Need HDD Help ASAP!

[Cody Shepherd]

Hi Guys/Gals,

Hopefully we can sort this one out together. Been working at troubleshooting for hours and am not sure what to do at this point. Let me catch you up on the situation.

My goal was to set up a new SSD (Samsung 850 PRO 256GB) for my client's laptop (Lenovo Ideapad P500) as the old current drive is not fast enough/is rather loud. After backing up all of the important data, I installed Windows 10 onto the new SSD (Samsung 850) using my personal desktop (swapped the Samsung SSD out with one of my WD Blue's). After installing Windows 10 and transferring all of the backed up data, the SSD works perfectly fine on my computer. The problem, though, is that when I try installing the new SSD (Samsung 850) into the laptop, it doesn't work.

I assume the issue must be relative to the BIOS settings on the laptop, as the SSD drive shows up in the BIOS under the "Hard Drive" section of the system's overview - but it DOES NOT show up as an option in the boot priority menu. I've uploaded some pictures of what the BIOS settings are and what error message occurs.

SIDE NOTE: The laptop's original hard drive does still work without issue when re-installed. But the second I swap it out for the Samsung SSD, the "checking media" error occurs.

 

[allstarit]

Have you tried changing the SATA controller from AHCI to IDE or vice versa.

 

[allstarit]

Other question to ask is on the pc you loaded windows on. Was it in IDE or AHCI because i think if you did it on IDE and your plugging into AHCI you will need to change this laptop to IDE and boot into windows. then there is a registry fix for this you apply and then after doing this you can then change it back to AHCI mode

 

[Bamus]

Some possible UEFI problem? When you installed the drive in your desktop, did you install the OS in BIOS mode? I see the laptop is trying to boot it in UEFI mode. You could check by changing the laptop's boot mode to BIOS and see if that boots from the drive.

 

[cyabro]

Could also be secure boot issue, try disabling that.

 

[GTP]

Echoe's to all above.
Why would you do the install on your laptop and not the clients?
I would format the SSD and start again with the SSD in the clients laptop.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

You want to install WIndows on the destination machine.....you want to avoid installing Windows on "hardware A"...and then moving that hard drive to "hardware B" that has different hardware. That's a good way to ensure it's a problematic machine...ranging from blue screens, hangs, power management problems, wire wifi behavior, (tons of reasons).

Different hard drive controllers are one obstacle I'm sure is in your way.

How about clients original hard drive..did you try cloning that to an SSD? That's what we do for SSD upgrades....just clone it. No need to reinstall unless the current condition of the computer warrants it....like bad malware infestation, history of malware, or...someone tinkered with Windows and really messed things up.

 

[lcoughey]

It is my experience that most of the time, the lazy way (install on your machine and move the drive over) winds up taking more effort and time than the correct way (install on the system in which it will reside).

 

[TurricanII]

The 'lazy way' of installing Windows on the drive using another PC would not cross the minds of most older techs, myself included. We have known since the 90's/Windows NT that Windows would blue-screen if you transferred/restored it to different hardware. Cloning the Windows OS should only be done on near identical hardware (with the appropriate volume licensed Windows, but that's in another thread).

 

[HFultzjr]

Echoe's to all above.
Why would you do the install on your laptop and not the clients?
I would format the SSD and start again with the SSD in the clients laptop.

^^^^^^^ This.^^^^^^^^
Install the SSD in the machine it is intended for.
Clean install OS
Update Drivers (SDI), etc., etc.
Set-up new machine and transfer data

 

[cypress]

Yeah not really sure why the clean install did not occur on the clients machine from the get go. Well at least you have a backup of the data though.

 

[Cody Shepherd]

Firstly, you guys (as usual) are awesome. I took into consideration everything you guys pointed out, and decided that it was best to install the OS on the system itself. In order to do this (because the Windows OS refused to install Windows onto the new SSD) I ran the Windows repair disk and ran the cmd line for disk part. After deleting the volume I was able to install it (its at 85%, so I ought-to-not jinx it!) Here is why I didn't do that initially:

• I wanted the old hard drive the way it was (just in case, additional recovery method) - but the client wanted the new SSD to be almost completely clean, except for Outlook files, pictures, ect (the common stuff).
• As a result, I figured it would be easier to install a clean OS onto the SSD using my desktop and drag/drop the client-specified documents than it would be to clone the drive, then reformat the drive, then drag/drop the essentials back onto the drive. For obvious reasons, this proved to be the incorrect approach.

In the future I will always use the client's hardware to install new OS's. Strangely enough I've done this on several occasions and never had any bad luck with it. But I had to learn eventually I suppose.

Other question to ask is on the pc you loaded windows on. Was it in IDE or AHCI because i think if you did it on IDE and your plugging into AHCI you will need to change this laptop to IDE and boot into windows. then there is a registry fix for this you apply and then after doing this you can then change it back to AHCI mode

The computer I loaded the new SSD's OS onto was AHCI, so both units were the same in that respect.

^^^^^^^ This.^^^^^^^^
Install the SSD in the machine it is intended for.
Clean install OS
Update Drivers (SDI), etc., etc.
Set-up new machine and transfer data

I have done this in the past with little hassle. Usually I can change the system to/from AHCI if there is any issue. In this case, it black screened the computer and completely skipped BIOS on restart.

 

[Cody Shepherd]

Another reason I wanted to use my machine for the install was because the laptop has no USB 3.0 ports, and with so many GBs of data I was being lazy and attempting to avoid too much time spent on data transfer --- I was sadly mistaken!

 

[Markverhyden]

The 'lazy way' of installing Windows on the drive using another PC would not cross the minds of most older techs, myself included. We have known since the 90's/Windows NT that Windows would blue-screen if you transferred/restored it to different hardware. Cloning the Windows OS should only be done on near identical hardware (with the appropriate volume licensed Windows, but that's in another thread).

^^^ This. With Apple OS and Linux it's never been a problem. M$ OS's is totally different. If you are using OEM hardware, if the source and destination are the same OEM, usually it flies. As soon as an M$ OS boots it detects the underlying hardware chipset and if there are too many differences it chokes. You can probably build an image using a utility that allows you to move to different hardware. But you will still need to have drivers available.

At anyrate, when if comes to re-imaging, it's always done on the target machine.

Of course this is totally separate from the whole BIOS/UEFI/GPT/MBR stuff.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I install from images all the time. You just need to know how to use sysprep. However, Windows 10 installs so fast and is si easy to update that I have not yet bothered with an image of it and probably never will need to.

The other thing you need to get is FABS! Fabs Autobackup Pro is what you use to move data from old PCs to new PCs.

 

[HFultzjr]

I install from images all the time. You just need to know how to use sysprep. However, Windows 10 installs so fast and is si easy to update that I have not yet bothered with an image of it and probably never will need to.

The other thing you need to get is FABS! Fabs Autobackup Pro is what you use to move data from old PCs to new PCs.

As nlinecomputers has stated, Win 10 and Fab's makes this soooooo much easier than what we used to do. Add in SDI and installs are a breeze. Well, 99% of the time anyways. Always an oddball to keep you on your toes.....LOL
+1 for Fab's and +1 for SDI.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Paragon and Reflect Backup both have tools to inject generic drivers into a system to get it bootable. Avoids the BSOD that can occur when moving to radically different hardware. The drivers loaded are generic so you still need to properly install drivers, hello SDI, but it will be bootable into windows so that you can get that going.

 

[Porthos]

I install from images all the time. You just need to know how to use sysprep.

I have a Win 10 home/pro VM in hyper-V and I update them after each update.