Moving Window 7 from HDD to SSD

alex1997123

So I just bought an SSD and need to know what's the best and preferably easiest way to transfer Windows 7 from my hard drive to my SDD

Any help would be appreciated

bardcom

I just did this last week. I used Easeus Partition Manager, free edition, and did a disk image. I found an article on howtogeek entitled "How To Migrate Windows 7 to a Solid State Drive" very useful.

Bepolite

Macruim (spelling) reflect trial edition - really easy to use.

Free edition probably wont do it but you only need to do this once so trial will work.

maik3n

I know it may well be a lot of leg work, but do you have much data/programs etc that you need to keep?

It's just that, it would seem a shame to just dump your existing windows profile and all its possible hiccups onto your brand new ssd.

A fresh OS install can be a good option at times.

Serephucus

^ That.

alex1997123

maik3n wrote: »

I know it may well be a lot of leg work, but do you have much data/programs etc that you need to keep?

It's just that, it would seem a shame to just dump your existing windows profile and all its possible hiccups onto your brand new ssd.

A fresh OS install can be a good option at times.

How would I go about a fresh install?

Squaredude

alex1997123 wrote: »

How would I go about a fresh install?

Found this guide quite helpful
http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds

Serephucus

A lot of the tweaks in that are copied from a guide posted on the OCZ forums a couple of years ago, and are completely unncessary. He had it right at the start of the guide though: Change mode from IDE to AHCI, install, and... That's it! If you want you can disable your page file, but all the other stuff isn't needed, and a lot of the time can work against the SSD.

Bepolite

Serephucus wrote: »

A lot of the tweaks in that are copied from a guide posted on the OCZ forums a couple of years ago, and are completely unncessary. He had it right at the start of the guide though: Change mode from IDE to AHCI, install, and... That's it! If you want you can disable your page file, but all the other stuff isn't needed, and a lot of the time can work against the SSD.

I like not having a paging file. I've 16GB RAM though.

I wonder if I might hijack a little and ask:

I have my controller set to RAID. I was under the impression on Intel controllers (I have a Z77 Sabertooth) the RAID 'passed through' the RAID mode. Samsung magician says AHCI isnt on. Is it on or off does anyone know?

alex1997123

I read some stuff and it basically said Back up what I want - Format my HDD - Unplug the HDD - Reinstall Windows - Put backed up stuff on HDD

Squaredude

alex1997123 wrote: »

I read some stuff and it basically said Back up what I want - Format my HDD - Unplug the HDD - Reinstall Windows - Put backed up stuff on HDD

No real need to format your hdd.just disconnect it while installing windows to the ssd and reconnect it after. Just remember to set the ssd as the boot drive in bios settings.

alex1997123

Squaredude wrote: »

No real need to format your hdd.just disconnect it while installing windows to the ssd and reconnect it after. Just remember to set the ssd as the boot drive in bios settings.

But then won't I have Windows 7 on both the HDD and SSD

Squaredude

alex1997123 wrote: »

But then won't I have Windows 7 on both the HDD and SSD

Actually formatting may be the more straight forward option. I was thinking you'd have a windows.old folder that you could delete but thats only when you install onto the same hdd.

Serephucus

That's the only other thing you have to remember: Remove all the other HDDs from your system before you go to install.

alex1997123

So.. Backup stuff - Format Drive - Unplug HDD - Install OS again - Put stuff back on HDD. That it or is there something I'm missing?

Squaredude

Yup your good to go

Serephucus

Backup, unplug (others), format, install.

alex1997123

I only got one HDD so I'm good

alex1997123

Just a quick question could I move the stuff I want(A few games and documents) from my HDD to my SSD while I format my HDD and install Windows onto the SSD?

maik3n

alex1997123 wrote: »

Just a quick question could I move the stuff I want(A few games and documents) from my HDD to my SSD while I format my HDD and install Windows onto the SSD?

hehe, you won't be able to do all at the same time, lol.

Your best bet is to just do a fresh OS install on your ssd.

Unplug your old hdd, plug in your new ssd.
Run OS installation from cd/dvd.
Get that up and running.
Then plug your old hdd into your pc as extra storage.
Copy across whatever files you want to keep onto your ssd and then format the old hdd from within your fresh ssd os installation. :cool:

alex1997123

Alright thanks