Insane maneuver - mobo upgrade+ssd

Hello,

I'm currently running a two year installation of Win7 Pro 32 bit, installed with AHCI on a 650i chipset motherboard , which i'd like to keep.

Here's my setup and my battleplan:

C:\80 gb hdd, 60gb full, system. IDE
D:\160gb hdd, empty, clean. IDE
Z:\1tb data HDD, SATA
650i moterboard chipset
Win7Pro 32 bit, updated to the day, installed with AHCI on

I want to move my installation to a Z77 motherboard, and move my entire system disk on a 64 gb SSD. Here's what i plan to do:

Copy C to D (using HDClone 1/1 drivecopy drive)
Shrink C to SDD size 64gb (defragged before)
Install new Drivers for Z77 mobo
Copy C to SDD (which will fit perfectly without ajustments or partition tricks)
Shutdown and pray
Remove C, D drives
Install mobo
-Drives on SATA 1/2
-Plug in evreything
Startup BIOS
-AHCI ON
-Hyperthreading ON
-Boot priority
Bootmgr/bcdfix if needed on bootup
Boot Windows

With luck, i should have my new system running on an SSD, with a new mobo, and without too many IRQ or such issues. I'll have a backup 1:1 clone before and after the driver updates and i also have IDE to Sata adaptors in case i need to plugin my IDE drives which i'm hoping i won't have to do.

So, what am i forgetting? Tips?

Not sure I understand it all, but....

If the current C occupies 60 GB, I certainly wouldn't move it to a 64 GB SSD, unless I could shrink C to maybe 30 first. 60 GB used on a 64 GB drive is way too cramped.

Why copy C to D?

I can drop it to 45-50, and it should be fine. As for the move to D, to have a pre-driver backup to have a working system with the old setup if the try really dies horribly.

Hard to tell - until you try it. I am not familiar with HD clone.

If you have any trouble booting, you could hit it with paragon p2p adjust program - that should do it.

You can get it free - not the current version, but it supports win7.

http://www.vistax64.com/general-disc...ta-new-pc.html

HDClone just does an extremely brute 1:1 copy. They actually mention NOT to have the clone HDD plugged in after a system restart.

Probably because it leaves the disk id's the same.

If windows sees two the same, it will change one. Then you won't be able to boot one of them , unless you run startup repair, or similar.

I think you might have a problem with the mobo change - win7 is quite adaptable - but if it doesn't boot up - or gives a stop 7b error, then hit it with the free paragon app. That should sort it out.

I would sort all needed data into the User folders and copy them onto one of the HD's to link afterward by right clicking to add to the related Library - Include a Folder - Windows 7 Forums . You only will want the OS and important programs on an SSD of that size.

I recommend the Acronis premium cloning/imaging app which comes free if any WD or Seagate drives are in the mix. The manual is on the HD Downloads page and is easy to understand.

Otherwise I'd consider the options in SSD - Install and transfer the Operating System.

You can SysPrep the HD now on the old hardware to prepare it to migrate, or after moving it boot the excellent Paragon P2P disk SIW2 linked to adjust the HD.

Not only would I unplug the source HD before attempting to start it, but make sure the target HD is set first to boot in BIOS setup. If it fails to start, unplug all other HDs, confirm WIn7 or it's 100mb System Reserved partition (preferred) is Marked Active, then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until it starts.

Extremely useful links. Thank you. In retrospect i think i'll do the SSD transfer on it's own on the old system and sysprep/move the whole shebang in the new setup, just to make sure i'm not hunting a dozen causes instead of 2-3 for problems later.

Hey guys, it's me again..

I'm sure my Win7, by all accounts, registry and AHCI controller device in Device manager, starts up in AHCI, but Samsung's SSD magician says it's running in non AHCI mode. Between upgrading nforce drivers and realising that my mobo does not natively support AHCI, but uses Jmicron's SATA controller which somehow does.. i'm really at a loss and i hope i don't have issues in the future because of this. I'm sure the new mobo is fully AHCI compliant but it would be ridiculous for the migration to fail because of AHCI of all things.

I'm still on the old setup with the SSD installed. I made the copy with HDclone of the 80 to 160GB switch, and am now running off the 160 GB install with no boot issues or the like. This gives me hope that a similar transfer to the SSD would wield the same success, but we are talking about moving it from the IDE controller to SATA, instead of just keeping the new HDD on the same IDE band.

One of the things that popped during the migration was the 4K alligment. All my HDD's are old, and certainly don't have that standard. I'm just want to make sure that i need to do that option with migrating to the SSD.