Cloning Win7 to SSD

karlsnooks · 17 May 2010

Michael,
The image restore will automatically format and create partitions for you, normally if the new drive is virgin.

One of the initial screens you see will have, at the top of the dialog window, an option to format and create partitions. If this is grayed out, then don't worry, MS is taking care of this automatically. If it is not grayed out, then put a checkmark in the box for that option.

michaelst · 17 May 2010

karlsnooks said:

michaelst said:

Wow... you guys are extremely helpful. :)

OK... I've decided to dump the XP drive. Once I get rid of that and make a system restore image and system repair disk from the current drive, it will make this a simple transfer of win7 to a new SSD.

Shutdown, install SSD, install win7, recover from backup/system image, reconnect data drive (the xp drive with XP partition reformatted).

Am I getting close?

:)

Yes, you are nearly there.

You really should follow Greg's advice to make your Win 7 partition the boot (active) partition. Follow his procedure.

After making Win 7 your "boot" partition, then you may remove your XP disk.

I'm fond of booting from the system repair disk and using DiskPart to declare partitions active and inactive but that's just my personal preference. DiskPart is very powerful and consequently very dangerous, potentially.

The system repair disk is a 100% necessity! While in Window 7, go to backup and restore and make that system repair disk. With that disk you can recover/repair from a multitude of problems.

Summarizing:
Step 1; Make Windows 7 partition the boot partition.
Step 2: Remove XP disk (this will simplify matters).
Step 3: Shutdown and restart you system a couple of times just to make sure all is OK.
Step 4: If you have unused partitions on your Win 7 drive, then starting with the last one, delete the unused partitions. This will simplify matters.
Step 5: Perform a System image backup of your Win 7 partition to an external usb driive.
Step 6: insert your System Repair CD
Step 7: Swap out drives
Step 8: After the boot from the system repair cd, choose to restore the system image you backed up.

OH YES, DO NOT INSTALL WIN 7 on YOUR SSD.

When you "restore" the system image you backed up, then this will put Win7 on your SSD.

I used the app greg recommended and it worked great. I was able to disconnect the XP drive and boot right into win7.

I made the image and the repair disk and rebooted. I forgot to disconnect the old win7 drive on the first attempt. I shut down and disconnect it.

Rebooting to the repair disk, it find the restore image on the USB drive OK, but on the next step, I get an error that says "No disk that can be used for recovering the system disk can be found"

Added 20 minutes later:
I just noticed the location of the image is "my Book (C:)"
I disoconnected and rebooted, attaching after I went into recovery. It then came up "My Book (E:)", but when I tried to continue, I got the same error.

SIW2 · 17 May 2010

Hi,

Glad sispar worked well for you.

Did you shrink the source partition to a smaller size than the target SSD before you imaged it?

michaelst · 17 May 2010

SIW2 said:

Hi,

Glad sispar worked well for you.

Did you shrink the source partition to a smaller size than the target SSD before you imaged it?

Yes... the image is only 47gb... compared to the 119gb drive.

gregrocker · 17 May 2010

This may be a limitation of the Win7 Backup Imaging which cannot always be counted on to reimage to a new HD.

I would try using the Acronis cloning utility bundled into your SSD package. It is a great app and cloning is superior anyway.

SIW2 · 17 May 2010

I meant the actual partition size of the source is how much?

And the actual partition size you are trying to restore to is how much?

That is often the cause of the error message. Unfortunately, not always.

I have had a look at Win Sys Image - decided to use a 3rd party app. instead.

If you have the Acronis app. bundled with your HD - use that instead - it's faster , creates a smaller image and is more flexible.

michaelst · 17 May 2010

OK... I guess I'll shut down and reconnect the Win7 drive.

the original reason I tried this method was because i was told, and it was my understanding that acronis cloned the whole drive, not just the OS partition. The whole drive is 468gb. So I thought that wouldn't work.

Will it work if I deleted the other 3 partitions and only left the OS partition(115gb)?

tw33k · 17 May 2010

The method I used, with Acronis took around 1/2 hour in total and everything was up and running again.

SIW2 · 17 May 2010

I would try making an image with Acronis - restore the image to your SSD.

I don't use Acronis - however Paragon and Macrium can both do it easily - so I assume Acronis will do it too.

I am assuming the "free" Acronis you got is the same as the one that comes with Seagate drives - it has an imaging function as well as as a clone function.

michaelst said:

OK... I guess I'll shut down and reconnect the Win7 drive.

the original reason I tried this method was because i was told, and it was my understanding that acronis cloned the whole drive, not just the OS partition. The whole drive is 468gb. So I thought that wouldn't work.

Will it work if I deleted the other 3 partitions and only left the OS partition(115gb)?

michaelst · 17 May 2010

Used acronis true image to clone the OS.

Took about 20 minutes.

Everything is as it should be.

It's only the partition that needs to be smaller than the destination drive.

I feel kind of embarassed to have used 4 pages to resolve this.

If anyone ever asks me, I'll them "Use the included software".

D'Oh!

Thank you all very much for your help.