This question posted as ' Cut down Win 7 after System Image restore to new HDD' in the community but no satisfactory answer. Please may I ask here.
Win reported a successful System Image creation of C: on my E: drive. C was replaced with a new 2TB drive (previously 1.5Tb) and the image restored. Win reported 'successful' restoration of C: immediately followed by the common 'You must restart your computer to apply these changes...' which I assumed was just Win taking note of the new drive.
On running, everything seems fine at first but you start to notice faults. Most importantly Win doesn't seem to recognise itself. If you start some of the functions in control panel (eg System Manager) you get a message from User Account Control 'Do you want to allow the following program from an unknown publisher to make changes to this computer?'.
Windows Live Mail won't work. You get a message 'Windows Live Mail could not be started. Closing Windows Live Mail. Your calendar contains corrupt data that is forcing Windows Live Mail to close (0x8E5E0247).' I have never used the calendar function so there shouldn't be any data there.
Browsing history in IE is there on very first opening but is immediately lost and never recovered. Favourites are intact but all login details are lost. All your internet feeds are lost. Message 'The feed download was interrupted.....' Trying to create new feeds is unsuccessful. When you try and download something the usual IE message 'Do you want to run or save ... ' comes up at the bottom of the screen but the buttons do not work so you cannot get any downloads.
Installed non-Windows applications do seem to run OK though I usually switch back to the original drive pretty quick.
2 x Dell Precision T5500 desktops, both reasonably high spec and more or less identical though one is nearly 3 years old and the other approaching 4. Both Win7 x64. The fault identical on both machines. I have had these drives in and out so many times trying to solve this there is a real risk of damaging the disk or lead. Can anyone suggest what might be wrong or how Win could be fixed?? I assume 2Tb is ok. Is it normal to get a restart message after a 'Successful' image restore message. I've tried cloning the drive as well but got exactly the same messages and faults. Next I was going to try creating the image after running something like EndItAll and then seeing if the image would restore more successfully to a different 1.5Tb drive though I don't see this should make any difference. 'Clutching at straws' comes to mind.
Thanks.