Having trouble replacing/cloning the HD in gs63vr

I bought a gs63vr from the open box section at a local retailer. It was a floor model so they had to reset it to get their display software off of it. When they did that, the OS ended up getting installed on the horrible 5400 RPM HD instead of the 128GB SSD. I take responsibility for this though because I definitely rushed them.

It wasn't really a big deal, I just cloned the OS on the HD to the SSD with Paragon software and it was fine.

After that, I decided to replace the 5400 RPM HD with a Samsung EVO 860 500GB SSD and use that for the main drive. As before, I cloned the 128GB C:/ drive to the new SSD. I went into the bios and selected the new drive (Samsung) as the boot device but when it tried to boot, I got an error that says the installation needs to be repaired.

I was able to boot back into the original (128GB) drive just fine.

I tried repairing the Samsung drive from install media as it suggested but it told me nothing was wrong.

I went back and forth trying different things and different bios settings until NEITHER drive would boot.

At this point I decided to just install a fresh copy of Windows onto the Samsung drive. It went fine but when I restarted, to finish the installation, it booted into the original drive again.

So that was a relief. At least it was working again... or so I thought. When I rebooted, it booted into the new install. I went ahead and let it finish setup.

After that, every time I would reboot, regardless of bios settings, it would boot to the other drive... Original > reboot > Samsung > reboot > original etc...

So at this point it was clear I'd messed up the MBR. I booted into the install media and did a manual MBR repair (MBRfix, etc) and that straightened things out. I then booted to the original SSD (128GB) and wiped the install from the new SSD (Samsung) and everything seems to be back to normal.

If you're still with me, thanks for reading. All I want to do is clone the 128GB SSD to the 500GB SSD.

Any ideas?

 

Use Macrium Reflect to clone. that's better

 

If it was my time and sanity involved, I'd do as follows.

*To just have SSD as boot drive:
Remove all drives, except the new SSD.
Install Windows to the new SSD.
Profit.

*To have the SSD as boot drive and the HDD/old SSD for data:
Do the steps above
Download GParted ISO image. Burn GParted ISO image to USB drive.
Boot from USB drive into GParted.
Wipe the HDD/old SSD cleanly.
Install both HDD/old SSD and new SSD back into system, set BIOS boot order to new SSD.
Create new data volume on the HDD/old SSD while booted into Windows by using the Disk Management utility.

Personal preference but I'd rather start fresh and not have to spend time with any issues that can arise from cloning. If you really must clone - Phoenix's suggestion is the way to go.

 

A good point benni made is, when you install Windows and you have 2 drives or more, then Windows has a nasty habit of placing the boot files on the 2nd drive leading to issues. To avoid this, even without physically removing the 2nd drive, follow this guide:

How to properly install Windows on a system with multiple drives

 

I was going to try this today, actually. My copy of Paragon migrate (whatever it's called) is pretty old.

I already removed the 1TB HD to make room for the Samsung SSD.

The 128GB SSD is on-board. Is it possible to remove or disable that all together?

Checking this now to see if answers my previous question.

Thanks for the replies guys. They are very helpful.

 

Any time man. We will stay with you until you get this sorted.

Cheers

 

If I do a clean install of the same version (home), will it automatically pick up the OEM registration or would I need to buy another license?

Iirc there's an online hardware match authentication for this now?

 

It will automatically pick up the key from your BIOS

 

I ended up reinstalling wiping the on board drive and doing a clean install on the new one. It's working great and seems to a noticeably faster.

Thanks for the advice guys!