No Bootable Device, HDD to SSD laptop upgrade

[mkoll]

Hello,

I'm trying to upgrade my Acer V3 laptop (newegg link) stock HDD to SSD. I recently upgraded from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 on the HDD.

I cloned the HDD to the SSD using Easeus Todo Backup (using it's clone drive feature and optimizing for ssd), connecting the SSD to the laptop with a USB 3.0 enclosure (amazon link). But when I replace the HDD with the SSD in the laptop, I get the message "No Bootable Device." I can't access the BIOS either; it just goes straight to that screen. Here's a picture of it: http://i.imgur.com/kskNzFL.jpg

All I can do from there is shut down the computer. When I re-replace the SSD with the HDD, it boots up just fine.

What am I doing wrong? Thanks.

 

[ESPclipse]

You should always be able to access BIOS at boot, as the BIOS always flashes before the boot device is selected. Hold down F12 or DELETE or whatever the button is for an Acer laptop during boot. There is the possibility that EaseUS Todo Backup simply made a backup of your former system partition but did not write an MBR or boot flags to the SSD, and so the new system partition may just not be recognized as a bootable partition. When it comes to simply transferring partitions across discs, I suggest using partition management software like Partition Wizard as opposed to backup software, but that's me. If you don't want to be bothered with trying a partition manager, you may have some luck running a Linux live installer iso from a flash drive and writing an MBR file to the SSD from there, which is what I usually do when I cannot boot for some reason. Also, the SSD cannot have a total capacity smaller than the former system partition, or else Windows simply will not boot. It sucks, but security is security and I really doubt that you bought a new drive of lower capacity than your old drive.

 

[mkoll]

You should always be able to access BIOS at boot, as the BIOS always flashes before the boot device is selected. Hold down F12 or DELETE or whatever the button is for an Acer laptop during boot. There is the possibility that EaseUS Todo Backup simply made a backup of your former system partition but did not write an MBR or boot flags to the SSD, and so the new system partition may just not be recognized as a bootable partition. When it comes to simply transferring partitions across discs, I suggest using partition management software like Partition Wizard as opposed to backup software, but that's me. If you don't want to be bothered with trying a partition manager, you may have some luck running a Linux live installer iso from a flash drive and writing an MBR file to the SSD from there, which is what I usually do when I cannot boot for some reason. Also, the SSD cannot have a total capacity smaller than the former system partition, or else Windows simply will not boot. It sucks, but security is security and I really doubt that you bought a new drive of lower capacity than your old drive.

Thanks. I actually did get a smaller SSD. My HDD is 1 TB and my SSD is 240GB. So I shrunk the system partition on the HDD to 200GB. Then, I tried running partition copying features of both Partition Wizard and Easeus Partition Master---neither of them worked. They had to restart my laptop to do what they had to do but both ran into errors during that process.

So this is where I'm stuck now. Any suggestions?

PS
And you were right about the BIOS---turns out I hadn't fully inserted the keyboard ribbon so the keyboard was unresponsive when I couldn't get into the BIOS. Connecting it properly let me get into the BIOS.

 

[ESPclipse]

Did you just copy the partition or did you try the "migrate the OS"-ish option? I believe both managers offer options for OS migration

 

[mkoll]

I gave it a try but got the same error. I ended up using Windows 10 Media Creation Tool to put the Windows 10 setup on a USB. Then I just clean installed Windows 10 using the USB onto the SSD and have had no problems. I copied down my activation key using Belarc Advisor but it turned out I didn't need it---the key is apparently locked to the mobo.

So I suggest those having problems with migration software to try this method.

Anyway, thanks for your help!

 

[Majeedaz]

I gave it a try but got the same error. I ended up using Windows 10 Media Creation Tool to put the Windows 10 setup on a USB. Then I just clean installed Windows 10 using the USB onto the SSD and have had no problems. I copied down my activation key using Belarc Advisor but it turned out I didn't need it---the key is apparently locked to the mobo.

So I suggest those having problems with migration software to try this method.

Anyway, thanks for your help!

What do you mean by " I just clean installed Windows 10 using the USB onto the SSD "
am having the same problem rn, I'd really appreciate your help.