Question HDD from HP Notebook after use

Nasho23

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I have taken this HDD from my Wife's Notebook & replaced it with a SSD. I have Converted from GPT to MBR, but it will Not Boot into Windows. a) What can I do to this Drive so that I can use the Existing Operating System and Programs. b) Is it possible to Copy the Contents of C:\ and then Paste them back to a newly Formatted MBR Drive. I have tried to use Hirens Boot CD PE, to fix it, but, nothing has worked to make it Boot from the HDD itself. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank You.
 

Nasho23

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Thank You - Perhaps you did not read correctly. The UEFI GPT Disk was Converted to MBR Disk and Diskmanager can see that it is MBR, but it will NOT BOOT to Windows 10, which is still as it was when it was in Laptop. I cannot establish the Cause of Not Booting. Is the Contents of a HP Laptop the same as Win 10 installed on an ordinary PC - is that the reason for No Boot to Windows.
 

USAFRet

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I have taken this HDD from my Wife's Notebook & replaced it with a SSD. I have Converted from GPT to MBR, but it will Not Boot into Windows. a) What can I do to this Drive so that I can use the Existing Operating System and Programs. b) Is it possible to Copy the Contents of C:\ and then Paste them back to a newly Formatted MBR Drive. I have tried to use Hirens Boot CD PE, to fix it, but, nothing has worked to make it Boot from the HDD itself. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank You.
What did you convert from GPT to MBR?
Why?
What drive does the OS reside on?


If you had wished to move from an HDD to SSD, there are certain easy procedures to do this.
It seems you've done multiple wrong things.
 

Nasho23

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Thank You - The Ex HP Laptop HDD was a UEFI GPT Drive. Four Partitions, only Three of which were used. I converted it to a MBR Drive, so I expect the Boot Table will be placed on the 1st Reserved Partition - 277MB Unallocated. The 2nd Partition has the Windows whicch would be the C:\ Partition - 909.88GB (NFTS) (Primary). It also has a Recovery Partition D: 20.45GB (Primary) That is the way it looks in Disk Manager. I cannot attach a Screen Shot of the Drive. The Fourth Partition = 922MB (NTFS). The First and the Fourth do NOT show up on File Explorer. Thank You
 

kaleem104

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What you are describing does sound right for an MBR drive. When you say "it doesn't boot into windows 10" can you tell us what is happening instead? Does it not detect anything to boot off of?
 

Nasho23

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It appears to go paste the Boot Stage (Does NOT Ask for a CD/DVD to Boot from. Then there is a Message on the Screen, something like Select a Boot Disk. I think I will give this the Big A, as I have an olde 3.5 Boot HDD - I will use that instead - I just dont like throwing away a Good Drive. Thanks for your Help. It is definitely a MBR Drive, as Disk Manager states. Cheers.
 

USAFRet

Titan
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It appears to go paste the Boot Stage (Does NOT Ask for a CD/DVD to Boot from. Then there is a Message on the Screen, something like Select a Boot Disk. I think I will give this the Big A, as I have an olde 3.5 Boot HDD - I will use that instead - I just dont like throwing away a Good Drive. Thanks for your Help. It is definitely a MBR Drive, as Disk Manager states. Cheers.
There is nothing physically wrong with the drive.

It just lacks a properly installed operating system.
 
The Ex HP Laptop HDD was a UEFI GPT Drive. Four Partitions, only Three of which were used.
I converted it to a MBR Drive, so I expect the Boot Table will be placed on the 1st Reserved Partition - 277MB Unallocated.
So you converted UEFI bootable drive from GPT to MBR and expect it to boot?
No. It doesn't work like that.
Bootloader has to be completely recreated after this.

Why did you convert it at all?
What software did you use for the conversion?

Also there's no guarantee, you will be able to boot it to windows on another computer.
On another computer it's recommended to reinstall windows.
If you try to avoid reinstall, then you'll get several issues:
boot mode compatibility - system doesn't boot,​
drivers incompatibilities - bsods, crashes, bad performance,​
windows activation isssues - can not activate windows.​
Your first issue is improperly converted drive, that has been made unbootable by the conversion.
You'll get those other issues (mentioned above) after that too.
 

Nasho23

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Thank You for your Response with answers. I think I used EasUS Partitioner Manager to Convert GPT to MBR. Please do not waste any further time on this, as it is not worth it. I will star t from scratch and do a New Install or just use it as a Data Drive. Cheers.