Hi, I use AOMEI Backupper Standard to clone from a 250GB HDD in Dell E6410 Windows 7 laptop to a 120 GB Kingston SSD. I chose disk-to-disk cloning. I couldn't choose sector-by-sector cloning because destination drive is smaller than source drive. The Hitachi source drive only has a total of about 80 GB used up, including both System Reserves and C:\ partitions, that's why I chose to clone to a 120 GB SSD. After AOMEI Backupper says cloning is successful, I replaced the 250 GB HDD with the 120 GB SSD. I then got into BIOS and changed from SATA to AHCI before rebooting. The laptop screen then says to the effect there's no bootable device. I would very much appreciate your suggestions. Thank you.
Since System Reserved partition in the SSD shows 500 MB, I tried cloning via AOMEI Partition Assistant v. 7. I followed exactly the procedure for Disc Copy as shown in the tutorial. After rebooting into the SSD, Windows was trying to boot but the screen very briefly alternates between a blue screen of death and Welcome to Windows screen. For some unknown reasons the SSD now has an empty E: drive for System Reserved and a full F: drive which is a copy of the C: drive in the original hard drive. I then installed Macrium Reflect Free v. 7. It shows the SSD as having the same populated System Reserved drive (E: and Windows F: drive, i.e. same sizes, as those of original hard disk. Tomorrow I will try cloning via Macrium Reflect.
taytong888, What are the sizes of the partitions on the 250 GB HD? What is the BIOS setting now that Win7 is booting from the 250 GB HD? SATA or AHCI? Do you have a USB external HD?
Hello Brian, thank you for reply. 1. MBR Disk 1 (250 GB) shows: System Reserved (None) - NTFS Active: 28.2 MB out of 100 MB capacity; C drive - NTFS Primary: 48.41 GB out of 232.79 GB size. 2. The BIOS setting that Win7 boots from the 250 GB HDD has always been SATA. When I was trying to clone to the SSD, I switched to AHCI prior to rebooting it based on some suggestions in the articles found via Google search. 3. I use a USB2-to-SATA converter cable to connect the SSD to my laptop. 4. Both AOMEI applications are freeware versions. I will need to create a rescue disk using Macrium Reflect Free 7.1 first, before attempting to clone the System Reserved partition from the 250 GB HDD and put it in the currently empty E drive in the SSD. My laptop does not come with any rescue media. Only AOMEI Backup Professional version offers the ability to create a rescue media. I would appreciate your professional advice, and look forward to hearing from you.
@taytong888 , try booting from your clone in the same setting that was there before you changed it to AHCI. And what were all the options in the BiOS selection area where you made that change to AHCI? I mention this because if your System was built in a non-AHCI state, you cannot just change it to AHCI to try and BOOT it... there will be a hardware driver missing that is needed for BOOTing. The System you cloned probably didn't have that driver configured when it was built, therefore it won't be there when you try and BOOT your clone in AHCI mode. If that's the problem, you have basically 2-options... if you want to BOOT your clone in AHCI mode, you will need to modify the REGISTRY in your old hard disk before cloning it once again. The only other way is to reBUILD your original System while in AHCI mode, which I don't believe you want to do. If you want to test whether the driver exists in the old HDD, you should try and BOOT that device in AHCI mode as well...
I don't have any USB external HD in the conventional sense, but I use an adapter cable to connect the SSD to a USB port of my laptop in order to carry out the cloning and booting, etc. as I indicated in Post#4.
OK. My suggestion.... Delete all partitions on the 120 GB SSD. Don't change the BIOS settings at any stage. Resize the 232.79 GB partition on your HD to 100 GB. Create a NTFS Primary partition in the 132.79 GB of Free Space and call it TEMP. With your imaging app (in Windows or from a boot disk) create a System Backup and write the image to the TEMP partition. A System backup will image the 100 MB SRP and the 100 GB Windows partition. Remove the HD and replace it with the SSD. Connect the HD to your USB2-to-SATA converter cable. Boot your imaging boot media and restore the System image to the empty SSD. Shut down. Disconnect the USB2-to-SATA converter cable. Don't try booting before the cable is disconnected. Boot the OS on the SSD. We can sort out OS partition size and AHCI setting later. For cloning/ image restore, it's better if the new target drive is mounted internally and is seen in its correct geometry during the procedure.
Hello Brian, Before trying your suggestion, I want to create 2 rescue media, i.e. a CD and a USB drive using Macrium Reflect 7 version 7.1 Build 3196. The laptop has its DVD drive and USB2 slot. I chose default settings and Win PE 3.1 was created, etc. The laptop successfully created the CD and USB as shown by Macrium. As a trial, I stuck the USB into the laptop and set the BIOS to boot from USB drive. After Windows load, I saw the Macrium screen which appears to be similar to the one in recent Mrk's thread in this forum. Since the screen contains no image files (.mrimg), I don't know which file to restore or how to access it first. Some of the folders are said to be empty. Same outcome when I insert the Rescue CD. Basically I need help with using Macrium rescue media to restore Windows. Thanks in advance for your help.
To clarify, my Windows PE3 screen is similar to the Windows PE10 that appears in the Restore section of the May 3 article ''Macrium Reflect 7 Review - Excellent Free Imaging Software" by Mrk. Left pane - Restore Tab: * Fix Windows boot problems * Browse for an image or backup file to restore *Open an image or backup file in Windows Explorer * Detach a backup image from Windows Explorer Right pane - Image Restore Tab: 3 links: Browse for an image file, refresh, folders to search. Below them is: A blank or empty rectangular frame that contains no partitions or backup images to restore Below the rectangular frame are these links: Sort by backup date, Location, File Name, Folders to search, Browse for an image file. This is quite different from the screen in "Rescue a system with the Windows PE environment" from reflect.macrium.com which shows the partitions to select for restoring.
taytong888, I'm not a regular Macrium user and I have no notes on the restore method. But all apps work much the same in that you browse to the backup image in your TEMP partition and then choose the empty target disk for the restore.
I just looked at the Macrium boot disk environment. To restore an image... Browse for an image file Restore image Choose the SSD, Disk 1 (you might have to click "Select a different target disk" to see the SSD) Next Finish I did notice that Macrium doesn't make "System Images" but your image should contain the two partitions we discussed.
Hello Brian, FACE PLANT! After a few precious hours, it dawn on me that the reason Macrium Reflect does not show any image file is that I have yet to create a back up of the System Reserved and C: partitions! So, I shrank C: to create a new drive E: and set up a folder called BU_Images. After that, I opened MR and select Back up Tasks, then "Create image of the partitions to back up and restore Windows". Selected the above 2 partitions. Went to BIOS to select boot from CD. Rescue CD boots. Win PE 3 is loading. On the right pane and below Image Restore Tab are the 2 partitions. Beneath the partitions are the image to restore! Voila! Tomorrow I will back up the same partitions to a DVD in an external drive for off-site storage.
Brian, Once I back up the partitions to a DVD and a USB thumb drive, I will review your suggestions on cloning my HD to a SSD.
It will be slightly different when you have the blank SSD installed instead of the HD which already has those partitions.
Hello everyone, Here's an update. I recently succeeded in cloning the original HD to a 240 GB SSD. However, when I booted from the SSD the screen says "no bootable device found". Further Google searches reveal that the reason for the SSD not booting is its depth is only 7 mm whereas the original HD is 9 mm thick. I then ordered a " 7mm to 9 mm SSD spacer adapter for 2.5""" from Amazon and pasted it onto the cloned SSD. After rebooting the SSD, the screen asks me to insert Windows Installation Disk and hit Repair. Since Dell laptop does not come with the installation disk, I connected a backup disk of the original HD to the laptop via an USB to 2.5 " HD-SSD adapter, inserted Macrium Win PE 3.0 CD and rebooted. I then restored the backup image onto the previously cloned SSD after deleting its partitions. Macrium successfully restored Windows 7 image on the SSD. After reboot, I got Windows 7, application programs and files being exactly the same as in the original HD. Voila! What a learning experience!
This is hardware not connected at all(hence the obvious boot device not found error) issue but wording suggest like it is some software issue(like "pasting" adapter on cloned ssd,one copy paste files while one fix/attach adapters in pc).
My poor choice of wording, since I was in a hurry. I actually peeled off the 2 paper strips that cover the adhesive parts of the spacer before sticking it to the SSD. The spacer is a 2-mm thin rectangular "frame" made up of some type of rubber material.
