Replacing my C drive with a SSD in windows 7

[trendy]

Good day to all.
I have a windows 7 desktop home premium.The C dive has only the operating system and all program files etc,All my data is on another 2TB internal HDD.
Now my plan is if its possible is to change the existing C drive with a SSD one as the C drive is 500GD storage its wasting time as it is as you know the OS and program files don't take a lot of space I think my C drive is only 60 GD so the rest is waste.
Now want to change that drive to a SSD one so I can utalise the old C one for backups etc.Been looking on google about replacing the drive and there are so many options available,I do have a backup of my C drive on another hdd by means of Macrium backup software.
Is this project going to be a simple one as I'm not very techy involved I have had a lot of help from here over the past few years.Maybe someone can put me on the correct path for this project Please.

Many Thanks.David.

 

[Mark Phelps]

I did almost exactly the same thing -- migrated Win7 from HDD to SDD -- and did is using Macrium Reflect.

Made a current backup of Win7OS partition to an external drive.

Connected the SSD. Did a "restore" of the backup to the SSD.

Shutdown the machine, inserted the SSD, rebooted and changed boot to the SSD.

Came up, everything worked OK.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Mark is right--that's pretty much what Macrium is designed to do.

Shouldn't take over 30 minutes.

I assume you have some sort of boot disk you made with Macrium. You will need to boot from it after first connecting the new SSD and disconnecting the old 500 GB drive. Navigate within the boot environment and find the image file you have on that other drive. Select it and restore it to the new SSD.

If you haven't made the boot disc, you need to do that first and then confirm that it is in fact bootable.

You shouldn't have to first format the SSD. I assume it is large enough to accept your image file from the old HD.

The restoration will of course take you back to the point in time at which the image file was made. If that was months ago, and your system has changed noticeably since then (new programs installed, etc), you might want to make a new image file so that the restoration will match how your system is NOW, not how it was THEN, months ago.

 

[trendy]

Many thanks for the reply.
Just one or two points if I may.The C drive I got now id a 500gb Sata now if I decide to go for the ssd should I be looking out for something that is compatable with the sata cables that are in place now?
Yes I do have a disc that was made during the macrium backup.
Regarding the fitting of the new ssd into the tower,Then startup pc and placing the disc into the optical drive what will come on screen so that I can select to boot from the disc that was made by macrium the backup is on a seperate external hdd.
Hope you can understand my questions.
Many Thanks.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

See comments in bold.

The C drive I got now id a 500gb Sata now if I decide to go for the ssd should I be looking out for something that is compatable with the sata cables that are in place now?

Yes. If your current 500 GB drive is SATA, those cables should be compatible with a new SSD.

Yes I do have a disc that was made during the macrium backup.

Was that disc made using the "Linux" method or using the "Win PE" method?

Either should work, but you should find out right now if that disk will boot your PC. If it won't, you are in trouble.

Regarding the fitting of the new ssd into the tower,Then startup pc and placing the disc into the optical drive what will come on screen so that I can select to boot from the disc that was made by macrium the backup is on a seperate external hdd.

You would put the disc in the CD drive and restart the computer.

You will then need to use an F key to choose your CD drive as the drive to boot from for that one time only. It might be F12, F8, or F2. It varies. Tap that key repeatedly during the restart. You should see a menu that asks if you want to boot from your hard drive or from the CD drive. Choose CD with your arrow keys.

If you used the Linux method, the startup will be pretty slow and what you see on screen will not be very familiar to you. You will see text with basic instructions. You would use your keyboard to locate the image file you made and choose the new SSD as the location for the restore.

If you used the Win PE method, you should see something that looks like Windows, quite familiar to you.

I'd confirm that disc is bootable immediately, before doing anything else.

 

[trendy]

Thank You very much for that run down

If you used the Win PE method, you should see something that looks like Windows, quite familiar to you.

I'd confirm that disc is bootable immediately, before doing anything else.

Yes the disc is a Win PE Method.And how would I confirm that the disc is bootable??

Sorry to be a pain,This is all new to me I'm trying to learn the hard way sometimes.
I also look at it as a challenge.
Thank You.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

And how would I confirm that the disc is bootable??

Try to boot with it per my previous instructions. There's no other way.

If you see the menu to boot from the CD, and you choose it, and the PC boots, you'll know it's bootable because the PC won't be booting from the hard drive because you told it to boot from the CD drive.

As I recall, you should land at the Macrium interface, where you would then make the choice to restore your image.

You should have done this 5 minutes after making that CD. Otherwise, you were falsely believing you had some protection.

If it boots from the CD and you land at the Macrium interface, you know it's OK and you can then just remove the disc from the CD drive without going further. Then do an ordinary reboot to get back to Windows on your hard drive.

 

[trendy]

This could be the final question regarding the SSD,Can you Please cast your eye on this one.And would like to know your thoughts on it Please.
Thanks.
Here..........Crucial 120GB M500 SATA 6Gbps 2.5 SSD | Ebuyer.com

 

[ignatzatsonic]

That's a good SSD. I'd probably get it or a Samsung 840 EVO, whichever is cheaper or maybe had the better warranty.

You aren't likely to be able to tell them apart once installed. Both much much faster than a regular HDD.

Does that disk boot?

 

[trendy]

Not yet tried boot disc will have a go tomorrow,getting late here now.
Will be in touch.
Many thanks for your patience and time.
David.ps What part of the world are you?.I'm in south Wales UK.time now 2225hrs

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Western USA, 325 PM local time. 7 hours behind you I guess.

 

[whs]

This could be the final question regarding the SSD,Can you Please cast your eye on this one.And would like to know your thoughts on it Please.
Thanks.
Here..........Crucial 120GB M500 SATA 6Gbps 2.5 SSD | Ebuyer.com

I don't know how much that is in Dollar. Today I saw it here for $112. I have a Crucial in this system. Never had a problem (knock on wood).

Newegg.com - Newegg's BEST ? SSD and Flash Memory Superstars + Our Top Deals of the Week.

 

[trendy]

whs,Thanks for the input.
Last week you gave me an iso via skydrive,Now how do I get this to work to get it to recognise the backup that I have on an external drive?
I have a disc that I made with the macrium but can't figure out which key to press to get the pc to boot from the disc.
Any help Please.
David.

 

[trendy]

Well here we go again.
I did another backup today burnt another recovery disc and still no joy.
When I put the disc in the optical drive and then do a restart the option on screen are F8 of delete to change tasks,But for some reason my keyboard don't make anything if I press F8 F2 F12 or even the delete key nothing happens.
It is a microsoft keyboard connected to the pc with an USB connection.I'm totally mixed up thought I was doing so well last night with all the good info I had.
Baffled.
Thanks.David.

 

[whs]

whs,Thanks for the input.
Last week you gave me an iso via skydrive,Now how do I get this to work to get it to recognise the backup that I have on an external drive?
I have a disc that I made with the macrium but can't figure out which key to press to get the pc to boot from the disc.
Any help Please.
David.

The iso you got from my Skydrive you have to born to CD. Then you have to boot your system with this CD ==> put the CD into the CD reader, power on the machine and keep tapping F12 (ESC for HP or Asus systems), navigate to the CD reader (highlight) with the up/down keys, hit Enter.

Now the Macrium program will load. For the recovery procedure watch this video from my friend Keith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rkSX5OzI-TA

 

[whs]

Well here we go again.
I did another backup today burnt another recovery disc and still no joy.
When I put the disc in the optical drive and then do a restart the option on screen are F8 of delete to change tasks,But for some reason my keyboard don't make anything if I press F8 F2 F12 or even the delete key nothing happens.
It is a microsoft keyboard connected to the pc with an USB connection.I'm totally mixed up thought I was doing so well last night with all the good info I had.
Baffled.
Thanks.David.

On power-on you have to keep tapping (most likely F12) ==> tap, tap, tap, until the window for the bootorder comes on.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

David:

The key-tapping process can be frustrating. It may be better to simply press the key down and hold it down during the boot process. Or tap it at a certain frequency--once per second, twice per second, etc. There doesn't seem to be a standard. I'd just hold a key down. If you've got the wrong key, you won't see the menu.

The menu should pop up with some key sooner or later, even if the CD drive has nothing in it.

If you identify the correct key and choose the CD drive as the boot device correctly, the PC should boot from the CD drive. If it does not, the immediate suspect would be the method you used to burn that ISO file you downloaded.

 

[trendy]

I'm Back.
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you all.Firstly I must thank You all for being patient with me regarding this project.
Now coming to the headache I had,1st the keyboard that I'm using was the problem the F keys were not working,My son called in and he could see that I was ripping my hair out of my head said that he had a spare keyboard that I could have a loan of to prove a point.
Well on connecting that keyboard to my desktop all went well,The only thing was I was tapping F12 and then no joy then went to F9 and here we were it all went like a dream.
Wolfgang. I used the iso you gave me and it went okay got through to the macrium restore screen in a few min's.One thing that made me think was the two CD drives had different names to what I thought but soon sorted that out.
Now may I trouble you for the last time I hope,Regarding the changing of the old HDD and replacing the new SSD one.Am I correct in thinking that I remove the old SATA one then refit the new SSD one.
Then restart the pc with the iso disc in the optical drive as I did today??.If this is all correct I can now go ahead and order the new SSD drive and maybe attack the job early next week.Also I must get a new keyboard.
Much Many Thanks to all who gave me all the advice here over the past few days.I was nearly giving up.

 

[whs]

You are not troubling me at all. Keep asking as many questions as you need to get the project done.

Yes you can do it the way you described. But there are some caviats:

1. The easiest would be to first transfer the bootmgr to C . Then you don't have to deal with the system partition (which is a bit iffy). Once the bootmgr is on C, make an image of C which you will use to restore to the SSD.

2. A brand new SSD you have to first align. Use Windows installation or recovery disc (once the SSD is in the laptop) and boot with that disc. Then go to Command Prompt at Startup and run these commands:

Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number that was given for your SSD in List disk)
Clean
Create partition primary align=1024
Format fs=ntfs quick
Active
Exit

3. Now you can restore the image of C (the one with the bootmgr) into this partition.

 

[trendy]

This is getting more complicated all the time,I'm getting my doubts about this project.Maybe I should catch the next plane out to you,And on the other hand it might dissapear.
I'll think very hard about this method that you have just said.
Thanks Very sunny here over the last few days.
David.Not to simple as one thought.