Problems booting from a cloned drive

matt2288

Honorable
Aug 15, 2013
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10,510
Hello everybody,

I have a brand new HP Probook 4540s that came with windows 8. It has no upgraded hardware, just whatever HP tossed in when they built it.

Whenever I get a new computer I remove the HDD and connect it to another computer with a SATA to USB adapter and install a clone back up I have that was made with Acronis True Image.

I have done this procedure several times in the last couple of years and it always works just fine. I don't have a problem getting the clone image onto the HDD but after I place it back into the laptop and turn on the computer the computer wont see the OS.

I have disabled all the BIOS security options. The image is Win 7 Pro.

I have been at this for several days now and have attempted to do some research on the internet but have been unable to find anything.

All help is appreciated, thanks.
 
Solution
if windows was installed using bios instead of UEFI when you made the image and then put it in a UEFI machine it will not boot as the bootloader is set for BIOS which is why you need to do the startup repair using the windows disc.


I'm not trying to use an image from my old computer. I have a basic image that just has windows and a few basic applications installed.
Applications include:
AVG
Spybot
Steam
Libre Office
CCleaner
Defraggler

I use this basic image whenever i setup a new computer for myself as I find it tends to save time since I usually purcase 2-3 laptops and build 2-3 desktops every year
 


This is not a problem with the drive or the image as the drive will boot when placed in another laptop that never had windows 8 installed and does not have UEFI BIOS

 
i am surprised that this has ever worked for you. every time after changing computer, or even only mobo, you should do a fresh reinstall using the installer disk. windows "builds" itself around your hardware when you install it, and not all hardware is the same.

at the very least, you should repair the installation using the win 7 disk after doing this.
 


The only issue that ever occurs when I have done this in the past is that when I boot up windows it says that the hardware configuration has change significantly since last use and it has me enter the product key for windows. Once I do that and click ok it would always run fine.

As far as I know the only thing that build itself around the hardware is is the drivers. I have never had issue with just transferring one hard drive that I have been using for months to another computer and just having it work once I uninstall the old drivers and install the new ones.

 
if windows was installed using bios instead of UEFI when you made the image and then put it in a UEFI machine it will not boot as the bootloader is set for BIOS which is why you need to do the startup repair using the windows disc.
 
Solution


Ok that makes a lot of sense. I will do that and if it works I will make a new image from that for computers with UEFI. Thanks a lot
 


I created a new image on a UEFI machine and and the new image has no problems installing now. Thanks again.
 
Code:


Actaully you don't if you use Microsoft SysPrep(http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc783215%28v=ws.10%29.aspx). It take care of the Hardware Application Layer(HAL) issues when transferring an image(clone) from one machine to another or in my case when using a base image(clone) to quickly setup a new computer. It does this by stripping out all the hardware related stuff from the old or original machine and then scanning the new machine and putting the new hardware info into the Page files.