BOOT LOOP ON DELL INSPIRON 6400

Hello,
I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 with 160 GB SATA Harddrive.
As space is always to low I want to upgrade to a 320 GB Samsung.
I have cloned the whole harddrive via TI 11 to the new one connected by USB.
When I fit the new cloned harddrive it woun't boot to the OS. I get the DELL Boot screen with the progress bar and once it is at the end, it starts again in a loop.
Via F12 I can go to the dell bootscreen and also do the whole system test (HD ok).
Any idea what I did wron or what the problem is

Thanks,
Michael

 

miba,

Could you look in the BIOS and tell us about the new HD. Does it show as 160 GB instead of 320 GB?

Which OS?

 

Brian,
Thanks for your reply!
It tells
Primary Hard Drive = 320 GB HDD
OS is Vista Ultimate

 

Brian is sleeping now. He will respond later. But in the meantime.

Retry your cloning but use these procedures.

1. Perform the clone after booted from the TI Rescue CD.
2. Remove the old original. Install the new drive in its intended/ultimate position (same place as current original}.
3. Place current system drive someplace else--such as another internal position or in an external usb enclosure. Perform the clone.
4. After clone, disconnect old drive before the very first bootup.

 

I agree with Grover's suggestions.

 

Hello Brian, Hello Grover.

Thank you very much for your postings and help.
After the second try failed Yesterday, I recalled that I had also ordered the Vista CD from Dell so It told me there would be something wromg with my boot partition. It offered to fix it and now it works, including service patition. It was before I read yor reply.
Thank you once more for your quick response from Germany!!!