Not booting after cloning HD a SSD drive, Recovery CD not working...

[sights]

Not booting after cloning HDD to SSD drive, Recovery CD not working...

Hey,

Having a problem with my laptop not booting after cloning to an SSD drive. I have been googling for a possible fix, but nothing has worked so far, so I thought I would sign up here and see if anyone has experienced similar issues and if there is a possible fix.

I am running a custom built laptop for music production, but my harddrive failed, the recovery partition was lost as well as almost all the data on the drive. The solution was to buy a new SSD and clone the HDD of my friend's identical laptop (everything is identical, OS, hardware etc.) The idea was to clone the drive of my friends computer, install it in mine and do a factory reset via the recovery partition.

After cloning the hdd to my new SSD drive my computer won´t boot.

When trying to boot to the cloned SSD I get the message:
"Reboot and Select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key"

When following the boot order from BIOS I get the message:
"PXE-E61 Media test failure, check cable"
(looks like it has something to do with the ethernet controller, however this is the last item in the boot list).

When trying to boot into Hiren's Boot (USB) the same error message shows up:
"reboot and select proper boot device...".

Now it is possible to boot into the startup repair cd I created and the windows 7 install disc, however, after selecting input language it tells me:
"This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of windows you are trying to repair. Try using a recovery disc that is compatible with this version of windows".

BIOS is recognizing the harddrive, and the name of it is shown in the list, so it is connected properly.
I have tried changing the boot order according to guides explaining how to fix this problem but it does not work.

I am kind of stuck on this now. The cloning process seems to be successfull since I checked before I put the SSD in my laptop (all folders and files etc. was there.).

A fresh install of windows would mean loosing the revocery partition and the ability to do a factory reset, and loosing all the optimizations made to the OS.

If anyone has any ideas on how to fix this I would greatly appreciate it!

Using windows 7 professional 64bit, the new ssd drive is a Samsung Evo 850.

 

[mitchell65]

Hi and welcome to the Forum.
Are you absolutely certain that both laptops had the same version of Windows?
Have you seen this:
PXE-E61 Media Test Failure Error

 

[sights]

Hi and welcome to the Forum.
Have you seen this:
PXE-E61 Media Test Failure Error

Hello, and thanks for the swift reply.
Yes I did check that link before. There is no boot to LAN option in my BIOS, and the ethernet controller is at the bottom of the boot list (it is not possible to remove it entirely).

 

[mitchell65]

I dited my post and it seems we crossed. Can you go back to my post and see the extra line I put in?
This prompted my reply:
"This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of windows you are trying to repair.

 

[sights]

I dited my post and it seems we crossed. Can you go back to my post and see the extra line I put in?
This prompted my reply:
"This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of windows you are trying to repair.

Ahh .

Yes the windows version is the same. When my laptop starting acting up, my friend made me the recovery disc using his laptop, so it is actually from the same system that was cloned.

I also managed to use the recovery disc on my laptop before cloning my friend's hdd. It could not solve the problem though, as the drive was too corrupt I assume.

 

[sights]

Maybe I should just go ahead a clone one more time. Maybe even using another cloning software. I was using EaseUs Todo Backup, and remember that I did not select the "optimize for ssd" option when cloning.

Since the drive I want to use as a source drive now already has been cloned, can I still plug it in using the SATA to USB-adapter without causing any problems to my friends computer? Should I just reformat the SSD first and then start a new cloning process?

 

[mitchell65]

This is getting a bit beyond me now so I would only be guessing and maybe do more harm than good. If you are going to clone the disc again the only confident thing I could suggest is to use Macrium Reflect software.

 

[sights]

Okay, I appreciate the time you took to help Mitchell.

I will try to clone it again using Macrium.

Is it safe to plug in the SSD in my friends computer via USB, since it now contains a clone of his HDD?
And also, is there a way to make the SSD "clean" again, like it was when it came out of the box, so I can start the cloning process anew? Is a format of the source SSD enough?

 

[Layback Bear]

I'm not sure exactly what you are trying to do and how but I would like to point out a few things.

1. Use Macrium Reflect is my suggestion also.

2. Clones of operating systems should/must be made from the same computer and only used if needed to that computer.
Otherwise a operating system clone made from computer "A" will not work properly on computer "B" even if it ever booted.

I use clones often but they are only used on the same computer they were created from.

 

[sights]

2. Clones should/must be made from the same computer and only used if needed to that computer.
Otherwise a clone made from computer "A" will not work properly on computer "B" if it ever booted.

Is that the case even if the two computers are indetical in hardware? The only difference between our machines is that my friend has a 650 gb HDD, mine came with a 300gb HDD.

The thing I am trying to do is to clone my friends HDD, so I get access to the recovery partition, and can do a factory reset. Since my HDD has failed I can not access and restore my computer to factory default. Just installing windows would loose all the audio optimizations done to the system and the ability to do backups and restore the computer later on.

 

[Layback Bear]

I seriously doubt that both computer are exactly the same.
They would have to have the same motherboard signature and bios.
They would have to have the same COA key for Windows 7; which they shouldn't.

Because you don't seem to have backups or clones of your original system before your drive died, the best option would be a Clean Install of Windows 7 on a new drive using the COA key on the Microsoft Sticker located somewhere on your laptop. All you special settings and programs would have to be done anew again.

You could just save your damaged drive and try to recover your data from it once your system is up and running properly.

Edit:
If you did get to use your recovery partition on the damaged drive all it would do is put your compute back to the way it was when it was made, therefore you would of lost all your special setting and programs.

 

[sights]

I seriously doubt that both computer are exactly the same.
They would have to have the same motherboard signature and bios.
They would have to have the same COA key for Windows 7; which they shouldn't.

***Exactly what problem are you trying to solve?

Yeah, you might be right. I am certainly no PC-wizard .

My HDD crashed, taking with it the recovery partition used to restore the computer to its factory state.
The computer is a custom built music computer with optimizations made to the OS.

If I just reinstall Windows (which was also stored on the recovery partition) I will loose all those optimizations.

So my idea was to clone my friends HDD, to access the recovery partition of of that one and do a factory reset, so the drive will be clean, and windows reinstalled with all the optimizations that came from the manufacturer, as well as all the drivers.

 

[Layback Bear]

Please read my post #11 again, I have updated it.
We are posting over the top of each other.

Please complete your system specs using this tutorial by Brink.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/180324-system-info-see-your-system-specs.html

 

[sights]

Haha, yes it seems like we are posting past eachother .

All the optimizations will be there when doing the factory reset. The recovery partition contains the "fresh" whole system as it was the first time you turn the computer on. So all drivers, optimizations and windows 7.

I don´t know I might be completely wrong, but this seems like the only way to be able to reset the computer to it´s factory state.

 

[sights]

I noticed that the SSD I cloned to was formatted as GPT.
Could that explain the boot problems?
Using partition wizard to remove the partitions and will try to clone again.

I think I might have accidentally set the SSD disk as GPT when initializing it before cloning.