Question Serious problem with HDD - Need help ASAP please!

Sep 15, 2019
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Hello everyone, so I've had one heck of a last day trying to get my SSD out of my last laptop for use in my new PC setup, this one is long winded but I'll try to make it as short as possible (I also really appreciate any help you can give me).

So, a couple months back I bought a Samsung 860 EVO 1tb for my laptop and everything went smoothly migrating my data and operating system (OS) from my HDD to my SSD using the Samsung Magician software... But now I'm trying to get it back from my SSD to the old HDD and this is where it's all gone wrong. I formatted my drives (when I say formatted my drives I mean I went to 'Reset this PC' and followed the instructions) because I was going to get rid of everything then just pull it out and put it in my new setup but I couldn't find any software that allows me to migrate my OS back to my HDD for free, the Samsung Magician wouldn't do it because it could only find Samsung products as the target disk but my HDD isn't Samsung, it's SeaGate. Anyway, after a long time of looking on the internet and finding crap 'free' OS migrating tools online, none of them would actually let me do the OS migration without paying a big amount of money, I did it once for free with the Magician I don't want to have to pay for it this time. I eventually found one that would let me clone my SSD and use my HDD as the image file location, I did that and everything looked great! I took my SSD out and tried running the system and it worked (was so slow without the SSD but it worked). Then I thought okay it works, now I can format this HDD and have it as a fresh clear laptop when I decide to sell it. I formatted it and that's where everything has gone wrong, the laptop no longer boots up with just the HDD after the format, it's also no longer in the BIOS boot up list, it's showing as being in the SATA port on the BIOS so it's definitely registering the HDD but it's completely disappeared from the bootup list. I only managed to get back into the BIOS because I put the SSD back into the laptop and it works fine again (to my annoyance)... But yeah in the BIOS it shows the HDD and SSD in the SATA ports but on the Boot up list it only shows two IP (internet?) settings and my SSD, what has happened to my HDD in the boot up list?

What can I do to fix this, the components in the laptop are worth a fortune and I don't want to not be able to sell it as a great working laptop like it used to be before the SSD (I want to take it out and I want the HDD to run on it's own again).

Thanks in advance to anybody who can help me in this situation, I'm really struggling at the moment and appreciate any help!
 
You need to rewrite the boot sector to the HDD. It copied over the data but the boot information must not have gone. There are two ways you can try to fix this. One is to try imaging the SSD to HDD again, this just copying the full drive instead of just the data partition. The other option is to follow these instructions to try and repair the boot sector: https://social.technet.microsoft.co...51782.fixing-corrupted-mbr-in-windows-10.aspx