HD issue, requires 2 drives to boot

[JJPGerm]

My original HD started to fail check disk scans and I decided to replace it. I bought a Western Digital HD and have never had issues before. Used the Acronis tool that was provided to copy files from the old HD to the new one. After it completed the process and restarted everything looked fine so I turned off the system to remove the old failing HD. When I rebooted with only the new drive plugged in my windows loaded, but it was like super basic almost like a first time install. I shut it back down and plugged both drives in and started it back up and it loaded just fine and everything was there again. So I shut it back down and unplugged the new HD and tried to boot with only the old HD, but no bootable info found and it was stuck. The computer will only work if both hard drives are plugged in. I thought maybe I could do a windows restore from backup with only the new HD plugged in and windows would understand I only want the new HD. Windows restore would not work until I plugged both HDs in it kept saying missing component. I dont want to have to re-install windows to get rid of the faulty HD, but my system has become dependent on it. Is there anything I can do to fix this?

 

[jtabb1256]

While you have both HDs in and your computer on, use file explorer to see what files are on the faulty one. If it is just programs, copy them to your new HD

 

[JJPGerm]

While you have both HDs in and your computer on, use file explorer to see what files are on the faulty one. If it is just programs, copy them to your new HD

The files on the faulty hard drive appear to be a installation of windows and the system files seem to match on both.
I copied what I could without replacing any files. Nothing changed at all. Still have to have both drives for a complete load of windows or to load at all.

 

[jtabb1256]

While you have both HDs in and your computer on, use file explorer to see what files are on the faulty one. If it is just programs, copy them to your new HD

The files on the faulty hard drive appear to be a installation of windows and the system files seem to match on both.
I copied what I could without replacing any files. Nothing changed at all. Still have to have both drives for a complete load of windows or to load at all.

I thought you said that when you ran your computer off of the new HDD, it was like a fresh version of Windows. This is why I said to just copy the programs and stuff from the old HDD to the new one.

What does happen when you just run it off of the new HDD?

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, JJPGerm!

Unfortunately, it's not recommended to clone a faulty/failed HDD, because you migrate the failed sectors as well.
I think that if you have the Windows Installation media, you should reconsider the clean install of the OS. Any other fix might not work properly and affect the overall performance of your system.
I'd suggest you to back up any important data from the failed drive on an external HDD or any other storage device and re-install Windows. Just make sure you unplug the old drive and keep only the destination HDD connected to the motherboard until you've completed the OS installation.

Keep us posted!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[JJPGerm]

While you have both HDs in and your computer on, use file explorer to see what files are on the faulty one. If it is just programs, copy them to your new HD

The files on the faulty hard drive appear to be a installation of windows and the system files seem to match on both.
I copied what I could without replacing any files. Nothing changed at all. Still have to have both drives for a complete load of windows or to load at all.

I thought you said that when you ran your computer off of the new HDD, it was like a fresh version of Windows. This is why I said to just copy the programs and stuff from the old HDD to the new one.

What does happen when you just run it off of the new HDD?

If I only plug in the new HDD then windows boots into the fresh version of windows (it also failed activation, I had not noticed before so that may be why it looks weird too).
When I only plug the new HDD in it becomes kind of hard to copy files from the not plugged in drive.
Copying the files with both plugged in did not change anything in this respect.
I checked and with both drives windows boots normal and is activated.

 

[JJPGerm]

Welcome to the community, JJPGerm!

Unfortunately, it's not recommended to clone a faulty/failed HDD, because you migrate the failed sectors as well.
I think that if you have the Windows Installation media, you should reconsider the clean install of the OS. Any other fix might not work properly and affect the overall performance of your system.
I'd suggest you to back up any important data from the failed drive on an external HDD or any other storage device and re-install Windows. Just make sure you unplug the old drive and keep only the destination HDD connected to the motherboard until you've completed the OS installation.

Keep us posted!
SuperSoph_WD

I fear you are correct in this.
I had tried to use the windows system restore, but it also managed to have bad sectors or some error kept me from doing that(i had thought I was going to have to reinstall windows several times, thank goodness when the recovery fails it reverts back).
I was forced to use the software provided by western digital (Acronis Tru Image, it is a limited version as Acronis is a pay for use full version thing) to make the backup(I really hate this as I have never had success with their software. Data lifeguard sucks the big one and wont even run on my computer it just stops working immediately).
The way it looked to me when I read the options it would just copy the windows system files over. I can see it cloned the drive, but I dont understand why it boots the way it does now.

 

[jtabb1256]

What I meant was that if just the new hard drive by itself is enough to run windows, then you should try running the system with both hard drives in with the new one set as your main drive. Then copy any pictures, documents, etc. to the new one and get rid of the old one.

However, if SuperSoph is correct, and your activation of windows did not work correctly, it is best to back up all pictures, documents, etc from both hard drives onto a 3rd device (Usb flash drive or external hard drive or even the cloud) and then wipe the new one.
Then take the old HDD and start up your system on your new, blank hard drive and reinstall windows. Then get all of your personal data back onto your HDD from the 3rd device.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Welcome to the community, JJPGerm!

Unfortunately, it's not recommended to clone a faulty/failed HDD, because you migrate the failed sectors as well.
I think that if you have the Windows Installation media, you should reconsider the clean install of the OS. Any other fix might not work properly and affect the overall performance of your system.
I'd suggest you to back up any important data from the failed drive on an external HDD or any other storage device and re-install Windows. Just make sure you unplug the old drive and keep only the destination HDD connected to the motherboard until you've completed the OS installation.

Keep us posted!
SuperSoph_WD

I fear you are correct in this.
I had tried to use the windows system restore, but it also managed to have bad sectors or some error kept me from doing that(i had thought I was going to have to reinstall windows several times, thank goodness when the recovery fails it reverts back).
I was forced to use the software provided by western digital (Acronis Tru Image, it is a limited version as Acronis is a pay for use full version thing) to make the backup(I really hate this as I have never had success with their software. Data lifeguard sucks the big one and wont even run on my computer it just stops working immediately).
The way it looked to me when I read the options it would just copy the windows system files over. I can see it cloned the drive, but I dont understand why it boots the way it does now.

Hi again, JJPGerm!

Well, honestly I believe you should save yourself from all other possible complications that would most probably arise with this failed cloning procedure. I'm sorry that you've had such unfortunate encounters with our software though.
Still, I think it's best to perform a clean install. The OS activation will happen automatically, once you go online.
I guess it's also possible to find a fix for the issue as it is right now, however no one could determine for how long because of the corrupted system files cloned from your old failed HDD.

I think that you might not have a choice, except to re-install Windows from scratch on your new HDD.

SuperSoph_WD