Question Can't boot into into Windows 10 ?

[srayhan6]

I have a Dell Inspiron laptop the hard drive for which is a 1TB 5400 rpm HDD, I wanted to upgrade it to a 1 TB SSD.

Instead of using Macrium Reflect to clone the drive while it was still installed on the laptop and running windows, I decided to take it out of the laptop and connect a SATA-to-USB3 cable to it and connect it to my other computer that is currently running windows 7.

I then used another SATA-to-USB cable to connect the new blank SSD hard drive using another SATA-to-USB3 cable to my computer running windows 7.

Then when I ran Macrium Reflect, the software was having a hard time cloning the drive so I figured let me go ahead and install the source hardrive back into the inspiron laptop and run windows and then I'll install Macrium Reflect on that OS and cloan the hard drive from there.

However, I think when I took the hard drive out of the laptop and connected it to my other laptop via USB3, it damaged the Master Boot record (this is my guess)......because I can no longer boot into windows.

Initially I got the "Repairing disk errors, This might take over an hour to complete" screen....after about 3 hours I got the message that Windows could not repair your issue and prompted me to go to the "Advanced Options"

In the "Advanced Options" menu I am not sure what to do from here.....I was thinking maybe the right partitions are not assigned the correct drive letters or something like that....but not really sure.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated

 

[USAFRet]

Alright, I was able to reinstall the OS and used dell's onboard software to restore the files on the 3 partitions that were on the hard drive. Can anyone tell me how I can upgrade the HDD on this laptop to the WD Blue SSD that I bought in Best Buy?

So, the thing is working 'perfectly'?

And the WD Blue is known compatible with this system?


Do you have an external drive, of any type, with enough free space to hold an Image of the entire contents of the current drive?
(Not clone...Image)

If so, this:

1. Download and install Macrium Reflect
2. Run that, and create a Rescue CD or USB (you'll use this later). "Other Tasks". Create this on a small USB flash drive or DVD.
3. In the Macrium client, create an Image to some other drive. External USB HDD, maybe. Select all partitions. This results in a file of xxxx.mrimage
4. When done, power OFF.
5. Swap the 2 drives
6. Boot up from the Rescue USB you created earlier.
7. Restore (on the toolbar), and tell it where the Image is that you created in step 3, and which drive to apply it to...the new m.2
8. Go, and wait until it finishes.
9. That's all...this should work.

 

[srayhan6]

@USAFRet thank you so much! I was able to follow your instructions and get the hard drive swapped out....mann the last 3 days were very excrutiatingly painful. your advise on how to clone the drive beats 99% of the bull$**t youtube videos I watched over the course of this entire ordeal.

Much appreciated!