R1: Upgraded to SSD, going crazy

Hello all

I decided today to bite the bullet and finally pony up to get a SSD for my R1.

I went out and purchased OCZ Vertex 4 256GB and I installed everything like a breeze. Prior to installation I used Dell's Image Safe to create a recovery on my 8GB flash drive.

So I booted the R1 with F12 being selected so I can boot from USB and the Image Safe appears and all seems well. However, it stated it does not recognize HDD size and needs a minimum of 298GB.

Then I decided ok, I will create a Windows 7 USB key using the OS disc that came with the computer. So I proceed in making the .ISO and using Window's ISO to USB utility and at the end it said it failed to create a boot sector.

I disregarded that message and boot the R1 again and now I have "NTDLR is missing, CTRL + ALT + DELETE to reboot."

Any suggestions would be great

 

Update: If anyone is going to upgrade to a SSD or any HDD for the matter. Do not use Microsoft's "ISO to USB" instead I recommend using Novicorp WinToFlash which takes the ISO image you made of the recovery disk from Dell and creates a bootable Windows 7 key properly. That way no one else wastes 4 hours trying to figure out how to re-install Windows without a external DVD drive.

 

Never had any issues with the Windows USB tool, always worked like a charm.

Now the reason the image restore didn't work is because it needs both drives to be the same size. Your easiest option would have been to use Alienrespawn to create a recovery USB, then used that to install windows with all the drivers & Alien suites.

 

I also use the Microcrap Windows USB tool and it works for me also. I have noticed when i used it on another PC it was asking for CD/DVD drivers. Weird. Worked fine on the M11x.

 

Here is an article with the list of the drivers you will need on your PC after the installation.