How do you make a drive bootable that should already be bootable

Question

How do you make a SSD bootable after cloning it from a working Windows 7 HDD? Every time I reboot the Samsung NP-RV510 laptop with only the cloned SSD, I get the same error message for the past two days: Operating System Not Found!

The reason I believe the SSD is not bootable, other than the error mentioned above, is because diskpart says it isn't. When I detail the disk, it says Boot Drive = No, but when I checked the original HDD earlier to compare, it said its Boot Drive = Yes. So based on that, my new SSD that was cloned from the HDD, should say the same thing, but it does not and I don't know how to force it to say "Yes". I tried GParted Live, though it apparently only flags partitions as Boot, not the entire drive as Windows seems to do.

Running the Windows Startup Repair is no help. When it automatically begins searching for Windows Installations, it always comes up empty, so I can't select one to work with. Yet, it always reports "Windows found problems with your computer startup options. Do you want to apply repairs and restart your PC."

Of course, I select yes for the repair, but then I get this error: "Failed to save startup options."

The details of the repair show that it would have repaired the {bootmgr}

And the following startup options would have been added: Name: Windows 7 Home Premium (recovered) Path: Windows Windows Device: Partition=D: (122001 MB)

Name: Windows Recovery Environment (recovered) Path: Recovery..long guid name..\Winre.wim Windows Device: Partition=D: (122001 MB) Copy of the current boot configuration data will be saved as C:\Boot\BCD.Backup.0001

The only thing that has never changed during all this time is the fact that diskpart still claims the SSD is not Bootable. Hence, why I think it may be the culprit to all this nonsense.

Any thoughts?

Thank You

Solution

I finally identified the culprit.

The issue was the BIOS was not completely detecting my OCZ Vertex4 SSD. It detected it on the general page so I thought all was good, but under the Boot page, it was not listed as my other HDD/SSD were that I tested. Not sure why this one particular drive was not 100% compatible with my BIOS or why it would be detected in part of the BIOS but not in the other. Anyhow, I used another SSD that was detected on both pages and then I used this stubborn Vertex4 in one of my other laptops and it works fine.

Comments

[Mike Tompson]

I have already verified the partition is active. Can you or anyone explain why when I detail the SSD disk in diskpart, the flag "Boot Drive" always says "No". If this drive was cloned from the working Windows drive and the working Windows drive reports the "Boot Drive" flag as enabled (Yes), then why when I use the SSD would the Boot Drive flag always say No? I'm certain this is what is causing the redundant error message "Operating System Not Found!" after every attempt or change I have made to the drive. Seriously, how hard is it to enable the Boot Drive flag? What must I do!?

[Mike Tompson]

I have already done that and verified the partition is active. Can you or anyone explain why when I detail the SSD disk in diskpart, the flag "Boot Drive" always says "No". If this drive was cloned from the working Windows drive and the working Windows drive reported the "Boot Drive" flag as enabled (Yes), then why when I use the SSD would the Boot Drive flag always say No? I'm certain this is what is causing the redundant error message "Operating System Not Found!" after every attempt or change I have made to the drive. Seriously, how hard is it to enable the Boot Drive flag? What must I do!?

[user3797758]

I have no idea usually the cloning software does it all for you (in my experience at least). If i were you i'd clone the drive to an iso file or something similar so that i at least know that all the data is safe. Then try cloning that file to the SSD again (try Rufus if it works on non-USB hardware).