copying a program or OS from one HD to another - easy ?

stevewestern · 30 Jan 2013

Time I asked what I expect is yet another very basic question...

I have all my programs and a bunch of data on a 1tb HD and am thinking of getting an SSD to replace it for the OS and programs.
Having installed W7 on another 160gb HD before the 1TB one went in I was wondering it it would be easy to copy the OS over to the SSD from the 160gb drive ?
This drive also has most of my programs on it so rather than a complete re-install, is it easy to copy the programs over as well ?
Finally, if the 1TB drive is then plugged into another port do I need to do anything to still be able to access all the rest of the programs and data on it ?

Does any of that make sense to anyone ???
Thanks for any advice !

neil_g · 30 Jan 2013

its possible. but you need to repartition your drive so that it is smaller than the SSD, then you can image the drive.

stevewestern · 30 Jan 2013

Cor, it doesn't take you long to come to my aid Neil !

I was thinking of getting a 256gb SSD so that I could copy the entire 160gb HD to it, leaving space for whatever else - partitioning is something I have never done for some reason..

arad85 · 30 Jan 2013

stevewestern said:
Having installed W7 on another 160gb HD before the 1TB one went in I was wondering it it would be easy to copy the OS over to the SSD from the 160gb drive ?This drive also has most of my programs on it so rather than a complete re-install, is it easy to copy the programs over as well ?

So, let's get this straight. You have a 160G drive with O/S & some programs on and 1TB drive with a few other programs and your data. Correct?

If so, image the 160G drive with windows backup, create boot disk, swap HDD for SSD and restore with the boot disk to the 256G drive. There's probably a program that'll image the drive directly but I've never needed to do it!

It will be easier to then reinstall any programs you have on the 1TB drive.

stevewestern said:
Finally, if the 1TB drive is then plugged into another port do I need to do anything to still be able to access all the rest of the programs and data on it ?

Just leave it where it is. No need to move the port....

arad85 · 30 Jan 2013

PS. There MAY be an issue if your BIOS isn't set to AHCI mode.....

stevewestern · 30 Jan 2013

Andy - just about right !
I used to have a 160gb HD for my OS and programs.
I then replaced it with a 1tb HD and reinstalled everything but didn't partition it.
If I get a 256GB SSD, can I just copy over everything on the 160gb HD, ie OS and programs?
I could, once the whole thing is running then delete W7 off the 1tb HD along with any remaining programs that are duplicated to free up a little space.

You say to create a boot disk - can you please elaborate ?

arad85 · 30 Jan 2013

stevewestern said:
Andy - just about right !
I used to have a 160gb HD for my OS and programs.
I then replaced it with a 1tb HD and reinstalled everything but didn't partition it.
If I get a 256GB SSD, can I just copy over everything on the 160gb HD, ie OS and programs?
I could, once the whole thing is running then delete W7 off the 1tb HD along with any remaining programs that are duplicated to free up a little space.

Still not clear.... as it isn't clear where you are booting from.

If you have a working Win7 install on the 160G drive, just image that and you will be fine.
If you are booting from the 1TB disk it's more difficult. You have to do what Neil said then. The way I'd do this is move as much data off the main disk as possible and then try to resize the drive using Start->Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management->Select drive and shrink volume. If it cannot do it, it will tell you why and which files it needs help with. You can then move/delete etc.. those files as appropriate. Took me about 4 goes to get my drive small enough. You need to get the partition down to around 230GB before it will image across (256 formatted is less than 256!), but then you will have a very full disk!

stevewestern said:
You say to create a boot disk - can you please elaborate ?

Control Panel->Backup and Restore->Create a system repair disc (the windows disk imager is just above that...). Creates a DVD you can boot and restore with.

stevewestern · 30 Jan 2013

Sorry - I am not the best at explaining - Clearly !!!

OK, currently, I boot from the 1tb HD - the old 160gb HD isn't even in the PC.
However, from what you have said can I just connect both the 160gb HD and the SSD to the pc and copy everything over using windows backup or do I still need to make a boot disc ?
Thanks for the help - it never ceases to amaze me just how quickly the two of you are able to help out !

andydajo · 30 Jan 2013

I copied the contents of a 120GB SSD to a 256GB SSD using Acronis software, no probs whatsoever, it made a bootable image and works fine.

neil_g · 30 Jan 2013

andydajo said:
I copied the contents of a 120GB SSD to a 256GB SSD using Acronis software, no probs whatsoever, it made a bootable image and works fine.

How does it handle imaging from a larger source than the destination? A fair few throw a wobbler.

arad85 · 30 Jan 2013

andydajo said:
I copied the contents of a 120GB SSD to a 256GB SSD using Acronis software, no probs whatsoever, it made a bootable image and works fine.

But we need to go the other way here....

Mikesphotaes · 30 Jan 2013

neil_g said:
How does it handle imaging from a larger source than the destination? A fair few throw a wobbler.

Acronis adjusts it automatically, unlike Windows image.

Don't know what the limiting difference is, I did one with only 20gb difference.

Mike-a · 30 Jan 2013

If the 160gb drive has an os on it and the programs you want to keep then this will be the best one to clone. Otherwise as arad85 has mentionedit's a matter of shifting data from the 1tb drive till it'll fit on the SSD.
I've just swapped a 150gb HDD to a 240gb SSD using this and it was dead easy, took about two hours from start to finish. Most definately the best pc upgrade I've ever done in terms of speeding up the system. I may even look at getting one for my desktop.

stevewestern · 31 Jan 2013

Thank you all for the help - I'll no doubt be back asking more questions later but think I now understand enough - if the worst comes to the worst I can do a fresh install but this seems far more simple and less time consuming....
I did put an SSD in my laptop and tried to copy everything over using a free trial of Acronis but somehow failed and ended up re-installing - clearly I did something wrong, but lets see how it goes this time !