Cannot boot from SSD after replacing HDD in Sony Vaio Laptop

[e_flat-schilke]

Hello

I have a Sony Vaio Laptop VPCEB2M1E which fails to boot from installed SSD which has replaced the existing HDD. I.e. I only have a SSD in the laptop after installation.

I have purchased a Samsung 830 SSD 128Gb (model MZ-7PC128) and done the following steps.

I used Norton Ghost to migrate data according to Samsung instruction and created an image (MBR record)  of the HDD except the recorvery partion which according to Samsung documentation cannot be copied. I followed instruction and copied system partition first and data partion after that.

After inserting the SSD in the Laptop the SSD is not detected. A message says that due to hardware has been changed Windows 7 disks must be inserted to repair windows. Since I only have recover CDs this is not possible for me.

Is there a possibility to get this working?

I find no options in Bios to boot. The SSD is somewhat accepted meaning that I can see the size of it in BIOS.

Any hints are welcome.

Best regards

Stefan

[Blencogo · Accepted solution]

Hi Stefan.

We have had a few problems like yours recently and the users have all been using Norton Ghost.  Norton Ghost is unable to clone the Recovery Partition.  I do not have a lot of confidence in it for this purpose.

If you use something like Acronis True Image, you can make an exact mirror of your hard drive including all settings, updates including the Recovery Partition.

If you have cloned the MBR and Boot.ini but not cloned the Recovery Partition, then the system may be expecting  Windows on the wrong Partition.  The system will be looking for the MBR on Partition 2 as it expects the Recovery Partition to be in Partition 1.

My advice would be to try either: -

Clone the entire hard drive including the Recovery Partition

or: -

Install the system from the Recovery Discs

Does anyone else who has actually installed a SSD have any advice on this process?

[e_flat-schilke]

Since I have allready cloned once with Norton Ghost. Can I still use acronis and do a clone? Will the old clone made by Norton be deleted or will I experience problem requiring a "clean up" of the SSD first?

Message was edited by: e_flat-schilke

[e_flat-schilke]

Thanks a lot.

I did cloning with Acronis and that worked fine.

[Blencogo]

That is good news - sorry I missed your reply.

There is obviously a problem with the Vaio Recovery Partition and Norton Ghost!