Creative solution to install Win7 on new SSD, laptop

What about the DVD drive does not work? Did you try running a cleaner on it? I'm talking about the disc that physically wipes the lens inside the drive.
 
Quote from jinxu:

I'm not entirely sure. But I think you can just use a program to clone your Win 7 from your HDD to your SDD drive.
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Thanks for the suggestion jinxu. I think one of such app is "EaseUS Todo Backup". I have that (free version). But now I have a different issue: that mounting the existing SSD (SATA #1) and the new SSD (SATA #2) on the laptop, for some reason Windows does not see the new SSD at all. I have no idea why. Thus no way to clone.
 
Quote from mgookin:

What about the DVD drive does not work? Did you try running a cleaner on it? I'm talking about the disc that physically wipes the lens inside the drive.
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Thank you for the suggestion mgookin. I am probably gonna try that next.
 
Quote from murrica:

Can you possibly access the (sata?) port for the broken laptop DVD player and connect another DVD drive to it?
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Tried this approach earlier. Didn't work. When I plugged in a working DVD (SATA) to the SATA connection on the laptop, with the Win7 installation DVD in it... the laptop just sat there. Did nothing. Wouldn't boot. Eventually timed out and said no bootable device.
 
Quote from murrica:

For the original method (install W7 on a desktop then move HD to laptop), can you try booting into safe mode on the laptop first, then reboot? This might reinit the drivers and fix any issues with regard to the different hardware. Worth a shot.
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Tried that too. Didn't work.

I could use F8 to get to the choices of what to do, and select SAFE MODE. But as soon as it started to bootstrap SAFE MODE, blue screen again and back to the same cycle.
 
Quote from Bolimomo:

I think my version of Acronis Image Home can do restore to dissimilar hardware too. Thanks. I need to check.
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I have Acronis Image Home 2013. It does support restoring to dissimilar hardware. But it just duh'ed on me that I wouldn't be able to boot up the Acronis Image Home 2013 program from the CD - same problem why I couldn't boot up to the Win7 installation DVD... DVD drive hardware issue.

This is getting sticky...

May be buying the replacement DVD (and the waiting for shipment) is the only way...
 
I don't know if the HP's are like the older Dell's - but the older Dell's would NOT have a USB boot selection after hitting the config key on POST unless a USB drive was already plugged in BEFORE it is powered-on.

So if you have not confirmed this, plug in a spare USB drive directly into the laptop (don't use a port extender), power on the laptop, press the "Enter Config" key, and see if it adds the USB Boot to the list.

If so, you can then create a bootable USB with Win7 install:

http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Bootable-Windows-7-or-Vista-USB-Drive

If it STILL does not allow USB boot, then all I can think of is trying a combo of Partition Magic and GRUB4DOS (with GRUB4DOS copied on the new SSD - probably while attached as a 2nd drive on a different system) and figuring how to chain the GRUB bootloader to the bootable USB created above. (You may just be able to extract the ISO and run the setup - haven't tried it.) You may have to activate the boot partition with something like Partition Magic.
 
Quote from WaveStrider:

I don't know if the HP's are like the older Dell's - but the older Dell's would NOT have a USB boot selection after hitting the config key on POST unless a USB drive was already plugged in BEFORE it is powered-on.
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Thanks for the suggestion WaveStrider.

My HP laptop CMOS menu was very clear... that there are only 3 choices to boot:

1) From built-in DVD
2) From SATA hard drive
3) From the network

There was no option for booting from USB. I know some of the older firmwares did not support booting from USB like the newer ones.
 
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