HDD to SSD migration problem

[kiloran]

Eminent geeks, I need some help.

Dual-boot 64-bit Windows 7 / Ubuntu Samsung laptop, using Grub boot loader

Itsallaguess highlighted some cheap SSDs on Amazon: viewtopic.php?f=39&t=14054#p171854

"I'll have some of that", I thought, and ordered a 480GB SSD to replace my 500GB HDD. It arrived within a few days and I hit the first problem.... I assumed (without checking) that it would come with a SATA to USB cable. Wrong. So I went to PC World (sadly, no Maplin) and bought a hard drive enclosure.

Put the SSD into the enclosure and connected it to a USB port, and fired up Macrium Reflect to clone the HDD to the SSD. Next problem... 500GB HDD won't fit into 480GB SSD, so I got Reflect to resize the Windows partition from 400GB to 380GB during the clone process. 4 hours later (seemed a long time), the process successfully completed.

Shut down, installed the SSD and fired it back up again. I got the Grub loader OK, and selected Windows 7, and instantly got an error..... Windows Boot Manager window, saying that Windows failed to start "Boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible". It wanted me to insert the Windows installation disk, but I don't have one (there is a recovery partition on the HDD which I also copied to the SSD).
I got back to Grub and tried loading Ubuntu. Whoosh.... Ubuntu up and running fine in seconds, and loading applications in the blink of an eye.

Googling suggests this is a not uncommon problem but I haven't yet found a solution. Complicated a little by the Grub dual booting perhaps.

Any thoughts?

--kiloran

[ayshfm1]

What happens if you mount the windows partion in Linux (should have NTFS capability)?

All there are visible?

[Breelander]

...fired up Macrium Reflect to clone the HDD to the SSD... I got the Grub loader OK, and selected Windows 7, and instantly got an error..... Windows Boot Manager window, saying that Windows failed to start...
Googling suggests this is a not uncommon problem but I haven't yet found a solution. Complicated a little by the Grub dual booting perhaps.

If this were just a single boot windows system I'd boot the Macrium recovery drive again and use its ' Restore > Fix Windows Boot Problems' tool.

Not sure what it would do to Grub though, probably break it

This thread may help...
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1639595

[kiloran]

What happens if you mount the windows partion in Linux (should have NTFS capability)?

All there are visible?

Yes, it all looks normal as far as I can see. All the Windows folders and files seem to be there when viewed in Ubuntu

--kiloran

[Itsallaguess]

Any thoughts?

Hi Kiloran,

Is there an option for you to carry out this migration in a two-stage process, rather than the one-stage that you're currently having trouble with?

I've no experience at all with trying to migrate grub-loader / dual-boot systems like your Windows/Ubuntu configuration, but I was wondering if you perhaps had the option of just migrating the Windows partition over, without the grub-loader, and getting that working initially, and then perhaps migrating the second Ubuntu partition over as a secondary process?

Glad to hear that you've seen a good improvement when you've managed to get Ubuntu to boot, so it's clear that this is worth pursuing on the Windows side too.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[GeoffF100]

Why not just take a backup of your data files, install Windows and Ubuntu on the SSD, and copy your files over?

[kiloran]

Hi Kiloran,

Is there an option for you to carry out this migration in a two-stage process, rather than the one-stage that you're currently having trouble with?

I've no experience at all with trying to migrate grub-loader / dual-boot systems like your Windows/Ubuntu configuration, but I was wondering if you perhaps had the option of just migrating the Windows partition over, without the grub-loader, and getting that working initially, and then perhaps migrating the second Ubuntu partition over as a secondary process?

Glad to hear that you've seen a good improvement when you've managed to get Ubuntu to boot, so it's clear that this is worth pursuing on the Windows side too.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

I might give that a whirl if all else fails. I could try just cloning the Windows and Windows Recovery partitions, and if that works then install a fresh copy of Ubuntu and add dual-boot at the time. I don't have much personalised stuff on Ubuntu

--kiloran
P.S. You do realise that these problems are all your fault?

[kiloran]

Why not just take a backup of your data files, install Windows and Ubuntu on the SSD, and copy your files over?

I've got a load of applications installed on Windows, and it would take me a lifetime to download, install and configure fresh copies. And I'm not sure how I would reinstall Windows 7. I don't have installation disks, just a Samsung-provided recovery partition. Not sure how I would use that

--kiloran

[GeoffF100]

I've got a load of applications installed on Windows, and it would take me a lifetime to download, install and configure fresh copies. And I'm not sure how I would reinstall Windows 7. I don't have installation disks, just a Samsung-provided recovery partition. Not sure how I would use that.

I would search for your machine on the Samsung site. It may be possible to create recovery media. If so, you should do it. The recovery partition could become unreadable. Bree gave this link fro downloading a generic Windows 7 ISO:

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technolog ... nload-tool

I managed to download Home Premium, but there was no Home Starter. Again, best to get it regardless, if you can.

Given that you have loads of applications installed on Windows and nothing much on Ubuntu, I would remove the dual boot, clone windows and then install Ubuntu as a dual boot.

[kiloran]

I've got a load of applications installed on Windows, and it would take me a lifetime to download, install and configure fresh copies. And I'm not sure how I would reinstall Windows 7. I don't have installation disks, just a Samsung-provided recovery partition. Not sure how I would use that.

I would search for your machine on the Samsung site. It may be possible to create recovery media. If so, you should do it. The recovery partition could become unreadable.

Given that you have loads of applications installed on Windows and nothing much on Ubuntu, I would remove the dual boot, clone windows and then install Ubuntu as a dual boot.

In fact in the past hour I've had a rummage through my box of CDs and found the Recovery CD which came with the laptop. Inserted the CD when prompted by the Windows Boot Manager and precisely nothing happened, apart from the CD read head thrashing about a bit

Oh well. I think I'm heading to removing the dual boot (when I find out how to do that)

--kiloran

[mc2fool]

If you haven't done so already, I'd suggest looking through and maybe asking in the Macrium forums. https://forum.macrium.com/

[ReformedCharacter]

Eminent geeks, I need some help.

Dual-boot 64-bit Windows 7 / Ubuntu Samsung laptop, using Grub boot loader

Itsallaguess highlighted some cheap SSDs on Amazon: viewtopic.php?f=39&t=14054#p171854

"I'll have some of that", I thought, and ordered a 480GB SSD to replace my 500GB HDD. It arrived within a few days and I hit the first problem.... I assumed (without checking) that it would come with a SATA to USB cable. Wrong. So I went to PC World (sadly, no Maplin) and bought a hard drive enclosure.

Put the SSD into the enclosure and connected it to a USB port, and fired up Macrium Reflect to clone the HDD to the SSD. Next problem... 500GB HDD won't fit into 480GB SSD, so I got Reflect to resize the Windows partition from 400GB to 380GB during the clone process. 4 hours later (seemed a long time), the process successfully completed.

Shut down, installed the SSD and fired it back up again. I got the Grub loader OK, and selected Windows 7, and instantly got an error..... Windows Boot Manager window, saying that Windows failed to start "Boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible". It wanted me to insert the Windows installation disk, but I don't have one (there is a recovery partition on the HDD which I also copied to the SSD).
I got back to Grub and tried loading Ubuntu. Whoosh.... Ubuntu up and running fine in seconds, and loading applications in the blink of an eye.

Googling suggests this is a not uncommon problem but I haven't yet found a solution. Complicated a little by the Grub dual booting perhaps.

Any thoughts?

--kiloran

Looking at Breelander's link, it's probably worth trying updating Grub from Ubuntu to see if it will sort the Windows boot option.

From a terminal in Ubunu -

sudo update-grub

RC

[GeoffF100]

I've got a load of applications installed on Windows, and it would take me a lifetime to download, install and configure fresh copies. And I'm not sure how I would reinstall Windows 7. I don't have installation disks, just a Samsung-provided recovery partition. Not sure how I would use that.

I would search for your machine on the Samsung site. It may be possible to create recovery media. If so, you should do it. The recovery partition could become unreadable.

Given that you have loads of applications installed on Windows and nothing much on Ubuntu, I would remove the dual boot, clone windows and then install Ubuntu as a dual boot.

In fact in the past hour I've had a rummage through my box of CDs and found the Recovery CD which came with the laptop. Inserted the CD when prompted by the Windows Boot Manager and precisely nothing happened, apart from the CD read head thrashing about a bit

Oh well. I think I'm heading to removing the dual boot (when I find out how to do that)

--kiloran

Recovery media probably was not the right term. You may be able to get full installation media from the Samsung site.

Another issue has occurred to me. You only have just over a year's support left for Windows 7:

http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/computi ... 4081315419

Recent posts have said that is still possible to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. Perhaps you should do that sooner rather than later, and make a Windows 10 ISO. Nonetheless, the more ways you have of reinstalling Windows the better.

Here are instructions for removing the dual boot, using a Windows installation disk:

https://itsfoss.com/uninstall-ubuntu-li ... dual-boot/

[Slarti]

Try going into the BIOS during boot up, looking at the HD settings - you probably won't need to change anything - then save and exit the BIOS to continue the boot up.

I've had this sort of problem, quite a while back, after changing hard drives, and that fixed it. I think that though the drive is working the BIOS still says that it is the old drive and Windows then looks for that and can't find it. Going into the BIOS allows it to update itself.

Slarti

[kiloran]

Try going into the BIOS during boot up, looking at the HD settings - you probably won't need to change anything - then save and exit the BIOS to continue the boot up.

I've had this sort of problem, quite a while back, after changing hard drives, and that fixed it. I think that though the drive is working the BIOS still says that it is the old drive and Windows then looks for that and can't find it. Going into the BIOS allows it to update itself.

Slarti

Tried that, though somewhat inadvertently! I was looking at the BIOS and clicked on Quit and Save Changes instead of Quit Without Saving.
Didn't help

--kiloran

[kiloran]

The power and capability of modern technology never ceases to amaze me. 50 years ago, who could have imagined that with just a few mouse clicks, I would be able to transform a high-tech computing and entertainment machine into a (rather inelegant) paperweight.

After a bit of messing about and googling, I decided to get rid of Ubuntu and dual boot on the HDD, to get back to a simple Windows 7 machine, and then try transferring that to the SSD.

How to get rid of Ubuntu? Well, I found a website with some credible instructions to do precisely what I wanted. Basically, use Windows Disk Manager to erase the contents of the Ubuntu Partition, then delete the partition and extend the Windows partition to use the released space. Contents erased with no problem, but it would not let me delete the partition (due to insufficient disk space! What the heck is that all about?). I thought this sounded bad, but decided to reboot and see what happened. Quickly got:
Unknown filesystem
Entering Rescue mode
Grub Rescue prompt>

I couldn't get any sense out of the machine, tried my Samsung recovery disk but always got the same problem. I finally managed to recover by booting from my Macrium Reflect recovery disk and then rebuilding the master boot records. Phew!

I'll spend tonight checking that all is OK and add the freed-up partition to the Windows partition, then clone the HDD to the SSD again tomorrow. I've seen some suggestions that I should first erase the current SSD contents by reformatting, so I'll research that before I commit.

Thanks goodness I'm retired and it's been a miserable wet day today, otherwise I've no idea how I would find the time for all this mucking about.

--kiloran

[kiloran]

Another issue has occurred to me. You only have just over a year's support left for Windows 7:

http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/computi ... 4081315419

Recent posts have said that is still possible to upgrade to Windows 10 for free. Perhaps you should do that sooner rather than later, and make a Windows 10 ISO. Nonetheless, the more ways you have of reinstalling Windows the better.

In fact I do have a Windows 10 ISO. I bought a spare HDD a couple of years ago, cloned my existing HDD to it then upgraded to Windows 10. It worked after a fashion but I did have some problems (which I didn't document and have forgotten the details) so I reverted back to Windows 7 after a few months.
I think I'll hold off for the moment and perhaps replace the laptop with a new Windows 10 machine in a year or so, and then have a completely fresh start.

--kiloran

[ReformedCharacter]

The power and capability of modern technology never ceases to amaze me. 50 years ago, who could have imagined that with just a few mouse clicks, I would be able to transform a high-tech computing and entertainment machine into a (rather inelegant) paperweight.

After a bit of messing about and googling, I decided to get rid of Ubuntu and dual boot on the HDD, to get back to a simple Windows 7 machine, and then try transferring that to the SSD.

How to get rid of Ubuntu? Well, I found a website with some credible instructions to do precisely what I wanted. Basically, use Windows Disk Manager to erase the contents of the Ubuntu Partition, then delete the partition and extend the Windows partition to use the released space. Contents erased with no problem, but it would not let me delete the partition (due to insufficient disk space! What the heck is that all about?). I thought this sounded bad, but decided to reboot and see what happened. Quickly got:
Unknown filesystem
Entering Rescue mode
Grub Rescue prompt>

I couldn't get any sense out of the machine, tried my Samsung recovery disk but always got the same problem. I finally managed to recover by booting from my Macrium Reflect recovery disk and then rebuilding the master boot records. Phew!

I'll spend tonight checking that all is OK and add the freed-up partition to the Windows partition, then clone the HDD to the SSD again tomorrow. I've seen some suggestions that I should first erase the current SSD contents by reformatting, so I'll research that before I commit.

Thanks goodness I'm retired and it's been a miserable wet day today, otherwise I've no idea how I would find the time for all this mucking about.

--kiloran

I think the problem is that you changed the physical disk and Grub saw a different disk (the SSD) when it tried to load Win7 (hence the error message) and therefore knew not of the Win7 on the SSD. Your Win7 clone may well have been fine but Grub didn't know it was there.

Grub is pretty clever these days and may well have recognised the SSD if told to.

https://www.howtogeek.com/196655/how-to ... -settings/

Your own GRUB settings are stored in the /etc/default/grub file. Edit this file to change GRUB2’s settings. Scripts are also located in the /etc/grub.d/ directory. For example, on Ubuntu, there are scripts here that configure the default theme. There’s also an os-prober script that checks the system’s internal hard drives for other installed operating systems — Windows, other Linux distributions, Mac OS X, and so on — and automatically adds them to GRUB2’s menu.

When you run the update-grub command, GRUB automatically combines the settings from the /etc/default/grub file, the scripts from the /etc/grub.d/ directory, and everything else, creating a /boot/grub/grub.cfg file that’s read at boot.

Anyway, sounds a bit late now

RC

[GeoffF100]

In fact I do have a Windows 10 ISO. I bought a spare HDD a couple of years ago, cloned my existing HDD to it then upgraded to Windows 10. It worked after a fashion but I did have some problems (which I didn't document and have forgotten the details) so I reverted back to Windows 7 after a few months.

It should not be difficult to upgrade to W10 again using the W10 ISO. You can get rid of Ubuntu by live booting Ubuntu from a DVD, and using GParted to remove the copy of Ubuntu on the HD. You should then be able to get rid of GRUB using the W10 ISO. I had to do that once. Cloning should then work (hopefully).

[Breelander]

In fact I do have a Windows 10 ISO...

If you're going to try Windows 10 again it would be well worth your while to download the latest ISO, currently it's for build 1803. If you use the old ISO windows update would shortly download the update to 1803 anyway, so you might as well start with the current version. Download the media creation tool and use its option to 'make media for another PC', you'll have the option to make the install media as an ISO or USB.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/softwar ... /windows10