LF, Why would you want the recovery partition on the SSD - what a waste of space. Just make an image of C. And if you still have the 100MB system partition, copy the bootmgr to C and get rid of this 100MB bugger too.
Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD
LF,
What I would do (have done) is make an image of all HDD partitions to somewhere on an ext HDD. This way you can always restore to a spinner again if you ever wanted to although apart from selling the PC I wouldn't think you'd move this way. As for Paragon's migrate software it should allow transfer of system reserved - I did it on an ACER OEM PC when I installed an SSD. I used the manual approach on the PC I use. The recovery partition will probably be expecting a HDD the size of the original spinner so putting it on the SSD may not be just a waste of space but a waste of time. Provided you have a stable C I'd agree with WHS.
If you are meaning the factory recovery partition, I would save it to one of your many back up drives with Macrium. I know, or pretty sure, you know how to do a clean install without all the bloat inherent with the factory image.
Gary, I would not even bother to keep that recovery partition. Who needs it - especially if you have burnt a DVD from it.
A macrium image to an ext HDD of a recovery partition with default compression would take ~8 GB max. Why wouldn't you make one as an absolute fallback. It is far more reliable than a couple of DVDs. For "fun" I have performed a factory recovery (using Macrium) from an image of factory recovery partition to a new HDD and it worked fine.
Ok, guys, I've been fooling with this thing (polite term; Mama told me not to use the more appropriate word) all day (and halfway into the night) and I think I have it done. I'm too tired and cranky (another polite term) to bother with swapping drives in my notebook until I have a few hours sleep under my belt.
Normally, a clean install would have been the way to go (that's what I did with my desktop and had no problems) but, with this notebook (Lenovo G570), the factory install was already pretty clean with only a couple of programs that needed removing (a game console and something else I can't remember; old age sucks, I wish my mind was as sharp as Wolfgang's). Also, there is a power management program and a boot optimizer, both tailored for this machine, I wanted to keep. I haven't been able to get them from Samsung. The last time I tried their website, it wouldn't recognize the model number of my 18 month old computer. I've never had a good experience with Samsung's website or tech help(less) so using the factory configuration was the only way to get those programs. That is why I wanted to (more like had to) keep the boot and recovery partitions: to ensure I could do a factory restore if anything should ever go haywire with my backups (one of my images acted weird when I tried to "restore" it to the SSD). Call me paranoid but I believe in hanging onto everything, just in case.
The Paragon program was a waste of time and money for me because all it migrated over was the boot and C: partitions. The migration tool that came with the EVO was better (at least, it was free); it did migrate the boot, C:, and data partitions, although it took its bloody sweet time (at least I was able to walk away from it while it did its thing) but it didn't do the recovery partition and radically resized the partitions it did migrate. I was able to fix the partition sizes and make room for the recovery partition using MiniTool Partition Wizard, which has been a staple of mine for a while now.
I found I could migrate the recovery partition to the SSD by formatting the unallocated space for it on the SSD and using Macrium Reflect to image the original recovery partition and "restore" it to the SSD. Unfortunately, the data partition went bye-bye (mutter, mutter). I reformatted the now unallocated space and tried to make a fresh image of the data partition but Macrium Reflect kept throwing errors when verifying the image (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble). Trying to just copy the data over with FreeFileSync resulted in more errors (censored!).
At this point, I was so P.O.ed, I was sorely tempted to use the SSD and the notebook for target practice (with the luck I was having, I probably would have missed them) but, instead, tried using Macrium Reflect to clone the HDD in the notebook to the SSD. It took a while (fortunately, there was a good, long movie on TV) but, when finished, everything looked kosher. I checked the alignment of the C: and data partitions, using AS SSD (much easier than doing the math with the other popular method) and everything was still kosher. I almost tried simply cloning with Reflect from the word go and wished now I had (sigh).
As I said, I'm pooped and going to bed in a wee bit. I'll swap the drives later this morning (or early afternoon) after I get a few ZZZZZs under my belt so I won't need toothpicks to keep my eyelids open. Thank God the drive in the notebook is easy to get at to replace!
It sounds like you're making progress of a sort Jeannie. I have read that when one installs a new SSD it is best to do a fresh install, I don't remember why. I have done that and cloned the old drive to an SSD or used an image on a fresh SSD with no issues.
A fresh install is just that, fresh, without any accumulated registry bits, no crapware to get rid of, and no alignment issues since Win 7 will ensure proper SSD alignment during the install. If anyone were to ask me which was better, I would say a fresh install would be best without hesitation. My experience yesterday was a testimonial to the quality of Lenovo notebooks; nothing else would have been worth that hassle.
Adding insult to injury, I was up and down frequently with leg cramps and to make something gladder for the four hours I was in bed (what a time to stop retaining water; yeesh!). I was too tired to take the cure for the muscle cramps but I'm now working on a big bottle of a sugar free sports drink with added salt to get my electrolytes back to where they need to be. I'll put the SSD in later this morning, fine tune it, then it's back to bed for a while.
Jeannie, Speaking of leg cramps - have your iron level checked. I had a lot of leg cramps until the Neurologist pointed to the lack of iron. Now I take an iron pill each day and I have no more cramps.
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