Installing an SSD in a MacBook Pro mid 2010 but OS X is on an external USB HDD
what I did when my hdd died last week (coincidence):
I replaced my hdd with a smaller ssd and replaced the disk drive with a hdd.
Then I installed a fresh version of osx on the ssd.
After installation I plugged in my dead hdd with my old installation and simply dragged my home folder to my new hdd.
When this was finished i changed the path to my home folder in system settings to my old folder I just copied to my new hdd.
this gave me a brand new instal of osx and 99% of al my data I only had to re-download a few plugins.

You could try this aswel since I am guessing there is a problem with your old osx installation.

So:


Reinstall osx on your SSD
Drag your old home folder on your new drive
change the path to your home folder in system settings