Partition Image - Restore from a HDD to a SSD

   Information
Searching the Web on this topic showed me, time after time, pages and pages of negative results. I tried it anyway and it worked, 1st time!


   Note
I used Acronis True Image Home 2010 so I am not sure if other programs will work.


   Warning
This process will delete all data from the partition Windows was previously installed on




Here's How:

1. Install the SSD

2. Boot up and enter the BIOS to make sure the drive is detected

3. If the SSD is seen in the BIOS, set it to #1 in the hard drive priorty

4. Install Windows to the SSD as a Custom Installation (from Step 2)

5. Once Windows has successfully installed, enter Control Panel,
AdministrativeTools, Computer Management, Disk Management. Right click
the SSD (it should be c: ) and Mark Partition as Active". Click OK at
the warning/s

6. Delete the old partiton that Windows was installed on and reformat

7. Reboot to your Windows installation media (disk or flash drive)

8. Perform a Startup Repair (You may need to do this a few times before
Windows will boot)

9. Once in Windows, install Acronis True Image Home 2010

10. Start Acronis and Activate Startup Recovery Tool (F11)

11. Reboot

12. Press F11 when prompted

13. Select Acronis True Image Home 2010

14. Select Restore

15. Choose the image you created most recently. Do not select the option to restore the MBR

16. Restore the image to your c: drive

17. When complete reboot

18. This is where I got nervous. Windows booted but hung. A hard reset
was needed. Upon restart I got a message that chkdsk needed to run. Allow it
to run.

19. Reboot and enjoy!



   Tip
Check that Windows has disabled Auto Degfrag by right-clicking the drive, select Properties, Tools and Defragment Now. When you click Configure Schedule and then Select Disks, your SSD should not appear. If it does, however, simply un-tick it

To ensure prefetching and Superfetch are disabled you'll need to enter the registry and check these entries:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\MemoryManagement\PrefetchParamaters

Both EnablePrefetcher and EnableSuperfetch need to have a value of (0)






 
Last edited:
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Thanks for the info, well done!
 

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Thanks for the nice tutotial, pal. Getting a print of it right know :D
 

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Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Insider Preview 64-bit
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Nice job, and the magic wand did edit it whilst you were asleep.
 

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Thanks guys
 

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tw33k
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Windows 7 Ultimate (x64) SP1
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Crucial M4 128GB
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Corsair AX750 Gold
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Microsoft Wireless 5000
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Lamptron FC-5 v2
Great information and very well done.
 

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Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit
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76~2.0
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Windows 7 Ult x64 - SP1/ Windows 8 Pro x64
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Intel Core i5-3570K 4.6GHz
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Gigabyte GA-Z77X UD3H, f18
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8GB (2X4GB) DDR3 1600 Corsair Vengeance CL8 1.5v
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Sapphire HD 7770 Vapor-X OC 1GB DDR5
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22" LCD Dell
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Samsung 840Pro 128GB SSD,
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Corsair HX650W
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Desktop: eSATA ports,
External eSATA Seagate 500GB SATA2 7200rpm,
External WD USB 500GB
I would be surprised if this didn't work with Macrium Reflect and Paragon, both have free versions.
Provided the target partitions are equal or larger in size, it should work. But they cannot "shrink" images. And for SSDs, you have to predefine the partition with the proper alignment.
 

My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
HP, Dell, Gateway, Toshiba - 4 laptops and 2 desktops
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Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
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from 1.6GHz Duo to i7
Monitor(s) Displays
2x HP w2207
Hard Drives
5x HDD, 7x SSD, 12x Externals
Keyboard
with trackball - no mices
Mouse
Trackball mice
Internet Speed
DSL 6000

My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
76~2.0
OS
Windows 7 Ult x64 - SP1/ Windows 8 Pro x64
CPU
Intel Core i5-3570K 4.6GHz
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-Z77X UD3H, f18
Memory
8GB (2X4GB) DDR3 1600 Corsair Vengeance CL8 1.5v
Graphics Card(s)
Sapphire HD 7770 Vapor-X OC 1GB DDR5
Sound Card
Onboard VIA VT2021
Monitor(s) Displays
22" LCD Dell
Screen Resolution
1680x1050
Hard Drives
Samsung 840Pro 128GB SSD,
Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB cache, Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB cache,
PSU
Corsair HX650W
Case
Cooler Master Storm Scout
Cooling
Corsair H80 2x12cm Noctua NF P12 , 2x14cm case fans
Keyboard
Logitech Wave
Mouse
CM Sentinel
Internet Speed
Dismal
Antivirus
Avast
Browser
Opera Next
Other Info
Haswell laptop: HP Envy 17t-j, i7-4700MQ, GeForce 740M 2GB DDR3, 17.3" Full HD 1920x1080, 16GB RAM, Samsung 840 Pro 128GB, 1TB Hitachi 7200 HDD,
Desktop: eSATA ports,
External eSATA Seagate 500GB SATA2 7200rpm,
External WD USB 500GB

My Computer

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HP, Dell, Gateway, Toshiba - 4 laptops and 2 desktops
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Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
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from 1.6GHz Duo to i7
Monitor(s) Displays
2x HP w2207
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5x HDD, 7x SSD, 12x Externals
Keyboard
with trackball - no mices
Mouse
Trackball mice
Internet Speed
DSL 6000
Very good tutorial. Thanks for making it.

Kari
 

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HP ENVY 17-1150eg
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Windows 10 Pro x64 EN-GB
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6 GB
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ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 Graphics
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Beats sound system with integrated subwoofer
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17" laptop display, 22" LED and 32" Full HD TV through HDMI
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Internal: 2 x 500 GB SATA Hard Disk Drive 7200 rpm
External: 2TB for backups, 3TB USB3 network drive for media
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As Envy runs a bit warm, I have it on a Cooler Master pad
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Logitech diNovo Media Desktop Laser (bluetooth)
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Logitech Performance Mouse MX
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50/10 Mbps VDSL
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Maxthon 3.5.2., IE11
Do I have to use Acronis? Having issues . . .

I've had this tutorial in a tab for a while now waiting till I got the cash to buy an SSD, but now that I have one I realized accidentally downloaded Acronis True Image Home 2011 more than 30 days ago and now that I'm trying to have it restore my system image from my hdd it says the trial version is expired . . .

To make matters worse, while I was able to install Acronis on my ssd, I wasn't able to activate the startup recovery on it because for whatever reason it encountered errors writing to various sectors (I don't know if this is a bigger problem . . .)

My question is if I can't use Acronis for my system image restore from my hdd to my new ssd, can I just use Windows backup/restore and retain my alignment from my fresh Windows 7 install? Or does Acronis do something special that Windows backup doesn't and therefore will force me to buy the software? Thanks so much for the help
 

My Computer

OS
Windows 7 Ultimate
CPU
Intel i7 950 3.07 Ghz
Graphics Card(s)
EVGA Nvidia GTX 580
Hard Drives
Crucial C300 256GB SSD SATA III @ 6 Gbs/sec
WD Green 500GB HDD
Just uninstall Acronis and use another imaging program. There is nothing special to Acronis. I recommend free Macrium or Free Paragon. The native Windows7 imaging is liable to give you grief. It is very iffy, complex, has little function and unreliable.
 

My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
HP, Dell, Gateway, Toshiba - 4 laptops and 2 desktops
OS
Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
CPU
from 1.6GHz Duo to i7
Monitor(s) Displays
2x HP w2207
Hard Drives
5x HDD, 7x SSD, 12x Externals
Keyboard
with trackball - no mices
Mouse
Trackball mice
Internet Speed
DSL 6000
I use Paragon Free, works brilliant for complete OS and system backup :thumbsup:
 

My Computer

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Home Built
OS
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1
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Intel E8400
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MSI P35 Neo
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4GB Crucial Ballistix
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ATI ASUS Radeon HD 4830
Sound Card
Realtek ALC888 on Board
Monitor(s) Displays
Asus 22-inch VH226H Widescreen
Screen Resolution
1920 x 1080
Hard Drives
Two Western Digital 500GB
PSU
Hiper HPU-4M 530W
Case
Thermaltake Tsunami Dream Black
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Air/Fans
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Saitek Eclipse
Mouse
Razer
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Sky Broadband
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USB Hub/Card Reader - 2 Pen Drives, 1 Phone Dock

My Computer

Computer type
PC/Desktop
Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
76~2.0
OS
Windows 7 Ult x64 - SP1/ Windows 8 Pro x64
CPU
Intel Core i5-3570K 4.6GHz
Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-Z77X UD3H, f18
Memory
8GB (2X4GB) DDR3 1600 Corsair Vengeance CL8 1.5v
Graphics Card(s)
Sapphire HD 7770 Vapor-X OC 1GB DDR5
Sound Card
Onboard VIA VT2021
Monitor(s) Displays
22" LCD Dell
Screen Resolution
1680x1050
Hard Drives
Samsung 840Pro 128GB SSD,
Seagate Barracuda 500GB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB cache, Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA2 7200rpm 32MB cache,
PSU
Corsair HX650W
Case
Cooler Master Storm Scout
Cooling
Corsair H80 2x12cm Noctua NF P12 , 2x14cm case fans
Keyboard
Logitech Wave
Mouse
CM Sentinel
Internet Speed
Dismal
Antivirus
Avast
Browser
Opera Next
Other Info
Haswell laptop: HP Envy 17t-j, i7-4700MQ, GeForce 740M 2GB DDR3, 17.3" Full HD 1920x1080, 16GB RAM, Samsung 840 Pro 128GB, 1TB Hitachi 7200 HDD,
Desktop: eSATA ports,
External eSATA Seagate 500GB SATA2 7200rpm,
External WD USB 500GB
Thanks. Somehow I got Acronis working and have successfully backed up my old hdd to an external hard drive. The problem I'm having now is that Acronis doesn't see my ssd as a drive that can be recovered to.

Acronis is booting at startup from my ssd (is primary and active drive)
I haven't erased my original hdd cuz I'm afraid of losing all my gaming data
I'm choosing to recover a whole disk/partition and the size is small enough to fit on my 256GB ssd, but the ssd isn't being shown at all.

Any ideas? The ssd is booting fine into windows and can see my old windows hdd. Any ideas of what I'm doing wrong here?
 

My Computer

OS
Windows 7 Ultimate
CPU
Intel i7 950 3.07 Ghz
Graphics Card(s)
EVGA Nvidia GTX 580
Hard Drives
Crucial C300 256GB SSD SATA III @ 6 Gbs/sec
WD Green 500GB HDD

My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
HP, Dell, Gateway, Toshiba - 4 laptops and 2 desktops
OS
Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
CPU
from 1.6GHz Duo to i7
Monitor(s) Displays
2x HP w2207
Hard Drives
5x HDD, 7x SSD, 12x Externals
Keyboard
with trackball - no mices
Mouse
Trackball mice
Internet Speed
DSL 6000
I thought Windows 7 would automatically align the ssd partition with a fresh install. Oops. Thanks for the link. I'll see if this fixes my issue later today
 

My Computer

OS
Windows 7 Ultimate
CPU
Intel i7 950 3.07 Ghz
Graphics Card(s)
EVGA Nvidia GTX 580
Hard Drives
Crucial C300 256GB SSD SATA III @ 6 Gbs/sec
WD Green 500GB HDD
I thought Windows 7 would automatically align the ssd partition with a fresh install. Oops. Thanks for the link. I'll see if this fixes my issue later today
As I understand it, you are not installing Win7 from the installation disk but copy it from an image. That is a very different situation.
 

My Computer

Computer Manufacturer/Model Number
HP, Dell, Gateway, Toshiba - 4 laptops and 2 desktops
OS
Vista, Windows7, Mint Mate, Zorin, Windows 8
CPU
from 1.6GHz Duo to i7
Monitor(s) Displays
2x HP w2207
Hard Drives
5x HDD, 7x SSD, 12x Externals
Keyboard
with trackball - no mices
Mouse
Trackball mice
Internet Speed
DSL 6000
I was following the instructions of this forum by installing windows 7 on my ssd and then trying to recover the image of my windows backup I created with Acronis . . .
 

My Computer

OS
Windows 7 Ultimate
CPU
Intel i7 950 3.07 Ghz
Graphics Card(s)
EVGA Nvidia GTX 580
Hard Drives
Crucial C300 256GB SSD SATA III @ 6 Gbs/sec
WD Green 500GB HDD
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