Moving Win7 to SSD in Dual Boot System

bbrener

Active Member
I have a dual boot Vista/Win7 system on the same hard drive. Vista was installed first. It was active with Win7 the boot drive. I used EasyBCD to make Win7 active and boot.
I want to move Win7 to an SSD. (Please don't suggest reinstall). I want keep Vista to use for Win8 upgrade purposes and I want to keep Win7 on HDD just for safety and backup for a while to make sure the SSD works correctly. It is installed and I have added the ACPI fix and it has booted. I have read and written data.
I can think of a couple ways;

1. I can clone the drive using Acronis and shrink it but not sure how to keep the Win7 on HDD and boot successfully.
2. I think a better way would be to use EasyBCD to move the active partition back to Vista. Then I can clone the Win7 to the SSD. Boot from Vista again and use EasyBCD to make the SSD active and boot and change my Bios to boot off it.
Will this work? Will EasyBCD move the MBR to the SSD if I do this? Or will I need to do a repair. Don't want to end up in a mess.

Thanks
Brian
 
I assume by "make active", you mean
Changing the Boot Partition - EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki ?
If you use method 1, whether the clone works depends on the software you use, since a real clone (i.e. an exact copy), will copy the BCD and the BCD contains device-specific information, which if cloned still describes the original location, not the new one.
That can be fixed by simply using a W7 DVD to "startup repair" the BCD.
Some newer "Vista/7 compatible" partition managers, will "fix" the BCD (i.e. not a true clone) and also tend to mess around with the registry Disk Letter assignments, which you probably don't want.
Method 2 should work fine, since the clone will not be touching the BCD
Check the small print carefully on the options in your Partition Manager. There are often several different ways in which it will offer to "copy" a partition. As already described, the copy might be heavily modified, in order that it can run alongside the original.
If you read the notes in the above link, you'll see that whichever way you choose, you will also need to alter the BIOS boot sequence.
EasyBCD can copy the boot files to a new disk and it can switch the "active" flag there, but it can't make your PC boot from that location if it's on a different HDD from where the BIOS goes looking.
One option is to use the backup/restore ability, to make an image of the HDD OS which you can then restore, not as intended back on top of the original, but onto the SSD.
That way it should be a 100% genuine copy.
 
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I assume by "make active", you mean
Changing the Boot Partition - EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki ?
If you read the notes in the above link, you'll see that whichever way you choose, you will also need to alter the BIOS boot sequence.
EasyBCD can copy the boot files to a new disk and it can switch the "active" flag there, but it can't make your PC boot from that location if it's on a different HDD from where the BIOS goes looking.
One option is to use the backup/restore ability, to make an image of the HDD OS which you can then restore, not as intended back on top of the original, but onto the SSD.
That way it should be a 100% genuine copy.

Many thanks Terry. You are correct. I used 'clone' loosely but I meant full backup and then restore using Acronis. I would then have an image copy in a smaller partition on SSD and after booting normally, use EasyBCD to make it the boot partition.
I wasn't sure it would ensure the correct MBR on the SSD but that link indicates that it will do the whole job without affecting the existing partitions and MBR on the HDD. I knew to alter the Bios and so it seems I can choose that if the SSD goes wrong, I can simply boot the old way by altering the Bios again.
Seems as if I get all the options I need without any permanent changes. Guess I'm lucky the way I have it set up. I can always use backup/restore to also keep the HDD copy of win 7 current with the SSD. I like wearing belt and suspenders. I hear too many horror stories.
How would I eventually delete the old MBR if I wanted to do that?
Thanks
Brian
 
You wouldn't delete the MBR. That's part of the disk structure.
You can however delete the bootmgr file and the \boot folder from the previous location if you're that desperate for the few Mb freed.
As you said, it's handy to have them still there because you can always boot the old copy if your SSD melts.
 
Not so Simple

I assume by "make active", you mean
Changing the Boot Partition - EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki ?

If you read the notes in the above link, you'll see that whichever way you choose, you will also need to alter the BIOS boot sequence.
EasyBCD can copy the boot files to a new disk and it can switch the "active" flag there, but it can't make your PC boot from that location if it's on a different HDD from where the BIOS goes looking.
One option is to use the backup/restore ability, to make an image of the HDD OS which you can then restore, not as intended back on top of the original, but onto the SSD.
That way it should be a 100% genuine copy.

Terry, this seemed so simple but it's all gone pear-shaped (to use your vernacular).

Firstly, I had to give the SSD a drive letter when I created the partition. I chose 'z'. When I restored the Acronis backup to the SSD drive, it told me it was a system backup, it was going to make the partition active and alter boot.ini and the registry. I did not allow it to restore the MBR to the SSD.
I figured I could sort this out.
I booted from the old HDD and it showed the Welcome screen for over 5 minutes! I figured it was hosed somehow; reset and restored the MBR to the HDD in case it had been altered.
Long story short, there were 2 active partitions. When I made the SSD inactive I could boot as before.
So I have the original Win7 as the c drive and the new SSD with the clone on it the Z drive.

I then used EasyBCD and made the Z drive the boot partition.
I changed my BIOS boot order to the SSD and booted, and it seemed to boot from the HDD and C:

The partitions are in this state:

SSD: System; Active; Primary
HDD: Boot:tonguewink:age File; Crash Dump; Primary

See boot menu below .. the Boot manager identifier is different to the boot loader identifier.

So it appears to be booting off the MBR on the SSD, but using the old HDD instance as the system it is booting.
EasyBCD did not do the switch to the SSD instance.

What are my next steps? I certainly would not want my system drive to be the Z drive going forward .. too many references would be screwed.
I need to make the SSD the C drive and boot its instance and preferably keep the HDD Win7 bootable as a backup plan.

I could boot a partition manager and hide it and change Z to C - will that work. If I need to boot from the HDD I could change it back. I can also boot vista to use it to change drive letters.

Other options??

Thanks Brian

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device boot
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {28f3fb99-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
resumeobject {28f3fb98-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
displayorder {afc25a74-e74c-11dd-ab63-af013c8634aa}
{28f3fb99-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 12
displaybootmenu Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {afc25a74-e74c-11dd-ab63-af013c8634aa}
device partition=Q:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
osdevice partition=Q:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {afc25a75-e74c-11dd-ab63-af013c8634aa}
nx OptIn
pae Default
sos No
debug No

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {28f3fb99-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
recoverysequence {28f3fb9a-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
 
Don't worry about drive letters. They're not "real". They're virtual labels, entries in the registry of whichever system is running.
Since a running system cannot have multiple identical letters, it obviously gives a "foreign" OS a letter other than C. That doesn't mean that the second OS isn't C when it's running. There is no necessary correlation between the drive letter map on two different OSs, although in your case, since they are clones, they should be pretty much identical.
You might have given yourself a problem by having the SSD visible with a drive letter when you took the backup image.
That will mean the registry you are cloning will have an entry in it that says the Disk Signature of the SSD is associated with a letter which clashes with the clone's own belief in itself as C, causing it to hang in a scizophrenic limbo.
You should make the backup image of the HDD version without the SSD connected, to avoid there being any entry for it in the registry image.
It doesn't matter that there are 2 active partitions. You can have an active partition on every storage device.
It just means that that's the place for the MBR to go if that device is top of the BIOS boot list. If the device isn't being booted the flag has no relevance.
 
You might have given yourself a problem by having the SSD visible with a drive letter when you took the backup image.
That will mean the registry you are cloning will have an entry in it that says the Disk Signature of the SSD is associated with a letter which clashes with the clone's own belief in itself as C, causing it to hang in a scizophrenic limbo.
You should make the backup image of the HDD version without the SSD connected, to avoid there being any entry for it in the registry image.
.

Terry, again many thanks for helping us folks. I am pretty PC literate, but this is a little obscure.

1. Yes, that drive was visible when I backed it up as I had formatted and tested the drive to make sure it was working ok and so I restored to a formatted partition. Acronis knew that and accounted for the downsize in the restore.
it is a huge pain to take the PC out of its place in my desk twice and recable it twice. I am guessing that removing the drive letter and hiding the partition will suffice and then I will backup and restore again.

2. It did not actually hang. It just took many minutes stuck on the 'starting windows' screen. I don't know what it was thinking about, but I didn't wait long enough the first couple times. But it did boot in the end. After the first time it booted normally, albeit from the HDD copy.

3. I understand your guess about the Z drive in the registry, but puzzled by the EasyBCD boot config? If it is removed and non existent to the HDD copy, how do I tell EasyBCD to make it the boot drive? EasyBCD shows a list of drive letters. That's another reason I had it visible.


Puzzled!


Do those scones have clotted cream and jam? Love those������
 
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When you boot the SSD clone, it will be C because the cloned OS thinks of itself as C. It doesn't matter what the original OS thought the empty SSD was called, except that having it called anything will mean that the cloned OS will have registry entries describing itself as C, and also a registry entry describing the device it resides on as something different,
Have a read of this, which is describing the situation in XP and will give you more detail, but don't follow the fix instructions which are specific to XP.
Vista/7 are better placed fix-wise because they can at least get far enough to run regedit, so you can follow these instructions to correct an accidental letter change, or as previously described create the image without a registry entry for the SSD in the first place. (It should be OK just to disable the SSD in the BIOS or even just remove the letter rather than physically disconnect if that's not convenient)
Of course the scones have organic raspberry jam and lashings of Cornish clotted cream. How else would one eat them!
 
Of course the scones have organic raspberry jam and lashings of Cornish clotted cream. How else would one eat them!

Well as ex SA in Phoenix I can tell you that scones with genuine clotted cream and raspberry jam are in short supply!
BTW, did you really answer this at 3am?

Thanks. I won't mess with fixes, but can easily backup it up again and start from the beginning to be safe.
but the question remains how I tell EasyBCD To ensure the SSD to becomes the boot drive when it has no drive letter after I have restored it. (or More likely it will have the next drive letter in sequence).

- delete all partitions from SSD. Create new empty unformatted partition to receive restored OS unformatted.
- boot HDD OS. Use Easybcd to ensure Vista boot drive and boot system Win7. SSD will not be visible. Check everything is ok as it used to be.
- boot acronis and backup win7. Restore to SSD which will become active and whatever Acronis does to the registry. Do not restore mbr on SSD.
- boot HDD again into Win7

Then what exactly step by step to make SSD the boot drive?? I think it will show again as the next letter. Also the article says to ensure the old HDD win7 partition is not visible on first boot. I can delete, but don't want to do that. I can delete and restore it again later of course!
if so I could have cloned and deleted in the first place and avoided all this.

Thanks!
Brian
 
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That was my first point.
It only has no letter when viewed from the HDD. Once you boot it (from any set of boot files), it will be C, and you'll see the HDD version listed with a different letter.
Then when you "change boot drive", you will be pointing it to "C".
The letters you see in EasyBCD are not really there.
The BCD just contains UIDs to describe the location (drive and offset) of each OS. Those are long and random and not conducive to human memory retention, so EasyBCD translates them into the letters that the system running EasyBCD sees as a drive map.
That means that when you look at the same BCD from different systems, it will appear to change. Nothing has really changed, but EasyBCD is just translating it into the language of its host system.
You likewise, talk to EasyBCD in the language of the system you are currently running.
 
That was my first point.
It only has no letter when viewed from the HDD. Once you boot it (from any set of boot files), it will be C, and you'll see the HDD version listed with a different letter.
Then when you "change boot drive", you will be pointing it to "C".
.

Terry, I think am getting the picture now. Many thanks.

My question then is how do I do what you state above. Once it is restored, how do I boot it the first time?
The mbr on the SSD will show it is active after the restore thanks to acronis. If I boot the SSD from the Bios is that enough? Else how do I do it?

Brian
 
Once you've restored the image onto the SSD, assuming you cloned it without a BCD, you'll need to boot the HDD copy as normal, then run "change boot drive" to point at the SSD. (You can safely give it a letter after you've made the clone. You just needed not to have an SSD letter in the registry while you were making the clone)
Then change the BIOS, and boot from the SSD.
If it's successful, the SSD will be "boot,system and active", and the HDD will just be "active"
Disk Management flags have the following meanings


"boot" = "this is the system you're running"
"system" = "this is where I found the boot files for the currently running system"
"active" (on the first Disk in the BIOS boot sequence) = "this is where I started the search for the boot files"
"active" (on subsequent HDDs in the BIOS boot sequence) ="this is where I will look if I don't find something in the MBR on the first HDD"
 
Still Not working

Once you've restored the image onto the SSD, assuming you cloned it without a BCD, you'll need to boot the HDD copy as normal, then run "change boot drive" to point at the SSD. (You can safely give it a letter after you've made the clone. You just needed not to have an SSD letter in the registry while you were making the clone)
Then change the BIOS, and boot from the SSD.
If it's successful, the SSD will be "boot,system and active", and the HDD will just be "active"


Terry, I followed all this and still does not work I'm afraid.

1) I deleted the SSD and left the partition allocated as primary but unformatted.
2)The HDD system had no drive letter for the SSD and booted from Vista as System with Win7 as Boot.
3)Backed up HDD Win7 and restored to SSD.
4)Booted HDD again. Win7 did not have a drive letter for the SSD. I allocated it Drive Z and changed the volume label so I could distinguish them.
5)Used EasyBCD to make Z the boot drive.
6)Changed the BIOS and booted from the SSD.
7)It booted from SSD but it ended up with the HDD copy as Boot although the SSD was system.

Unless you have an epiphany on this I guess I have 2 options;

* Repeat, but disconnect the HDD on boot
* Do an Acronis clone and let it delete the HDD Win7 partition and restore it if things go wrong.

Note that the WInXP article you referred me to said the old partition should not be there at all. Note that win7 did not discover it. I allocated it.

"The above examples concerned a destination partition that had already been assigned an undesirable letter, but you can run into trouble even if no drive letter had been previously assigned. If partition-2 did not have a previous drive letter, XP-2 will discover partition-2 the first time it boots and will assign a new drive letter. But if the previous C: partition still exists, it will keep that letter and partition-2 will have to get something else. (This is true whether or not you try to hide partition-1. Remember, common techniques for hiding a partition don't make it invisible--Windows will still know some kind of partition is there, and if it had previously been assigned a drive letter, it will keep that."

Apologies for all this ...

Brian
 
I thought it worth a try if physical disconnection was inconvienient, but it seems you don't have a choice other than to get the side panel off and pull the plug, firstly when making the clone disconnect the SSD, then before booting the SSD disconnect the W7 HDD.
I wouldn't delete the present W7, too much like burning your boats, just make sure it's not part of the configuration at the critical moment (and even removing the data on it wouldn't prevent the new OS seeing the empty partition as C in its registry)
 
I thought it worth a try if physical disconnection was inconvienient, but it seems you don't have a choice other than to get the side panel off and pull the plug, firstly when making the clone disconnect the SSD, then before booting the SSD disconnect the W7 HDD.

Lol. So the $64K question is how would I then boot the SSD? It has no MBR. Would I first boot the HDD after restore, give it a drive letter, make it Boot drive via EasyBCD, and then disconnect the HDD and boot?
 
Nope. when it's not your day ...

Did exactly as described, but it would not boot from the SSD.

'Windows failed to start. Use installation disk and attempt a repair.
Info: Boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible'

I tried a repair. It said successful and it said that there was no system partition and it had repaired it, but it did not.

So EasyBCD is not making the drive (it automatically assigned W on boot) system apparently.
Looks like deleting the HDD Win7 would be unsuccessful. Not sure if the entries help:

Not sure if this helps or not. After telling EasyBCD to make SSD boot drive, I got:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.
Path: W:\BOOT\BCD

Default: Windows 7
Timeout: 12 seconds
EasyBCD Boot Device: W:\

Entry #1
Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {afc25a74-e74c-11dd-ab63-af013c8634aa}
Drive: Q:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {default}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

and debug detail:

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device boot
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {28f3fb99-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
resumeobject {28f3fb98-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
displayorder {afc25a74-e74c-11dd-ab63-af013c8634aa}
{28f3fb99-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 12
displaybootmenu Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {afc25a74-e74c-11dd-ab63-af013c8634aa}
device partition=Q:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
osdevice partition=Q:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {afc25a75-e74c-11dd-ab63-af013c8634aa}
nx OptIn
pae Default
sos No
debug No

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {28f3fb99-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
recoverysequence {28f3fb9a-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {28f3fb98-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
nx OptIn

When Vista is boot drive on HDD it looks like
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device partition=Q:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {28f3fb99-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
resumeobject {28f3fb98-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
displayorder {afc25a74-e74c-11dd-ab63-af013c8634aa}
{28f3fb99-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 12
displaybootmenu Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {afc25a74-e74c-11dd-ab63-af013c8634aa}
device partition=Q:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
osdevice partition=Q:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {afc25a75-e74c-11dd-ab63-af013c8634aa}
nx OptIn
pae Default
sos No
debug No

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {28f3fb99-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
recoverysequence {28f3fb9a-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {28f3fb98-da7c-11e0-bb1e-d07eed79b01d}
nx OptIn

Addendum

What if I disconnected HDD and did a brand new Win7 minimum install on SSD.
Now it would be 'system' and I could boot it.

Then restore the image. It should still be system on MBR?
Then boot with HDD plugged in and reboot SSD. Use EasyBCD to add Vista entry and confirm SSD as boot drive??
 
Are you sure you did everything in the order you proposed ?
That "view settings" shows that you've booted with the SSD as the boot drive and that it can see W7 as C, which is what you were supposed to avoid.
You were supposed to disconnect the SSD, create an image with no SSD, boot from the HDD after cloning (which would show boot drive as Vista presumably), assign a letter to the newly reconnected SSD, restore the clone to it, disconnect the HDD and only then change the BIOS and boot from the SSD, where it should not be able to see the other systems and will assign itself as C in the absence of any alternative.
 
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Mr

Are you sure you did everything in the order you proposed ?
That "view settings" shows that you've booted with the SSD as the boot drive and that it can see W7 as C, which is what you were supposed to avoid.
You were supposed to disconnect the SSD, create an image with no SSD, boot from theHDD after cloning (which would show boot drive as Vista presumably), assign a letter to the newly reconnected SSD, restore the clone to it, disconnect the HDD and only then change the BIOS and boot from the SSD, where it should not be able to see the other systems and will assign itself as C in the absence of any alternative.

I believe so:
1) Disconnect SSD. Boot HDD, verify SSD not shown. Check
2) Created image with no SSD attached. Check
3) Reconnected SSD and restored clone.
4) Booted from HDD. Vista was the boot drive. New SSD device found and drivers installed. Assigned 'W'. (Which I had previously used for the failed attempt earlier). Check. I looked at it with explorer and it looked like a system drive.
4) You say restore the clone to it, but it was already restored. It had to be in order to have a letter assigned. At that point used EasyBCD to make 'w' the boot drive.
5) Disconnected HDD. (no Vista either).
5)Changed BIOS and boot from SSD. Got error message.

I assume that where you say 'restore clone to it' you meant make it the boot drive. Unless you really meant restore it a second time?

So yes, those are the exact steps and it did not want to become 'C'.

Thanks again.

BTW, I donated some money to the Red Cross for the hurricane in thanks for your support

Brian

Addendum

Terry, I updated you above that I did follow the recipe. I tried something different and the problem may be the way my PC behaves.

Firstly, I discovered that somehow the BIOS HDD boot order changes when devices are plugged in an out. So if the SSD is the first boot, and I connect a disconnected HDD, it seems to become the first boot. SO I have to check every boot as I am experimenting to ensure that I am booting what I think I am.
I think I have been careful, and the real issue is different but I could have booted the wrong HDD if I did not double check.

I decided to disconnect the primary HDD with the OS's on it and install Win7 on the SSD from the DVD hoping that I could get a bootable MBR and then copy the clone.
I have a second HDD with only a data partition. I installed Win7 on the SSD and it booted at times and got boot errors at others.
I disconnected the data HDD and could not boot from the SSD. Kept getting Bootmgr missing errors.
I checked the data HDD and it had an active partition so have no idea why a windows install on the SSD would have made the other HDD the boot drive unless it has something to do with MB connection order, but it should not.
I disconnected both HDD's and reinstalled win7 on the SSD and it worked fine. I could boot time after time. I connected the HDD and continued to boot fine. (That was when I discovered the BIOS peculiarity).

The next step was to connect the OS HDD and ensure that I booted the virgin win7 from the SSD. It did indeed boot, and it I did it a few times.

I then changed the BIOS and booted now from the HDD. The old Win7 OS booted fine. A funny thing happened on the way to the forum ... I was offered all 3 OS's at boot time but I did not do that. This is what it looks like:

There are a total of 3 entries listed in the bootloader (from EasyBCD screen).

Default: Windows 7
Timeout: 3 seconds
Boot Drive: C:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {default}
Drive: W:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {afc25a74-e74c-11dd-ab63-af013c8634aa}
Drive: Q:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #3
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exeThe SSD became drive 'w' again.

So as I write this (with the HDD Win7 loaded) I seem to be able to boot from the HDD and a virgin Win7 and all 3 are shown in the HDD boot config. The HDD WIn7 partition shows it System and Boot.

So I am not quite sure where I stand. Hopefully if I restore the clone to the SSD I will now have what I want! (I still have to shutdown and boot again from the SSD to ensure that).

What do you think? Why this has worked like this, I really have no idea!!
I will try it, but which clone do I restore? The clone that did not have the SSD attached when it as taken, or a clone of current working config before using EasyBCD to make SSD boot, or a clone after making SSD boot?
my mind is frazzled.

Thanks a bunch (of scones)
Brian
 
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Sorry, didn't realize that you didn't realize that the boot order always changes if you disconnect any drive that's included.
You must reset it every time you reconnect a drive.
I didn't mean to restore the clone more than once, I assumed you'd give letter to the reconnected empty SSD (step 3) in order to be able to address it for the restore after booting the HDD again (step 4).
From your description, it seems you hot-plugged the SSD, which I was not expecting and restored it to a device without a letter ?
You'll need a clone which is completely unaware of the existence of the SSD, so that when you restore it to the SSD it doesn't come with preconceptions about what its identity is.
It occurs to me that you might even need to edit the registry to delete the entry for the SSD device, as well as disconnecting the SSD before making the clone.
If you look in the registry now for the disk signature of what's now "W", you should be able to see whether there's still an entry there after you disconnect the drive. If so, delete it and then create the clone.
Otherwise follow the instructions as before, only double check the boot sequence each reboot.
 
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