Derek_S wrote: Hello sbdman - I'm not trying to be critical here, just offering some good advice so that you don't repeat this mistake in the future. Using the combination "bootrec /fixmbr", "bootrec /fixboot", and "bootrec /rebuildBCD" is fine for a Windows 7 machine using MBR boot. But on Windows 8 and 8.1 64 bit operating systems using EFI boot, using this combination of commands can cause big problems. For future reference, see here: http://superuser.com/questions/460762/how-can-i-repair-the-windows-8-efi-bootloader And here: http://www.fixedbyvonnie.com/2013/12/how-to-repair-the-efi-bootloader-in-windows-8/#.U8nUh-kg85s I tried following your links, but apparently, my HP Slimline that originally came with Windows 7, and then, I installed Windows 8 on, even though the Bios supports UEFI, the upgrade is not? I did a clone again, and when I went into the recovery command console, assigned a drive letter to the system drive, (I had given it one already with Disk Management), and went to that drive, the root directory did not have an EFI directory. There was one on the OS drive in Windows\boot\EFI, but no BCD file there, either. I think it's because still, there is a Recovery partition if ever one needed to rebuild back to a stock unit. I tried the fixboot and bcdboot commands (as written), on external ssd not knowing what BCD file they'd overwrite, rebooted back to internal hard drive, but I think I may still be mbr based? I guess I could attempt a cludge - re-install a wiped ssd, build a new 8.1 stock install, then just clone my original OS (with all the software and settings) over the ssd stock install. It took me several months to get my HTPC configured with all the right codecs and tweaks to play evey media file/BD I throw at it, and I wouldn't want that grief to repeat! What do you think? This new information throws everything I have suggested and everything you have done into question. I had assumed that your machine had Windows 8.1 pre-installed at the factory and no clue that it originally came with Windows 7 installed. These questions apply only to your original hard drive, not the cloned MX100 SSD. 1.) Are you absolutely sure that your BIOS is EFI capable? And if so, did the original Windows 7 installation boot by using EFI boot enabled in BIOS or did it boot using CSM/Legacy boot enabled in BIOS? 2.) Did you simply upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1? Or did you perform a clean installation of 8.1? If so, did you install Windows 8.1 with EFI boot enabled in BIOS or with CSM/Legacy boot enabled? In other words, did you change any of the BIOS settings used by the original Windows 7 operating system prior to installing Windows 8.1? 3.) Does the Windows 8.1 installation on the original hard drive have a small EFI boot partition, formatted FAT32, at or near the beginning of the hard drive? This will indicate whether it is using EFI boot. If no such partition exists, then it is using MBR boot. Please use Windows Disk Management to verify this. Also do this while you have Disk Management open: Right click on the left side area where it has "Disk 0 - Basic", then select "Properties", then click the "Volumes" tab. Look to see if the partition style is MBR or GPT. This is another indicator to look for when determining EFI or MBR boot. These questions apply to both the original hard drive and the MX100 SSD. 4.) In reference to the commands you used in order to fix your boot problem ("bootrec /fixmbr", "bootrec /fixboot", and "bootrec /rebuildBCD") did you apply these commands to only the MX100 SSD drive? Or did you use them on the original hard drive as well? 5.) Likewise for the commands in the links that I provided, did you use them only on the MX100 SSD, or did you use them on the original hard drive as well? What I'm trying to get at here is this: if you only tried to fix your boot issues on the MX100 SSD, and did nothing to alter your original installation on the original hard drive, then it should be all right. And if it's all right, then determing whether it is using MBR format/MBR boot or GPT format/EFI boot will determine how to go about fixing the cloned SSD's boot issues.
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