need help with Hard Drive upgrade

kerk · 03-11-2007, 07:53 AM

Hope someone can help me. I cloned my laptop hard drive from a 10GB to a brand new 40GB drive. When I installed the new drive, my laptop worked perfectly for a day. Suddenly, when trying to boot, I just got a black screen with a cursor blinking at me. I've tried re-seating the drive, pulling the power and battery, and repairing windows with the repair cd. Nothing works. I put the old hard drive back in and the laptop boots. The files on the new drive are visible when I connect it via usb. Also, I have to replace the old drive because I am getting the SMART msg of impending failure.

Any help out there? I am out of ideas.

PC eye · 03-11-2007, 08:23 AM

First you need to see a Welcome to the Computer Forum! Official Welcome Thread along with a chance to review the Forum Rules

Cloning any installation of Windows or another OS like Linux works best when the new drive is identical. If that's XP there you would need to create a new primary partition on the 40gb and install Windows all over again in order to see XP create the new hardware profile. The cloning process may have also had some of it's own glitches due to an incomplete duplication. Whenever a drive is added or swapped nothing works better then a fresh installation of the OS and the programs used.

kerk · 03-11-2007, 03:40 PM

I read the rules before and I'm sure I have not broken any of them. This is a legal copy for personal use that will be the only copy of the software.

The OS is XP Pro and I considered creating two partitions, but went with one and what is perlplexing is that I was able to rstart the lap top a dozen times before the boot stopped. The restarts were mostly due to windows updates that I had to catch up on. Once I started getting the SMART alert, I turned off the automatic windows update.

kerk · 03-12-2007, 01:29 AM

Should this question be in a different forum?

PC eye · 03-12-2007, 01:54 AM

Unlike the previous versions of Windows XP Home and Pro alike are wrapped around the hardwares on the system it's installed onto. The boot drive that Windows is installed onto can be considered a major hardware since that's where all of the installed files go on. Since the clone was from perhaps an older 10gb 4,200rpm ide or sata drive to a new larger, faster 5,400 or 7,200rpm drive you just a made a major swap there.

The method of booting up with the installation disk to the recovery console and entering the "Fixboot" and "Fixmbr" maybe your only option if one of the updates isn't hanging from a bad install or invalid boot information new seeing lockups. If you don't have the repair install option available then your last option is to delete the current for a fresh installation of Windows. You may see Windows running normally on the current cloned partition but the clean install on a new one would be your best move. Do this will you can still access the old drive for files you want to keep.

Once you see a fresh copy of Windows all updates should go on without problems following the installation of the validation tool. To put it simply the clone there is failing on you. With a clean copy of Windows on you have a new mbr as well as a fresh set of board drivers off of the original cd or better yet the support site. Having multibooted different versions and swapping drives in and out that's your best move. Do you have just a recovery disk? Those are usually matched to the make, size, and type of drive as well as the other hardwares.

kerk · 03-12-2007, 02:21 AM

Thanks for the response. Yes I have the recovery cd. I tried to use it with the new drive but after doing the "repair" option the screen just went blank with no action or cursor.

I am in the process of re-cloning the drive in the hopes that I can boot up like the first time and then maybe use the repair cd to fix whatever may be wrong. It will take a couple of hours before it is finished. I'll post the results.

kerk · 03-12-2007, 04:29 AM

No dice. The laptop won't boot with the new drive and it won't boot from the cd at all. The cd spins for a couple of seconds and then just stops.

kerk · 03-12-2007, 04:53 AM

Oops spoke too soon. The cd was just thinking. It came up bur for some reason I couldn't go into the repair console. It kept asking for a password, which I have never used and just hitting return did not work. So I tried to reinstall and it went through the whole thing up to the reboot. On the reboot, blank screen and blinking cursor. I can't believe it!

PC eye · 03-12-2007, 05:07 AM

Now you are running into the problem with recovery disks locked to the original drive. On most systems with preinstalled OSs there are backups stored on the original drive often in a hidden partition. The recovery disk won't work on a new drive since the product key and other information is predetermined for the 10gb drive. You will need a new Windows installation disk to see a fresh installation go on the 40gb you just bought.

kerk · 03-12-2007, 05:13 AM

Crap. I don't have the money for a new installation of Windows.

03-11-2007, 07:53 AM	#1 (permalink)
kerk Bronze Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 25	need help with Hard Drive upgrade Hope someone can help me. I cloned my laptop hard drive from a 10GB to a brand new 40GB drive. When I installed the new drive, my laptop worked perfectly for a day. Suddenly, when trying to boot, I just got a black screen with a cursor blinking at me. I've tried re-seating the drive, pulling the power and battery, and repairing windows with the repair cd. Nothing works. I put the old hard drive back in and the laptop boots. The files on the new drive are visible when I connect it via usb. Also, I have to replace the old drive because I am getting the SMART msg of impending failure. Any help out there? I am out of ideas.

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03-11-2007, 08:23 AM	#2 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 20,213	First you need to see a Welcome to the Computer Forum! Official Welcome Thread along with a chance to review the Forum Rules Cloning any installation of Windows or another OS like Linux works best when the new drive is identical. If that's XP there you would need to create a new primary partition on the 40gb and install Windows all over again in order to see XP create the new hardware profile. The cloning process may have also had some of it's own glitches due to an incomplete duplication. Whenever a drive is added or swapped nothing works better then a fresh installation of the OS and the programs used.

03-11-2007, 03:40 PM	#3 (permalink)
kerk Bronze Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 25	I read the rules before and I'm sure I have not broken any of them. This is a legal copy for personal use that will be the only copy of the software. The OS is XP Pro and I considered creating two partitions, but went with one and what is perlplexing is that I was able to rstart the lap top a dozen times before the boot stopped. The restarts were mostly due to windows updates that I had to catch up on. Once I started getting the SMART alert, I turned off the automatic windows update.

03-12-2007, 01:29 AM	#4 (permalink)
kerk Bronze Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 25	Should this question be in a different forum?

03-12-2007, 01:54 AM	#5 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 20,213	Unlike the previous versions of Windows XP Home and Pro alike are wrapped around the hardwares on the system it's installed onto. The boot drive that Windows is installed onto can be considered a major hardware since that's where all of the installed files go on. Since the clone was from perhaps an older 10gb 4,200rpm ide or sata drive to a new larger, faster 5,400 or 7,200rpm drive you just a made a major swap there. The method of booting up with the installation disk to the recovery console and entering the "Fixboot" and "Fixmbr" maybe your only option if one of the updates isn't hanging from a bad install or invalid boot information new seeing lockups. If you don't have the repair install option available then your last option is to delete the current for a fresh installation of Windows. You may see Windows running normally on the current cloned partition but the clean install on a new one would be your best move. Do this will you can still access the old drive for files you want to keep. Once you see a fresh copy of Windows all updates should go on without problems following the installation of the validation tool. To put it simply the clone there is failing on you. With a clean copy of Windows on you have a new mbr as well as a fresh set of board drivers off of the original cd or better yet the support site. Having multibooted different versions and swapping drives in and out that's your best move. Do you have just a recovery disk? Those are usually matched to the make, size, and type of drive as well as the other hardwares.

03-12-2007, 02:21 AM	#6 (permalink)
kerk Bronze Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 25	Thanks for the response. Yes I have the recovery cd. I tried to use it with the new drive but after doing the "repair" option the screen just went blank with no action or cursor. I am in the process of re-cloning the drive in the hopes that I can boot up like the first time and then maybe use the repair cd to fix whatever may be wrong. It will take a couple of hours before it is finished. I'll post the results.

03-12-2007, 04:29 AM	#7 (permalink)
kerk Bronze Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 25	No dice. The laptop won't boot with the new drive and it won't boot from the cd at all. The cd spins for a couple of seconds and then just stops.

03-12-2007, 04:53 AM	#8 (permalink)
kerk Bronze Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 25	Oops spoke too soon. The cd was just thinking. It came up bur for some reason I couldn't go into the repair console. It kept asking for a password, which I have never used and just hitting return did not work. So I tried to reinstall and it went through the whole thing up to the reboot. On the reboot, blank screen and blinking cursor. I can't believe it!

03-12-2007, 05:07 AM	#9 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 20,213	Now you are running into the problem with recovery disks locked to the original drive. On most systems with preinstalled OSs there are backups stored on the original drive often in a hidden partition. The recovery disk won't work on a new drive since the product key and other information is predetermined for the 10gb drive. You will need a new Windows installation disk to see a fresh installation go on the 40gb you just bought.

03-12-2007, 05:13 AM	#10 (permalink)
kerk Bronze Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 25	Crap. I don't have the money for a new installation of Windows.