OS and Software > Microsoft Help > [WIN7] Want an SSD ... is there any way to avoid re-installing?

[WIN7] Want an SSD ... is there any way to avoid re-installing?

Re: [WIN7] Want an SSD ... is there any way to avoid re-installi

reply to Mospaw
I don't know if the RAID setup will be an issue, but you could try Acronis True Image. I recently installed Samsung SSD's in two laptops running Windows 7. I checked for the most recent firmware, then cloned the physical drive to the blank SSD using Acronis on my Windows 7 desktop. I have not noticed any issues, and boot times are extremely fast.

reply to Mospaw
I did this a few weeks ago, though I'm not sure if the Raid setup will complicate things at all.

I ended up following a combination of these two guides:

»www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/14···tem.html

»lifehacker.com/5837543/how-to-mi···-windows

And using a Paragon Backup and Recovery 2012 Free image. The main issue I eventually had was that the Bootmgr and other necessary files were on the wrong drive. I ended up having to unhide a partition on the original drive (not the 100 mb partition I'd been looking for, which didn't exist, but a larger partition) and copying the bootmgr and boot files over manually to get the SSD to boot. After doing that, everything's been working without issue.
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Brain: Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but "Snowball for Windows"?

Thank you for the responses. This is looking a bit more doable!

I did think of another issue, though. My existing C drive will not fit into 240GB. I will need to move my Users folder onto another drive. (Users is 890GB. The rest of the system combined is just under 70.)

I have 2 2TB drive in RAID 1 in an external enclosure as well as 2 750GB drives in RAID 0 in another. There is plenty of room to move my 890GB Users folder onto either one of those.

I'm not too worried about the existing RAID that I boot from. I can break it if necessary. In fact, it will be holding the Users data after I'm done, so I'll be reformatting it at the very least once this process is done. I know that's probably not 100% necessary, but it can't hurt.

I guess the next step is determining which is less work ... moving the existing system or simply re-installing. It's good to have options.

reply to Mospaw
Very simple to do from a standard drive to a SSD. Image the install drive, load that image on the SSD and you are done.

With a RAID setup that does not apply.

you may be better off doing a complete re-install and it may be faster then fooling with moving from RAID to one SSD.
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Shooter Ready--Stand By BEEP ********

reply to Mospaw
When I got my SSD I used this free software »www.todo-backup.com/download/
Besides a variety of backup options, it allows you to attach your new drive to your PC via USB and clone the existing drive. It was just a few clicks a descent wait time and I was done.
When I did it, my main drive was 650Gigs w/ 60gigs of data. The SSD was 128 Gigs total and when the cloning was done it, I swapped drives and the SSD booted nicely and had all the 60gigs on data on it.
Later on I tried the process in reverse, took the 128 Gig SSD w/ 80 gigs of data and cloned it to the 650 GIG drive. It cloned as expected but the 650 gig drive only showed 128Gigs as its capacity.
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Good judgement comes with experience...Experience comes after bad judgements