> I have cloned the hard drive from a SSD to a larger SSD.

What cloning software did you use? The problem is probably due to the cloning software. I recommend Casper to clone. I've cloned many, many times to and from a mix of HDD, SSD, and hybrid drives...has never failed...Windows always boots and always remains activated. It can clone to the same size drive or to a larger one or even to a smaller one, as long as there is enough space on the smaller one to house the used (non-free) space from the larger one. It's not free, but it's reasonably priced and worth every penny.

Two other well-regarded (also non-free) products are Acronis and Macrium. I used Acronis previously, but now prefer Casper.

If you're looking for something that is free, I've heard good things here at EE about these (some may be free only for non-commercial use — check the licensing terms for each):

Clonezilla
DriveImage XML
EaseUS Disk Copy Home
Paragon Backup&Recovery Free

But I haven't tried them as I do all of my cloning now with Casper. Here's a 5-minute EE video Micro Tutorial, Cloning a Hard Drive with Casper, showing how to do it. As a disclaimer, I want to emphasize that I have no affiliation with this company and no financial interest in it whatsoever. I am simply a happy user/customer. Regards, Joe

Thanks for the advice Joe.

I used Acronis to clone and actually have used it many times myself with no issues.

I'm really stumped with this.

I removed everything but the new drive just to make sure.

> I removed everything but the new drive just to make sure.

Yes, good idea, that's what I was thinking.

If you don't mind experimenting, you could try the free trial of Casper:
https://www.fssdev.com/products/casper/trial/

A limitation of the trial is that it doesn't support volume resizing, so the clone will be the same size as the original, but at least you'll see if Windows boots (and stays activated) after the clone. Besides, it would then be easy to extend the unused partition of the new SSD into the existing partition or simply create a new partition from the unused space — or you could purchase a license, which removes all limitations of the trial. Regards, Joe

Have you cloned the entire drive or some partitions?

I'm going to try it now.

Not having used it before, I have a question:

Does the setup program allow me to create a bootable DVD so that I would clone drives similar to the way I do it with Acronis?

Hi Noxcho,

I cloned the entire drive.

> Does the setup program allow me to create a bootable DVD so that I would clone drives similar to the way I do it with Acronis?

Yes. The program group contains an item called "Startup Disk Creator". I used it to create CDs of a bootable Casper...have used the bootable CD many times...works great! Regards, Joe

P.S. Sorry for the delay in responding...dog needed a walk. :)

Did you reconnect the new drive on the same sata port as the one it replaced?

Acronis and other software tools are using the same approach in cloning. How many drives do you have in your system?
Can you take a screen shot of Windows Disk Management before you do cloning and post it here?

Hi All,

Thanks for the replies.  

I thought I posted my solution last night but now looking at the thread didn't see my reply posted so I'm doing so again.

I ended up rebuilding the PC with the new hard drive and re-installing all software.  Not ideal but it is working.  I wanted to get beyond the issue I was having and had spent way too much time on it.

Thanks for the help and suggestions.

Rick