Hi,
I am considering installing a SSD to store the operating system only whilst retaining my HDD. I would like to migrate W7 as opposed to a clean install. I believe the hardware side of things is as simple as buying a 240Gb SSD and adapter cradle and plug into SATA slot on the mobo, as well as PSU, right?
Is 240Gb a good size for W7 Ultimate?
How would I go about migrating the OS?
It depends on how large your OS partition is now? Look at the Properties for C drive to see.
In cases where it exceeds the size of the SSD, the User folders can be maintained on the hard drive and linked from the new OS on C. You'd need to move them off of C though before imaging it over to the SSD, to another partition excluded from the image. After Win7 starts up on the SSD, link to them following User Folders - Change Default Location.
To transfer the image I'd use Macrium Imaging - Windows 7 Help Forums.
This would be a good time to do a perfect Clean Reinstall Windows 7 following these steps which compile everything that works best in Win7.
Last edited by gregrocker; 27 Jul 2015 at 22:54.
Hi,
There's no better upgrade to a system more than replacing a hdd with a ssd :)
I prefer doing it with a clean install though,
The extra time is well worth it.
250gb is a good size
I would install all programs on it too just relocate personal files and games to another hdd or ssd.
Thanks for the info, Guys. To get this straight I can copy my whole c: image to a new ssd then change the default folder locations back to the old 'spinning' disk right?
Problem is that in C:\properties it is shown as 344Gb used (ie more than 240Gb). How can I transfer only the operating system and leave the rest?
Also, if I were to remove the 'spinning' disk and do a fresh install on the SSD would I still be able to access programs and games on the 'spinning' disk once reinserted?
I thought I explained how to move your User Folders to a new partition on the hard drive so that they are not included in the image, and then later link to them from the new SSD.
If there's not enough room on that hard drive you'll need to move them to an external until after the imaging when you can move them back once the image is booting and satisfactory.
You can clean up the C partition to get it ready for imaging following the Bloatware tutorial under my signature picture below. I would delete any files or programs which you know you don't need. Then clean and defrag following tutorial.
You could migrate the OS by creating a System Image now, then using a System Repair Disc which you should have made already to copy the System Image into the SSD (although any programs would, I think, need to be re-installed from their installers but this would help to reduce the size of the transferred System Image). At least that is the operation I have learned from this forum although I have never had to use it yet. Perhaps experts could confirm.
My expert shop built my Windows 7 machine in March with a 256 GB SSD for drive (C: ) and a 1 TB internal conventional hard disc (X: ). (C: ) holds the usual System files and some programs: Blender (a 3D modeller); Adobe Photoshop; Adobe InDesign; Adobe Bridge; Microsoft Office; Bonjour; iTunes; a couple of browsers; and some utilities. The SSD has 163,312,008,192 Bytes (=153 GB) free space which seems plenty for the system to use and to install some more programs (although I plan to install future programs on the (X: ) drive when appropriate whenever the installer offers the choice).
Coming from a Mac I am surprised that Windows 7 always completely closes a program and removes it from RAM when I press the red X, requiring the program to be loaded and opened every time, whereas with the Mac programs remained loaded in memory awaiting immediate opening. This made for speed. Nevertheless, the SSD is so fast that major programs like the Adobe ones load and open from scratch very quickly.
Yea win-8 and 10 uses fake shut down it's annoying to say the least if you switch out ssd's/ hdd's a lot.
Which I do.
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