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Boot from an external hard drive

Columbia05 Posted messages 22 Status Member -  
Columbia05 Posted messages 22 Status Member -
Hello,

I'm having difficulties starting an external Western Digital hard drive onto which I've cloned the content of an internal 250GB hard drive.

The goal was to load a new 1TB hard drive, with the external hard drive becoming the source.

All disks are recognized in the BIOS. It's really basic. Very few modifications possible apart from the boot sequences.

This is an ASUS A52F laptop (an old model, but perfectly suitable for my children and school) running on Windows 7 (OEM Home version) / 64-bit.

The 1TB disk is empty. No partitions, nothing.
The external hard drive is obviously connected via a USB port.

When I set it to boot first, I get the infamous black screen with 1234F.

I've also backed up the OS, Recovery, Data onto DVDs (ISO format), but I don't know what to do with them. I also have a repair CD. I don't see what I can do with that since it only recognizes the operating system on the original 250GB hard drive.

I've run the command diskpart > list disk (disks are identified) > select disk (I selected the external disk) > list partition (I recognize all partitions of the internal 250GB hard drive) > select partition (the focus should be on the RECOVERY / FAT 32 partition, but I don't have the asterisk, even after activating this partition)

I also ran the antivirus and cleared the 250GB disk of unnecessary programs before performing the cloning onto the external disk.

That's the summary of the situation.

Has anyone encountered a similar problem?

Thanks in advance for your contributions.

Columbia

4 answers

Answer 1 / 4
ultime890
 
Hi, just to be clear, your goal is to change the internal hard drive or did I misunderstand?
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Columbia05 Posted messages 22 Status Member
 
Hello,

Yes, exactly. I would like to replace the 250GB one with a 1TB drive. This one is recognized by the BIOS. I thought that by cloning the "old" disk (250GB) onto an external drive, it would be enough to open it (after changing the boot order) and load the 1TB drive.

But I am getting a black screen with 1234F (the external drive being prioritized for booting).
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Answer 2 / 4
ultime890
 
Ok, you cloned your hard drive by booting into a Linux distribution?
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Columbia05 Posted messages 22 Status Member
 
Apparently my comment on this question didn't go through...
I cloned the 250GB disk to the external drive using AOMEI Backupper.

The data transfer went smoothly, so I have a perfect image of the internal hard drive on the external drive.
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Answer 3 / 4
Columbia05 Posted messages 22 Status Member
 
I clarify that the external drive in question on another PC opens normally with the OS, RECOVERY, etc. partitions of the "old" hard drive.

I'm trying to understand where the bug is, but this time I'm struggling.
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Answer 4 / 4
ultime890
 
Maybe the MBR is corrupted... Does it boot normally on another PC? Otherwise, reinstall a clean Windows on the 1TB HDD after formatting it and simply copy your data, but the 250GB is an internal drive, right?
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Columbia05 Posted messages 22 Status Member
 
I did think about the MBR, but if that were the case, I guess the external drive wouldn't start on the other computer.

The 250Gb is internal.

I think I'm going to start everything over, and if it doesn't work, I'll directly format the 1T hard drive and install Windows.

Maybe that's what I should have done from the start.

It will be for tomorrow...
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ultime890 > Columbia05 Posted messages 22 Status Member
 
But there's something I'm missing; you want to boot from an external drive, that's fine, but the external drive isn't great for permanent use. You'd need an internal hard drive if you want to avoid any issues.

Otherwise, still try the basic stuff:
check that no other media like a USB stick is present on the PC besides the external hard drive, and are these hard drives mechanical or SSD? I think they're SSD, but I prefer to ask.

You might try partitioning your 1TB hard drive for a Windows installation from a USB stick,

Are there personal data on the 1TB? If so, make sure to put them on a separate partition.
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Columbia05 Posted messages 22 Status Member
 
The goal was to transfer the content from the external hard drive to the new 1TB internal hard drive, which is completely empty. Void, nothing.

I thought it would be possible to boot the PC (ASUS A52F) from this external drive in order to perform an operation that shouldn't have been complicated.

I gave up for the reasons stated in the previous comments (black screen with 1234F)

I will try later to find the reason, but it takes time... that I don't have.

I just took another look at the problem and now the new hard drive is loaded, but I didn't use the external drive.

I created a new DVD ISO of Windows 7 and booted directly from the new hard drive.
1 hour to load and create the ISO disk.

I recovered space. As for the speed...
The new drive is an SSD.

The PC is almost perfect. There are still a few issues with the device drivers, but it's not too serious.

The only downside is the consumption of the new drive (800mA) compared to the 500mA of the old hard drive. I'm losing battery life with the accumulator.
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