Trouble installing SSD in Toshiba notebook. Any tips?

@Pantheist I cannot get the system to run long enough to change anything. When I say it locks up a few seconds after logging in, I mean literally a very few. Like 2 or 3 seconds, then never recovers.

Do I need to reinstall the old HDD, change the reg entries, make a new USB backup, then etc etc etc?

@ruouttaurmind Ah I see, I thought you meant locked up for a few seconds but kept working. That’s definitely a different problem than that guy is describing.

Any chance there’s a loose connection?

@Pantheist I don’t think anything is loose. It works correctly when I reinstall the HDD, then back to inop when I switch to SSD.

I can’t imagine this Toshiba model is incompatible with SSD, maybe it’s the specific SSD I’m using. I checked Kingston for firmware update, but none available for this model (A400). Says it’s got the latest.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@ruouttaurmind try to see if you can get http://download.wdc.com/windlg/WinDlg_v1_29.zip

running its a hard drive testing app by western digital

@ruouttaurmind Does the BIOS pick up the drive? Can you boot from a USB drive or a CD and see if you can see the SSD? Does the system boot if you use a USB or CD?

@dashcloud Well, the system boots from the recovery USB, and I get the recovery options before starting the restore process. That all seems to work fine. If I access BIOS on startup, it recognizes the SSB and identifies it correctly. I haven’t attempted to jump to a command mode from the USB startup to query the SSD, but I’m assuming, because the system DOES start loading Windows and sometimes completely loads Windows to the desktop before freezing, I’m assuming the SSD is being recognized as a boot device.

@communist, Kingston also offers a similar utility, though I only used it to check for firmware updates.

@ruouttaurmind I was going to suggest disabling any Secure Boot features, but you’re way past that if the OS is booting at all.

If it’s an IDE vs AHCI setting problem, that’s going to crash at the boot screen, you’ll never see the OS.

@clonetek Unfortunately this was a free Win 10 upgrade from 8, so no fresh media is available to me short of purchasing a new copy.

@ruouttaurmind When you do the free win10 upgrade it creates a hardware hash “key” at M$ so all you need to do is d/l the iso of the version you have and reinstall it.

source: I do this several times a week at work

also, if you missed out on the free upgrade to 10, it’s still offered here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgrade

When installing win10, if it asks you for the key, just click “I don’t have a key” at the bottom. be sure to be connected to the interwebs for it to activate.

@ruouttaurmind

so no fresh media is available to me short of purchasing a new copy

once it has been upgraded it gets a “digital entitlement”

you can download and burn an iso or make a usb drive using the windows media creation tool at this location (no key required):

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO

choose “download tool now” under “Create Windows 10 installation media” run it then follow prompts to make installation media for another machine.

@thismyusername, clonetek, I continue to learn new things every day. This will be very useful to know.

@djslack As an add-on to that, @ruouttaurmind, once you’re in the automatic repair tool, use the startup/boot repair tool.

@djslack, @dashcloud, Great suggestions. I’ve shelved this until I return to the office on Monday.

I’ll post back here to update my progress.

@walarney Currently installed internally, not trying to migrate across USB, so hopefully that rules out any USB oddities.

EDIT: EXCEPT, it occurs to me now, you were referring to a USB connection to the restore source, rather than using a DVD to install??

@ruouttaurmind On those kind swaps, I would typically clone the internal drive to the new one connected via usb adapter/cradle using partitioning software (minitool partition wizard or similar), and then physically swap the drives. It usually works. But one time, replacing a non-system drive, instead of cloning I formatted the usb connected drive and copied the data to it. But when I plugged it into a SATA port, Windows didn’t like it.
But after re-reading your post, it sounds like you’re doing neither of those things. So that’s probably not the issue. Never mind.

Gaaaa! It gives me about a dozen different options for which version of Win10 I want to install. Win 10, Win 10 S, Win 10 Home, Home S, Home S N, Home N… IDK???

Frack. Infinite loop.

Win10 starts to install, gets to a point where it says “Windows needs to restart your PC”, reboots the PC, then starts back at the beginning of the installation routine.

So this process is a dead end. I guess I’ll try again using DVD rather than USB media.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@ruouttaurmind As you probably found out already, Windows 10 is really good at finding drivers for your things, and the Update Driver button isn’t a worthless click now either.
I would try connecting some of your devices to your computer and letting Windows search for them- at least you’ll know then. I would also upload a copy of any hard to find or no longer around drivers/applications to the Internet Archive, so that you get a backup and help out other people in the same situation.

@ruouttaurmind try going into bios and setting the SSD as the boot drive if it keeps booting from the flash drive. Sometimes at work if it keeps selecting the flash drive, I’ll pull the flash drive while it reboots, then plug it back in when the circle appears on the black screen.

@clonetek I wound up messing with it for another hour until I finally had success.

@ruouttaurmind never tried that. I can think of reasons it could work and reasons it might not.

If you’ve got a USB sata adapter or enclosure, I would try cloning your old drive directly to the SSD using a bootable CD too (acronis, macrium reflect, clonezilla, etc). As long as you have your USB backup unmodified and are just reading from your old drive, you have multiple levels of safety net going on. This could eliminate the possibility of wackiness from the restored USB backup.

My notifications must be going the same place as the clicky faces and your post. I didn’t see any for this.

@ruouttaurmind If my experience with my Acer laptop is anything to go by, yes you should be able to run the original hdd that way. I upgraded my laptop to have a M.2 and a regular ssd internal drive with Win10 installed on each. I also kept my original hdd (with Win10 installed on it) and can boot into it when I have it connected.

@djslack, @msklzannie seems to confirm this is not going to be a problem. I don’t hate the idea of NOT cloning the current HDD to the SSD. There are benefits. For example I can install all my work-only stuff on the SSD and keep it a prime and pristine specimen, and keep my personal maker/crafty stuff isolated.

@ruouttaurmind

Not the instant sub-1 sec startup time I hoped for, but pretty damn good.

where have you ever seen that?

even on the fastest pci express ssds take at least a couple seconds

the only way to get 1 second boot time is if the system is sleeping and not shut down

@communistjack It’s possible on specially configured Linux systems- that kind of boot up time is critical when doing container & vm spinup. On a general laptop, probably not without a lot of tinkering.
Here’s a presentation from 2015 about this:
Video:

Slides:
http://elinux.org/images/9/97/Boot_one_second_altenberg.pdf

@ruouttaurmind If you’re interested in trying to cut down the boot speed some more, I can give you some ideas- just let me know.

@dashcloud Actually, I was kidding about sub-1 sec boot. The 3 sec startup time is infinitely better than the 1+ minute time I have with the HDD, and frankly much better than I expected with a 3yo midrange notebook with a 3rd gen i7. 3 sec is barely enough time to get comfortable and type my password.

@ruouttaurmind Make sure your BIOS is pointing to the USB as primary boot?

@therealjrn Yup. It is. The system will boot from the Windows Installation USB drive or backup recovery drive I created before trying any of this SSD stuff. Just doesn’t wanna boot from the external HDD.

Speculation… could be a problem with the specific enclosure I have. Maybe some 11th tier USB 3.0 command isn’t being supported properly or some such. For that matter, it could even be a simple as the USB cable to the enclosure is wonky somehow and doesn’t support something. Fortunately this is non-critical for the moment, now that the SSD is booting and running correclty, and I’m in the process if tarting it up with all my work apps and defiling it with mounds of data.

About the first bright spot was Chrome’s account synchro process. Worked flawlessly, and super fast. Downloaded a fresh copy of Chrome on the notebook, signed in with my Chrome ID (google account) and within a few seconds everything from the old hard drive was cloned into Chrome. Bookmarks, passwords, even history. Smooth as buttah.

@ruouttaurmind have you toggled “Legacy USB Support” in the bios? If it’s enabled, try a disable. If it’s disabled, try an enable.

I am wondering if the windows on the machine is doing something to protect the real windows installation on the ssd.

@thismyusername I can read everything on the original HDD just fine. It’s just that I was hoping to be able to boot from the external to switch gears from work to play. All my tinker stuff is installed on the old HDD, and want to keep it separate without investing in another computer.

@ruouttaurmind ahh sorry thought you were just trying to recover data.