After SSD Installation Booting Problems

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T

Thinh

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Jun 10, 2015
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Hello so I just installed an SSD to be my boot drive to my PC while I made my HDD into just storage. I did this 2 days ago. But I've been running into problems since then. I'm also not the most techie kind of guy, I had my best friend help me with this.
Computer Specs
Asrock Fatal1ty H97 Performance Motherboard
Corsair Force LS 120 GB Internal SSD
Western Digital 1 TB HDD
Windows 8.1 Pro
(if there's any other useful computer spec information that is relative to my question then please ask)
Installation Day
I cloned my HDD to my SDD using Acronis. There was a problem with this and I had to clone it again. The second time was successful and after changing the boot options to boot just to the SSD, it booted and ran perfectly.
However, there was something concerning me with the drives. There was my SSD which was my C drive. My HDD was an E drive. But there was this D drive called System Reserved. It says it takes 72 MB out of 349 MB. However, this amount is not deducted from my SSD or my HDD so I don't know where this System Reserved drive came from or what it even is. It was not there before I cloned my HDD and installed my SSD. It only contains one file which is a text document which when opened is blank.
For the rest of the day there were no more problems.
Day 1
I was using it in the morning and it booted up normally. However maybe an hour or two of use, Windows crashed to a blue screen and it said Kernel Data Inpage Error. My PC restarted and it ran an Automatic repair. I then got a blue screen saying the something like Log File with some other stuff (Sorry I don't remember what it was exactly). I did chkdsk /r/f C: and chkdsk /r/f E: in the command prompt (advide I found online) but the result was something along the lines of log files could not be sent (again I don't remember exactly what it stated). I restarted the computer and went into the BIOS and then went into Boot options and found that for some reason the boot options put my HDD as boot option 1 and my SDD as boot option SSD as option 2. This made no sense to me as before i set it to SSD to option 1 and disabled the other options the day before. I did not access the BIOS since then. It then booted properly and everything was fine for the rest of the day.
Day 2
I booted in the morning and I got a black screen saying Data Reading Error and it asked to press ctrl+alt+del to restart which I did and it booted properly. I was using it throughout the day but I wanted to see if there was anymore issues with booting. I turned it off and left it off for 30 minutes or so. I booted it and after the BIOS screen, there was a considerable amount of time I spent waiting on a black screen with just the Windows Logo in the center (over 5 minutes but less than 10). It booted normally after waiting. I turned if off and on again. This time it booted normally with no real wait time or errors.


So I don't know why I'm having these issues and I don't know if it's a hardware or software problem. I know it's alot to read but I wanted to included everything that happened. Thank you.


EDIT: I forgot to mention that on installation day, after I successfully cloned my HDD I did a quick format of my HDD. Don't know if that changes any answers but I thought it would be good to note that.
On Day 2, on my first boot in the morning I actually booted into past my BIOS screen and then to the black screen with the Windows Logo. It was like this for several minutes before I restarted my computer while it was still on this screen which thinking about it now was probably not a good idea. Then I got the black screen saying Data Reading Error.
 
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a) did you turn on ACHI in the BIOS before you formatted the SSD?
b) I suspect that your computer still thinks the hard drive is the active drive. Follow this link below and turn off Active on the hard drive. While you are at it, make sure the SSD is marked as active. There is a link on the same page I am sending you to guide you in activating the SSD if its not already Active.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/af3a1e24-214f-4e0e-b917-9530a27534de/how-to-deactivate-an-active-partition

And finally, that D: partition is a Windows Recovery partition. It was on your hard drive, but it was hidden. Now that you cloned the hard drive to the SSD, its showing up. If you want it to be hidden, you can always go into Disk Management and remove the drive letter from it.
 
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a) Yes it was on AHCI.

I forgot to mention two things which I'll edit in my original post. After I cloned for the second time which was successful I did a quick format of my HDD. I don't know if that'll change your answer or not but I thought I should let you know.
On day 2 when I booted I also forgot to mention that the first time I booted my PC, it went from the BIOS screen to the black screen with a windows logo. It spent a long time on this screen so I got worried that my PC froze since I've been having issues with booting. Thinking about it now I probably shouldn't have done this but I restarted my computer while it was still on this screen and THEN i got the black screen with the Data Reading Error after restarting.
 
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Sorry I haven't gotten back, I've been away from my computer the whole time. No I haven't done what you suggested yet. On my disk management, there are two disks. Disk 0 has the System Reserved Partition and my C drive partition which is my SSD. Disk 1 also has the System reserved partition and my D drive partition which is my HDD. There is no unallocated spaced on either disk, it is all primary partition.
On both disks, the system reserved partitions are labeled as being Active and Primary Partition. Both disks are also in Master Boot Record partition style.
Do you still want me to go with your advice knowing this?
 
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I did not see any option to deactivate the hard drive partition in Disk management so I just followed the guide from the link you posted.
I selected the disk with my HDD partition and when I entered to deactivate the HDD partition, my command prompt said that it was already inactive.
I then selected the disk with my SDD partition and when entered to activate the SDD partition, my command prompt said that it was now activated.
I checked back on Disk Management. Disk0 says that SDD partition is active and the System Recovered partition is not listed as active. On Disk1, it still says that the System Recovered partition is active and the HDD partition is not active.
Should I do anything else?
 
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I followed the link as you suggested last night. So my SSD is active on disk0. My HDD is inactive on disk1 but my System Recovered on disk1 was still active. I said this in my last post.
I booted up this morning and now I'm stuck in bootloop. Its a black screen with Windows Boot Manager. It says File: \Boot\BCD Status: 0xc000000f Info: Boot Configuration Data for your PC is missing or contains errors.
 
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In my BIOS my SSD is boot option 1 and my HDD is boot option 2. I disabled boot option 2 and that didnt changed anything. I've left it with the HDD as boot option 2 and that didn't change anything either. My SSD is the only drive with my OS. I can still enter the BIOS before the error pops up.
 
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Ok, I assume you have a Windows disc. Go back into the BIOS, and change the boot order to DVD, SSD. Disconnect the hard drive at this point.

Boot from the Windows disc. HOLD DOWN THE F8 KEY WHILE BOOTING.
This will bring up the Windows Recovery Menu.
Click on Troubleshoot.
Click on Advanced options to get into Automatic Repair menu.
We need to use the Bootrec.exe tool. Click on command prompt and type in the following commands, one after the other:

bootrec /RebuildBcd
bootrec /fixMbr
bootrec /fixboot
Exit

Reboot.

Let me know how that works.
 
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I just bought the windows key and my friend already had it downloaded on a drive. Then i just used my key. So using the windows disk is not really an option.
I've read somewhere that the program Easy Recovery Essentials could be used? I'm not really familiar with it though.
Are there any alternatives ?
 
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Do this on a Windows 8.1 system!!

Take a thumb drive, memory stick, whatever name you want to call it, and stick it into a USB port. NOTE! Anything and everything on the usb drive will be gone when this is done.

Then press Windows Key + R, and type in RecoveryDrive.exe and it will guide you through the process. Then you can change the Boot Order in the BIOS to USB, SSD.

As far as Easy Recovery Essentials goes:
EasyRE can be downloaded on any PC or Mac, then burned onto a CD or USB. The PC in need of repair is then booted from the recovery media you created.

You still need a CD or USB. I prefer to use the tools Microsoft gave us with the OS if possible.
 
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Okay I made the recoverydrive.exe from my friends computer who has windows 8.1. Not sure if this is what you meant.
When I typed bootrec /RebuildBcd it said that the windows installation could be found but it could not be added.
When I typed bootrec /fixMbr and bootrec /fixboot it said that those were both completed successfully. I restarted it and I'm still having the same Boot BCD issue.
 
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Im trying to understand where the BCD is. It should be on the SSD, but if its not there, then it has to still be on the hard drive.

Reconnect the hard drive. Then power up and boot from the USB drive again. Hold down the F8 key again, and you should see a Startup Repair option. try it. I am hoping that it will find the BCD on the hard drive, and move it to the SSD. This should have been done when you cloned the hard drive.

If that doesn't fix things, shut down, leave the hard drive attached, and then do the whole process earlier that led you to entering those BootRec commands. The one command that failed last time was the one that was supposed to find and fix the bcd.
 
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I did those commands again before you replied with the HDD connected, I actually had the HDD connected both times I did it. I forgot to disconnect it like you said. But the second time I entered them all the commands were successful. The first command only identified one windows installation. When I restarted I still ran into the same boot BCD error.
 
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I ended up just doing a clean install of Windows 8.1. I don't know if it was a hardware or software issue with my SSD but if I do a clean install of Windows 8.1 I'll know that its a good chance that its the SSD. I haven't had a chance to check my PC some more since yesterday but everything seemed well. There was one concern and that was when I turned it off after installing windows 8.1. The screen showed that it did turn off but my PC was still on. The fan was still on and so were the LEDs. I might post a new thread about this if it continues but if you have any idea on why this is happening then please feel free to tell me. Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate cause I've been panicking for the last couple days.
 
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I believe the problem was the cloning software. It should have copied the BCD and MBR to the SSD. Based on what you have told me, it sounds like the MBR got there, but the BCD did not. And that's not something you can't just manually edit or copy around.

In any case, reinstalling Windows on the SSD is something I try hard to avoid, but sometimes you do have to do it.

Let me know if you need anymore help.
 
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