Changing primary HD for a SSD

cymruchris

cymruchris

Suspended / Banned
Messages
2,921
Name
Chris
Edit My Images
Yes
My PC is pretty well spec'd - and currently has a 2tb WD hard drive that's getting pretty full, and although it's a long story - I managed to damage the connecting pin plastic surrounds on it, but is still functioning.

I'd like to install a new HDD (maybe one of the new solid state style?) that is my 'startup' drive and holds my program files - and then a replacement traditional HD for my files and folders.

I've done a bit of searching - but not found a simple answer yet - can I initially plug in the new 'startup' drive while the PC is currently configured the way it is, to install whatever's required to make it start when next powered up as the primary drive?

It's on Windows 7 premium 64bit if that helps. Does anyone know of any simple guides to do the above? Thanks :)
 
The best way to do it I think would be to add the new second drive first and move all your data off it leaving just the programs etc...
Then you can add the new SSD and boot off a DVD containing some software to copy all the data across from the old to the new operating system drive.

The new SSD will be a lot smaller and that's why you will want to move the actual data files off the original first so what remains will fit on the new SSD.
 
Yup... get a second HDD in, move all your data onto it (including user files), get the system drive so it is smaller than the SSD (this is a combination of removing stuff you don't need and resizing the partition until it is smaller than the SSD). Create a system restore disk if you don't have one. Image the system drive with MS system backup onto your new drive or USB drive, insert new SSD and boot from the system restore disk. Use system restore to restore the contents of the backup to the new SSD.

I've just done this with my laptop - moving from a 750G HDD to a 256G fast SSD.
 
Careful with what imaging software you use though, when I did mine I failed to fine one that would let me image a larger drive onto a smaller one (despite getting the used space significantly under that of the smaller). Got fed up and did a fresh install, only took about ten mins to install windows 7 lol
 
Install SSD without the old hdd connected, run Win7 install off the DVD and choose to install onto the new drive than connect up the old hdd making sure it's not set to boot first. That's pretty much what I did a couple of months back. Win7 is good at finding drivers etc but stick as many as you think you might need on a usb stick or cd just in case.
 
neil_g said:
Careful with what imaging software you use though, when I did mine I failed to fine one that would let me image a larger drive onto a smaller one (despite getting the used space significantly under that of the smaller). Got fed up and did a fresh install, only took about ten mins to install windows 7 lol
Click to expand...
Windows backup won't let you put a larger partition onto a smaller one. It gives you enough clues what's unmoveable though - I transferred a 750G partition onto a 256G partition and then had to resize it UP to fill the whole 256G. Took about 10 mins to delete files in fixed positions (tended to be temp files) to shrink it down enough.

Any method that uses a reinstall of windows means a reinstall of apps and settings and everything else....
 
arad85 said:
Windows backup won't let you put a larger partition onto a smaller one. It gives you enough clues what's unmoveable though - I transferred a 750G partition onto a 256G partition and then had to resize it UP to fill the whole 256G. Took about 10 mins to delete files in fixed positions (tended to be temp files) to shrink it down enough.

Any method that uses a reinstall of windows means a reinstall of apps and settings and everything else....
Click to expand...

Yup, I tried about 7 or 8 imaging apps at the time and none would let me.

Sure you have to install all apps etc but most of that can be done in an hour or two with all disks / downloads to hand :)
 
neil_g said:
Yup, I tried about 7 or 8 imaging apps at the time and none would let me.
Click to expand...
What you have to do is shrink the "from" partition to smaller than the "to" partition before you image. If you can move all your data files off to another disk, you are likely to have a smaller amount of used space. The trick then is to delete the "unmoveable" files that Windows has placed half way through the partition. You can do this by trying to resize the partition down to a small size (using Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management) and looking at the error messages to determine why it won't let you resize. Mine went something like:

  1. Delete all unwanted files and move any user files onto another drive (used space now 100GBytes)
  2. Try to resize partition to 200G (I was moving to a 256G SDD)
  3. If repartition failed delete unmoveable file (which is generally an open temp file somewhere) and goto 2
  4. Once re-partition succeeded, image the drive to a spare drive using Windows backup
  5. Make Windows recovery disk (if you don't already have this)
  6. Insert new SSD
  7. Boot into recovery from the recovery DVD
  8. Do a system restore from the backup taken in 4
  9. Resize the partition on the SSD up to fill the SSD once the restore has finished (as the restore will revert to exactly the same size partitions as the backup saved)

Other than the couple of hours backing up & restoring (which you can leave running whilst doing something else) it took about 10 minutes at the PC. The advantage is that I didn't need to reinstall/restore ANYTHING (or check my defaults were how I liked them etc...)
 
Some really great hints tips and links there... Thanks to all for responding.. The new drives arrive tomorrow - so this has given me a bit of a clearer picture on what needs to be done!! Let's see if I can do it..
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top