solid-state drives and booting

**MTAtech** · October 2nd, 2011, 10:06 PM

I wanted to replace my server's boot drive with a SSD for improved performance. The process I used was to clone the current boot disk, using Acronis, to a SSD.

Installed the drive and I get the fated "INSERT A BOOT DISK" message.
Seems like no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to boot.

Any ideas? Does an SSD need special drivers?

**RicheemxX** · October 3rd, 2011, 12:56 AM

Sounds like the mbr might not have been copied over. What OS are you running? You might be able to pop the os install disk and run the fix mbr fix boot commands. Or if its say Vista/W7 run the startup repair.

**MTAtech** · October 3rd, 2011, 09:18 AM

Originally Posted by RicheemxX

Sounds like the mbr might not have been copied over. What OS are you running? You might be able to pop the os install disk and run the fix mbr fix boot commands. Or if its say Vista/W7 run the startup repair.

OS is Win 2008.

I thought about the MPR issue to but I then cloned the SSD to a 40GB SATA drive and that drive booted. I'm thinking that the drive may need a driver that must be present when attempting a boot.

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**MTAtech** · October 5th, 2011, 01:57 PM

Thanks. I will need to try it on a different drive since I decided to use the SSD on my laptop. I cloned the old drive now prob onto the SSD and the laptop booted fine.

**Aaron_8015** · October 5th, 2011, 02:18 PM

I would suggest a fresh instal... Turning on the AHCI (if it wasn't already), though I think there are ways to get that done with registry edits...

**MTAtech** · October 5th, 2011, 08:53 PM

Originally Posted by Aaron_8015

I would suggest a fresh instal... Turning on the AHCI (if it wasn't already), though I think there are ways to get that done with registry edits...

Why?The whole purpose of cloning a server disk is to avoid the massive amounts of configuration changes, not to mention the domain users.

**RicheemxX** · October 5th, 2011, 09:10 PM

Odd that it won't boot in the server but would in a laptop. That would suggest that it isn't an issue with the clone but rather perhaps something with the boot order in the server?? Is the server a multi drive setup? What happens if you disable the rest of the drives leaving only the SSD to boot from?

edit: Perhaps I read that wrong. I thought you meant you tried the cloned server OS in the lappy and it worked. I'm now thinking you formatted and cloned the laptop drive to the SSD???

I've run into something similar in the past with a cloned drive. The boot info either wan't on the drive the install was or the boot info labeled what I thought was the main drive as a secondary drive. If I recall correctly priority was given to an ide drive rather than my number one sata drive. It was a headache. I just ended up removing the ide drive and doing a fresh install. I was already on a fairly fresh install anyways so no biggie. But yeah not the way I'd proceed here.

**MTAtech** · October 5th, 2011, 10:07 PM

Originally Posted by RicheemxX

Odd that it won't boot in the server but would in a laptop.

I was amiss in my description. When I cloned the server HD to the SSD, it wouldn't boot. But when I cloned the laptop HD to the SSD it did work. They weren't the same image but it proved that the cloning technique was valid.

BTW, the laptop boots W7 fast.