Cloning Win7 to SSD

[michaelst]

We all know there are tons of different ways to do anything, so I just wanted to check my procedures with you all for any obvious or fatal flaws.

I'll be cloning my Windows 7, on a 115gb partition, to a Kingston V+ 128gb ssd drive. The origin drive is 460gb, but I've deleted the other partitions (after backing up of course).
The origin partition is on the left of the drive.

I'll be using the Acronis True Image that comes with the bundle.

Currently, the boot drive sits in the disk 1 position - disk 0 is my old XP drive, which I still keep as a dual boot.

Once the cloning is done, I'll shut down, change the SSD to the disk 1. I'll leave the old win 7 drive unconnected until the new drive is stable, then reconnect, reformat and partition it.

I know I may have to do a repair install so I'll have the win7 disk handy.


Does this plan work?
Will I have trouble using Acronis true image cloning the 115gb partition of the 460gb drive to the new ssd even if the other 345gb are unparitioned? Do I need to unformat the unused space?

Please don't ask why I dont do a clean install. My preference is try this way first.

thanks in advance for your help.

 

[tw33k]

Here's how I did it...http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/75127-partition-image-restore-hdd-ssd.html#post657578

 

[michaelst]

That's an interesting method.

Would the restored image have the effect of re-installing all my software, and settings?

You also might want to add the 'make a backup image' as step zero.

 

[fishnbanjo]

I used Acronis TrueImage Home v10 to clone my 160Gb Intel SSD and found things did not always work correctly and the drive seemed to act odd at time so I did a fresh install of Windows 7 after format and the drive runs ever so smoothly. I'm not saying your experience will be bad just something to know about.

 

[tw33k]

That's an interesting method.

Would the restored image have the effect of re-installing all my software, and settings?

You also might want to add the 'make a backup image' as step zero.

Whatever was captured in your original image will be restored (ie: programs, settings, customizations)

 

[SIW2]

tw33k,

Any reason why you installed 7 to the ssd first., then restored the image?

 

[tw33k]

I read everywhere that restoring an image from a HDD to a new SSD would be very problematic. People had posted nothing but problems mainly with alignment. I figured that if Windows was already installed and therefore aligned correctly, the image would take. It worked.

 

[karlsnooks]

To clone your drive:
!. Make a System Repair Disk
2. Make a system image of your present disk using Windows Backup and Restore.
3. Disconnect old disk.
4. Connect new disk
5. Boot using your system repair disk, choose the option to restore a system image.

Windows Backup and Restore creates, and uses, a VHD file.

 

[tw33k]

To clone your drive:
!. Make a System Repair Disk
2. Make a system image of your present disk using Windows Backup and Restore.
3. Disconnect old disk.
4. Connect new disk
5. Boot using your system repair disk, choose the option to restore a system image.

Windows Backup and Restore creates, and uses, a VHD file.

You can't use Windows Backup and Restore to re-image to a smaller sized drive.

 

[karlsnooks]

Actually, you can. If the image vhd requires less space than physically available you are ok.

A system image is not a track for track copy, thus a system image of a drive of size x will require less space than x.

Since in this situation one can simply try the procedure and watch it work with no loss (you could always reconnect the old drive), then the "just do it" approach is valid.

 

[michaelst]

think I'll the the fresh install/restore image method.

However, my disc image includes my old XP drive. Is that because its listed as 'system,active,primary'? If so, how do i get it to be just 'primary'?

 

[karlsnooks]

If you use Windows Backup And Restore, you can choose which partitions you backup. Backup only your Win 7 partitions.

When I think about it, I'm a little confused about what is where on your present disk.

Could you do us a favor and post a "snippet" of your disk management display?

You make a snippet using the Snipping Tool.

To run the Snipping Tool, WIN key | type Snipping | Enter key

To run the DiskManagement Tool, WIN key | type DISKMGMT.MSC | Enter key

In your next post, click on the "paper clip" in the top line of the reply message window and attach the .PNG file generated by the Snippping Tool.

There is a post on how to do all of this snipping and posting but I always forget what and where it is.

The snip will let us know with a good degree of certainty how your present hard disk is being utilized.

 

[michaelst]

The disk 0, first partition is the XP
disk 1, first partition is win7, the other partitions are empty(and backed up)

The system image includes the D: drive. Thats what I need to get rid of, right?

 

[karlsnooks]

Yes, uncheck D:

This will then only backup your C:

Incidentally, nice and clear snippets.

 

[michaelst]

I cannot uncheck D. It's grayed out. Thats why I was wondering if I had to get rid of that partition for the image/backup, otherwise, it's included. Probably cuz its a 'system' drive.

 

[karlsnooks]

Ok.

Please run msconfig and make sure that under the boot tab it shows you booting from the Win7 partition.

That's just a safety check as that's what it should show.

On you system, is it possible, just for right now to disconnect the Disk which has XP on it? If so, then disconnect, do a reboot. You may need to reboot twice.

Now Backup and Restore should show only one "Active" drive.

If physical removal or disconnect not possible, then you can use Diskpart to declare the xp partition as Inactive.

If you follow the Diskpart approach, then first make your self a system repair disk. When you choose Control Panel | Backup and Restore then in the left-hand pane is an option to make a System Repair Disk. by all means, make yourself a system repair disk. A system repair disk can sure save you time and effort in many scenarios.

Now to use DiskPart to make a partition inactive:
go to a command prompt,
DiskPart
List Disk (will show disks on your system)
Select Disk 0 (here I've assumed that disk 0 has the XP partition)
Detail Disk (this will help you verify that you've selected the correct disk)
List Partition (this will list the partitions on the selected disk)
Select Partition 1 (this will be the XP partition)
Detail Partition (to help verify that you've got the correct partition)
Inactive (this will make the partition inactive)
Exit (to exit from diskpart)
Exit (to exit from the command prompt)

Reboot your computer and now run Backup and Restore

 

[michaelst]

Karl... thanks for all the advice.

I'll be doing this all on Monday evening, so, I'll just mark this thread.

I'm leaning toward shutdown and disconnecting the drive,
rebooting,
make the image/backup.
shut down,
disconnect the current (win7) drive,
connect the ssd(disk 0),
load windows,
restore the image/backup.
reconnect the XP drive(disk 1)
Formatting the 1st partition to get rid of XP.
Shutdown and reconnect the other(former win7) drive(disk 2)

Sound about right?

 

[karlsnooks]

About right. You're almost there.


Make sure your BIOS is set to boot from DVD/CD drive

After you have:
"make the image/backup"
THEN
insert the System Repair Disk you made into your optical dirve
"shut down"
"disconnect the current (win7) drive, "
"connect the ssd (disk 0)"
BOOT from the SYSTEM REPAIR DISK
One of the options presented is to do a System Restore from a previous image (I'll run thru this again on my system and send the actual "click here", "choose this" to make sure that you get to the image restore)

This avoids the step of doing a fresh Windows install (your "load Windows" step).

After the restore and possibly an extra reboot, you will have your former Windows 7 on your SSD.

Actually your tempting me to run to Fry's to pick up a small SSD and do the same on my laptop, although I only have Win7 on my laptop. Current drive size is ~ 150 GB. I'll see what Fry's has at what price. I don't use most of the space on my harddrive (~ 122 GB not used).



THEN

 

[SIW2]

Boot into 7, d/l this, View attachment sisparV5.zip rt click and run as admin on sispar.cmd. Select drive C, select N to including existing boot menu options. That's it.

After that, you can disconnect the XP drive.Or just change the bios boot order so the 7 drive is first .

 

[tw33k]

The way I suggested is the most uncomplicated method to put an image from a HDD to an SSD. It took me about 1/2 hour and everything was restored perfectly from my HDD to my new SSD.