Move HDD OS to SSD without program files

XiS111 · 21 Apr 2011 at 02:16

I'm about to buy a 40gb SSD, I was wondering if it was possible to move the OS from my existing HDD to the new SSD without the program files as its far too large.

Using freeware if possible

Don't want to buy any expensive cloning software

muon · 21 Apr 2011 at 03:41

uninstall programs and then move?

Windows 7 has a built in image restore program. Just search for "backup and restore".

steve258 · 21 Apr 2011 at 03:54

The SSD partition might not be properly aligned though if you just restore using Win7's built in utility. You might still need to reformat and reinstall windows 7.

Zarf · 21 Apr 2011 at 05:58

Backup the current drive to somewhere safe, then uninstall the bits you don't want and use Paragons free SSD migration tool (need to register to get a serial, but its free).

Personally, I'd rather do a clean install, It really doesn't take long. 10-15 minutes to put windows on, restore my docs from a backup location then Ninite takes care of putting common apps back on, and all my browser bookmarks/passwords/extensions are synced from the cloud (Chrome Sync, but theres similar available for Firefox)

Whole process is probably much quicker than imaging -> uninstalling and cleaning -> cloning, and on a 40GB drive you can do without years of built up crap.

XiS111 · 23 Apr 2011 at 01:07

seems like such a hassle then, opted out of buying the SSD, going to wait til I can afford an SSD with at least 200gb space. Seems crazy overpriced at the moment.