Disk's Layout will remain MBR???

Yes, that is what the offlien recovery media is for.  You can recover any backup type with it.

That said, having applications on one drive and the OS on another, will not protect your apps from infection.  If they drive is attached and accessible by the OS, it's free game to malware and ransomeware.  

Sure, you can do it, but it actually degrades performance and can make OS stability and usability more painful than necessary.  If the goal is "protection" from malware, don't do it.  

You're using Win7 now, but FYI from Microsoft for Windows 10

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/commercialize/manufac…

Warning
For typical single-drive configurations, we do not recommend that you use a separate data partition. There are two main reasons:

• The partition may not automatically protect data that is stored outside the user profile folders. For example, a guest user might have access to files in an unprotected data partition.
• If you change the default location of the user profile folders to any volume other than the system volume, you cannot service your image. The computer may not apply updates, fixes, or service packs to the installation. For a list of known issues related to changing the default folder locations, see Description of known issues with the FolderLocation settings.

Regarding the cards being removed, that was my recommendation and I still would recommend it.  Until the new drive is replaced and verified to boot "as is".  Then integrate the card after that.  Adding in extra hardware can just complicate things more (what if the card was faulty or he hadn't gotten the drivers in there first).  Based on all the issues and questions, the more simple he keeps it at first the better.  Once things are working with the migration, then he can work on getting it to boot with the add-on card.

Well, I don't know about HP stating UEFI is not supported on your system.  You said you got a black screen with a simple menu when booting the recovery media at one time, no?  Did it look something like this?  I can only guess based on what you described above, but your comment about the menu look is what lead me to believe you did boot the rescue media in UEFI mode at least one time.

Here's the latest:

Thank You! to the MVP who suggested I take the SSD out of the computer. That will make it so much easier to return for the larger capacity 1 TB drive; which *should* have enough room for both programs, the OS and drivers and whatnot. Fortunately I have a .tib (with all the programs installed,) from 10/16.

CotS

I agree your Windows 7 system is booting in Legacy mode. That was never in question. The problem you are not addressing is that you seem to be booting the recovery media in UEFI mode. You don't get a black screen with 3 menu items in white text unless you boot in UEFI mode.

I see that your computer does support an early impementation of UEFI in the BIOS screens in the link I provided. If you go into your BIOS to the Storage Menu and then select Boot Order do you see a line for UEFI? I see it.

At this point, I've given you everything you need to accomplish your goal. I can't help you any further.

Yeah, I saw that third line. but it was "funny." When I selected Launch UEFI however they call it... nothing happened. Maybe I didn't wait long enough. Check this out: My SanDisk Thumb drive? That's listed in the BIOS in the Boot Order under UEFI. But the Hard drive is a Legacy Drive...Go Figure.

CotS

Okay, I'll bet you're booting the recovery media from the SanDisk thumb drive. That explains why you are booting the recovery media in UEFI mode.

Did it look like this link: takes me to "page not found."

But I will follow your andvice, and return this 240/250 can't remember which gigabyte SSD and buy a 1TB SSD so that I can place all my programs and OS on one SSD.

My question is: how do I boot into legacy mode? (re: recoverable media usb stiick that I made for Acronis)  Right now, as I recall, it's a black background with white text, with 3 choices. But when it runs it says it's running in Legacy mode, there's a line at the top, in the next screen, after you make your choice, that it i running in / or loading the Legacy mode of the program.

Thanks ,

CotS

https://forum.acronis.com/system/files/forum/2016/07/121829/11_uefi_boo…

Back way up above - Mustang suggested you press F10 rapidly after a REBOOT to try to get to a one time boot menu.  Your HP documentaiton suggests F10 is the method to use. 

YOu'll have to figure out which button to use though if it's not F10.

More examples of what you should be looking for in your one time boot menu - however, this is just an EXAMPLE taken from a Dell.  

COTS,

On a side note, what programs require you have 1TB to have them installed?  You should be able to have programs and OS fit on a 250 or 500GB for sure.  The question really is, what's requiring all that space?  Itunes backups of your device, large PST files, a program tha has it's own internal database? 

Also, why would you restore back from October when you have a perfectly good hard drive (I thought) that is still functioning now?  Why not take a new image that is recent and restore that instead of going back almost 4 months?

Is your original hard drive no good now, for some reason, I'm getting more confused by the minute and this is getting time consuming. The process is simple...

1) take backup of old drive - save somewhere.  

2) remove old drive and put new SSD in it's place.

3) Boot rescue media PROPERLY and restore the backup to the new SSD.

4) shutdown after backup and remove rescue media.  

5) Boot into the bios and make sure the boot order is correct with the SSD showing as the first boot priority

6) boot system with SSD and should be good to go.

Done.

It's literally a few steps and the most time should occur just for the process of how long it takes to backup and again, how long it takes to restore the backup. All of this OS cleanup, adding cards, etc to this process just makes it harder than it needs to be.  Once you have things transferred and working on the SSD, from there, you can then try adding in your cards and booting the new SSD from it.

Getting the recovery media to boot in Legacy mode is a difficult question to answer on that computer. I believe the F10 key is what you have been using to enter the BIOS, although you haven't confimed that. The documentation starts that the Esc key will bring up what they are calling the Startup Menu. I've asked you twice to use the Esc key to see what the Startup menu brings up. I was hoping it would bring up the one time override boot menu. You haven't reported what the Esc key brings up.

Other suggestions:

1. Create the recovery media on a CD/DVD and see what that brings up in the Boot Order BIOS screen.

2. Can you move the SanDisk drive from UEFI to Legacy boot in the BIOS Boot Order screen? I don't know how to change the boot order in your BIOS without experimenting with it.

You mentioned something very interesting. It seems that every time you post you spring something new on us. You say you are seeing a message that the recovery media is loading in Legacy mode after you make the selection on the initial black screen. I've never seen this before. Maybe the Acronis loader isn't compatible with your early UEFI BIOS and is reverting to Legacy mode. If you are able to restore the image to the new disk and it remains MBR after the restore is completed, that means you did boot in Legacy mode. If the new disk is converted to GPT after the restore, that means you actually were booted in UEFI mode.

It might be F9, or F11, if not escape... I can't find the bios information for this particular model, but here are some other references.  Thanks HP for not making it standard :)

http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c00814591

Shortcut to Temporarily Override Boot Order

To boot one time from a device other than the default device specified in Boot Order, restart the computer and press F9 when the monitor light turns green. After POST is completed, a list of bootable devices is displayed. Use the arrow keys to select the preferred bootable device and press Enter. The computer then boots from the selected non-default device for this one time.

http://h17007.www1.hpe.com/docs/iss/proliant_uefi/UEFI_Moonshot_072916/s_Disabling_the_F11_OneTime_Boot_Menu_201310290219.html

Use this option to control whether you can press the F11 key to boot directly to the One-Time Boot Menu during the current boot. This option does not modify the normal boot order settings. When this option is enabled, you can boot directly into the One-Time Boot Menu in the System Utilities by pressing F11 in the ProLiant main screen after a server reboot. See One-Time Boot Menu options.

Many apologies. I should have mentioned this earlier. There has been so many things going on in this thread, it's easy to get distracted, and that's obviously what happened...

Anyway, the ESC key will allow me to make a change to the "Startup Menu" So, if I want to boot from the Acronis bootable media on the next reboot - that's easy enough, press ESC, and select the flash drive, and the next boot, will be that of the Acronis bootable media. Boot up again, and you'll be booting from C: drive.

To get into the BIOS menu, you need to press F10. That environment is completely different from that of the Startup Menu. Pressing F10 after the splash screen, will get you into BIOS.

This Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB (It was a free upgrade from 750GB at the time of purchase) is perfectly healthy - so far . In just under 2 months it will be 6 years old. So, rather than push my luck, I'd rather replace it while I'm ahead, and keep it around for extra storage, for stuff I really could afford to loose. But let's not get sidetracked...

What about this:

Reinstall the desired programs to this C: Drive.

Make a new backup of the C: Drive.

Then restore that .tib to the SSD. (I put a500GB in my Cart.) Thanks Bobbo!

Thanks MVP's! I really appreciate the help. (and apologize for any confusion along the way...)

CotS

Thanks for the update. So, important and recurring questions still not answered... a screenshot with a cell phone would be really nice of your esc boot menu while the USB revovery drive is attached.

1 When the recovery flash drive is attached what does the ESC menu show? One option for your USB or two?

2 Do any of the options show UEFI in the option name?

3 if there is only one option and UEFI is NOT in the name, then, when you pick it,  does it still show the Acronis menu as black with 3 dos-like options when booted that way?

Hiya,

Well, I tried with the cell phone, and (just as I suspected, it was a disaster.) that's why I I've be hesitant...

Is there a way to pause the process as it loads so I can get a good shot for you?

Thanks.

CotS

Here's a link  to a couple of photo or two that I took for Bobbo. I don't know how great they are, but I hope helps you guys out.

https://flickr.com/photos/37470049@N08/albums/72157678419273022

On my end, it opens up on a new tab.Click the photo  to enlarge.

CotS

HP lead you astray. You 100% have a UEFI bios. First screenshot of your bios confirms this as you can see "UEFI Lexar jump Drive sport 3000" listed first and that is what you are booting as shown in your next screenshot.

Back in the bios screen, down below that is legacy boot sources >> hard drive >> Lexar jump drive sport 3000

you need to arrow down to that bottom legacy option to boot the media in legacy mode since you have an existing legacy OS on an MBR disk. This will keep it simple.

when you get your new ssd... attach it to your current is and initialize it and format it as legacy MBR.

pull the original hard drive and replace with the ssd. Boot to the bios and pick the legacy option of the USB as your boot device. Restore the backup image. Pull the USB drive. Reboot and go back into the bios and make sure the ssd has first boot priority. Then boot and that should be it.

after that, if all is well with the ssd, then you can pop it into the add on card and try booting from it.

Yeah, I think so. The only reason I say that is, when I press the F10 key at startup to get inot BIOS, the very last option on the list is START UEFI APPLICATION. Which just for giggles, (out of curiosity) I selected. And after waiting for a couple of minutes, nothing happened. I don't know, maybe I didn't wait long enough. It was like it was a dead link. Nothing happened. At least with a dead link you'll get "404 page not found." And if you're lucky you'll get a cute/creative illustration to boot. (on the resulting page.)

Also, you could look at this way: if he otion wasn't available, why list it as an option?

The Lexar Jump drive I bought circa 2006, if I recall correctly. On the Lexar, you will find the Acronis Bootable Media. So how that is even UEFI capable, you've got me.

I looked at a video to recall the steps I took in formattng my first SSD (the one I returned). At any rate, in the video one of the options for formatting are, "Convert to MBR Disk" Is that the same as Legacy MBR? i.e. Is that the option you would want me to choose?

At what point in the process can I add my 4 port USB 3.0 card? (That would help with the b/u)

As I understand it:

Format Legacy MBR

I replace C: with the new SSD and plug into a SATA2 port. I presume.

The run the Bootable Media.

Then restore.

Thanks in advance,

CotS

As for UEFI on your system.  Early iterations of it weren't great on some systems.  We have plenty of old Dells (original 6400's) that are UEFI capable, but are still hit and miss with UEFI because they were the first to get UEFI capability, but never really worked right and and never recevied newer bios updates to fix those issues.  You may be in a similar situation since your system is older, but does have UEFI capability. Or, there may simply be an issue with the boot drive, or maybe another setting like secure boot that needs to be disabled first in the bios.  Regardless, based on your setup, leave the UEFI boot alone for this project and stick to Legacy mode.  

If you use legacy mode and boot and it works, then that's all you need, don't worry about the UsB boot drive then.  However, if that also doesn't load properly, then consider formatting it and rebuilding.  Some USB's can be trouble.  I'd try a full format using diskpart and rebuild the media, but you may want to try a second/different flash drive after formatting as well - to rule out a hardware or compatibility problem. To format a USB drive using diskpart...

From an ELEVATED command prompt (right click and choose "run as administrator")

diskpart <enter>

list disk <enter>

take note of the disk # that matches your USB recoery drive

select disk X <enter>  (change X to the # of the flash drive you noted after runnin "list disk" - make sure you pick the right one!)

clean <enter>

create partition primary <enter>

active <enter>

format fs=fat32 quick label=ATIH17<enter>

exit <enter>

The add-in card won't come into play until AFTER you've successfully recovered your backup image to the new SSD and verified you can boot it and that it is functioning correctly when attached directly to the motherboard using the existing SATA connection that the current hard drive is using.   Once you're happy that the recovery is good to go and all is working like that, then feel free to pop in the add on card and put the SSD into it and see how that goes.  You want to do this step by step to keep things as simple as possible - who knows, maybe you have a bad PCIE card or it's not compatible for booting on your bios (not likely, but you'd never really know if the issue is the card or not if you can't get it to work without the card not even being in the mix).  

You'll want to verify the boot order in the bios and then try booting and hopefully all goes well once you get to that point.  Leave the PCIE card out of the mix for now.  YOu need to focus on MBR UsB boot, restore the entire disk image (not just C: parition - the entire disk image from a backup that includes, but is nt limited to just your C: drive) to the SSD.  Then check the bios to make sure the SSD is the primary boot device and then try to boot it.  It should boot.  Then play with the OS to make sure all seems to be well and when you're satisifed, then you can tinker with the add-on PCIE card.

Bobbo,

How do I know I'm booting in Legacy mode? Last time it was booting in UEFI mode...(Acronis B. M.)

How do I go about formatting the SSD in "Legacy MBR" ?

When I use the Diskpart command on the Acronis Bootable Media (i.e. the Lexar Jump Drive)  that will destroy everything on the USB stick. I just saw a video on using the Diskpart command. So you want me to use the Diskpart Command on the Lexar Jump Drive, where my A.B.M. is located? I'm just double checking...Measure twice, and cut once.

CotS

- Use the diskpart commands listed up above - it will result in an MBR (legacy) formatted USB.

- Use your F10 button to get to the bootovermenu in the bios to pick the legacy option - you should see the disks and be able to arrow to it and press enter to pick that specific one. 

You'll know youve booted the usb in legacy mode when it looks something like the screenshot in #9 (mine is customized, but yours will look similar - blue background with GUI icons for the menu, instead of black backgroudn with white letters).

To format the SSD in Windows as MBR see attached.

Ok. Right now (where you make your selection) in my case ATI 2017, . On that screen, it's a blue background with white text. i.e. not like your MBR-legacy example. #9

I don't understand - are you referring to your bios?  The bios screenshots in mine are just an example, taken from a Dell.  Just pick the option that identifies your Lexar flash drive without UEFI in the name.  

Don't overthink it - you've got all of the info to do this now, time to pull the trigger and make it happen or I'm going to start charging you for support :)

After that it should look different than the black menu and white text with 3 choices.  

Well...

After I cleaned my "Lexar Jump Drive" twice because, after the first "cleaning" I was "denied access" to something or other. So I "cleaned" the Lexar again, and access whatever needed accessing.

Then miraculously the steps that I went through on the Acronis Recovery USB - those steps looked just like the tutorial Steve made. After that crowning acheivement,  (took 23 minutes) when connected to a SATA 2 port. Then I installed my 4 port USB card for my External Backup Drive, and the 2 port SATA 3 pci card for the SSD.

All of that connected without incident,  and installed the new hard drive (WD Black 2TB) That installation also went uneventful. Now with the External connected to a USB 3.0 port now takes 8 minutes.

And now for your viewing pleasure:

Benchmarks from my SSD (Samsung EVO 850 500GB)  in one corner and my WD Hard Drive (Black 7200 RPM)  in the other corner.

I couldn't have gotten this far without the fabulous help of all the MVP's here at Acronis. I really appreciate all your help.

The End

CotS

Phew - case closed :) Glad to hear it is all finally setup and configured with the new SSD and PCIE card.  Much improved performance - should be humming along now.  Congrats.  I like most beer - any will do ;)