Windows 7 disk/partition question for migration

[Michael]

I have Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installed.

years ago it migrated from a HD to an SSD (80G) in order to speed boot times.

I have been trying to migrate to a larger SSD in prep for Windows 10 9Acronis true Image)

I keep getting a failure on my new disk. I used an external USB to SATA convertor first to copy the existing boot disk via Clone and received some message that Windows had an issue with the disk (I didn't copy that down but it looked like a something has changed message).

I started booting from the Acronis bootable media and using a SATA port already in the computer.

Now the error message is No BOOTMGR found.

If I look at the Partition Table for my existing set-up via the disk managment tool, I see the followijng for the to disks:

C: Status Healthy (Boot, Crash Dump, Primary Partition) <- SSD
F: Status Healthy (System, Page File, Active, Primary Partition) <- HD I used to boot from

I think the issue is that C: is not marked as "active".

Only the C: drive has a Windows folder with all the O/S files. I am confused as to what is being booted off of if the HD is being used as there is no O/S there.

Should I mark C: "active"?

Michael

 

[Billb2]

The boot sector on the boot drive tells the computer where the boot loader is located, and that can be on any drive/partition. You're booting from your C drive and the boot loader doesn't point to a drive partition with a windows loader on it.

You need BCDedit.exe or easier to use, EasyBCD to fix that.

 

[Michael]

In EasyBCD, I see this:

There is one entry in the Windows bootloader.

Default: Windows 7
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot Drive: F:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

How can I make the C: drive the boot drive?

Michael

 

[Michael]

And then I RTFM and changed the boot drive letter and all is well.

Now to try and clone it again ...

Michael

 

[Ketchup]

This usually happens when there is more than one drive preset when installing/upgrading an OS. Windows almost always will put the boot loader on the other drive. Why? I have no idea, and there is no good reason to do it this way.