Is it possible to move Windows 7 OEM from SSD to HDD?

HenrikT · 10 Aug 2014

Hello, I have had some freezing problems that I've located to be my SSD, that is pulling it's last breaths.
My PC freezes after an hour after starting up, that repeats all the time. I browsed the internet and found out some people had the same problem, and the cause of that was an aging SSD.

I have bought this PC from a store, with Windows installed on it. I read about this and I am thinking it is an OEM version of it, since I have no install disk or anything for it. I read about reinstalling with OEM that I might not be able to reactivate it or something.

My question is, is it possible to move the installation of Windows 7 OEM from my SSD to my HDD in the same computer?

whs · 10 Aug 2014

Sure, that's easy. Make an image of all partitions of the SSD and restore it on the HDD.

Imaging with free Macrium

HenrikT · 10 Aug 2014

So after imaging everything from where windows is installed and I have created a virtual disk from the files, can I just disable, and deattach my SSD from my PC which has the original files in?

whs · 10 Aug 2014

An image with Macrium is not a virtual disk. The image has to be restored to the disk where you want it. The image itself does not function as an operational system.

I suggest you carefully read the tutorial and all the links so that you understand how this works.

HenrikT · 10 Aug 2014

I read everything and restored the image on the disk.

Those tutorials just tell me how to backup images, I don't want to backup my windows, I want to completely move my windows to my HDD and have it operate from there so I can disable and throw away my SSD

whs · 10 Aug 2014

The tutorial tells you how to backup and restore. It even give you a link for the .iso of the restore program.

But if you have already restored the image(s) to the HDD, then you only need to change the BIOS boot order and set the HDD as first boot device.

HenrikT · 10 Aug 2014

I noticed a problem, if I put the image(s) writable, they will disappear on computer restart, how do I make them permanent while being writable. I tried to search for the info but couldn't find.

whs · 10 Aug 2014

Sorry, I really do not understand what you are trying to tell us.

BJB · 10 Aug 2014

You have mounted your image, i.e. given it a drive letter and made it accessible in Explorer. Why? This isn't necessary or helpful in any way at all in moving your system to hdd as there is no way to make a mounted image permanent. It dies when you shut down.

You will need first to create a new partition at the start of your hdd similar in size to your ssd in order to accommodate your system when you write it to the hdd. Otherwise restoring the image to your hdd would cause you to lose everything else on it, including your image file. So you would first have to use a partition management tool such as MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition to shrink and move to the end of the drive your existing partition. Once that is done you would use the Macrium Reflect bootable CD to boot the computer and find and restore the image file to your new partition. You would also need to set the BIOS to boot from hdd rather than from ssd.

Far preferable imo would be simply to replace the ssd and write the image to that.

gregrocker · 10 Aug 2014

Store the image on an external hard drive, make the Boot DIsk, boot it and apply the image to the SSD.

Or you can Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 with everything provided in the blue link. If you researched this on the web then you should have seen this tutorial which comes up first in all web searches for reinstalling OEM, and it easily dispels the rumours you heard.