I have my current system live and working well. I want to add an SSD as the main boot drive.
Is there a way I can migrate or reinstall easily on the new drive without having to run updates on everything again? The only hardware changing (adding) would be the SSD.
I plan to format the old drive to use as storage.
Yes.
Imaging or cloning.
Windows has an imaging tool built in, but many say third party tools such as Macrium or Acronis are superior and easier to use.
Imaging and cloning can both fail. Be prepared to do a clean install with your Windows disk in that case.
Paragon has a migration tool that you can use also. I think it is $20.
Macrium is free. Acronis is paid; or free if you have a Seagate or Western Digital hard drive.
Perfect - just what I was looking for guys
Quick follow up - when you say fail, does that mean the transfer to drive? Will I risk losing data or needing a reinstall on the source?
Are you referring to my post that cloning or imaging can fail?
Your data is always at risk.
I have never heard of cloning or imaging failing so badly that the source installation was harmed, but I'm not saying it can't happen.
The standard way it fails is that you cannot boot the restored image or cannot boot to the restore disk or cannot see the either the image file or the target partition when you boot the restore disk. Imaging is reliable enough to usually make it worth a try, but it is far from bullet-proof.
Cloning is just a direct transfer of a system from drive A to drive B with no intervening image. It's not usually used as a "disaster recovery" mechanism. You get an immediate answer to whether it worked or not. It's not an "insurance policy" type of thing that disappoints you when you read the fine print (have a drive failure). Cloning is pretty much just a convenience when moving to a different drive--more convenient than a clean install. If it works.
You have probably a 90 plus percent chance of it working out. It's up to you to decide if that is a showstopper before even making an attempt.
Always back up your files, preferably offsite in case of a fire but definitely off the same HD which can fail.
You can upload up to 25 gigs to Skydrive with each Windows Live ID under a promotion right now for free 25 gigs in addition to the 7gb normally given free. I find this so easy I access my files from anywhere I am in the world this way rather than even bothering to carry them with me - keeping them synched as well on all my machines with Live Essentials' Mesh which makes the process effortless all around.
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