Hey guys,
I have a laptop with a 500GB HDD of which approx 70GB i is used space
I am wanting to install an SSD in place of the HDD.
Can i create an image of my HDD using Win7 backup and restore and copy this over to the new SSD without any issues?
Someone told me that my SSD may not be able to tell the difference between used space and free space if i do it this way
Thanks
I wouldn't trust the Windows image system, but rather this:
SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System
Or this with a free program, Macrium Reflect.
Imaging with free Macrium
the better way though with a new SSD is to do a clean install after making a back up of all your data, disconnect all other disk drives though.
thanks Britton
I used win7 back up to create an image of my C drive. After my HDD failed i used that image to restore my new HDD back to 100% working order exactly the way it was before it died.
Im not sure why people have hesitation in using this program. Doesnt it create an exact image? If so, what would be wrong with using it?
It's just the built-in Windows backup doesn't let one see what it's doing nor give many options.
SSDs are different than HDDs. They have to be e.g. aligned, defrag has to be turned off, etc.. If you go by the tutorial that Gary posted in post #2, you should be able to do it. In this tutorial is also a link to the Paragon Migration tool that does everything with 3 clicks - but is costs $19.95.
If you do it manually, I also suggest you copy the bootmgr to the C partition (if you have the 100MB active system partition) before you make the image of the C partition. That makes life a lot easier because you can forget about the 100MB partition.
Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD
ok thanks guys.
i will check the links out.
I just thought it would be as simple as creating an image and then copying that onto the SSD
Post the current disk layout. So post screenshot of disk management. Cloning to SSD is just the same as cloning to HDD. Only things to remember:
After restore check this:
- TRIM must be on. It's on by default in windows.
- Don't defrag the SSD. Win7 sees it's an SSD by default and doesn't defrag it.
- Align the SSD partitions. Can be done later as well
- Turn off system protection on ghost disks (missing disks) after restore System Protection - Turn On or Off
- configure system protection the way you want it System Protection - Turn On or Off
Hi,
Here is a pic of disk management. Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting
Ive had a look at shrinking volume on the c drive but it says i can only shrink to 267GB. Image - TinyPic - Free Image Hosting, Photo Sharing & Video Hosting
I assume that somewhere along the line unmovable data was added onto a different part of the HDD, does this sound right? Ive tried win 7 defrag but its saying ive got 0% fragmentation
Im currently running O&O defrag to see what that will do.
What's on SYSTEM_DRV? It's 1.17GB and 572MB is free. SYSTEM_DRV has the bootmanager and bootmenu (and maybe recovery environment[?]) But why that big? What else is there. Just a question not a real issue.
Why shrink C? It can be done by running Partition Wizard bootable CD. Free download Magic Partition Manager Software, partition magic alternative, free partition magic, partition magic Windows 7 and server partition software - Partition Wizard Online (last one in list). Boot from that CD
And something like How to Move/Resize Partition with partition manager? Partition Wizard Move/Resize Partition Video Help.
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