Windows 10: cannot get recovery disk to install fresh windows version, get set back through BIOS endlessly

I'm trying to migrate Windows from an SSD (120GB) to a new larger SSD (1TB). The internet is of course full of ways to do this, and I originally tried cloning the drive (via easeUS and similar tools), but all gave me one error or another. I decided that I was okay with a clean install if it got rid of the gremlins, since any vaguely important files were either on a separate HDD and/or on the cloud. I learned from posts like this that Windows should be smart enough to recognize the hardware if I'm just switching the boot drive, so I created a recovery disk (I don't have a handy spare USB) and disconnected everything but the BD/DVD drive and the new SSD. After booting successfully from the Recovery Disk, I get to the expected screen like this:





However, when I hit "Next", it goes back through the BIOS splash screen and tries to boot the computer like normal, which of course doesn't work since the bootable drive isn't there. This happens with two separate recovery disks, both created by and for this computer, one made today and another made maybe 1.5 years ago that was previously used successfully to do a clean install.


Furthermore, if I'm not fast enough to get into the boot options, and it tries to boot from the (new) drive, I get this:




I'm not really sure what this screen means, and hitting either F1 and F8 are exercises in frustration neither do anything.


Other things I've tried:

- Using the SATA port (and cable, separately and simultaneously) used by the old SSD to see if something didn't like the SATA port the new drive is installed on for some reason, but the same thing happens

-Disabling CSM in BIOS (I honestly don't know what this does, but another thread had a somewhat similar issue and this was one thing they said to try) The computer won't see any drives with CSM disabled, just has old boot options from when I experimented with Linux Ubuntu and Mint (side question: how do I get rid of these?)


When the computer is properly connected it has no issue recognizing the drive, so I don't think the drive itself is bad.


Please help. I fully admit to having just enough technical knowledge and google-fu to get me in trouble, and something I tried could've made the situation worse than it would have otherwise been, but I'd really like to have more room on my C: drive.


System info, if needed:

Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H

Intel i5-3570K

NVIDIA GTX960 (other note: this is a relatively new (<1 month) hardware change/upgrade from an older graphics card. I don't know if this has any effect)

32GB RAM

Blu-ray read/write drive

Storage:
Kingston HyperX 120GB SSD --current C: drive

Crucial MX300 1050GB SSD --new drive

Seagate Barracuda 500GB and 3TB HDDs --for user files

:)

 

Installing Drivers in Recovery M4 SSD

I can't seem to figure out how to install drivers so that can copy my system image to new laptop hard drive. I went as far as to install a new inactivated windows 7 onto the hard drive so I know it works, but when I point recovery at C:\Windows\system32\drivers\disk.sys, I got an error something along the lines of "not relevant to system hardware" (or something like that I forget the exact wording).

I can list the drive in diskpart, and I made sure it is not excluded for copying the image, but after 3 days of fiddling, I still can't get it to work. Where is the driver that I need for recovery to be able to install an image to the new hard drive? I checked crucial website, but they don't seem to list drivers for M4. I assume that since I was able to install a fresh inactivated Windows 7 from a startup disk that the driver I need would be somewhere in that system so maybe I'm just pointing recovery at the wrong file?

 

Fresh windows install help.

Hi.
I have Samsung Series 7 NP7005ZA-S0AUS laptop pc. I decided to do a fresh windows install so I used a flash drive to re-install windows (I formatted the hard drive at the begnining of the installation). When the laptop booted first time in the installation process, I got a screen saying boot menu but it's empty. I clicked alt+ctl+de, the laptop restarts and gets me back to the same screen. I entered the bios and made sure the hd is on the top of the list and save/restarted but same issue. I tried loading bios default settings and that did not help either. I noticed in the boot menu that there are exclamation marks next to the HD and the SATA DVD drives, not sure what that means but they were not there before. I honestly think a bios update can do the trick but there is no way to upgrade the bios of a samsung laptop without Windows like my case so I am stuck.
Any help will be very much appreciated.
Notice: The hard drive has 8GB msata built in.

 

Windows 7 Ultimate - fresh install problem

Okay, I changed it from ahci to IDE, I got one step further. It now says "Operating System not found" after a series of checks (PXE, broadcom etc etc??).

I know that one already. Like I said, I did a fresh install *Big Grin but by default, mine is set to ahci! :/

My sata mode is in ahci, I switched it to IDE and it said "Operating system not found" so I guess that's a little closer... is it?