SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System

I just bought an HP desktop with a fresh install of Windows 7. It had a 400GB HDD and I replaced it with a 120GB Kingston SSD v300. Here's how I did it.
Step 0, create/burn a Windows 7 repair CD. Do that in Control Panel, Backup & Restore.
Step 1 (optional), clone the HDD with Clonezilla (in case you screw something up and have to start over).
Step 2, shrink the OS partition. My computer had a 100GB Restore partition and a 300GB OS partition. Using the built-in Windows 7 partition tool, shrink the OS partition/volume. I shrunk it to about 60GB. The exact value doesn't matter because later you're going to expand the partition when you install the SSD. I ignored the Restore partition because I did not put that on my SSD.
Step 3, Go to Control Panel, Backup & Restore and make a clone of the OS partition on an external USB HDD using Windows 7 built in backup software.
Step 4, replace the internal HDD with the SSD. The SSD is a 2.5" drive so I had to buy a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter mount bought on EBay for $7.
Step 5, Boot your computer from the Windows 7 Repair CD. One of the options is to restore your computer from an image. Choose the image that you burned onto your external USB HDD in step 3.
Step 6, go to Control Panel, Computer Administration, and resize the partition to fill up the entire space of your SSD.
There is also a 100MB partition thing that I don't understand but Windows takes care of that for you.

That's what I did and it worked perfectly! The computer is running 5x faster now.

There is also a 100MB partition thing that I don't understand but Windows takes care of that for you.

This is the system partition that contains your bootmgr. Never touch that. It is the most important partition on your system.

the #2. option, the "easy way" at 19.95 for it to be done for you.... is that through a company you recommend, or what were you referring to?

I have no stake in this company. I was lucky enough to once get that program thru a promotion for free. Since then I have used it many times on my own systems and for friends.

The program is extremely easy to use and reliable. You do the OS transfer with 3 clicks and it does all the required settings - e.g. SSD alingment, shutting the defrag off, etc. I think even for 20 bucks it is well worth it.

The company is Paragon and they also produce an imaging program. However, their's is a bit more difficult to use than Macrium. That's why I always use Macrium.

I'm one of the rare ones who had problems trying to get Paragon to work properly. I've had excellent luck just using Macrium Reflect to clone my HDDs to my SSDs after I used Samsung's Magician to make sure they were formatted correctly.

An easier way to check if an SSD is in alignment is to just boot up AS SSD Benchmark. It will automatically show if the SSD is in alignment or not.



Easy peasy and no confusing math.

LF, check here - see 'Verification': SSD Alignment

Sorry, Wolfgang, but that math doesn't work. Multiply any number by 1024 and it will be evenly divisible by four simply because 1024 itself is divisible by 4.

Lady Fitzgerald said:

Sorry, Wolfgang, but that math doesn't work. Multiply any number by 1024 and it will be evenly divisible by four simply because 1024 itself is divisible by 4.

He says the offset in KBs (when 1 KB=1024 B) must be divisible by 4. Or if you like the offset in bytes must be divisible by 4096 resulting in an integer. eg. An offset 3x1024=3072 is not aligned (3/4=.75, 3072/4096 = .75). etc etc...

mjf said:

Lady Fitzgerald said:

Sorry, Wolfgang, but that math doesn't work. Multiply any number by 1024 and it will be evenly divisible by four simply because 1024 itself is divisible by 4.

He says the offset in KBs (when 1 KB=1024 B) must be divisible by 4. Or if you like the offset in bytes must be divisible by 4096 resulting in an integer. eg. An offset 3x1024=3072 is not aligned (3/4=.75, 3072/4096 = .75). etc etc...

You may want to read the instructions again.