PC can't boot after moving SSD to old case

Hardware and technical stuff
1

Hi folks, I could really use some help.

I have 2 PCs and wanted to switch the disks, so that I can use the newer hardware, but the same OS + programs remain as they were. This worked fine for the newer PC - windows boots fine, all programs are accessible, etc. Windows needs activation, but will deal with this later.

However, the older PC now cannot boot at all for some reason. It was booting form another SSD + HDD combination, volumes listed below, which are now also working fine in the newer hardware:

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
   ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0         System Rese  NTFS   Partition    100 MB  Healthy    System
  Volume 1     C                NTFS   Partition    111 GB  Healthy    Boot
  Volume 2     D   System Rese  NTFS   Partition    100 MB  Healthy
  Volume 3     E                NTFS   Partition    195 GB  Healthy
  Volume 4     F                NTFS   Partition    736 GB  Healthy

The older PC has now a single SDD, which was booting fine with new hardware, however when put in the older PC it is recognized in BIOS in the boot options, but during startup the systems says there is no bootable media available.

I have tried so far to do the following from rescue disk media:
Bootrec /fixmbr -> completed successfully
Bootrec /Fixboot -> “Access is denied”, same also when performed directly from the boot folder.
Bootrec /scanos -> completed successfully, found 1 Windows installation at C:\Windows
Bootrec /rebuildbcd -> The requested system device cannot be found

Also tried resetting the BIOS… nothing changed.

Here are the volumes of the older PC now:

  Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
  ----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
  Volume 0     D   ESD-ISO      UDF    DVD-ROM     3880 MB  Healthy    
  Volume 1         Recovery     NTFS   Partition    499 MB  Healthy
  Volume 2     C                NTFS   Partition    255 GB  Healthy
  Volume 3                      NTFS   Partition    465 MB  Healthy
  Volume 4                      FAT32  Partition     99 MB  Healthy    Hidden

Any thoughts would be highly appreciated…

2

You could make a macrium reflect bootable disc/usb, and use their fixboot utility:

https://kb.macrium.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50168.aspx

It’s got me out of a few holes at work.

3

Thank you, however this is not solving the issue.
The software recreates the boot partition (which is not C), which is the only boot repair option (the other 3 are grayed out), but then after reboot windows does not boot…

4

Does the old system support EFI boot mechanism?

5

Is the SSD currently in the older PC smaller than the SSD that was in there previously? I know you have volumes listed above but I am a little confused as to which way the size went for the older PC.

It’s not typical for anyone to replace a old drive with a smaller drive but since this is swapping between two systems, I thought I would check.

6

Have you tried booting with every drive but the boot drive disconnected during boot?

7

Man, when you say old PC you make me think it’s not SATA III compatible, which could be part of the issue. BIOS is the key though. Is it up to date? Is AHCI SATA enabled?

8

I am not sure… it’s ancient ASUS RAMPAGE II GENE:
https://www.asus.com/ROG-Republic-Of-Gamers/RAMPAGE_II_GENE/

Nesrie, no, the SSD not booting in the old PC now is actually bigger than the previous one.

Barstein, yes, there is just one CD/DVD drive in there, no further drives and the boot order is SSD first.

Skipper, the BIOS is updated to the latest version from the manufacturer, which is from 2011 though :) It is SATA compatible, is not and full-IDE motherboard, if this is what you ask.

9

I am not sure about the Rampage II, but the Rampage III does NOT support EFI. My guess is that it’s an EFI issue since you can see the drive from the BIOS but is unable to boot into the windows 10 (I assume) EFI boot.

10

What does this mean?
The old system was running fine with another SSD, the vol 1 NTFS 111GB from the first listing.
However, (one) difference is, the C drive there is marked as boot partition, which is missing on the second/bigger SSD.

Can I save the drive content and recreate (how?) the MBR?

11

Do you have a boot USB? You can try fixing the boot record.

12

I have a boot DVD, so I already have tried a similar guide - the automatic repair just says it can’t fix anything and the bootrec outputs are in my first post - does not work either.

13

I tried looking up on how to convert a EFI installed drive into a legacy BIOS capable drive but there are no articles that speak to this.

Can you double check by placing the drive into the newer PC and see if it can at least boot up? Just to ensure that the MBR is indeed correct.

Edit: I mean to make sure that you didnt do something that messed it up while migrating in the various solutions you tried.

14

I concur. It’s probably also a gpt partition table and not mbr.

And you’re right, there’s an excellent chance he broke it while trying to fix it.

15

Just tried it out, on the newer hardware the SSD boots without problems.
Might it be something with active/inactive partition? (just shooting in the dark)

16

So the only reason you don’t just want to do a fresh OS install is because you don’t want to format the disk and lose everything on it or…?

If I recall correctly, Windows also updates drivers and maybe those drivers work for one computer, one set of hardware, but not the other. It’s one thing I really liked about 7 and 10. Before I had to juggle mobo discs, maybe install the LAN and WAN drivers separately and then boom, I am getting everything updated after my first go, OS launch, without juggling anything but… that might mean it’s got the wrong ones for the old system.

Can you just offl load your none OS onto an external storage, reformat and go from there?

17

Yeah, I have done this today (saving some of the essentials) while I tried out if it still works.
However, losing all installed programs and all the configs is making reinstall the last resort… for now.

Also I would like understand why the system behaves like this and fix it… reinstall kinda feels like giving up…

18

I assume you’ve already tried to get it to boot in Safe Mode?

19

Ok It boots in the new system but not in the old. The active/inactive partition is an old legacy bios boot scheme.

From the looks of it, it’s a efi issue. It is not a windows driver issue because the system cannot even find the boot partition. As it seem we are unable to convert an efi to bios schem it would seem that a reinstall is the option left.

Maybe someone else has a solution…

20

Thanks a lot for the hints guys.

However, it turned out I would also need 2 new Windows licenses, plus anyway the reinstallation on the newer hardware… I have switched back both PCs, everything works again.