ASUS G73JH - reinstall Windows or get Intel Rapid Storage Technology? (cloned hard drive)

I apologize for the frequency of posts here lately, but I’m having an issue I desperately need to fix.

My Asus G73JH laptop loaded with Win7 had begun freezing after prolonged use. A friend recommended I install a newer graphics driver in the hopes it may fix something. This not only did NOT fix it, but apparently broke some compatibility with the computer’s structure, as apparently ASUS laptops do not take kindly to drivers not issued by ASUS themselves even if they’re the same company that made the driver (in this case AMD). I attempted to install the original driver, and while this restored the visual look, it did not restore the broken compatibility issues (such as my USB monitor no longer installing/working correctly and ASUS Splendid no longer working)

I ended up taking it to a non-chain shop, where they claimed both the hard drive was failing AND the Motherboard had to be replaced due to a short related to the AC adapter. I ended up doing both, with the intent to clone the existing hard drive over to a new one. They got a larger hard drive than what was originally used, but claimed they were unable to clone the hard drive over. They handed me back the laptop with Win7 loaded and nothing else, along with the original supposedly unbootable hard drive in an enclosure.

After trying and failing to rebuild my system for a variety of reasons, I took the laptop and the original hard drive to a friend’s trusted technician. This new technician was able to restore the original hard drive, though it was still on its way to failing, so he cloned it over to the newer hard drive the shop had used. Although the cloning was successful, and the laptop is usable in the state it’s in, there is an issue. A number of features and programs on the laptop, using the original setup on the new larger hard drive, are not working. These include:

Windows Update, service cannot start (Windows Update troubleshooter does not help)

Indexing, cannot start (if I try “see more results”, a window appears and immediately closes)

Troubleshooting, cannot start

ASUS Turboboost and Asus Splendid do not work (I never used this, I’m just concerned they may be indicative of a bigger issue)

The error 0xE5E0247 keeps appearing whenever I run repair or troubleshooting functions. I run chkdsk, it comes out fine. I defrag the computer, comes out fine. When I run SFC /scannow, it finds errors but cannot correct them, and DISM fails to start up at all. At this point, two recommendations keep coming up whenever I try to talk to people about this

1 – Intel Rapid Storage Technology – This comes up very frequently when I try to research both the problems listed and whenever hard drive cloning comes up. One technician advised me NOT to try this because it could result in compatibility issues. Eventually I lost patience and tried it out with a backup in hand in case something went wrong, but when I tried to install IRST, it failed, saying it was an unsupported format. Does this mean I have the wrong version of IRST or it just plain can’t work? I don’t know, nobody can provide answers.

2 – Reinstall windows – Completely formatting and reinstalling Win7 from a blank slate is simply not an option, due to the lack of proper drivers, utilities and reinstallation software (many of my programs installation CDs are back home, I’m currently away for an extended period). The “Factory Install recovery partition” that every Asus G73JH Laptop comes with is there on the new hard drive, but is apparently useless due to the cloning making it unusable.

While I do have a Win7 CD on hand, it’ not the one used to install Win7 on the Asus, it was used to install Win7 on a macbook I used during school. I’ve been told that I can use this to REPAIR my Asus’ Win7 installation by putting it in, choosing “upgrade” and having it overwrite it with a healthy installation of Win7, and this would KEEP my programs files and drivers without removing any of them. I have not attempted this yet because I cannot get any confirmation as to whether or not it’s safe to do this with a Win7 CD that was not used to install the Win7 originally there. The unit's serial number is still on the laptop's underside.

So is it that I need to use IRST, or is Win7 corrupted and have to be repaired? I don’t know what the issue is, but I desperately need guidance on this.