Moving W7 from HDD to SSD

[Nuclear Fusion]

At the moment, I am using W7 Home Premium 64 bit OEM on a WD Caviar Black. If I were to buy a new SSD as a boot drive, what would be the best way of moving the OS to the SSD? I have external hard drives if that helps. Thanks.

 

[craarc]

disk image software acronis, norton ghost, win7, all have ways of doing it


tbh i would fresh install and keep both drives as independent operating sytems and dual boot
or fresh install and move stuff over at leisure untill you are happy with the new set up

 

[Nuclear Fusion]

disk image software acronis, norton ghost, win7, all have ways of doing it


tbh i would fresh install and keep both drives as independent operating sytems and dual boot
or fresh install and move stuff over at leisure untill you are happy with the new set up

Thanks for the reply, I was thinking that a new install would probably be a good idea. Would I need to reinstall drivers and games onto the hard drive or would they work as normal? So the license wouldn't present any problems I'm guessing?

 

[craarc]

you will need to reinstall drivers yes. games you can link to across drives or reinstall on the new drive.

as far as another install (legal) of windows is concerned i beleive u can only install one copy per machine im not sure how that works with multiple copies on one machine

as in you cant install it again on another pc but if you install it twice on one machine not sure..

i have five operating sytems but they are all different

up to you how you get round it i guess.

 

[KIA]

http://www.paragon-software.com/technologies/components/migrate-OS-to-SSD/

Easy.

 

[craarc]

http://www.paragon-software.com/technologies/components/migrate-OS-to-SSD/

Easy.

that looks good tbh

 

[Nuclear Fusion]

http://www.paragon-software.com/technologies/components/migrate-OS-to-SSD/

Easy.

That does look good, although I'd prefer not to pay anything if possible

 

[malachi]

Best to do a complete reinstall. That’s what did when I got mine a few months back.

But if you do decide to use disk imaging software, make sure you use one which supports SSD alignment.

 

[Nuclear Fusion]

So pretty much, the best way to do it is to unplug my HDD, plug in the SSD, install W7 onto the SSD in the same way I did with my HDD, then plug in the HDD again, and delete the Windows folder off the HDD?

 

[craarc]

i wouldnt delete the windows folder on your hdd leave it there as it gives u a multi boot option

try it its so usefull to be able to have multiple OS on your pc especially if you are a tnkerer and especially while you are setting up your ssd cause u can always access your system if u mess something up

 

[Nuclear Fusion]

Ok, so pretty much as I said except for the deleting windows folder part?

 

[craarc]

yes thats what i would do and set the ssd to the boot drive in bios make sure its all up and running then replug in the hdd and use a multi boot prog or from bios

a multi boot program i think is better like easy bcd

http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

have a look there if your not sure its free and easy to use


if at a later date u dont want to have iot on the hdd u can delete it then i wouldnt do it now just incase tbh

 

[Nuclear Fusion]

Ok, and so all the files and games will still work, but drivers will need to be uninstalled and then installed again?

 

[craarc]

ok if you have a new OS on the ssd you can link to the games on the old ssd untill you r ready to move the ones u want on the ssd over yes its like linking to any other drive or partition.

but u wont disturb anything on the old drive untill your happy with the windows install on the new one.

if u just delete the windows folder on the old drive u wont... if the new install has problems be able to boot into anything see what i mean ?

so i would do a fresh install on the new drive of a bare OS
then dload all your drivers etc

check it all out to see your happy

then

install the stuff u want all the time on the new drive

still keep stuff on the old one

then when u want either dual boot so u can at start up go to new drive or old one like this



thats my main multi boot setup

or you can if you dont want to just start deleting stuff from the old drive as you move it across or decide you dont want it

but the main thing i would delete anything untill your happy with the OS install on the new drive


oh you wont need to uninstall drivers from the old system

just set up what u need on the new one same for your programs and stuff

 

[Nuclear Fusion]

Ok, so basically just run it as a dual boot, and leave everything on the HDD, and everything from the HDD (like games etc.) will work fine when it boots from the SSD?

 

[craarc]

yup i do it as you can see

mutli booting is not that hard to set up especially with 2 op sys and it can be really usefull


it depends on what you want if you dont need the storage on the hdd for anything else you may as well keep an operating system on there i mean why remove it


it gives you more options if you have problems u can allways still get into your pc from any drive with an os on it


i definatly wouldnt delete it untill ur happy with the set up on your ssd

see what others say but thats the way i always do it.

 

[Nuclear Fusion]

Yeah, may as well leave it on, my windows folder is 17Gb, so doesn't really make any difference to 1Tb of space.

 

[Nuclear Fusion]

Well thanks for the help, now I've definitely got an upgrade itch for an SSD

 

[craarc]

Yeah, may as well leave it on, my windows folder is 17Gb, so doesn't really make any difference to 1Tb of space.

Well thanks for the help, now I've definitely got an upgrade itch for an SSD

wel mate

bet if you do dual boot u will get the multi boot itch also ... he he

easybcd is tha place for that stuff if u do i cant recoment it enough tbh

i did some testing for them ages ago and its FREE