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Hi folks, and Happy Easter,
I have a SSD drive that I am am trying to get my laptop to recognize so I can clone it and install into another laptop.
I have the bare drive attached as shown in the photo.The other end of the cord is a regular USB.
When I attach the drive to my laptop, the light on the SSD goes on, but no drive is shown in My Computer or Disk Management.
Help please; what am I doing wrong ?
Member 1K
what am I doing wrong ?
nothing from what i can see, it may be the port doesn't supply enough power for it to work, is there another port you can try on the laptop? you may need a powered usb hub for it to work with that laptop. something like this :- http://www.amazon.co...g/dp/B001UE6OC8
have you tried it in another pc also to see if it's seen there?
run through seagates external drive troubleshooter, and see if it can help, might be a driver/usb issue. :- http://support.seaga.../211851_EN.HTML
Member
Thanks terry1966
Well, this is wierd.
I was all ready to order a powered USB hub from Amazon but wanted to try that Seagate trouble shooter first.
The drive now appears - I think !
But it's listed as 2 drives:
System Reserved E: 61.8 free out of 99.9 MB
Local F: 85.2 / 119 GB
I want to clone the drive in the laptop I have now to this [now external] SSD.
Is there any easy way to do that ?
And after it's done, I want to plug it into another exact same laptop like I have now that is missing a drive and OS
Is that just a plug and play ?
Member 1K
cloning your hard drive should be easy enough and i'd use macrium reflect to do it :- http://knowledgebase.../Cloning a disk
your problem is the cloned drive can only legally be used in the laptop you've cloned it from.
if you put it in the other laptop and run it you may find the os on both laptops will get invalidated by microsoft and you'd need to buy 2 new windows licenses, 1 for each machine.
so my advise would be to just put the drive in the other laptop and clean install the same version os that was on there if you have the key, if you do not have the key for it then i'd recommend you purchasing a new windows 10 key to clean install that os straight to the hard drive when in the other laptop.
it's a lot cheaper to purchase a single os key if needed than to use the cloned hard drive in the other pc and end up needing to purchase 2 new keys. 
had a thought, seeing how there seems to be data on that external hard drive, did it originally come from the other laptop and your just having problems booting the os that was on there? it may be possible to fix such a boot problem if that is the case depending on what caused the problem in the first place.
like i said cloning your working laptop and then using it in the other laptop is not an option for you to get the laptop working.
Edited by terry1966, 26 March 2016 - 10:29 PM.
Member
terry1966 ....Thanks again for your valuable advice.
I am glad I did not try and just clone the drive from the laptop I am using now; I do not want to have to buy 2 new Win 7's !!
I think - but I am not 100% sure - that the external SSD [that is mysteriously now able to be read and recognized] does have a Win 7 on it.
There are lots of files. How can I tell for sure ?
And you are again correct; I did try to use this external drive to boot up the other laptop I have and had no luck.
It seemed to physically connect, but the drive also seemed "loose" in the drive bay - is there some sort of casing that I need for it ?
Edited by Buccaneer, 27 March 2016 - 10:02 AM.
Member 1K
yes there is usually some type of case the hard drive fits into before connecting to the laptop.
where'd the drive come from in the first place? it's your drive so you should know what is and isn't on there, but just judging by the partitions i'd say it has been installed with a windows 7 os at some time.
simply compare the folders on your laptop to the folders on the external hard drive and you should find they are very much the same order/structure meaning there is an os on it.
what errors did you get when trying to boot that drive in the laptop?
Member
The laptop was purchased at a garage sale, and because it was a match to the T410 Thinkpad I have, I figured it [along with the SSD drive in it] was worth at least the 20 bucks I paid for it.
The files I can see on the SSD external drive do appear to have pretty much same order/structure, so I am thinking it has an OS it.
I will try and boot it up later tonight after I get home.
Thanks again ....
Member
My SSD now has a legitimate purchased copy of Win 7 on it.
I have inserted it back into my laptop and it booted up = yay !
But, it now will NOT boot up.
A copy of what I am seeing is attached.
The SSD is just sort of pushed into the hard drive opening and does not have those rubber rails on either side.
I have those on the way from Amazon so the SSD will be held in there firmly.
Why would it boot up one day and not the next ?
Member
I am also getting this message.
Member
I am also getting this message.
Member 1K
i take it the drive did work correctly and you was able to install and boot windows 7 to start with but it was only later you started having problems again? yes?
to be honest at the moment i wouldn't mess with it if it's loose in the laptop, any problems your experiencing might just be because the drive has moved and is now not making a good connection, so if your still having problems after getting the correct fittings so it is firmly attached and making good connection then we can try and work out what the problem is.
Member
Thanks terry1966
I will not get those rubber "rails" to put on the sides of the SSD until next week. I will install them and start over as far as seating the SSD and then you know what happens.
Thank you !
Member
My SSD caddy now has its rubber rails on the sides and it is securely seated inside the laptop.
I am 99% sure its connected properly inside as well.
I am now getting these messages - see photos please
:
2100 HDDO erro
then after pressing "escape"
the "cant boot from any device"
What am I doing wrong ?
I know the drive is good - it worked last week !
Edited by Buccaneer, 02 April 2016 - 04:17 PM.
Member 1K
only thing i can think of at the moment is to try setting the bios to defaults and then installing the os again.
Member
I reset the bios to default, formatted the SSD, cloned the SSD from the drive, and it still will not boot.
I checked the SSD disk health with CrystalDisk and got a score of 96 / good.
This is frustrating because it was - at one point working ! Any other ideas terry ?
Thanks ....
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