Need help reformating my laptop

tetsudattekudasai

Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 6, 2019
Messages
8
Trophies
0
XP
45
Country
Australia
I have a laptop with two hard drives. One SSD and one magnetic disk. When I bought this laptop it came with Windows installed on the SSD. I reformatted it and Windows was magically moved to the magnetic disk. I don't like magnetic disks because they're slow and prone to the click of death. The click of death has happened to me several times before. I tried reformatting it a few more times to no avail.

I'm very reluctant to format both hard drives then install a fresh copy of Windows on the SSD. Last time I tried updating a driver myself, something broke and I had to reformat my laptop. Maybe I can backup Windows to a USB, remove the magnetic disk hard drive then reformat my laptop. Will the TPM stop something from working?

How do you recommend I proceed?
 

Zalex

Well-Known Member
Newcomer
Joined
Mar 13, 2019
Messages
99
Trophies
0
Age
46
XP
716
Country
Spain
Hi,

Look at Manufacturer's website and your computer's model, maybe there is a Recovery on the HDD, tool or instructions on How to do a clean installation.

--

Other option,

I've seen AOMEI has a tool inside Partition App to clone to a SSD (some specific settings).

Take a look.


Didn't tested my self, so I can't give any other info.




Redmi Note 7 Pro | Tapatalk
 
Last edited by Zalex,

SAXJONZ

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2018
Messages
104
Trophies
0
Age
55
XP
596
Country
United States
I just reinstalled windows on my hard drive that messed up. I used Linux because my drive would t even boot up. You then download windows media tool on to a flash drive of 8gs or more. And from there you can reinstall Windows. Whenever you do these things it’s good to keep it simple and have only one drive connected.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

tetsudattekudasai

Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 6, 2019
Messages
8
Trophies
0
XP
45
Country
Australia
Disk 0 is the solid state drive. Drive D should contain Windows but no longer does.

Disk 1 is the magnetic disk hard drive. It currently contains windows.

Given that Disk 0 contains the recovery partitions, can I simply remove the magnetic disk hard drive from my laptop then launch the system recovery software at startup?

disks.png


--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I tried booting Linux on this laptop before. It didn't work. Last time I tried using software to migrate Windows to the SSD it didn't work either. I don't remember the exact errors now.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

I did check my manufacturer's website but sadly my laptop is a model which doesn't have proprietary system recovery software. It only has the Windows system recovery software which hasn't worked properly for me.
 
Last edited by tetsudattekudasai,

RandomUser

Rosalina in Plush Form
Member
Joined
May 9, 2010
Messages
967
Trophies
1
XP
1,042
Country
United States
It looks like your system restore partition is completely wiped. Usually a system restore partition should be in the GB ranges, like 10GB to 15GB or more in size for the partition. That recovery partition is probably the Windows recovery that usually only fix the installed OS but doesn't reset the computer back to factory default. Much like taking the Windows install DVD disk and booting it off of that for repair tool to fix some unbootable Windows installs.
 

tetsudattekudasai

Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 6, 2019
Messages
8
Trophies
0
XP
45
Country
Australia
Ouch. Does this mean I'll have to screenshot all the information in the device manager, screenshot or write my Windows key, install a fresh copy of Windows on the SSD, then manually install each driver and hope it all works?

I finally managed to get Linux working. Turns out I needed to disable secure boot in my BIOS (this has some dangerous side effects*). Maybe I should put Linux on a super fast micro SD card and only use Windows when necessary.

* Now my laptop is vulnerable to malware which attacks the boot sector and someone with physical access to my laptop can also tamper with the boot sector.
 

RandomUser

Rosalina in Plush Form
Member
Joined
May 9, 2010
Messages
967
Trophies
1
XP
1,042
Country
United States
Ouch. Does this mean I'll have to screenshot all the information in the device manager, screenshot or write my Windows key, install a fresh copy of Windows on the SSD, then manually install each driver and hope it all works?

I finally managed to get Linux working. Turns out I needed to disable secure boot in my BIOS (this has some dangerous side effects*). Maybe I should put Linux on a super fast micro SD card and only use Windows when necessary.

* Now my laptop is vulnerable to malware which attacks the boot sector and someone with physical access to my laptop can also tamper with the boot sector.
Pretty much, although you could download all the drivers and then place them on a media that isn't going to be formatted and use it to install the drivers after Windows installs. You can search for drivers via hardware ID if you like. Windows should have most of the drivers included, mainly the manufacture specific hardware will probably needs to be downloaded. You could download drivers from the manufacture website, provided they still support your model laptop.

This is probably a stupid question, but using Linux can I copy and paste Windows from my magnetic disk hard drive to my solid state drive?
I'm not sure if Linux can write to NTFS partition, but can certainly read it. Even then, I don't think this will work, unless you can chainload the Linux bootloader to bootmgr or boot Windows directly, even then still not sure if this will work.
 

Uiaad

GBAtemp's resident guinea pig
Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2008
Messages
591
Trophies
2
Location
United Kingdom
XP
3,246
Country
United Kingdom
I'm not sure if Linux can write to NTFS partition, but can certainly read it. Even then, I don't think this will work, unless you can chainload the Linux bootloader to bootmgr or boot Windows directly, even then still not sure if this will work.

Most flavors of linux now come with the ability to read and write NTFS - if the one you chose doesn't there is a driver you can install

FYI, an actively used HDD tends to last longer than an actively used SSD.

While true, with modern SSD manufacturers provision for a user to write between 20 - 40 gb of data on a daily basis during a lifetime an SSD can expect to write around 700 Tb of data (based on Tri Level Cells). This is with current gen SSDs and they are getting better, next year is to see the release of QLC ( Quad Level Cells) and as always better wear leveling algorithms they are going to get cheaper and cheaper and more reliable. Even chinese 'off brands' are getting fairly reliable* nothing i'd want to put my magnum opus on but good enough for scratch drives and playing games from.

But as with everything, your mileage may vary. You could have one last 50 years or have one DOA.

Hard drives in laptops always have a tough job. There are moving parts. Moving parts moving at high speed and let's face facts no matter careful we are accidents happen. Drops, knocks, Laptop hard drives do a pretty good job. Who manufactures the drive has a lot to do with this too (don't get me started on seagate.) but again these gave come along way from what we had. Modern drives will Have gravity sensors to park the heads if they sense an impact... sorry realised i'm rambling i'll get back on topic

* There is a big sacrifice here. Generally when you buy a banded SSD they are over provisioned, they have a chunk of memory set aside for when a section becomes worn or damaged and can be swapped out a lot of the chinese drive don't have this because ... why sell someone a 350 gb drive when you can sell them 500gb right ?

This is probably a stupid question, but using Linux can I copy and paste Windows from my magnetic disk hard drive to my solid state drive?

Not a stupid question at all! But it won't work. It's complicated and i've rambled enough for today and its only 6 am for me.

Let's start from the beginning you have your windows key/microsoft linked account - great

On your HDD you currently have windows 10

you want it on your SSD

Your afraid of reinstalling windows because you don't want to lose your drivers - Ok we can deal with this

On the assumption that you have nothing currently on the SSD you wish to keep - if you do back it up to the HDD

Make a folder in the root of your C drive named BACKUP

go to C:\Windows\System32 and copy these 3 folders ( if you have all ) to BACKUP **Make sure you copy and not move**
Drivers - DriverStore - DRVSTORE

Take the HDD out your system

Reinstall windows on to the SSD

Now make sure that windows is set to boot in your BIOS from the SSD

Reconnect the HDD

At this point you have lost nothing. You still have the original version of windows on the mechanical drive

Copy the 3 folders back to system32

Reboot and then check device manager for any missing drivers

Anything that's missing just right click and update the driver it should find it as there is a copy on the mechanical drive and works

When you are happy that everything is working you can do as you wish

Tho I do recommend wiping the HDD copy of windows as soon as you have anything you want off of it.

and back to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for this all to blow over.
 

tetsudattekudasai

Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 6, 2019
Messages
8
Trophies
0
XP
45
Country
Australia
Now I’ve cloned the hard drive on Linux using dd. The command was “dd if=/dev/magneticdisk of=/dev/ssd bs=64K conv=noerror,sync”. Windows still boots from the magnetic disk hard drive. Is it safe to 0 out the magnetic disk to make Windows boot from the SSD?
 

tetsudattekudasai

Member
OP
Newcomer
Joined
Dec 6, 2019
Messages
8
Trophies
0
XP
45
Country
Australia
Now things are broken. I followed the instructions below and used the command "bcdboot D:\Windows" followed by "bcdedit /set {default} description "Boot from Current". I tried turning my laptop off but each time I clicked power off the screen would go black then the login screen would come up. Then I held the power button down until it turned off. It showed me the manufacturer's logo and the rotating dots but only a black screen after that. I did not zero out my magnetic disk hard drive.

https://www.tenforums.com/backup-restore/90742-how-make-cloned-drive-bootable.html
 

Zalex

Well-Known Member
Newcomer
Joined
Mar 13, 2019
Messages
99
Trophies
0
Age
46
XP
716
Country
Spain
Try re activating the HDD System partition using Live Linux or Hiren's or MediCat...


Before any BCD mod, back it up.

If you did it, try restioring it.

Redmi Note 7 Pro | Tapatalk
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    Maximumbeans @ Maximumbeans: :rofl: preferably the grim reaper with a pair of glocks