How to reinstall windows 7 to a new SSD?

chronicide · 10 Feb 2012

Hi everyone,

I'm at a complete loss as to how to do this right. I had two hard drives, c: and d:... e: is a blueray writer. C: has windows 7 installed to it, butI just bought a new ssd that I want to be my new c: with the os installed to it instead, and I want the rest of the drives to shift up a letter.

I have transfered all of my important files to an external harddrive, and I would like to format all of my drives to start fresh.
I have my windows 7 cd, as well as all of the driver cds that I'll need and other software. What's the easiest way to accomplish this?

Thanks for any help you might be able to offer,

- Scott

Brink · 10 Feb 2012

Hello Scott, and welcome to Seven Forums.

If this is a retail copy of Windows 7, then you can unplug all HDD's except for the SSD. Next, do a clean install of your Windows 7 on the SSD just as you normally would. When finished installing Windows 7, plug in the old Windows 7 HDD and format it while running the new Windows 7. :)

Hope this helps,
Shawn

whs · 10 Feb 2012

A new install is the easiest because the installer makes all the settings. But you can also transfer your current system. I made a little tutoriasl which you might find useful: SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System

chronicide · 13 Feb 2012

Thanks for all of your help, guys. I did as you instructed, and the only issue that I had was that I had to change drive order in the BIOS after I formatted the drive that had originally been my C: drive.

Thanks again, I was so worried about messing it up.

- Scott

Brink · 13 Feb 2012

You're most welcome Scott. Glad that we could help. :)