Migration from HDD to SSD - locked disk?

Hello,

As I used to transfer for our customers Windows 7 from HDD to SSD, I used to pull the HDD out, take the SSD, make a transfer either with Acronis, Paragon or manually. Usually at home, one my own computer, simply by putting both HDDs in.

Today, I got a first Windows 8 computer to migrate. As soon as I connected the main HDD from the laptop to my computer, at boot, I got the blue screen. When I removed the HDD, my system booted OK.

What is that??? I never ever saw Windows crashing just because I put a HDD in it. I left the laptop in the company, so I wasn't able to put it back (going to do it tomorrow), but I already did the first Windows 8 setup - it's an Asus laptop.

Weird thing is, that even when connecting via USB (I have a SATA/USB3 dongle which I can use for such purposes), it first recognizes the disk, then it shows the 2nd partition (DATA), and then it also goes into blue screen. What the hell is that? Is it some new W8 protection or something?

Trouble is, Paragon migration software I bought previously doesn't support W8, so I would have to buy a new one... 15€ doesn't break my piggybank, but I'm still wondering, why can't I read the disk normally, as every other one?

Thanks
Kosta

Sounds like your PC is not uEFI. New PC have a uEFI/BIOS firmware.

I would look for a 3rd party Partitioning,Backup & Cloning software, which fully supports Windows 8, uEFI, GPT & Secure Boot.
Which is signed by Microsoft.


The only 3rd party software that I know of, that fully supports Windows 8 is PARAGON 12 & is signed by Microsoft .

Paragon 12 has support for Windows 8 uEFI, GPT & Secure Boot.

PARAGON Software Group - partition manager, drive backup, hard disk partitioning

Take a look at this post:
http://www.eightforums.com/installation-setup/17083-how-migrate-os-new-hard-disk.html

Oh yes, I believe it is uEFI. I have UEFI BIOS. That should be it, right?

Right now trying out Acronis 2013. Seems to be working, it has a disk backup, and right now copying the whole disk into the file. Shall see what is possible afterwards.

Maybe I should think about getting Paragon 12 - at last, I am doing this quite often, just under W7, MBR, this was quite easier.

Also right now I saw that the disk is GPT too. Makes it even worse. I hope I can put the data onto the SSD though. This is my first hoppala for a long time now ;-)

Thanks for the tutorial, looks good, just need to get P12.

Darn, I see... now I read up a bit about UEFI... My W7 is BIOS booted, not UEFI, although I have UEFI bios.
Anyway, Acronis seems to work (though I'll see tomorrow after putting the disk in, I hope it will normally boot into windows), but I will nevertheless take a look at Paragon 12, seems like a good tool.

Any thoughts of that, should it work?