SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System

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  1. Posts : 24
    Windows 7 home premium x64
       #510

    Got that but do I just reboot and change the boot order in the BIOS or do I need to assign a drive letter to the SSD? Or does the reboot assign the drive letter?
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  2. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
    Thread Starter
       #511

    Don't worry about the drive letter. That should come automatically once booted.
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  3. Posts : 24
    Windows 7 home premium x64
       #512

    Thank you. The Paragon software worked great. On the reboot the new SSD became C: and the old C: drive picked up the next open letter. Perfect! You were 100% correct and I appreciate you help.
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  4. whs
    Posts : 26,210
    Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
    Thread Starter
       #513

    You are welcome. I am glad it worked so smoothly for you.
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  5. Posts : 26
    Win7 Home Premium X32
       #514

    Hello, Herr WHS and other forum members—

    I'm making final decisions about exploiting an SSD for my Win7 installation, and I've done my best to read and learn from WHS's tutorials and the many, many posts here. There are some questions about which I'm still uncertain, though.

    I need to decide on the size of the SSD to get. My notion at this point is 250GB, to lend itself to smooth migration from the single-partition 640GB HDD that contains Win7 and is my primary system drive...and to afford as much overall system speed as is practical. Is there a specific set of "system files" in a nominal Win7 (x32) installation that must be migrated...and presuming so, what comprises the set? Knowing this will let me confirm before purchase that 250GB will be large enough.

    [N.b., I confess that I've never been a fan of Microsoft's "My This" and "My That" default folder structure, and my preference has always been to install applications in folders with titles that I find informative. Similarly, there is very little in the "My Documents" folder on my system—I choose to organize my data files my own way.]

    WHS, you have said in several posts that the Paragon Migrate OS application (which I have) takes care of "...alignment, transfer of both partitions, shrink C: and make settings that you otherwise have to do manually." I don't question that, but the bit of experimenting I've done with the application doesn't seem to reveal what must be migrated as a minimum (with the rest being located in appropriate folders/libraries on HDD). How can the Migrate application "shrink" the contents of a mature Win7 C: drive entity without considerable interaction from the user?

    An approach that seems to have merit in my situation is to image the current Win7 on 640GB HDD to an available 750GB HDD (possibly using the Migrate application, instead of a traditional method), create a new "data" partition on the 750, and then go through the steps of locating the must-have OS files/folders into one partition, and the rest of the stuff into the "data" partition. Iterations could be done to result in a functioning Win7 that uses a size-limited OS partition suitable for migration to the SSD.

    WHS, you have also said in several posts that you favor restricting the size of the "data" to being on the order of 50% the size of the SSD. May I conclude that you mean data in a generic sense, referring to those files and folders that are mandatory for OS operation plus other entities (installed applications, e.g.) that can all fit within the 50% of the SSD size envelope? (E.g., I run XP and Win98 via VMWare emulations and so would probably want to locate those VHDs on the SSD for speed.)

    If this approach makes sense, would the use of the Migrate application (from the 640GB to the 750GB HDD) result in an OS partition that does not have an alignment "issue" that would impair migration later from the 750GB to the SSD? If there's any question, I can replicate the 640 drive to the 750 drive the old-fashioned way, partition it, and carry on from there.

    I invite comments, advice, and even derision (gently, please).

    Regards,

    Shen
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  6. Posts : 24,479
    Windows 7 Ultimate X64 SP1
       #515

    Welcome to Seven Forums Shenzie.

    The minimum w7 needs is what's on the install media, that is everything other than data and software you have installed. Here data means personal data, pictures, videos, documents, and music. Personally to achieve your goal I think a fresh clean install would be a good way to proceed.

    You can drastically reduce the space used on a SSD by locating your data other than program to a separate physical drive, here in a good way to do it while installing w7. User Profiles - Create and Move During Windows 7 Installation I have done this and my w7 install used less than 10GB after all updates, w7 x64 Ultimate.

    You can also change the default User folder after install too. User Folders - Change Default Location
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  7. Posts : 26
    Win7 Home Premium X32
       #516

    Thank you for your quick reply, Britton.

    Shen
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  8. Posts : 24,479
    Windows 7 Ultimate X64 SP1
       #517

    You're welcome, let us know how it goes.
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  9. Posts : 163
    Win7 64 Bit
       #518

    I used the girly way and got Paragon OS to SSD and it did a fine job. After spending $240 on a SSD another $19.95 was worth it for instant migration. Actually I used it twice. I had to redo it again because I corrupted the OS trying to activate ACHI. I migrated the HDD image exactly like it was with the recovery partition. I ended up leaving it on Raid as it goes faster then ACHI on my Dell E6520. I read the Intel controllers with my system respond to SSD well on this Raid. Everything is faster and works well. And I came from a Hybrid Momentus XT 2nd Gen of 750GB 7200 rpm which is a fast HDD.
    Also I migrated the image from the SSD back to a HDD and it works fine as well.

    Thanks for the tip.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 9,600
    Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #519

    Ok, I'm at my wits end. I couldn't make any sense of the directions for the Geeky way to transfer the OS from my Notebook to my new EVO so I looked at Samsung's migration software. All it showed was moving the C: and D: partitions, not the boot partition and the unallocated one that has the recovery software, which made me a bit nervous, so I bought Paragon's software. I wish I had known beforehand that the C: and boot partitions were all that would be transferred because that was all it did; what a waste of time and money! I probably could have done at least that much, if not more, using Samsung's migration program. I can create a partition and copy the data over (which will be a time consuming PITA but, at least, doable) but how the big fat hairy heck can I get the recovery partition over to the SSD?
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