SDD Input

[leehop71]

Let's make it simple.

Can I image my HDD to external HD, have the HDD removed, have an SSD installed , plug the external back in, and copy the imaged HDD, on the external HD, to the internal SSD?

 

[whs]

Same thing - 7 or 8. Read the tutorial I linked.

 

[leehop71]

Same thing.

????

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Let's make it simple.

Can I image my HDD to external HD, have the HDD removed, have an SSD installed , plug the external back in, and copy the imaged HDD, on the external HD, to the internal SSD?

The procedure is the same for Win 7 or Win 8, but:

1: "imaging" makes a file that is a representation of one or more partitions on some drive. It does not make a bootable drive and it is not a "copy" of some other drive or partition. It creates a file. Full stop.

2: the file made with imaging must later be "restored" to some drive. At that point and only that point would you have a useful, bootable, copy of a Windows system. And then only if the C partition and any other partition that may contain boot files were deliberately included in the image file.

Cloning, on the other hand, makes an immediately useful replica of some drive, in real time, while you wait. You don't "restore" anything. "Copy" would be a pretty good word for it.

The only reason you would outright "copy" an image file is if you wanted to make another copy of it for backup purposes. That's a good idea, but neither the original nor the copy is of much use until restored.

 

[leehop71]

Let's make it simple.

Can I image my HDD to external HD, have the HDD removed, have an SSD installed , plug the external back in, and copy the imaged HDD, on the external HD, to the internal SSD?

The procedure is the same for Win 7 or Win 8, but:

1: "imaging" makes a file that is a representation of one or more partitions on some drive. It does not make a bootable drive and it is not a "copy" of some other drive or partition. It creates a file. Full stop.

2: the file made with imaging must later be "restored" to some drive. At that point and only that point would you have a useful, bootable, copy of a Windows system. And then only if the C partition and any other partition that may contain boot files were deliberately included in the image file.

Cloning, on the other hand, makes an immediately useful replica of some drive, in real time, while you wait. You don't "restore" anything. "Copy" would be a pretty good word for it.

The only reason you would outright "copy" an image file is if you wanted to make another copy of it for backup purposes. That's a good idea, but neither the original nor the copy is of much use until restored.

What if I used Paragon? Could I go from HDD to external, and external to SSD?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Paragon makes good tools. Should work well for you. Macrium is the common choice on this forum, but Paragon is fine as far as I know.

Yes, you can make an image file of a partition on an internal HDD, save it on an external, and later restore it to an internal SSD.

It's just a file. You can store it pretty much anywhere you want OTHER THAN on a partition that is represented in the image----you can't make an image file of C and store it on C.

Imaging is done on a partition basis. If you have 3 partitions on a drive, you can make a single image file of all 3, or separate images of each, or whatever you want. But you need to be sure to make an image of the partition containing your boot files. That could be C, that could be System Reserved, or something else---depending on your individual configuration, which can be determined by looking at a screen shot of Windows Disk Management.

 

[ThrashZone]

I found out Paragon did not work for me but they do offer a 30 day money back guarantee so it's worth a shot
It's a complicated operation I decided to do a clean install after backing up everything I thought it best for the long run

 

[leehop71]

The input here has been fabulous, and I think I'm ready to learn by experience.

Here are my computer specs:
Windows 7 Professional SP1
Intel Pentium 4 3.4GhZ
4G RAM
INtel 82945G Express Chipset Family

I am told if I switch to SSD, I will see significant improvement on speed.

I am going to purchase an SSD with the adapter kit, including cable, bracket, and software for imaging.

I can install the software, hook up my SSD, via USB, image the SATA onto the SSD.

Take out the SATA, and insert the SSD, via bracket.

Boot up and my drive will be ready to go??

 

[strollin]

Maybe you're not clear on the terminology. In the scenario you described, you want to clone the HDD to the SSD in order that the SSD will be bootable when you remove the hdd and replace it with the SSD. If you image the hdd, you will need another external drive, you will image the hdd to the external drive, install the ssd, boot the machine from a boot disk that you made prior to removing the hdd, then restore the image from the external drive to the ssd. At that point, the ssd will be bootable.

Which seems more straightforward to you, cloning or imaging?

Either way will work, some people prefer imaging since they end up with a backup of their system drive that they could use to restore in case of failure later on.

Also, in most cases, the ssd will be smaller than the hdd you wish to clone so you may need to move data around and shrink partitions to be able to clone (or image) your hdd to your ssd.

 

[leehop71]

Maybe you're not clear on the terminology. In the scenario you described, you want to clone the HDD to the SSD in order that the SSD will be bootable when you remove the hdd and replace it with the SSD. If you image the hdd, you will need another external drive, you will image the hdd to the external drive, install the ssd, boot the machine from a boot disk that you made prior to removing the hdd, then restore the image from the external drive to the ssd. At that point, the ssd will be bootable.

Which seems more straightforward to you, cloning or imaging?

My bad strollin. This is the kit and it is a cloning disk.


Amazon.com: Kingston Digital 120GB SSDNow V300 SATA 3 2.5 (7mm height) Desktop Bundle Kit with Adapter Solid State Drive SV300S3D7/120G: Computers & Accessories

So if I use this in my above scenario, I 'should' be able to clone, take out the SATA, inset the SSD, boot up, and be good to go?

 

[leehop71]

Also, in most cases, the ssd will be smaller than the hdd you wish to clone so you may need to move data around and shrink partitions to be able to clone (or image) your hdd to your ssd.

I have 120G SATA and a 120G SSD. The SATA is only half full, so I should be fine?

Lastly, this will increase my speed, not to mention the life expectancy of the drive?

 

[strollin]

That kit should work great for you but I just noticed something about it. The cable provided is a SATA cable not USB so you will need to have an available SATA port to plug the cable in to be able to do the cloning. Shouldn't be a problem provided your computer is not a laptop.

You should see a nice performance boost, OS & programs will load faster from the disk. Since an ssd has no moving parts it is not susceptible to mechanical wear so it follows that they should be more reliable. SSDs can and do fail, however, so you'll still want to maintain backups of your important data.

 

[leehop71]

That kit should work great for you.

You should see a nice performance boost, OS & programs will load faster from the disk. Since an ssd has no moving parts it is not susceptible to mechanical wear so it follows that they should be more reliable. SSDs can and do fail, however, so you'll still want to maintain backups of your important data.

Thanks strollin'. After work I'm going to give it a go. I am a rookie as far as the 'inside' of the machines, so I wanted to start learning with something I think I can handle.

 

[linnemeyerhere]

That kit will simplify your life and once that ssd is booting you're going to wonder why I didn't do this a long time ago !