swapped ssds; how to get it working?

Alright sorry for the tech support question. I've put the ssd from my xps 15 into my 13 because I didn't want to copy all the files. The result is it freezes a few seconds after the login screen, I assume because it's loading the wrong chipset drivers. In safe mode it runs fine.

I've been trying to uninstall drivers in device manager but to no success, it still freezes in regular mode. Any way to get out of this without a fresh install?

Love,
Eason

 

do an upgrade install booting off a USB, follow the path and click install now, the following options will be upgrade or custom, pick upgrade.

 

Off installation media, not the recovery media right?

 

Off the installation media yes. But I'm unsure this will keep your programs.

 

Well my other option is for it to format and lose everything from recovery.

FFS if only I could figure out how to uninstall all those drivers

 

upgrade install will not delete anything.

 

Trust me, I've tried dozens of times what you're currently doing (i keep changing laptops every 2 months), and I ALWAYS ended up formatting which is a pity.

 

It says Windows needs to start normally to install with an upgrade... I can't do that!

 

Swap it back into the other machine & back up all your user data if its important then swap it back and do a clean install?

 

I've got backup. Just didn't want to copy it all again.

 

try switching sata modes, raid to ahci or the other way round

 

With AHCI it gets about 70% of the way through a clean install then says it cant modify the boot manager. :/

Trying RAID install now.

 

I'd say just bite the bullet and do a clean install.

In my entire time working with PCs, I had never been able to successfully just transplant a storage drive into another system that uses a different motherboard chipset. I have always run into things like freeze-ups, blue screens, and the like.

It also helps that I'm a giant nerd, and actually enjoy doing rebuilds (OS, drivers, patches, applications) on new laptops; simply to see how much faster my "new" toy handles the laptop rebuild process than the old hardware.

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk

 

I'm trying to install clean and I am getting the error that it's unable to set the boot manager. If I install with legacy won't that cause problems switching later?

 

If you are doing a clean install then delete all the partitions?

 

Legacy Boot mode, and Secure Boot Mode = Off is the easiest way to get a Windows installation going.

 

Ok, got it. How to get back into uefi boot/secure though? I get file system not found when trying to add the boot entry

 

You don't switch back to Secure Boot & UEFI. If you want to use Secure Boot & UEFI, then you need to have those settings in-place before you start your Windows install.

Personally, I would just leave those two settings off. You don't get any advantage on using either Secure Boot or UEFI, if you're just a single computer user that knows how to manage your own OS installs. They only get in the way, really.

 

They seem to make boot time slower than before, though. :/

 

I'd stick with UEFI and Secureboot both on, they are improvements to the boot sequence and UEFI speeds up boot times.

 

Yes... but I had to install with legacy on to get it to work in the first place. So am I ****ed?

 

If you've got the latest BIOS on the machine and reset to default and you've got the time to do a clean install from scratch you could give GoNz0's guide a go -

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...ean-install-guide-custom-iso-download.789769/

The machines do all run with Secure Boot and in UEFI switched on, I had a similar issue where I couldn't get mine to install like that but reseting the BIOS to default and various attempts I got it right in the end. I didn't document it as it took me some time and I got a bit frustrated!

 

He's right, and it does work.

You don't have to use his Iso's if you have a version already from the MS media creation tool - just tweak it to suit

 

I've only just got everything running and copied.

Any way I can do this without a lot of pain?

edit: I'm eyeing this:

 

LOL, I tried exactly that method many times!

I could never get it to work properly, it involves a lot of messing around creating - shrinking and resizing partitions and something always went wrong along the way towards the end! It may have worked for some people but there were also quite a lot of comments where it didn't!

I gave up in the end, started again from scratch and did a complete clean install - deleting all partitions and letting Windows install and create what it needed.

I've now got complete images of mine that I recreate on a weekly basis as I never want to go through that again

If your machines running ok, maybe wait to do a clean install when you have more time perhaps? As Windows 10 evolves a clean install using the newer version may actually be better as you are getting a more polished version and have less updates to DL. The build version keeps changing frequently so I guess M$ are still working on ironing out all the faults!

 

^^
This.
My ISO should work on both Dells regardless in secure boot, legacy off mode.
tbh if you have only just installed in legacy mode then I would just wipe the partitions and start again. Always do it myself.

@Woodking, Have you given Macrium reflect a go? incremental backups so the weekly job is very fast after the initial image and allows you to roll back to any backup point

 

I haven't, but I will do on your recommendation as I was looking for a proper backup solution - thanks again

 

Would it work to image the disk, wipe it, install in uefi, then restore the image?

 

No worries, the free edition does all the average user needs

 

Nope, afraid not. You do not have the right partitions m8.

 

Argh! surely there must be some way, using partitioning software to convert MBR to gpt?

 

Not that I know of.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

Just an update: I used macrium reflect free to do it.

1. Copy the data partition only to an image
2. Make macrium recovery boot USB
3. Set BIOS back to secure eufi
4. Use Windows installer media to wipe whole drive and reinstall Windows
5. After it reboots you can force shut down, boot off the recovery drive, delete the new partition, and replace it with the image of the old one
6. "Fix boot problems" in reflect recovery. Reboot.
7. ****ing sorcery it works

 

When it boots you you see the old dell logo with the swirly thing or the Windows icon?

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

Dell logo with swirly thing, then old-style windows 10 logo, as before. But it boots much faster.

 

IF you get the windows 10 logo then it means you didn't get it into EFI boot, if you only get the Dell logo until you hit the login then it is a true EFI install.

 

Typing in msinfo32 in Start/run will show you if you are running in EFI boot - BIOS MODE = UEFI.

I don't get the Windows 10 Logo - just the Dell swirly thing, and it boots quite quickly.

 

Ok I'll check when I'm home. In legacy mode it had a cursor blinking in the corner and took a lot longer to load. How could it be not in uefi mode if it's uefi/secure boot?

If it's not, would doing an in-place upgrade repair fix it?

 

Yup, says BIOS mode UEFI. I do get the windows 10 logo though.

 

Another way to check is using an admin command prompt, Diskpart - List Disk. If it is a UEFI install the GPT field will be indicated by a star.

 

That Macrium Reflect software certainly seems to be able to cope with a multitude of different types of install and fix their issues judging from reading posts on NBR. I'd probably use this as a quick fix if short of time, but I'd much prefer to figure out how to get it right for a clean install - when time permits of course!

Glad it worked out for you in the end

 

I could try an in-place upgrade install, see if that fixes anything.

 

What did Diskpart report?

 

Couldn't get diskpart to run with that command. Actually anyway, I just realized that the old windows logo doesn't show

 

give this a go

go to C:\Windows\Panther

open setupact.log with notepad

open find (Ctrl + F) and search for "Detected boot environment"

What comes after that?

 

IBS Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment: BIOS

 

Not the next line, the same one

 

Not sure what you mean, sorry.

2016-03-24 08:02:26, Info [0x060359] IBS Callback_ScenarioDetect:Setup is starting from [2] phase
2016-03-24 08:02:26, Info IBS Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect:FirmwareType 1.
2016-03-24 08:02:26, Info IBS Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment: BIOS
2016-03-24 08:02:26, Info PANTHR InitializeModule: Initializing ExecQueue->csLock;
2016-03-24 08:02:26, Info [0x0601a4] IBS LoadWorkerModules:Successfully added worker module WinPEUI in win32ui.dll
2016-03-24 08:02:26, Info PANTHR InitializeModule: Initializing ExecQueue->csLock;
2016-03-24 08:02:26, Info [0x0601a4] IBS LoadWorkerModules:Successfully added worker module WinPEProgress in spprgrss.dll
2016-03-24 08:02:26, Info PANTHR InitializeModule: Initializing ExecQueue->csLock;
2016-03-24 08:02:26, Info [0x0601a4] IBS LoadWorkerModules:Successfully added worker module WinPEUpgLoader in upgloader.dll
2016-03-24 08:02:26, Info PANTHR InitializeModule: Initializing ExecQueue->csLock;
2016-03-24 08:02:26, Info [0x0601a4] IBS LoadWorkerModules:Successfully added worker module WdsClient in wdsclient.dll
2016-03-24 08:02:26, Info PANTHR InitializeModule: Initializing ExecQueue->csLock;
2016-03-24 08:02:26, Info [0x0601a4] IBS LoadWorkerModules:Successfully added worker module WpeUntndBtstrp in winsetup.dll
2016-03-24 08:02:26, Info PANTHR InitializeModule: Initializing ExecQueue->csLock;
2016-03-24 08:02:26, Info [0x0601a4] IBS LoadWorkerModules:Successfully added worker module Cryptography in cryptosetup.dll;

 

Sorry, it was a heavy night and up early with over excited kids hunting easter eggs ffs.

The window install isn't EFI as the callbacks got BIOS next to it not UEFI, nothing's going to change that side of things even if you did manage to get Macrium to make it boot via EFI. But it's faster so I wouldn't look into it any more as you may end up making it unbootable

What do you get from an elevated command prompt with

bcdedit /enum

 

I get
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-us
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {5441f678-f29d-11e5-a5c3-a0ec7485ea6b}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.efi
description Windows 10
locale en-us
inherit {bootloadersettings}
isolatedcontext Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {5441f678-f29d-11e5-a5c3-a0ec7485ea6b}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard


Would an in-place upgrade do anything?