Cloned C drive and want to boot off the newer drive

[JustAnotherGuy2]

So my C drive is 500gb and pretty much full, so I got a 2TB drive and cloned all of C's contents over.
I tried changing the bios to recognise the 2TB drive as the main one, but it wouldn't boot.

How can I copy the MBR over or just tell the computer to boot off the new drive. I've read about the spark plug things but my dad says that they're pretty old and not needed any more

Also tried googling how to turn a slave drive into master drive but I really need something fairly simple and probably step by step if possible please


Oh and it's a Hitachi Deckster 7k2000

 

[SNGX1275]

What did you use to clone it?

What if you boot off the OS disk and do a fixmbr: http://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/fix-mbr-xp-vista/
If you have Win 7 the Vista instructions should work.

 

[JustAnotherGuy2]

I used Drive Image XML to clone it, but unfortunately the windows 7 disk went missing recently, so a method of doing it without needing the disk would be preferable

 

[LookinAround]

1) You can download Win 7 32 and 64 bit recovery CD ISOs HERE

2) Also checkout EasyBCD tool. It helps manage boot environments. i've never used it to move boot across disks but others seem to have used it for that successfully

/* edit &/
Quote from EasyBCD overview

* Boot into XP/Vista/7/Ubuntu/OS X and more!
* Boot from USB, Network, ISO images, Virtual Harddisks (VHD), WinPE, and more!
* Repair the Windows bootloader, change your boot drive, create a bootable USB, and more!
* Rename entries, set default boot target, change BCD timeout, hide the boot menu, and more!
* Create your own custom boot sequence, hide drives on boot, backup and restore configurations, and more!

 

[JustAnotherGuy2]

Ok thanks, its sorta worked, but unfortunately it wasn't what I wanted

It allows me to duel boot windows 7, but if I load it off the new drive, it runs the system files from that drive but loads the programs from the other, also loads my user from the other.

I tried swapping the drives in bios, but even after clicking the install BCD and Install Win 7 Bootloader to MBR, I still get the error that there is no booting files on the disk.


I've spent like 2 hours trying to get it to work - got headache now :/

Btw has the System Reserved partition got anything to do with it? I don't think that copied over

 

[SNGX1275]

Just start over and clone your drive with Easeus Disk Copy, it will create an exact bootable copy.

 

[LookinAround]

I also like SNGX's suggestion. Use EASUS Disk Copy to clone the entire disk (sounds like DriveImage XML only cloned a partition, not the disk).

But if you still have a problem... Cloning is typically used to replace or upgrade a disk. You seem to be trying to dual boot both the original disk and its clone. I don't know if that is problematic

In which case, remove the old disk. Boot from the new. Then wipe the old hard drive and use it for data or do a clean reinstall on the old drive for a dual boot

 

[JustAnotherGuy2]

Ok thanks guys, I'll try that if what I'm doing atm doesn't work

Since my last post, I found my Win 7 disk, unplugged my C drive, and repaired the boot sequence. Upon logging in, it came up with an error of "Your version of windows is not genuine".

I googled this and found a way to sort it out (microsoft didn't seem to have a clue ¬¬), so I left it running last night in order to clone my c drive again, and i'll try this method later on today

I was only trying to duel boot to see if something was wrong, but it didn't really work, because booting into the cloned drive loaded it's system files and C's program files