Problems Installing a Working HDD in Another Laptop

I have a Dell Inspiron 5555 laptop that came with Windows 10, but the hard drive failed about 6 months ago. I also have another Dell laptop - Inspiron 1546, that came with Windows 7 but was upgraded to 10 about a year ago. The 1546 is old and has some physical problems with the hinges and power cord.

Now the 5555 boots up just fine when I put in the HDD from an identical 5555. And the 1546 boots just fine with the current HDD. But when I put the 1546 drive in the 5555 I get this Dell diagnostics screen that ultimately tells me that I have no bootable device. I even ran the 1546 drive through chkdsk and it found no bad clusters.

My guess is that there's something in the BIOS of the 5555 that's causing a problem.

If I understood you correctly:
You removed a HDD containing Windows 10 from a Dell Inspiron 1546 laptop.
You installed that same HDD containing Windows 10 in a Dell Inspiron 5555 laptop.
When you start the Dell Inspiron 5555 laptop, you get a "no bootable device" message.

Besides these 2 laptops being different models, they both have different hardware and devices.
That's why you're having that issue.

The 1546 drive is recognized in the BIOS of the 5555. Is this problem solvable? My wife has all her work product (she's working from home) on the 1546.

The HDD from the 1546 being detected in the BIOS in the 5555 is normal.
The problem is Windows 10 was installed in that HDD while it was in the 1546, but that HDD containing Windows 10 is now in the 5555.
Both laptops are different models and have different hardware and devices.
Because of that, Windows 10 will not boot and load in the 5555.

Is there any way to clone the 1546 HDD to a new SSD and put the cloned drive in the 5555? Some of the stuff she has would have to be reinstalled and doing that while her office is mostly closed would be problematic.

boweasel said:

The 1546 drive is recognized in the BIOS of the 5555. Is this problem solvable? My wife has all her work product (she's working from home) on the 1546.

If the Windows for the 1546 was a Legacy bios install using an MBR partition layout, and the 5555 is a UEFI/GPT machine then it will not boot from this HDD. If so, then a UEFI bios can be set to boot in Legacy mode, doing so should enable the 1546 HDD to boot.

The problem is almost guaranteed to not be with the computers being different models and hardware. Windows 10 is very good at being moved from computer to computer. I've done it multiple times as have many other members.

The first issue, as @Bree has stated is likely that the old computer was a legacy BIOS computer, and the active (system) partition on the HDD is NTFS formatted. The newer computer is likely UEFI, and in UEFI mode most computers can only boot from a FAT32 system partition. You need to do 1 of 2 things to fix that problem. In "BIOS" settings of the new computer, disable secure booting and enable CSM (legacy BIOS) mode. Then boot the HDD in CSM mode.

or

Replace the existing NTTFS system partition with a FAT32 EFI System Partition. Or if the OS partition is also the system partition (not common), then shrink the OS partition and create a new FAT32 EFI System Partition.

The other major hang up, once you get past there being no boot device found, is the SATA drive controller mode. As long as both computers were set for AHCI, you should be OK there.

And yes, you can also clone the HDD as well.

Just when I thought I'd have to buy a new drive and reinstall. NavyLCDR, you ARE the man. Your suggestion behind Door Number One worked perfectly. The time, effort and re-downloading issues you have spared me are immense.

I don't mean to sound snarky, but it's been soooo long since I've had a computer problem solved, I spent several minutes trying to figure out how to mark it solved