Backing up OS from HDD to smaller SSD

Kaktussoft said:

aruwin said:

Kaktussoft said:

How come the SSD has system reserved? How did you backup C and how restore C? Using macrium boot from CD?

Yes, using macrium reflect free. And after imaging it onto my external hard disk, I used the macrium CD to for booting it and restore it.

Is old HDD still connected during the restore process? Not a good thing. Maybe it adjusts the bootmenu on HDD "system reserved" instead of SSD "system reserved".

How long does restore take to finish?

No, I have detached my old HDD right after the image was created (of course after switching it off) so now I am in the restoring process with my backup drive(external Hardisk) and the new SSD that I put into my laptop. The restore process is now at 47% and I started like half an hour ago.

Kaktussoft said:

aruwin said:

Kaktussoft said:

Is old HDD still connected during the restore process? Not a good thing. Maybe it adjusts the bootmenu on HDD "system reserved" instead of SSD "system reserved".

How long does restore take to finish?

No, I have detached my old HDD right after the image was created (of course after switching it off) so now I am in the restoring process with my backup drive(external Hardisk) and the new SSD that I put into my laptop. The restore process is now at 47% and I started like half an hour ago.

So far so good. Who did create "system reserved" on SSD? A clean install?

I am not sure what clean install means but I have previously used this SSD and installed windows 7 on it using the windows 7 CD.

Kaktussoft said:

A clean install is an install from scratch. so not an upgrade. When you installed win7 and created "system reserved" on SSD .... the SSD didn't have any partitions.... otherwise "system reserved" will not be created. Did it show a startup menu after clean installing win7? Or did you detach old HDD as well when installing?

Are you attaching old HDD later if SSD boots as expected.... or do you keep it as a spare HDD?

Restore is finished?

Well, my laptop can't fit two internal hard drives, so I always have either one of my hard drives in the laptop. Restore has not finished yet, it's now at 72%. I will be keeping my old HDD as a spare.

Kaktussoft said:

aruwin said:

Kaktussoft said:

A clean install is an install from scratch. so not an upgrade. When you installed win7 and created "system reserved" on SSD .... the SSD didn't have any partitions.... otherwise "system reserved" will not be created. Did it show a startup menu after clean installing win7? Or did you detach old HDD as well when installing?

Are you attaching old HDD later if SSD boots as expected.... or do you keep it as a spare HDD?

Restore is finished?

Well, my laptop can't fit two internal hard drives, so I always have either one of my hard drives in the laptop. Restore has not finished yet, it's now at 72%. I will be keeping my old HDD as a spare.

After restore finishes:

• I hope macrium adjusts the bootmenu so it points to the new partition on SSD. If not you encounter an error like
• I hope macrium adjusts the drive lettering of new C in the registry. Or maybe simply bootup fixes it (C points to old HDD which isn't there... should be adjusted automagically).

Oh my God, that's exactly what is happening now!! Why can't I startup my windows? Should I image the old HDD again with the system reserve to fix this? And by the way, the OS is now not C drive but D!!!!

Oh hey, it worked!!!After I put in the windows 7 CD and repaired it, it could start again!!! I did it!!And the OS is recognized as C :)

Kaktussoft said:

Oh my God, that's exactly what is happening now!! Why can't I startup my windows? Should I image the old HDD again with the system reserve to fix this? And by the way, the OS is now not C drive but D!!!!

When is it called D? You mean in recovery environment? A drive letter is just a drive letter and defined in registry of current running OS... probably the recovery environment now. Not a problem at all!


The problem is... all boot entries are still pointing to old HDD! Easiest thing to do:

• Boot into recovery environment->command prompt

Code:

C:
CD \boot
attrib -h  -s  bcd
ren  bcd  bcdold

Now old bootmenu is gone (renamed). Now do a startup repair 3 times, with reboots in between.
C is system reseerved now btw. But if repaired and booted in win7... C is OS partition

I just did a reboot once with the Windows CD in and then everything went back to normal, as if I hadn't changed my hard drives. Shouldn't this be ok already?