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