Using Inspiron 17R, Windows 7. Would like to change to a new solid state drive, but I hear there are activation problems. What steps would I follow? Created system image on external drive, and repair dvd disc, but am told these would not work. What to do?
Simply clone the disk and windows wont care no need to do image once its booting you will need to set it up make sure you remove old drive or you will get disk collisions How to Optimize SSD for Faster Performance (Windows Tweaks)
I looked into this for putting a SSD in a desktop workstation and putting Windows 7 on it. Windows 7 Ultimate can apparently require enterprise grade SSDs, and will refuse to install on lesser grades. So partly it may depend on who made the SSD, and what version of Windows 7 you plan to install.
No there arentI hear there are activation problems
whoever told you that is mistakenbut am told these would not work
If you are using windows system image the ssd will need to be the same size or preferably larger than the source disk.
Remove the original disk, put the blank ssd in its place.
boot the repair disc and restore the system image.
Note the disk containing the system image needs to be visible to the restore program.
The disk containing the image can be an external.
An alternative method is to use diskgenius free version to migrate the os to the new ssd.
Free Drive Cloning Applications - YouTube
thanks
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I was told you have to clone the old hard drive to get all of the original Windows 7 programs that are on it.
Certainly not. Any version of Windows can work on any hard disk (SSD or not) as long as there are drivers for it.
Specially Ultimate that is still targeted at consumer computers can make use of the hardware typically on them. Even the server versions (called "Windows Server 2008 R2") do work con any consumer-level hardware, even when they're targeted at enterprise or datacenter markets.
2.5-inch SATA SSDs are direct replacements for either 2.5 or 3.5-inch hard drives. They have the same connectors. When you install Windows on a 2.5-inch SATA SSD all Windows knows is that there is a SATA drive and shouldn't care what type of drive is connected. After the fact it does make a difference because SSDs need to be TRIM'd not defragged but that is another matter.
I have a computer that had 3 x 1TB 3.5-inch hard drives. Windows 10 was on the 1st while Windows 7 was on the 3rd. All the hard drives were replaced with 1TB 2.5-inch SSDs. Neither Windows 7 or 10 had a problem with that.
To clone a drive into another is to make an exact copy of its content from the source to the target and you can resize the partitions. That is why you'll keep the activation.
On a laptop, if you don't have more then one drive bay, you must install the target drive on an external USB enclosure or replace the CD/DVD drive with a drive caddy and you will end with a SSD for Windows and programs and a HDD for data (that is the configuration I have in my laptop).
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