Help! Installed ssd into new m17x R3 identical specs and upgrades.. Won't boot !

Sold an r3 last weekend and pulled ssd, memory and bigfoot card. Got an identical spec r3.. Same CPU i7-2720 ,120hz w/gtx460 .

I did install the new hdd that came with it in the second slot and it does have a clean install on it. I put it in the centre slot 1 and the ssd in its original place (slot 0).

When I tried booting it came to a black screen and gave me the option to enter Config? (ctrl+I) . I then click start wi does normally and it freezes and does repair and I get this..



Just to clarify , I am trying to use the same ssd I have been using for months in an identical hardware r3.

 

you might have to do a fresh install of windows

 

Make sure you set the same settings in bios. Also i once changed the cpu in my system and it didnt boot either aince the new cpu was faulty, so check that as well.

 

It boots great with the drive it came with. I'm trying to remember if I had XMP profiles on or anything like that.

If its a driver issue can I wipe my dell/drivers folder and boot from the cd?

 

was it changed to/from ahci settings in the bios?
if this setting changes from the original, it usually results in bsod loops.

 

There is a super fast blue screen flash before it asks me to repair etc. I have never messed with bios settings is that option to switch only when there are 2 drives installed?

I tried the ssd alone and obviously same thing but I don't get the black screen. Boots until the windows logo is spinning in a small circle then freezes.

 

I'm not sure you can just swap out drives. While the hardware is the same, it doesn't mean the registry config entries, etc matches. Each hardware component has different values for some things regardless if it is the same.

 

I know this doesn't apply to to Alienware laptops per se, but once the screen hinge om ny Inspiron 9400 broke off. Since I needed that laptop for college, I swapped HDD's with my father's Inspiron 9400, which has the same specs except for the screen and the CPU. It worked flawlessy...
So I think in most cases it should be perfectly possible to still start up at least.

Has your new M17x the same BIOS version as your old one? Factory settings may differ between different BIOS versions.

 

I think it can work sometimes but I think in the screen shot is says BadDriver but I could be wrong.

 

Yeah that's why I'm thinking it's a driver . I don't know what bios version my old one had. It's not really a big deal to Reinstall everything more than it is annoying. I swapped slots and it boots up fine and I'm able to access my ssd so I can get all my info.

I will try booting from the cd and reinstalling necessary drivers if I can. The ssd ran flawlessly until it was removed last weekend and is still in its cage.

 

Check to make sure you're using the same setting in the BIOS for the disk drive mode, whether RAID, AHCI or IDE (unlikely the latter, but who knows if you're starting off with default settings). Also check the boot order (first disk drive, second disk drive, etc. - on my own setup, my SSD is the second disk drive).

It might also be that while the OS files might be on the SSD, the boot record is not but in the HDD of the now-departed laptop. The repair procedure should be able to fix this, but if not, you can do it manually with the OS DVD and command line access from the repair menu:

In a nutshell, the procedure was as follows:

- Boot off the OS installation DVD (or Windows live USB, whichever you may have)

- Select "Repair Computer"

- Go to Command Prompt

- Note all the drive letter assignments and write them down; you will need them later and you must have them correct otherwise a catastrophic error and data loss could occur.

- Type (without quotes) "diskpart"

- Within diskpart, check that your SSD is the active boot drive.

type: list disk
type: select disk <number corresponding to your SSD in the list>
type: list partition
type: select partition <number corresponding in the list, usually 1>
type: list volume

The volume corresponding to your SSD should have an asterix (*) to the far left to designate it as active. On the "Ltr" column, it should have the drive letter (usually C) and finally on the "Info" column, it should say, "System".

If the asterix is missing, type: active
If the drive letter is missing, type: assign letter=C

Get out of diskpart by typing: exit.

- This will take you back to the command prompt.

- Go to the directory [OS installation drive]:\boot

- Type: bootsect /nt60 [target drive letter, usually C]: /force

This will restore the boot sector on your SSD (C .

Reboot. This should work. If you follow all the above, you haven't deleted any partitions, volumes or formatted anything so nothing you do above should destroy your data in the SSD.

HTH. BTDT.

 

I think if the MBR was missing or corrupt it would immediately die with a boot record not found message or something similar. But I don't know how Windows 7 behaves in those situations.

Just curious... this isn't an OEM version Windows 7 is it? Probably not but thought I'd ask.

Are you able to boot to a command prompt from the advanced boot options?

 

I just realized something... This was the sole drive in my last r3. When I sold it I pulled the ssd as it was and did a fresh install on the std hd that the r3 came with and sold it. So I basically have 2 drives with the same w7 install and perhaps it's because of that?

I never get asked for w7 keys when doing fresh installs (no idea why).

Basically what I'm getting at is the windows install can't be shared multiple times can it?

 

Windows should let you install multiple times but can only register it with one PC at a time. It would lock you out after 30 days or something like that if you don't register it.

If it is an OEM version it may be tied to a specific motherboard and can't be used on another PC. Well, something like that anyway.

 

It was from the install DVD from my previous r3. I will try some of the above suggestions later tonight.

 

Beacuse the Windows installation uses SLIC in the BIOS to validate.

This is because the OS is tied to the Microsoft SID embedded in the Boot loader portion of the Windows build that is tied to specific portions of the hardware in certain laptops, this is used as a security measure so that for example, you couldn't take the HDD from one computer and put it into another computer with similar specs or identical specs and steal info etc etc. We run into this all the time ....the only way you will be able to get the OS you had in the other machine this to work would be to:
1) get Acronis 11 ( easily downloaded)
2) use the HDD that came with the R3 leaving it installed in the laptop.
3) use the "clone" option and clone your SSD to the HDD.
4) after completion, Duplicate the process
5) re-install SSD
6) clone OS from platter drive to SSD in the R3

That is the only way it will work my friend. if you need more info PM me.

 

I know of another way, but it would have required you to have access to your old machine. Run the OEM setup program for Windows 7. The OEM Setup will remove all SSID's and other unique identifiers from the machine so you can pop the drive into another machine of the same type.

This is mostly used when enterprises purchase a large number of machines and then 'ghost' them with their own company specific image. This allows windows to be put onto any number of machines that are identical but with separate hardware ID's.

cleverpseudonym should be right however, I have seen Acronis work for this situation but I am sad to say that it is also not 100% either.

 

Thanks guys. I may have actually sold the r3 tonight so if it doesn't go tonight I will try cloning.

 

Just my experience but I had an ssd failure and win was reinstalled, BUT I gad already changed the bios to AHCI when win was in restalled. After the reinstall (and all appeared to be fine) I defaulted the bios and had exactly the same problem. Switching back to AHCI fixed it. Maybe windows on the replacement drive was installed in a different mode? easy to try a change from whatever the current setting is to the 'other' one...

 

Just thought it was interesting that i picked up another r3 again with the same specs (lol).. Plugged in the ssd and everything works like a charm. Changed the w7 serial key to the new one and all is well.