Moving my Windows to Another harddrive

[Ljagi]

Hi i have Windows 7 preinstalled on my computer from hp, now i bought a new harddrive ssd disk and i have made a clone because i want to have Windows on the new harddrive, but when i try to start the computer it says that it is locked? How do i solve this problem?

[TheOldMan]

Assuming the clone was indeed good, is the original HDD still in the computer?  Some users have had problems when cloning a HDD to a SSD.  Assuming the HDD is good and the SSD is the locked drive, try cloning outside of the Windows environment and not letting Windows see the old and new drives at the same time until you have booted with the new SSD and verified it works.

I like to use Acronis or one of the Acronis clones that is especially made for WD or Seargate.  Samsung has their own cloning software.  Acronis and the WD and Seagate cloning software can make a selfbooting CD for doing that process outside of Windows.  I have not had any problems when doing it that way.

[Ljagi]

My friend did the same thing as we did with my computer and it started up and worked straight away, i had some problems with my hdd, it was working slow the disk was working almost between 80-100 procent at all times, not knowing what was the problem i bought a New ssd And made a clone. And then this problem, ok , how do i clone outside of windows? How do you mean?

[TheOldMan]

If the HDD was failing, then perhaps it is beyond the ability to provide a usable source, but it would not hurt to try again in the manner I described in the previous post.  To clone outside of Windows, you need to make a bootable disk.  As noted Arconis or the WD or Seagate version  are able to do that.  What brand is the failing HDD and what brand is the SSD?

One of those needs to be WD or Seagate for those Acronis look-alikes to work.  Or you can use Acronis.  CloneZilla will work also outside of Windows.

Outside of Windows means that another operating environment is used.  Usually a forum of Linux is created to provide a means for the cloning software to run without the restrictions of Windows.

[mdklassen]

What is the exact text of the message?

After pressing CTRL-ALT-DELETE, do you get a prompt for the Windows password?

If you do, try pressing ENTER, without entering any password.

[Ljagi]

It says like this, extremly large text first that says RESTORE THIS COMPUTER(THERE IS NO BUTTON TO KLICK ON) you can only go back to previous session. Under this it says like this::: the entity that windows is installed on is locked , unlock the entity and try again ( this is when we are trying to start up the New ssd disk after the clone was done correctly. How do i unlock this thing or what ever it is? My next questions is , i have a Windows 7 Home oem preinstalled om my hp , i have made upgrades to Windows 10 through windows update. If i erase everything and put inside a cd with windows 10 Home oem. And install Windows, does my windows key for w7 still works so that i can activate it?

[mdklassen · Accepted solution]

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@Ljagi wrote:
My next questions is , i have a Windows 7 Home oem preinstalled om my hp , i have made upgrades to Windows 10 through windows update. If i erase everything and put inside a cd with windows 10 Home oem. And install Windows, does my windows key for w7 still works so that i can activate it?

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Since you are running Windows 10, you have been granted a digital entitlement to re-install Windows 10, at any time, at no cost, onto the same computer.

So, download Windows 10 from: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

When installing, and asked for the 25-character product-key, click "I do not have one".

When Windows connects to the Internet, it will leverage that entitlement, and automatically will activate, painlessly.