Moving pre-installed Windows 8 from HDD to SSD

[theog]

(as Norton Ghost 15 that Samsung supplied with the 830 disk doesnt f work with Win 8 - arghhh)

Welcome to EightForums.

You would need Norton Ghost 16, which is not out yet.

 

[tmsmith616]

Well I knew by shrinking my partition, it was going to break one key recovery. But I was under the faulty assumption restoring the original partition size would make OKR work again. Sooooooooooo.... Now I'm using the usb drive to reset. I'm hoping it will unbreak OKR.

Edit: Glad to see my OKR working after a full system reset off of my usb. It would be an incredibly great system if only it could work on a blank drive.

Edit 2: Damn... usb drive deleted the drivers on my D: partition. At least I got a system image on dvds. I can recover it from that.

Edit 3: At this point I'm just documenting this jic for some reason it helps somebody. Anyway. Recovering from a system image broke OKR again. So guess I'll recover from usb recovery again after backing up my driver partition. Call me picky, I just want everything to work again.

 

[diesele]

Welcome to EightForums.

Thanks - hope to help and be helped as cloning to an ssd shouldn't be this tough!

I have failed many times to download this utility I mentioned http://www.farstone.us/download/boot/boot_dcsr.iso which allows me to mark the cloned disk as a bootable device (its not me its them) is anyone happy to try a download (its only 300Mb) and see if it works for them and maybe post a YouSendit link or something? I need to get my laptop back together and this may help the OP too.

I'll contact the company too meantime as this could well be the key - BIOS will see the SSD and all partitions of source disk seem cloned nicely.

 

[diesele]

Just from manufacturers website for ref:

To make a cloned hard drive bootable, you must set the UEFI-Based computer in UEFI mode or in our Pre-OS environment.

1.Set bootable hard drive in EFI/UEFI mode Different motherboard manufacturers have different flows for setting bootable hard drive. Please refer to your computer manual for details. 2. Set Bootable hard drive under Pre-OS environment
1) Download Farstone bootable ISO from http://www.farstone.us/download/boot/boot_dcsr.iso , and burn it into a DVD
2) Start your target computer with the DVD, and enter into Pre-OS environment 3) Select Tools tab and click Set Bootable Hard Disk for UEFI Motherboard icon. Then choose an UEFI-based hard drive in the dropdown menu to make it bootable, click Next to continue.

 

[diesele]

I pulled it down. Epoch if you fail to get it (if it is actually what you need) let me know.

 

[theog]

Just from manufacturers website for ref:

To make a cloned hard drive bootable, you must set the UEFI-Based computer in UEFI mode or in our Pre-OS environment.

1.Set bootable hard drive in EFI/UEFI mode Different motherboard manufacturers have different flows for setting bootable hard drive. Please refer to your computer manual for details. 2. Set Bootable hard drive under Pre-OS environment
1) Download Farstone bootable ISO from http://www.farstone.us/download/boot/boot_dcsr.iso , and burn it into a DVD
2) Start your target computer with the DVD, and enter into Pre-OS environment 3) Select Tools tab and click Set Bootable Hard Disk for UEFI Motherboard icon. Then choose an UEFI-based hard drive in the dropdown menu to make it bootable, click Next to continue.

Hi diesele

The farstone download ISO, you linked to
Has NO support for Windows 8 Preinstalled with uEFI, GPT, & Secure Boot setup,
Which Epoch has.

 

[diesele]

Fail. I boot to the CD and get to a UEFI menu to select any HDD the boot device but this works only on GPT formatted drives it seems . My clone was of a NTFS drive so the SSD has an NTFS file structure and I see no option to change that in DiskClone9. Stumped :-(

Edit theog - thanks for the info but it did seem to load - it all loads pre windows.

 

[theog]

You only receive this boot screen, when there is non-uEFI disc in DVD drive.
With your CD in DVD drive.



Boot screen with a uEFI disc in DVD drive.

 

[diesele]

That helps! Thanks! So to get an option to select my cloned SSD as boot device I need to put a UEFI DVD in the Optical drive to 'force' this menu? Is it an F9 menu? And how the heck do I create an UEFI optical disk - is that ISO download I burnt an UEFI compatible disk.

Thanks for helping me (us?) regain the will to go on!!!

 

[theog]

That helps! Thanks! So to get an option to select my cloned SSD as boot device I need to put a UEFI DVD in the Optical drive to 'force' this menu? Is it an F9 menu? And how the heck do I create an UEFI optical disk - is that ISO download I burnt an UEFI compatible disk.

Thanks for helping me (us?) regain the will to go on!!!

The farstone download ISO, you linked to
Has NO support for Windows 8 Preinstalled with uEFI, GPT, & Secure Boot setup,

The farstone download ISO, is not signed by Microcsoft

 

[diesele]

Thanks for those tempting screenshots theog; much appreciated. I cant get a normal bbs popup of any type to select which device I boot from whatever I do. There are options in BIOS (as it used to be known) but selecting my SSD produces only a 'select proper boot device' fail. I hung everything on it - even the old HDD but get nowehere. I also get 'disk locked' fails whan I try to make the SSD bootable with the recovery app.

Am I failing beacuse it is DESIGNED to fail me? I have disabled all secure boot setting in UEFI but don't think it allows me to switch it TOTALLY off. Is this cloning and SSD thing just not possible in Win 8 by design - shame on those Farstone people selling me this DiskClone and making it appear simple.

Is my only option to dump Win 8 and install Win 7 fresh on my SSD (for yes - I have ye olde fashioned DISK from old broken laptop)!

Sorry to be so grumpy :-(

 

[diesele]

A different clone tool manufacturer and pretty clued up users on a different site suggest it isnt possible SSD Clone is recognized in Bios but won't boot into Win 8 | Knowledge Base

 

[theog]

Methodology to create Recovery Media and reload a Lenovo system with Microsoft Windows 8 preload

NOTE: From this point forward in the recovery process, the choices for actual operating system recovery depend on the existing state of the computer hard drive.

Below are the instructions if there is an existing Microsoft Windows 8 install on the hard drive.
1.Select the target operating system of Microsoft Windows 8 to reload over existing Lenovo preload.
2.Select "Yes" to repartition the drives or "No" to keep existing partitions. For a clean install, the drives should be repartitioned.
3.Select "Fully Clean the drive".
4.Click Reset to begin the process.
5.The reset/recovery process takes approximately 90 minutes.
6.Once the reset/recovery is complete, the system will reboot into Microsoft Windows 8.

Below are the instructions if the hard drive is blank.
1.Select "Yes" to repartition the HDD or "No" to keep the existing partitions.
2.Click either choice, but these instructions follow the repartition scenario.
3.Select "Fully Clean the drive" as this will take several minutes to complete.
4.Click Reset to begin the process.
5.The reset/recovery process takes approximately 90 minutes.
6.Once the reset/recovery is complete, the system will reboot into Microsoft Windows 8.

 

[diesele]

Thanks theogg. I have put the additional step of swapping the HDd for the sad in the process but when I go to Refresh I get the usual 'disk is locked' error and for the Reset I get 'unable to reset your PC. A required drive partition is missing'. I have a cloned ssd with all partitions beautifully matching the source hdd. I tried to format the ssd to start with a blank to try, but disk manager won't let me format the unfinished and recovery partitions. Frustrationville continues!

 

[theog]

Try Cleaning the HD Drive, using Step one in this tutorial:
SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation - Windows 7 Forums

Than try following the Lenovo Recovery tutorial.


The base of Tutorial.

1) Make Recovery USB Pendrive.

2) Remove factory HDD. (not in tutorial)

3) Install your SSD. (not in tutorial)

4) Install OS with Recovery USB Pendrive to the SSD.

 

[Epoch]

Methodology to create Recovery Media and reload a Lenovo system with Microsoft Windows 8 preload

Nice find Theog, mainly because this is directly from Lenovo's website, which means that if it doesn't work at some step I can tell them that I was following the guide published by them and it didn't work. I will try it later and update.

 

[tmsmith616]

Methodology to create Recovery Media and reload a Lenovo system with Microsoft Windows 8 preload

Nice find Theog, mainly because this is directly from Lenovo's website, which means that if it doesn't work at some step I can tell them that I was following the guide published by them and it didn't work. I will try it later and update.

I'm sorry, I thought you would've already seen that guide. Otherwise I would've shared.

Unfortunately when you call support, they will weasel their way out of this argument by saying your warranty only covers hardware. They will tell you from day one there is no software warranty and this is how they try and steal $59 from you.

 

[diesele]

Try Cleaning the HD Drive, using Step one in this tutorial:
SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation - Windows 7 Forums

Than try following the Lenovo Recovery tutorial.
The base of Tutorial.

1) Make Recovery USB Pendrive.

2) Remove factory HDD. (not in tutorial)

3) Install your SSD. (not in tutorial)

4) Install OS with Recovery USB Pendrive to the SSD.

Thanks mate - really appreciate all your input. Typing 'diskmgmt' in the command window on Win 8 does.....NOTHING!!! ( I downloaded a START button app). I'll try it on my homemade (1 of 4 built) diy superfast SSD based Win7 4.5GHZ rig tomorrow! I boast that as Win 8 makes me feel useless and impotent!

I have found this for Win 7 - too good to be true...???? https://unlimitedsoftwaresource.com/windows7_pro.php

 

[theog]

Open a
in Windows 7
Elevated Command Prompt - Windows 7 Forums
in Windows 8
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2754-elevated-command-prompt-open-windows-8-a.html

Type in command line

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (win HD)
CLEAN

 

[diesele]

Thanks again. Successfully initialised sad using the command prompt. Same Repair or restore usual errors then though.

So I gave up and went to instal win 7. Now I get 'secure boot violation....invalid signature detected. Check secure boot policy in setup' FFS I can not spend my life on this and am disgusted with my simpleton go to Apple and return this Asus thoughts!