New Hard drive will not Boot OS (Windows 8.1)

[capitalCORN]

Hello, first time poster. I will do my best to describe the scenario.

After a series of unfortunate series of events, my OS drive (Windows 8.1) ended up with a damaged SATA interface. Not wanting to lose the data in there, I came upon a store that managed to straighten the pins and jury-rig a SATA cable to it. It plugs into my pc, so I can access the data. The problem is, is that the solution is less than optimal (the SATA cable is barely connected as is). I decided to buy another 1tb drive and clone the data from the damaged drive to the new drive.
I accomplished the cloning, setting it overnight and tested it in the morning. Initially I booted the damaged drive to load the OS and saw all the data was copied, and didn't notice anything amiss. I disconnect my damaged (initial boot) drive and power on (all boot settings corrected in CMOS) and the computer just hangs after the POST screen. I try this numerous times, but no go. I'm thinking the cloning went wrong, so I reconnect the damaged drive, and boot to Windows to try and clone again. Second time doesn't work either.
I decide to do things the hard way, so I install Windows to the new drive, configure all programs and setting as they used to be, and now I feel things will work. (disclosure: I kept the damaged drive connected throughout the Windows install, and after each boot I was offered the which OS? screen after the POST screen).
I now re-disconnect the damaged drive and now have the new drive with the OS all prepped and ready to go. I reconfigure boot settings, and after POST the computer just hangs again. When reconnect the damaged drive the OS boots fine, and even gives me a choice of which Windows OS to load!

I have been at this for a painfully long time now and am exhausted. If anyone could provide insight into this issue I would greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading.

 

[Paul NZ]

Should have disconnected the old hdd when you reinstalled windows. Its probably hanging because it cant read the old hdd.

If the old hdd is connected now remove it. If the new hdd boots into windows

 

[capitalCORN]

Should have disconnected the old hdd when you reinstalled windows. Its probably hanging because it cant read the old hdd.

If the old hdd is connected now remove it. If the new hdd boots into windows

So I have to reinstall from the start again? Is there no other recourse? I cannot start Windows if the old drive is disconnected.

 

[Paul NZ]

You may have no other option. Otherwise it'll keep hanging on the post screen

 

[photonboy]

PRINT THIS IF USEFUL...

Hi,
The following guide and testing involves the following software though ALTERNATIVES may be used:

a) Memtest (DDR3 memory) www.memtest.org
b) Acronis True Image Free (must have at least one WD drive connected), or Seagate Disk Wizard (for Seagate drives.. same program as Acronis True Image). Found at WD or Seagate site's through HDD support links.
c) Intel CPU diagnostic (if Intel) or AMD equivalent. Not sure of AMD program but here's Intel link: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/19792/Intel-Processor-Diagnostic-Tool-64-bit-
d) ultimatebootcd www.ultimatebootcd.com
e) W10 Preview (*This is the Canadian link: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/preview-iso )

Solution:

1. Shut down, unhook all HDD or SSD's
2. Boot to MEMTEST (won't need to change Boot Order with no drives). Use USB method or DVD.
- *run Memtest for a full pass (roughly 30 minutes per 8GB)

3. Register, download and burn a Windows 10 64-bit Preview.
- Recommend doing this with a DIFFERENT computer
- Can create USB solution using RUFUS. I did. Works great: http://www.groovypost.com/howto/create-windows-10-bootable-usb-flash-drive/

4. Attach ONLY the new drive to install Windows 10 64-bit Preview
- will need your e-mail address and password used to register handy to login
- during install, delete existing partitions before continuing
- *After installation, install appropriate video drivers (AMD, NVidia, Intel). If everything works avoid any other drivers or software so you can simply test stability. We want to make sure the SYSTEM is fine and the only problem is the other hard drive.

5. Windows 10 is stable on new drive?

6. Attach OLD drive, but before booting go into BIOS and make sure the Windows 10 drive is the first drive in the BOOT ORDER.

7. Boot into Windows 10.

8. TEST the old drive using the drive manufacturers test tool (Seagate uses Seatools for example).
*Alternative is use ULTIMATEBOOTCD (burn to DVD or USB). Or do BOTH.

9. Drive fails testing?
- continue on but don't use later.

10. CLONE using Machrium Reflect Free:
*Make sure the "VERIFY" feature is enabled. If the clone fails try again a couple times. If it continues to fail keep going...
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

11. So now old drive should be CLONED (successful or not) to the new drive... overwriting Windows 10.

12. Shut down and DISCONNECT the old drive.

13. Insert the Windows 10 64-bit Preview Install DVD or USB and start.
(may be able to start after bootup. not sure. also if boot fails that's not an option)

14. Install Windows 10 but don't do a CLEAN install. Make sure you attempt to keep your programs and settings.
* Windows 10 actually does a "clean" install of the OS then remakes the links to programs and copies back over data stored in temporary folder. So even if you had some DAMAGE this can be OVER WRITTEN.

**Windows 10 makes a BACKUP and will ROLLBACK to this automatically if it has an issue upgrading. It also needs enough space to make the backup, and install W10 so the amount varies a lot. I'm guessing a bare minimum of 30GB of space needed? Again, can't say exactly.

15. TEST your installation. Be thorough.
*If an occasional program fails try to REMOVE and REINSTALL as it may be damaged before.

16. Update video drivers, other drivers/software if no longer present.
- go into DEVICE MANAGER and look for any conflict symbols (exclamation point yellow/black)

17. Upgrade to Windows 10 64-bit RTM July 29th (assuming you had a valid license of W7 or W8.1 this will be automatic).


*RECOMMENDED ALTERNATIVE*

(Do the Memtest diagnostics at the very least first)

1. Install Windows 10 64-bit Preview to new drive (with only that drive attached)
2. Test, add drivers...
3. Attach old drive and COPY over any data you want. Make note of programs you need to reinstall.
4. Shut down, put aside old drive in case you need more data (or if you have the space copy to a third drive or secondary partition on new drive as a folder)
5. Reinstall programs to W10
6. Upgrade to RTM version of W10 for free (W7/W8.1 valid license) July 29th.

SUMMARY:
I recommend PRINTING this. I know it's long and potentially confusing but basically I'm advising you to:
a) run diagnostics, and
b) Install Windows 10 64-bit Preview as either a CLEAN INSTALL (recommended) and copy files over, OR to attempt to upgrade an existing copy cloned to the new drive (since W10 does a clean install of the OS portion it may avoid any issues of corruption)
c) Upgrade to W10 RTM July 29th
*I assume when you go to UPGRADE to the RTM version it will ask your for your valid W7 or W8.1 license code if you didn't upgrade an existing valid installation and just did a clean install of the Preview of W10. (not sure of the deal with W8; I'm sure it qualifies. I guess if you have it installed you need the W8.1 update?)

Other:
Regardless of solution, make sure to buy another hard drive if you only have one then create a regular backup using ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE or similar. I bought a version and so it's automatically done. I set to weekly, incremental, and delete older backups.

(For multiple PC's, a WDMYCLOUD is a great option. You can find a 3TB version which attaches to your Router for about $140USD. You can use it like a local drive but it's accessible to any network attached drive. Speed is up to 90MB/second if cables/router support Gigabit. Wi-fi access is based on router's connection to the wireless device such as 7MB/second. Even wi-fi is suitable for streaming VIDEO however it's not a good idea for a system backup.)

FYI, you can also make a searchable, compressed backup of a partition or drive (like your old drive) and store that in case you need to look for something later. Possibly store on the new secondary drive in a folder since you'll likely throw away the old drive but MAY remember something you wanted.

I may have missed something but take this as a guideline.

 

[GhislainG]

After cloning the old hard disk, have you tried connecting the new HDD to the port where the old hard disk was connected?

 

[Paperdoc]

There may be a simple solution for you. It depends on exactly how you Installed Windows on your new HDD.

When that Install was done, was your old HDD also connected to your mobo? I suspect it was. Current versions of Windows do a step during Install that is designed to make it easy for your machine to recover from certain failures in future, but the process also creates a different problem that MAY be your trouble.

During Install, the process looks around for a second HDD connected. If it finds one, it places on that second unit in a semi-hidden place a copy of key system files before doing the Install on the main HDD. The intent is this: in future if ever some system files are found to be corrupt at boot time, it will automatically go to the second copy on the other HDD and get a good copy of that file(s), then complete the boot process. It fixes itself for this type of problem!

The trouble this causes, though, is that at EVERY boot it will check that the second HDD is present with the backup copies, and if not it will NOT boot up! To be clear, the symptom of this is: the system boots when both HDD's are connected, but will not boot when only the main HDD is connected and the second one is not. In your case, OP, the "second HDD" is your old failing unit, I think.

There is a good solution. Disconnect your old HDD so that only your new one is connected. Place your Windows Install CD in the optical drive. Boot directly into BIOS Setup if you need to and make sure that the Boot Priority is set to use the optical drive first, and then the new HDD, and NO other choices. If you had to make any changes here, be sure to SAVE and EXIT, and the machine will boot from the optical unit and look like it is preparing to do a Windows Install. DO NOT do a normal Install! Look for a Repair Install option and run that. This process will look for all the required files on your new HDD and discover that the semi-hidden backup copies are missing, AND that there is no second HDD to put them on. So, it will put a new copy of those backups on your new HDD along with the Windows already installed there. When the process is finished you can exit, remove the Install CD, and reboot. The machine should boot properly with only the new HDD connected. I hope that will solve your problem.

If you still have old files to copy from your old failing unit, you can re-connect it now for that final set of copying steps.