SSD misread on Windows (attempting to clone drive)

[authorandrew]

It's not recognized in the boot devices. I didn't pop in to bios to check -- I probably won't get the chance until Thursday or Friday since I need my computer for the next several days.

I will try to do so, but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to, as it's not recognized in the F9 boot devices menu.

 

[KYHI]

if the drive is not bootable - which it is not at the present time - the bios will not see it as bootable.. (F9)

the bios should however see the drive..

 

[authorandrew]

Ok, so my BIOS doesn't have a device manager or anything, but I ran a primary hard disk quick test, and this passed, which seems to indicate that it's reading the disk. If it's not will it sit there and run through the test anyways? (It might have run on the flash memory which I had to plug in because I could not get into the BIOS without a bootable drive (computer was giving an error otherwise).

Is there a better way to see if the BIOS is reading this drive? If it is reading the drive, what are my next steps?

 

[authorandrew]

So if the BIOS sees the drive, but not the system, is there a way to change that? Is there a way to reset the SSD to factory state; I worry I screwed it up in my initial attempts with the usb drive bay

 

[KYHI]

the bios see the drive - the drive does not have a system on it..

you need to reinstall windows

 

[authorandrew]

I meant the system when I boot into Windows, KYHI, on my regular HDD. I will reinstall windows, but I think there's something deeper at root. It seems like the issue is deeper than just having a fresh windows install, but I will try that.

 

[KYHI]

I am not saying that there isn't a deeper issue - may be..

After a clean install - if there is a deeper issue - it will still be there..

 

[authorandrew]

Ok, I will try to install windows on the drive directly, and report my results. If it works, can I assume the problems have been resolved? I'm willing to do the hassle of a clean install if it will solve my problem. I'm downloading the 8.1 ISO now and will install when I can. Thank you for your patience/help.

 

[KYHI]

When you run the setup - once you get to the partition screen - remove every partition and allow windows to install to the unallocated space

 

[authorandrew]

Ok, I will try to install windows on the drive directly, and report my results. If it works, can I assume the problems have been resolved? I'm willing to do the hassle of a clean install if it will solve my problem. I'm downloading the 8.1 ISO now and will install when I can. Thank you for your patience/help.

 

[authorandrew]

SSD is now running windows 8.1 with no problems (Windows recognizes it as an SSD properly). My question now is if I can restore my clone image from Macrium directly onto this SSD without screwing up the Windows installation. I'd like to get my files/programs back without having to reinstall them all. Can I restore this image without screwing up the Windows installation? Thanks

 

[KYHI]

Make a new macruim image of the clean system install - First..

then restore just the windows partition from the old backup to the ssd

 

[authorandrew]

Why am I making an image of the clean system? Just to roll back in case of errors?

 

[KYHI]

Yeah - you really want to have something to fall back on.. - also keeps you from having to re-install..

 

[whs]

You should really make an image at least once per week. You never know when disaster will strike and don't want to lose too much when you restore. An image from last year is not much help. If you have a separate data partition for your user files, you should image that too (that is the easiest although sync is faster).

 

[authorandrew]

I have Bvckup2 running all the time, and that backs up my personal documents and other important info (FF profile, etc). I haven't really had a need to make system images before now but I'll probably do that now that I have a spare hard drive.

FWIW, the restore to the SSD from the HD wasn't bootable, so I'm just reinstalling everything. A clean install every once in a while is good anyways.

 

[authorandrew]

So, clean install works fine (I'm on it now), but occasionally when I restart or shut-down then immediately boot up, the screen stays black, lit, for minutes on end, and doesn't boot. Eventually, I have to hold down power to get it shut down (which supposedly is bad, I think, but I have no other option). When recovering from this, 3 or 4 times out of ten I get a '3F0 Boot Disk Not Found' error, and I have to repeat the power button bit to get things to start. Once I do, everything is fine. Any tips?

 

[KYHI]

yeah, one suggestion.. Allow your computer to shut down on it's own.. and stop hitting the power button to interrupt shut down..

windows 8 / 8.1 uses a fast startup process and is writing some files during shut down..

 

[authorandrew]

I'm not hitting the power button to interrupt shut down. It's on startup and restart, when the computer sits for fifteen minutes on a black screen and doesn't progress. That's not right, and I'm forced to hit the power button to turn it off and attempt to start again.

 

[KYHI]

and this is happening on a clean install??