Replacing a main HDD with an SSD

[Ross365]

About a year ago, I tried to install an SSD as the C drive in my PC, but even after spending a huge amount of time on this, I never got it to work.

The PC is an old HP8200 running W10 Pro 32 bit. It’s only used for home office stuff. The SSD was a brand new (SATA) Samsung. I cloned the HDD without problem, but every time I tried to install it as the new C drive, I got the message "Active Partition not found". I spent lots of searching Google and 2 weeks of attempted trouble shooting, but could not sort it out and refitted the HDD

I’m not attempting to figure out what the problem was back then, (I tried at least 3 alternative brands of installation software) but if I was going to make another attempt at installing an SSD, can anyone offer me some suggestions as to most bullet-proof way to do it?

Thanks.

 

[Seadog]

I did it about 5 years ago to my old workstation (c 10yo). Win 10 64 bit pro. I seem to recall buying some cloning software for around £40. It was fairly straightforward and I subsequently added a second SSD mirrored in Bios.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Had issues with bootloader I'm the past when cloning to SSD.

Iirc I've repaired the windows Installation via w10 media creation
And used macrum reflect another time to repair the boot sector.

 

[PhillipM]

What did you clone it with?

And did it clone the partition or the whole drive? Because the boot drive has hidden partitions on it...

 

[gaz1]

i use acronis and never had any trouble

the reason why your getting what you are doing

its not copying everything over to the new hard drive

with that i do mean is everything including the drive info windows 10 uses other software for booting

dont ever let it boot after cloning or copying as that can upset the whole lot

 

[qwakers]

yup. acronis true image is the boy.

most oem's offer a free version for exactly what your doing.
the list is here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/acronis/comments/7mr0yi

some of them dont work any more but the kingston and crucial ones still have a valid website...

 

[Ross365]

I have a stack of old notes, but I cannot remember which software I started with without going through them all.

@gaz1 could you say a bit more about you comment "don't ever let it boot after cloning or copying as that can upset the whole lot".

After cloning, what's the safe way to check the clone went OK?

The HDD is a 250GB Seagate; one partition for system and one for data; total used space is only 79GB; I'm sure I cloned the whole drive

 

[PhillipM]

Clone it, shut down, remove the old drive, plug the new one in the same port and restart
Otherwise windows starts reassigning drive letters and can mess things up.

 

[Kram]

Swapping drive type, its best to reinstall from scratch. Windows wants different, automatically configured settings for a ssd to prevent early wear and failure, which might not happen if you clone a hdd.

Install fresh windows, install your apps and setup how you like it. Now is a good time to take a clone for future installs, jf your likely to need it, or want seperate work and home installs. Make shortcuts to your non-windows-entangled data folders. Preferably keep as much as you can on a seperate disk.

 

[gaz1]

I have a stack of old notes, but I cannot remember which software I started with without going through them all.

@gaz1 could you say a bit more about you comment "don't ever let it boot after cloning or copying as that can upset the whole lot".

After cloning, what's the safe way to check the clone went OK?

The HDD is a 250GB Seagate; one partition for system and one for data; total used space is only 79GB; I'm sure I cloned the whole drive

theres no safe way for you to check if done forget that notion all you can do is click check image or copy in the copy software

unless your using a live cd/dvd boot disk and even then you can be over ridden by the drive booting

most of us just do the copy or image when finished shut down and install the hard drive as is and boot from there if it fails it fails simple as

when creating a copy you have to copy everything over sometimes software unticks stuff when infact it should leave stuff ticked

as they all do it

 

[Seadog]

I used Norton Ghost 2005.

 

[skotl]

i use acronis and never had any trouble

the reason why your getting what you are doing

its not copying everything over to the new hard drive

with that i do mean is everything including the drive info windows 10 uses other software for booting

dont ever let it boot after cloning or copying as that can upset the whole lot

What Gaz says (with the possible exception of the final line - not sure what he means there). Acronis did a good job the two times I've used it, and it's free!

The only other recommendation I would make, which you should seriously consider, is just doing a cold reinstall. Nothing works better or faster than a shiny new Windows install, and it typically doesn't take long to reinstall the apps that you actually need (as opposed to the widely varying mishmash of stuff you've accumulated over the years )

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

What Gaz says (with the possible exception of the final line - not sure what he means there). Acronis did a good job the two times I've used it, and it's free!

The only other recommendation I would make, which you should seriously consider, is just doing a cold reinstall. Nothing works better or faster than a shiny new Windows install, and it typically doesn't take long to reinstall the apps that you actually need (as opposed to the widely varying mishmash of stuff you've accumulated over the years )

And when you have done the fresh install with programs needed Installed. Clone it and store it.

 

[Ross365]

Is it possible that there is a pitfall in running a 32bit system? Presumably that means that the HDD must operate with a MBR not a GPT, and will set up the SSD with MBR. Do modern cloning apps expect to see GPT? Please keep the answers simple guys, I'm way outside of my comfort zone at this point .

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

Is it possible that there is a pitfall in running a 32bit system? Presumably that means that the HDD must operate with a MBR not a GPT, and will set up the SSD with MBR. Do modern cloning apps expect to see GPT? Please keep the answers simple guys, I'm way outside of my comfort zone at this point .

No idea but why 32bit?

Can't address more than 4gb of ram on 32bit and 64 bit will run 32bit software
Probably worth a fresh install of 64 regardless

 

[Ross365]

It's a couple of years ago since I bought this PC; I may have been of the opinion that 32bit was more likely to enable use of some old software I have ( e.g. Lotus Smartsuite) and it was a cheap PC. Not clear on thinking at this stage
I checked and it is running MBR.

 

[gaz1]

What Gaz says (with the possible exception of the final line - not sure what he means there). Acronis did a good job the two times I've used it, and it's free!

The only other recommendation I would make, which you should seriously consider, is just doing a cold reinstall. Nothing works better or faster than a shiny new Windows install, and it typically doesn't take long to reinstall the apps that you actually need (as opposed to the widely varying mishmash of stuff you've accumulated over the years )

ive known with some copys that you have to male sure that drive is made active otherwise it wont boot as a c drive and then you need a third party disc to make it active

drive letter change can also do the same but most of the time they dont

i have to agree in my case a brand new operating system and programs is the best coarse of action
but worth having a copy of your favs saved to reinstall onto the new hard drive

then creating a back up its what i do

Is it possible that there is a pitfall in running a 32bit system? Presumably that means that the HDD must operate with a MBR not a GPT, and will set up the SSD with MBR. Do modern cloning apps expect to see GPT? Please keep the answers simple guys, I'm way outside of my comfort zone at this point .

Set up a new disk on Windows 10 or 8.1 and you’ll be asked whether you want to use MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT (GUID Partition Table). Today we’re explaining the difference between GPT and MBR and helping you choose the right one for your PC or Mac.


GPT brings with it many advantages, but MBR is still the most compatible and is still necessary in some cases. This isn’t a Windows-only standard, by the way—Mac OS X, Linux, and other operating systems can also use GPT.

the basic MBR drive format does not support drives over 4TB. It's also difficult to set up more than four partitions.

 

[Ross365]

the basic MBR drive format does not support drives over 4TB. It's also difficult to set up more than four partitions.

OK, but I'm using 76GB on two partitions, so that alone is not an issue.

 

[pedrobedro]

I did similar using Minitool Partition Wizard to migrate from a small drive to a larger NGFF SSD. It's a free download and should do what you are looking for.

 

[Ross365]

Thanks for all of your inputs .

I just got hold of the SSD and it is formatted in MBR, so looks like the MBR/GPT issue was not to blame. The drive has all the structure and files that you'd expect after being cloned 12 months ago.

I wonder if I did read the drive before installing it as C? PhillipM's comment not to do that was news to me!