7

Notes: using a MacBook Pro 2011, UEFI and GTP.

  1. Replaced the DVD drive in my laptop with an SSD (disk 2).

  2. Installed Win7 onto the new SSD, which worked fine.

  3. Decided to clone Win7 from disk 1 onto disk 2 as it was a royal pain trying to migrate software over to a fresh install.

  4. Clonezilla was used to clone the windows partition on disk 1 to disk 2.

Note that both disks have a windows reserved boot partition (as I installed Win7 on disk 2).

I assumed that EFI boot would be able to run Win7 on disk 2, but when selecting Win7 EFI boot when computer starts, all that came up after was a black screen with one line of random white characters.

I then edited the boot options for Win7 on disk 1 so it would show an option to boot Win7 on disk 2. This works up to the login screen, after logging in, Win7 on disk 2 just hangs on the loading screen.

Any ideas how to make this work? Why is Win7 on disk 2 hanging on the login screen when I manage to get it to boot?

Improve this question
8
  • You referred that you were on a MacBook but then you start rambling about Windows 7 in a way that doesn't seem clear (are you using OSX, for instance; how is Windows 7 on your machine?). I ask of you to please clarify both your question and question title.
    – Doktoro Reichard
    Commented Aug 23, 2013 at 12:02
  • Rambling? Really? The above post is very concise, if I rambled you would probably understand more... Since Apple switched to Intel hardware, Windows is compatible, Apple even provide software to make the process of installing Windows simpler. OSX is installed on it's own partition, it has no bearing on whether Windows will run, the motherboard boots via EFI.
    – Michael
    Commented Aug 23, 2013 at 12:25
  • Remember, we're only trying to help you :) .This being said, I will say the following. On 2. you imply that on your main disk (not the SSD) you already had Win7 installed. You mentioned now Bootcamp but I'm failing to understand before if you are using it.
    – Doktoro Reichard
    Commented Aug 23, 2013 at 12:47
  • Bootcamp is 2 things in 1. 1) it allows the user to create a Windows partition while in OSX 2) it downloads all the Windows drivers required for Apple hardware. To install Windows, I ran Bootcamp and created the Windows partition, then restarted with Windows CD loaded, Windows was installed. I then had 2 OS's (OSX,Win7) installed and working fine - I could boot to both. I then added an SSD and installed Win7 on it. Then I had 3 OS's bootable disk1(OSX,Win7), disk2(Win7). Next I cloned disk1(Win7) over disk2(Win7). I can boot OSX and Win7 on disk1 but not the cloned version on disk2.
    – Michael
    Commented Aug 23, 2013 at 13:25
  • Ok, this is IMHO much more clearer. Maybe the cloned version either doesn't have the proper boot records or the cloned Windows is hardlinked with the first drive. However I would wait for more answers, as I'm not exactly a OSX expert.
    – Doktoro Reichard
    Commented Aug 23, 2013 at 13:34

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3
+50

The Windows system disk cannot always be cloned and restored on different drives, since Windows keeps references to disk-numbers in the registry, so that you are unlikely to find all the places in disk1 that need to be fixed.

The normal procedure for such cases is to repair the Windows installation that you wish to boot from. Here are two repair options that should fix disk1 without loosing any installed applications (if nothing goes wrong) :

Startup Repair (might be enough by itself)
Repair Install

After Windows boots correctly from disk1, you can then add disk2 as an additional boot option.

Improve this answer
2
  • @DoktoroReichard suggested "hardlinks", you've confirmed it and explained that the registry contains hardcoded disk numbers and that the solution is a repair. Thanks. Hardlinking the disks in registry sounds like something that should have been done away with when EFI boot support was being added!
    – Michael
    Commented Aug 30, 2013 at 9:09
  • @Michael If this works for you please tell, as to award the bounty at the end of the grace period.
    – Doktoro Reichard
    Commented Aug 30, 2013 at 11:52
0

I have done this once before (moving main install to an SSD)

What happens is the BOOTMGR that windows uses in UEFI looks at a parition's identifier when trying to boot, and the identifer got changed when you cloned the disk.

You will need to boot from a disk, and then use bcdedit from the command line to set the correct identifier.

Annoyingly, I have no way to simulate the situation, so I cannot produce step-by-step instructions and/or screenshots.

Just remember to back up your BCD store first!

(Looking a bcdedit's inbuilt help might be of use)

EDIT: I noticed you were on a mac, hold C while booting to boot from cd, and be ready for the "Press any key to boot from cd"

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .