eventually I'm going to get a SSD, right now I have one main drive a 7200 rpm wd hard drive.
when i eventually get my SSD, what would be involved in moving my OS and programs to the SSD? is it a simple click and move?
is there a tutorial somewhere?
thanks :)
Short of exporting your registry, your user profiles, and the rest of your non windows folders. I cannot think of any other way to do it.
You can clone directly from HD to SSD using the excellent free Acronis programs available if either of the drives are WD or Seagate. Those programs also have imaging options so you save the image first to external or another HD, then unplug the Source HD to reimage to the SSD using Boot Disk.
http://support.wdc.com/product/downl...l.asp?swid=119
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...ads/discwizard
Win7 has its own built-in backup imaging program: Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup
Many prefer Macrium Reflect as an alternative free imaging program. http://download.cnet.com/Macrium-Ref...=dl&tag=button
I would personally run the free Acronis cloning program on Auto setting as it is real easy and works well. Be sure to include the MBR and Track0 it it asks.
There might be an easier way, quite similar in nature to what has been suggested above. Just that this is what I actually did to install my SSD with a Windows 7 OS image a few months ago, using Windows all the way.
After prepping my SSD with new Firmware, etc., I shrank my C partition (running Windows 7 Ultimate to my satisfaction) to a partition size about 10% under the available (accessible) drive size of my new SSD, then created an image of the C Drive (OS partition) using the Windows 7 backup. Windows saved this, my current System's image, in a second installed HDD on my pc.
Then disconnected my current C drive, plugged in my new SSD, and restarted the computer into the Windows 7 repair DVD, and rebuilt and mounted the Windows 7 OS backup image into my new SSD, and presto.
Has been working perfectly ever since.
Hope this helps.
Last edited by ProfQ; 05 Nov 2010 at 00:44.
Windows easy transfer will migrate only the user files and program settings to a New OS install all programs would need to be re-installed.
Elf...
I did the exact thing back in May. After weeks of thinking, and planning it turned out to be as simple as using the software, in this case Acronis True Image 10, that came with the hard drive(Kingston).
Clean and defrag your OS drive.
Have a connected back up and system image drive. and make one just before final shutdown before adding the new drive.
NOTE: make sure the partition you're cloning is the same or smaller size than ssd drive your cloning to.
Connect the new drive, and make sure you can identify it.
Make sure your bios is set to boot from cd/dvd drive first.
Put the acronis disc in and reboot.
follow the directions in the software.
After its done, when rebooting, go into bios and change the boot drive to the ssd.
reboot and enjoy your old, but now faster, OS on a new drive.
Click on the ssdnow software installation link:
Kingston Technology Company - SSDNow - Learn More
You have 2 options:
1. Either do like ProfQ has described and use imaging. That requires that you first adjust your current C to a size that is slightly smaller than the SSD. Imaging cannot "squeeze" e.g. an image of a 100GB partition to a 60GB SSD. For that I would use Macrium: Imaging with free Macrium
2. Cloning can "squeeze" and move the clone to a smaller SSD. Here I would use free Acronis (there are also a lot of Pro (paid) versions of other programs that can do that). Acronis True Image Home - Free software downloads and software reviews - CNET Download.com
Thanks whs
Your post reminded me I should mention software I used for my SSD install/migration
For both HD and SSD partition sizing I used partition wizard home edition- a free software
For the SSD I only used the windows image and then benchmarked it.
Did try Acronis first, since I've had some experience w it, but failed twice
So used above simple imaging and never looked back.
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