drive.

My computer still seems to boot from the original drive, even when i change it in the bios.

If i unplug the original drive, the get the message 'BootMgr is missing', i also got the message..

'The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessable'

thanks for the help

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I'm guessing that Disk 2 is the new larger drive. Notice that neither of the partitions on Disk 2 is marked as "system". That's why it won't boot.

Notice that partition G on the old Disk 0 IS marked "system". That's why you can boot if it's connected.

The "system" marker indicates "this partition contains the boot files necessary to boot your PC".

You can most likely fix that by copying the system files from G to the System Reserved partition on Disk 2. You might have to use a third party program like EasyBCD to do that. Or maybe you can do it by disconnecting Disk 2 and running "System Repair".

I think there is an EasyBCD tutorial on this site.

EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies

Or---start over and use Macrium imaging rather than Macrium cloning. Be sure to include ALL partitions on Disk 0 when you make the image. You'd have one image file and just need to restore it to the new drive.

Imaging is usually more problem-free than cloning. I don't use cloning at all, but I'm pretty sure you're situation is fixable if you don't want to try imaging instead.

Others can likely give you more precise instructions.

 

[spankyham]

Okay would you be able to assist me starting this from scratch?
I will try using 'Image this disk' rather than 'Clone this disk'.
This is how my drive looks currently...


Thanks!

 

[spankyham]

Here is the message i get when i try and do it..

 

[ignatzatsonic]

You need to select drive E as the destination for the image.

C and "System Reserved" must be part of that image. I'd select the choice on the left of the Macrium screen that says "create an image of the partitions required to backup and restore Windows". Make sure E is the destination.

That image file should be roughly 20 or 30 gb in size and will fit on E easily.

See if you can get that far--making the image file and storing it on E, and then repost.

The next step after that would be to formally "restore" that image file from E to the new larger drive.

I'm not sure why C is shown in RED. That may be a problem? My guess is that C is red because it is almost completely full.

 

[rdl]

You have a "System Reserved" folder on your G drive. The main purpose of "System Reserved" is to hold the boot files, so they are probably in there (you can look). If so, maybe all you need to do is change "System Reserved" on that drive to be the active partition (in diskmgmt.msc). When there are multiple drives with active partitions, normally the first one will be used to boot from.

edit: Sorry, G was a typo, I meant H. If you make the "System Reserved" partition active on H, it should boot.

 

[spankyham]

Ok thank you,
I shall try that and let you know what happens.
I got around the error by starting the 'Volume shadows copy' service.


okay so its completed, i set it to put the file onto the h drive though, will that be an issue? and what should i do next
thanks again for helping

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Ok thank you,
I shall try that and let you know what happens.
I got around the error by starting the 'Volume shadows copy' service.


okay so its completed, i set it to put the file onto the h drive though, will that be an issue? and what should i do next
thanks again for helping

Why did you choose H when the instructions were to use E?

 

[spankyham]

I've given up, i'll find a cracked version of windows 7 and try installing it to a new drive.

I just have no idea what to do...

If there is a detailed step by step that maybe someone can referencee i can look to using that if the cracked version fails,
cheers

 

[Eric3742]

I've given up, i'll find a cracked version of windows 7 and try installing it to a new drive.

I just have no idea what to do...

If there is a detailed step by step that maybe someone can referencee i can look to using that if the cracked version fails,
cheers

We cannot assist you as the rule stated;

http://www.sevenforums.com/misc.php?do=showrules

Your problem is very easy to solve.

 

[DavidE]

If you have a Win 7 COA sticker with a readable key we can help you do a clean install with clean Windows install media.
Here is an example of a Windows COA sticker.

 

[AddRAM]

Agreed, clean install and save yourself a lot of headaches, get the network drivers first

If you don`t have an install dvd, we can help you with that too.

Just let us know what you want

 

[mjf]

1) You have your pagefile.sys on E:. I would reduce it to say 2GB and move it back to C:. Make sure you can boot from your original drive. You don't need a large pagefile on an SSD.
2) Then make a system image using "Create an image of the partition(s) to backup and restore Windows".
3) Connect your new SSD to the port your old SSD is connected to and disconnect other drives.
4) Perform a system image restore using the Macrium restore pe CD to your new SSD and check that it boots.
5) Reconnect the HDD and again check that the system boots.

Your old SSD can be used as a disconnected backup or reformat it as you see fit.