Windows 7 New SSD won't boot on Win7 pc

[sgee]

I installed a new Sandisk SSD on my old PC (using EaseToDo for the cloning) but had to leave the old drive connected as well, due to boot issues which I gave up trying to resolve. I'm sorry if today's question doesn't make sense: do I gain any advantage by opening Windows with the old drive then switching to the SSD? This came up after the recent monthly Windows update and I have to update both drives, right?

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Sounds like the old hard drive had failed and therefore the EASEus TOTO backup would not work on the brand new SSD drive. The advantage you can gain by switching the cables around to make your PC see the new SSD drive on the SATA 0 port on your PC Motherboard instead of the way it sounds like you have it now, is that your C: drive will boot Windows like 10X faster than it did with the old mechanical hard drive. If your SSD drive won't boot with your PC, you might have a failure in one or more of your RAM sticks, and need to do hardware testing to check that as well as your Motherboard. Suggest you use the Memtest86+ test as here: Memory Diagnostics

If Memtest86+ runs, and it needs to run at least 8 passes to do so with no errors, your RAM is Ok, as long as you test all sticks individually as well as all sticks together, again for 8 passes; which can take from 12-24 hours depending on how much RAM is in your PC. These figures are for W7 computers with 4GB of RAM or more.

If you cannot get the SSD drive to boot Windows as your C: drive, make certain that you DISCONNECT and REMOVE the old drive while attempting to do so. It's likely that the old drive has failed (part of why you are replacing it no doubt), and could be interfering with your boot process. If it works, your good to go and can then reconnect your old Drive as a secondary data drive to D: once your W7 boots up on the new SSD drive ok.

If the problem persists, most likely something in your Motherboard has failed and you will need to take it to your local repair shop and pay a licensed Tech to determine if that's the case. If the Mobo has failed, expect it to cost from $400-$1,500 or so; probably more than the cost of your PC or laptop, unless you built it yourself from very expensive parts.

<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

 

[nmsuk]

I've just been through this moving from ssd to nvme. Firstly get a trial of acronis true image and image the original disk to external storage. Once completed, create bootable media from within acronis so you can deal with the backup from outside windows. Remove old drive just leaving the ssd attached. Boot from the disk/usb acornis created. Use the restore my dsik function. Select the backup and when asked for destination choose the ssd. Let it do it's thing and on rebooting you should if all is well have a bootable ssd. If not boot back to acronis and in tools/utilities theres a startup manager that can fix the drive so it boots.

 

[BIGBEARJEDI]

Also good advice! I've done this with both Macrium and Acronis (with a Kingston 120GB SSD), and it works nicely.

<<<BBJ>>>