Cannot boot from HDD after cloning it
Hello,
I own a HP DV6000 laptop running Windows Vista, with a 240GB HDD (C: drive 225GB and D: drive 15GB). I bought a Kingston 128GB SSD to replace my 240GB HDD. The Kingston SSD package included Acronis True Image HD. I followed the instructions which were basically:
1) Replace 240GB HDD with 128GB SSD (inside the laptop)
2) Connect 240GB HDD via USB.
3) Boot with Acronis TI.
4) Clone from 240GB HDD to 128GB SSD. Cloning was successful. Content in the 240GB HDD was smaller than 128GB, and there were no problems during cloning
5) Disconnect 240GB HDD (from USB), remove Acronis TI CD, and boot with 128GB SSD.
Now, here is the problem:
1) I cannot boot with 128GB SSD. After the initial "HP" logo appears on the screen, I just see a cursor and nothing happens.
2) I removed the 128GB SSD and replaced with my original 240GB HDD. Tried to boot with this original HDD, and it doesn't boot either. Same symptoms as above.
3) If I boot with Acronis TI, I can see the partitions of my 240GB HDD as well as the folders. So, the disk is not corrupted. However, it just doesn't boot.
Unfortunately, I can't find my Vista recovery CDs, so I cannot get my laptop to boot by any means now.
Please help!!!
Yes. My laptop is always connected to one disk at a time, first with the new SSD and then with the original HDD. Boot sequence has HDD listed after the CD drive.
With only the 240 connected, go into the Bios and make absolutely certain that the 240 is the disk listed as the choice. I have seen times when nothing is selected.
do you have any method where you can stiick the 240 pr the 128 in an enclosure to see if there is any data on the either disk.
With only the 240GB connected, I updated the boot order in BIOS to boot from HDD first. Didn't help.
I am able to boot from Acronis CD, and view the 240GB HDD contents. All my folders are there and so are the files. This tells me that the disk itself is functioning.
Is there any chance that cloning the 240GB into the 128GB SSD erased the boot information from the 240GB?
At this point, I don't care about getting the SSD to work, I just want to get my original config working.
You might boot from the TI Restore CD and simulate a backup and when it displays the partitions, look to see which partition is marked as active.
Do you have a Windows install cd or a vista repair disk which you could use to perform a repair? You may have to run the repair function several times as it only does one repair at a time.