What is Ghost Imaging Backup, in details

Hi All,
I'm the sort of person who doesn't need to know how a car works to be able to drive it to get me where I want to go. Getting where I want to go is all I am interested in, not the 'Geeky' stuff under the bonnet! However, I do recognise that the car is merely an 'interface' that has been programmed to perform the act of fulfilling my desire of getting me from A to B, and can sometimes go wrong. Which is why, when my computer goes wrong, I need the help of 'Geeks' (God bless 'em!) to suggest a fix. The scenario is this:-
1) My working 'C' drive (old mechanical) 285GB HD has 60 GB of data, boot files, system files etc. in 3 partitions on it.
2) I want to do away with the mechanical HD and transfer everything to a new SSD of 111 GB capacity, and have that as the bootable drive, without having all the hassle of re-installing programs etc. etc. i.e. just make a copy of the old HD onto the SSD drive and throw away the old HD (or keep it for backup).

I would be most grateful if anyone could please tell me the best/easiest way to achieve this, in words of not more that two syllables, as computer-speak tends to go in one ear and out the other!

Many thanks,


Mike
PS Am running W7 Professional

blott said:

1) My working 'C' drive (old mechanical) 285GB HD has 60 GB of data, boot files, system files etc. in 3 partitions on it.
2) I want to do away with the mechanical HD and transfer everything to a new SSD of 111 GB capacity, and have that as the bootable drive, without having all the hassle of re-installing programs etc. etc. i.e. just make a copy of the old HD onto the SSD drive and throw away the old HD (or keep it for backup).

Have you purchased the SSD yet? Retail package versions may come with software designed to do such a transfer.

It's doable, even without software provided with the SSD.

Post a screen capture of the partition layout as shown in Disk Management of your current setup if possible.

We need to know the size of each partition on your current drive, what partitions have data, etc.

Do you plan to keep personal data on the SSD, or will it be used only for Windows and programs?

Do you necessarily want to have more than one partition on the SSD?

You say you have 3 partitions, which combined have 60 GB occupied. Is that one partition for Windows, another for programs, and another for data?

Most people here use an SSD just for Windows and applications, in a single partition---with data on a separate mechanical hard drive. But there are exceptions.

ignatzatsonic said:

blott said:

1) My working 'C' drive (old mechanical) 285GB HD has 60 GB of data, boot files, system files etc. in 3 partitions on it.
2) I want to do away with the mechanical HD and transfer everything to a new SSD of 111 GB capacity, and have that as the bootable drive, without having all the hassle of re-installing programs etc. etc. i.e. just make a copy of the old HD onto the SSD drive and throw away the old HD (or keep it for backup).

Have you purchased the SSD yet? Retail package versions may come with software designed to do such a transfer.

It's doable, even without software provided with the SSD.

Post a screen capture of the partition layout as shown in Disk Management of your current setup if possible.

We need to know the size of each partition on your current drive, what partitions have data, etc.

Do you plan to keep personal data on the SSD, or will it be used only for Windows and programs?

Do you necessarily want to have more than one partition on the SSD?

You say you have 3 partitions, which combined have 60 GB occupied. Is that one partition for Windows, another for programs, and another for data?

Most people here use an SSD just for Windows and applications, in a single partition---with data on a separate mechanical hard drive. But there are exceptions.

Hi IG,
All I want to do is to transfer everything from my HD onto my SSD, and use the SSD instead of the HD. Simples!

Yes, I've bought the SSD, it's a OCZ Agility 3, 120 GB. No, no transfer s/w with it. I did a Windows image transfer earlier from the HD to the SSD, and made the SSD bootable from BIOS settings, but it didn't boot up when restarted, so looks like kboot files not transferred.

I downloaded free Driveimage XML and tried to copy disk-to-disk, but it told me the target medium had to have a capacity to match the origin HD. Currently the target SSD has smaller capacity than the source HD, but more than enough to hold what's used on the HD.

Hope the attached screen shot helps.

Regards,


Mike

blott said:

I did a Windows image transfer earlier from the HD to the SSD, and made the SSD bootable from BIOS settings, but it didn't boot up when restarted, so looks like boot files not transferred.

I downloaded free Driveimage XML and tried to copy disk-to-disk, but it told me the target medium had to have a capacity to match the origin HD. Currently the target SSD has smaller capacity than the source HD, but more than enough to hold what's used on the HD.

Mike:

There is probably more than one way to do this. Here is what I would try.

I'd let others comment on this too, to get other opinions.

1: backup your data from the current C to some other safe location.

2: shrink your current C drive from its current 285 to maybe 70 or 80. You may be able to do this in Disk Management, or you may have to use a program such as Partition Wizard. Disk Managment may not allow you to shrink down to 70 or 80.

After that shrink, the total occupied space on all partitions should be smaller than the 111 available on the SSD.

3: Make an image of all 3 of your partitions, save that image file to another drive (not the SSD), and then restore that new image to the SSD.

That might work. It may be preferable to make a separate image of each of your 3 partitions and then restore them individually---rather than all 3 partitions in a single image. I'm not sure.

I'd use Macrium to make and restore the images, but other programs should work as well.

Get more opinions and be sure to back up your data before beginning.

ignatzatsonic said:

blott said:

I did a Windows image transfer earlier from the HD to the SSD, and made the SSD bootable from BIOS settings, but it didn't boot up when restarted, so looks like boot files not transferred.

I downloaded free Driveimage XML and tried to copy disk-to-disk, but it told me the target medium had to have a capacity to match the origin HD. Currently the target SSD has smaller capacity than the source HD, but more than enough to hold what's used on the HD.

Mike:

There is probably more than one way to do this. Here is what I would try.

I'd let others comment on this too, to get other opinions.

1: backup your data from the current C to some other safe location.

2: shrink your current C drive from its current 285 to maybe 70 or 80. You may be able to do this in Disk Management, or you may have to use a program such as Partition Wizard. Disk Managment may not allow you to shrink down to 70 or 80.

After that shrink, the total occupied space on all partitions should be smaller than the 111 available on the SSD.

3: Make an image of all 3 of your partitions, save that image file to another drive (not the SSD), and then restore that new image to the SSD.

That might work. It may be preferable to make a separate image of each of your 3 partitions and then restore them individually---rather than all 3 partitions in a single image. I'm not sure.

I'd use Macrium to make and restore the images, but other programs should work as well.

Get more opinions and be sure to back up your data before beginning.

Hi IG,
Many thanks for taking the trouble to help. It seems there's no 'easy' way!

I tried XXClone and made the target (SSD) self-bootable by installing 3 files (Write MBR, Write Boot Sector & Write BOOT.INI). Two messages popped up saying 'NTLDR file not found in source volume' & 'NTDETECT.COM file not found'. I continued to click 'ok' and some files were written onto the SSD. Should I ignore the messages or is it serious? Are those missing files important?

Regards,


Mike

blott said:

I tried XXClone and made the target (SSD) self-bootable by installing 3 files (Write MBR, Write Boot Sector & Write BOOT.INI). Two messages popped up saying 'NTLDR file not found in source volume' & 'NTDETECT.COM file not found'. I continued to click 'ok' and some files were written onto the SSD. Should I ignore the messages or is it serious? Are those missing files important?

I can't comment on XXClone. Never even heard of it. Macrium, Acronis, EaseUS, or Windows built-in capabilities are what most on this forum use.

Cloning is different than imaging. Cloning is much less common. Is there a reason you don't attempt imaging?

Your boot files are probably on your smallest partition, not on C. That may be why XXClone can't fnd those files.

Look at the tutorial Kado linked you to.

ignatzatsonic said:

blott said:

I tried XXClone and made the target (SSD) self-bootable by installing 3 files (Write MBR, Write Boot Sector & Write BOOT.INI). Two messages popped up saying 'NTLDR file not found in source volume' & 'NTDETECT.COM file not found'. I continued to click 'ok' and some files were written onto the SSD. Should I ignore the messages or is it serious? Are those missing files important?

I can't comment on XXClone. Never even heard of it. Macrium, Acronis, EaseUS, or Windows built-in capabilities are what most on this forum use.

Cloning is different than imaging. Cloning is much less common. Is there a reason you don't attempt imaging?

Your boot files are probably on your smallest partition, not on C. That may be why XXClone can't fnd those files.

Look at the tutorial Kado linked you to.

Hi IG,
I have no idea of the difference between imaging and cloning. Is there a quick answer?:)

The boot files are on the 'C' partition, according to Computer Management (see attached).

So, what sort of things are in the OEM partion?

Does it matter that the SSD has lower capacity than my old HD?

Regards,


Mike

kado897 said:

There is a tutorial here which may help. SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System

Thanks Kado, I'm reading it now. I think I'll go the easy way. My brain is starting to hurt...!


Regards,


Mike