Unable to boot a Windows 7 HDD on a Dell Inspiron 3847

[Koemidvm]

Hi all,

A relative of mine just bought a Dell Inspiron 3847 (Intel i5 @ 3.2GHz, 12 GB RAM, 2TB HDD with pre-installed Windows 8.1; BIOS has this UEFI and "secure boot" modes). He wants to keep using his old HDD with Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit, and use this new 2TB as a storage/backup drive. (His old computer - the one with the Windows 7 HDD - was a Dell XPS 410, HDD was a WD blue 320GB 7200rpm)

Not knowing those new BIOS changes, originally I thought I just needed to plug in the old HDD, go into BIOS, switch boot order, done; But that didn't go as planned. I tried disabling the secure boot mode - didn't work (i.e the "Win 7 HDD" fail to boot into Windows); Tried switching from UEFI to Legacy - didn't work; Tried switching from AHCI (default) to ATA - didn't work.

Why did the Windows 7 HDD fail to load? What should I do so I can boot from the Windows 7 HDD?

Many thanks!

 

[Reyaz123]

From what I know, UEFI can only boot from GPT partitioned disks. You need to backup the data from your friend's old hard drive to an external drive to prevent data loss, and convert his disk to GPT partition using the disk management tool while booted in windows 8.1

 

[Koemidvm]

He doesn't have an external drive available... Can I create a 500GB-partition on this new 2TB drive, and use that to backup the old HDD?

 

[Reyaz123]

He doesn't have an external drive available... Can I create a 500GB-partition on this new 2TB drive, and use that to backup the old HDD?

Yep, you can do that also.

You can connect his old hard drive as a secondary to his new computer for backup if his PSU has extra SATA connections for the old hard drive.

Boot into the new disk. To partition the new disk, you must shrink the volume using disk management, and use the unallocated space to make a new partition (used to backup the old hard drive data to).

After everything is all backed up (old drive data to new partition) , you can convert the old drive to GPT and check if it boots to it. If not, you may have to reinstall windows on that drive (after you changed it to GPT) or your new partition (as known as dual booting).

 

[Koemidvm]

Yep, you can do that also.

You can connect his old hard drive as a secondary to his new computer for backup if his PSU has extra SATA connections for the old hard drive.

Boot into the new disk. To partition the new disk, you must shrink the volume using disk management, and use the unallocated space to make a new partition (used to backup the old hard drive data to).

After everything is all backed up (old drive data to new partition) , you can convert the old drive to GPT and check if it boots to it. If not, you may have to reinstall windows on that drive (after you changed it to GPT) or your new partition (as known as dual booting).

Thanks! Partition was set, using AOMEI Backupper standard to backup now. For the last steps - "convert to GPT and boot" - do I need to change anything in the BIOS? (i.e back to Legacy mode, ATA, or disabling secure boot)

 

[Reyaz123]

Yep, you can do that also.

You can connect his old hard drive as a secondary to his new computer for backup if his PSU has extra SATA connections for the old hard drive.

Boot into the new disk. To partition the new disk, you must shrink the volume using disk management, and use the unallocated space to make a new partition (used to backup the old hard drive data to).

After everything is all backed up (old drive data to new partition) , you can convert the old drive to GPT and check if it boots to it. If not, you may have to reinstall windows on that drive (after you changed it to GPT) or your new partition (as known as dual booting).

Thanks! So the last steps - "convert to GPT and boot" - do I need to change anything in the BIOS? (i.e back to Legacy mode, ATA, or disabling secure boot)

A quick question. Did you copy the files from the old drive, or moved them? It has a good chance of booting if they were simply copied over (system files weren't removed from that drive). Keep your default bios settings and it should boot to that old drive

Edit: If it doesn't boot to it, and the bios detects it as connected, that's a good sign. All you would need to do now is put in the Windows 7 installation or recovery CD and install to that drive.

 

[Koemidvm]

A quick question. Did you copy the files from the old drive, or moved them? It has a good chance of booting if they were simply copied over (system files weren't removed from that drive). Keep your default bios settings and it should boot to that old drive

Edit: If it doesn't boot to it, and the bios detects it as connected, that's a good sign. All you would need to do now is put in the Windows 7 installation or recovery CD and install to that drive.

I copied all files from the old one (a full, sector-by-sector backup, as AOMEI Backupper calls it); but I thought I need to re-format the old disk in order to convert it to GPT? Another concern I have is the OS - the Win7 on the old drive is x86. This probably complicated things a bit?

 

[Reyaz123]

The x86 shouldn't complicate things. You can convert the old drive to GPT using the disk management tool, It may/may not format it

But since you backed up the data the new drive's partition, it should be fine (converting the old drive)

 

[Koemidvm]

Weird. From the Win 8.1 (new HDD) disk management, the option "Convert to GPT disk" isn't there - not greyed out, it is simply not there. (select "old" disk -> right click -> no "convert to GPT disk" option)

 

[Reyaz123]

On the left pane, it will say disk 0, and disk 1 (your old drive being disk 1) Right click that and it should give you the option.

Any problems, let me know I can show you a screenshot of it.

 

[Koemidvm]

got it - but the option is greyed out. So it seems like I have to format that old disk in order to have that option available... is that right?

 

[Reyaz123]

Edit: Before you reinstall windows, delete the old disk's volume in disk management, and see if the convert to gpt option is still there. (again, make sure all data is backed to the new drive to be safe)

Another thing what you can do is get the windows 7 installation disc, and try to install windows 7 to the old hard drive (in the initial setup it asks you which drive/partition you want to install it to.

If it fails to install, delete/format the old drive and try installing to it again

 

[Koemidvm]

Ok. I'll try them later today - will let you know if it works. Thanks so much for your help! Really appreciate it!

 

[Reyaz123]

Ok. I'll try them later today - will let you know if it works. Thanks so much for your help! Really appreciate it!

Haha, no problem I had my fair share of partitioning drives growing up. Keep me updated.

 

[Koemidvm]

I managed to switch to GPT, but it still fails to boot. Data are still there and accessible, just can't use that to boot.

I think I'll fall back to plan C: set up partition on "new" HDD, install Win7 there, then restore backup of Win7.

 

[Reyaz123]

Hmm ok, sounds like a plan. Be careful with the partioning side of things because you mentioned previously you backed up your data from the old drive to one of the partitions on your new drive (your backup partition) If you accidentally select clean install on the backup partition, you will lose your data.

So make sure you create another partition on the new drive for installing Windows 7 on.

 

[Koemidvm]

Hmm ok, sounds like a plan. Be careful with the partioning side of things because you mentioned previously you backed up your data from the old drive to one of the partitions on your new drive (your backup partition) If you accidentally select clean install on the backup partition, you will lose your data.

So make sure you create another partition on the new drive for installing Windows 7 on.

Ok - so after 2 days of struggle and cram course of recent (relatively speaking) changes to BIOS and boot sequences, I give up the idea of installing Win 7. Since I want to upgrade to Win 10 which is coming out in a month or two and Win 10 will be running on GPT, I don't want to mess with the OEM installation (especially when this package did not come with a recovery disc or OEM OS disc, and this family did not have any backup medium larger than 16 GB). I'll just install a start menu thing to make it looks and feels like Win 7 to them, and manually move some data (such as the email file from Outlook) over.

Thanks for your time, Reyaz123.

 

[Reyaz123]

No problem, and Windows 10 looks really good, I tried out the technical preview. Also heard those who upgrade to it get free lifetime updates to it, you will have to look into that more though . That's a good choice to do so.

Have a nice day
-Reyaz