To answer the questions, yes, reloading would be difficult since the customer has a decent amount of paid software that would take a while to reload onto the computer.

We are switching out to an SSD for the speed; customer wants to beef the system up.

I just used the AOMEI program to image, still having the boot issues.  There must be a driver or something that the system doesn't like about switching to an SSD.

Also, the SSD is a Mushkin 500 GB.  MKNSSDRE500GB/

There are a number of paid options as well such as Ghost (Symantec) and Acronis.

but if you are interested in free options you might want to look at Clonezilla and FOG.

http://clonezilla.org/
https://fogproject.org/

create a full system image on your existing drive with Acronis,  if you have one already, you don't need to create a new one now.
Save the backup somewhere else like an external drive.  Then boot to Acronis Bootable Offline media (you can create this in Acronis using the Rescue media builder - I prefer USB, but if you have the ability to make an .iso and burn to disk that should work too).  Once booted into recovery media, you would push the image to your new SSD - you can do this with the SSD already being in place where the original drive was located or to the SSD in an external USB case or dock.  Once the image is pushed though, you will need to make sure the SSD has replaced the original drive.  Should boot fine after that.

Once you have imaged your main/original drive, remove it.  That way, you cannot accidentally overwrite (just in case).  If things don't work as planned, you can always put the orginal drive back and start again then.

1. create a recovery media  with the software you want to use. (Acronis)
2. create a partition image of the "C:" drive or All drives on current HDD, remove original HDD and replace it with  SSD.
3. boot with recovery media  and restore the "C:" partition to new ssd.
4. Remove the DVD recovery media and boot.

see my post about the FREE paragon soft - it works well, and fast

Have you tried resetting bios to default values? F10 at start up then select restore default values then save and exit.

Sorry about the delayed response.  It takes a while every time I backup and restore.

joinaunion, I have not reset default values in BIOS, but I have changed several settings.  I can also confirm I can install Windows 7 on the SSD fresh no problem in the system.

Nobus, I have not tried Paragon yet, but I have used Norton Ghost, Acronis True Image, and Acronis Universal Restore to no luck.

Ramin, I have also tried to image over just the Windows partition, and then repair the boot loader, still no luck.

It's like this system doesn't like the SSD, but it works if I load it fresh.  I'm just confused.  I wish I could find a minidump file or something to upload.  All I know is the first time it tries to boot after imaging, it says on Starting Windows forever, then goes to STOP 7B.  The computer reboots, and then it doesn't see the SSD until I turn the system off completely.

Note, I have also tried sysprep /generalize /shutdown /oobe and imaged to the SSD.  Even THAT didn't work!

does the ssd have the latest firmware?

and is your Bios also the latest? F.61 seems to be the latest
http://h20564.www2.hp.com/hpsc/swd/public/readIndex?sp4ts.oid=5060881&swLangOid=8&swEnvOid=4058

@Scott -  Cloning your HDD is one thing and place it in your computer and make it to run and boot as operating system is another.

1. use one of the software mentioned above to create an image backup on SSD drive.
2. if you place the SSD in your computer and you were not able to boot Windows 10 then,

• don't do any repair on this SSD
• check or replace SSD cable and port ( make sure port0 in mainboard is selected )
• check Bios settings values regarding your SSD

.

if you got any error, please post it here.
and please let us know your mainboard model/make.

also if you cloned your drive - check if the partitions are aligned
look here how to check and fix it :  https://www.howtogeek.com/270358/how-to-speed-up-your-solid-state-drive-by-re-aligning-its-partitions/

yep - that's what happens often - tx for feedback

Customer decided to keep original HDD.