Looking to migrate home pc to SSD

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#1239509 15-Feb-2015 18:06

I have always just resized the partition down as far as I can, put the new SSD into a USB caddy, and then used the intel transfer software to move it all over.

Even if the install is pretty bloated with crap, the SSD makes it so much faster anyway. You will end up cloning over all the recovery stuff too if you choose to (I almost always delete those partitions as soon as I get a computer with them on it) and they should allow for a restore in future if you choose to.

Only issue I have had are when the PC was set to do both bios and uefi boot and the drive had both the GPT and partition tables on it with that weird protective partition table that was wrong, it screwed up the cloning into making wrong partitions.

Cleaning up the source drive with testdisk was all it took to get the intel drive moving tool working.

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jeffnz

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#1239510 15-Feb-2015 18:07

ok sorry if I seem a bit slow but if I take out old drive, and then boot up to rescue disk then install onto the SSD that would be best?

Would I need to format SSD to NTFS and bootable first?

if that fails then I can put back old drive and start again

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naggyman

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#1239511 15-Feb-2015 18:08

I find that the free version of EaseUS TODO Backup works reasonably well, it will shrink your partition size and "optimize" it for your SSD.
My main suggestion is to do a full defrag on the HDD before transferring it.

That being said I still personally would do a full rebuild. Although it may seem a large task, it usually is pretty fast (hence the SSD) and it is usually quicker than trying to mess around with stubborn windows after a transfer.

Morgan French-Stagg

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#1239531 15-Feb-2015 18:55

Best option:

download a legit iso of whichever OS you are running. Windows 7 , 8 and 8.1 are all available. This means you should get the fastest possible system with no crapware (from restore) or bit rot (from cloning your old system).
download drivers from manufacture
swap the hard drives over
Make any bios changes (AHCI)
Fresh OS install with the ISO you downloaded in the previous step
install drivers
Install your programs
use either the old drive in an external case or your backup to transfer any data you need.

Brumfondl

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#1239533 15-Feb-2015 19:01

What Gozer said :)

To be honest, all the things you are looking at doing to save you effort seem to me to be more effort than a simple clean OS install, and the clean install will leave you with a much better running machine.

Paul Thurrott is currently doing a series of articles on clean-installing on various types of machine over at thurrott.com. You might want to take a look. It has info about finding product keys, etc., on things like HPs

jeffnz

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#1239538 15-Feb-2015 19:12

Thanks guys, Gozer that makes sense and I like the clean install however when I go to download ISO the product key number on side of computer is for 'pre installed' so it won't let me. I guess my options are to go to HP/MS and see if I can get disks or buy a key which seems silly since I have software already but long term is handy I guess

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Brumfondl

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#1239542 15-Feb-2015 19:22

jeffnz: Thanks guys, Gozer that makes sense and I like the clean install however when I go to download ISO the product key number on side of computer is for 'pre installed' so it won't let me. I guess my options are to go to HP/MS and see if I can get disks or buy a key which seems silly since I have software already but long term is handy I guess

What OS?

jeffnz

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#1239547 15-Feb-2015 19:22

win 7 home premium

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Brumfondl

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#1239549 15-Feb-2015 19:27

You have tried entering the key here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery ?

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#1239554 15-Feb-2015 19:31

Brumfondl: You have tried entering the key here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery ?

yes and doing some research it won't accept the key on pre installed so need to go to HP and get it or contact MS for some discs.

Looks like it won;t happen this weekend but glad I asked here before blundering my way through to disaster

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Brumfondl

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#1239557 15-Feb-2015 19:36

Windows 7 Home Premium x86 with SP1 (bootable)
http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-24208.iso
Windows 7 Home Premium x64 with SP1 (bootable)
http://msft.digitalrivercontent.net/win/X17-24209.iso

Might work for you. Not sure

jeffnz

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#1239558 15-Feb-2015 19:37

thanks for help but that directs you to the MS recovery page, seems like that is only way to get ISO's now.

oh seems to be downloading, thanks I'll check it out

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lNomNoml

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#1239620 15-Feb-2015 22:08

CYaBro: All the SSD brands I've seen come with a free basic version of Acronis for doing the clone and it can go to a smaller drive as long as all of your data will fit on the smaller SSD.

Only brand that I have seen that does this is Crucial, Samsung and Transcend don't afaik.

Acronis would be the program to use as it dynamically resizes partitions to fit on to smaller drivers, you can also try macrium reflect but it doesn't resize as much as Acronis does. You could resize your partiton with the disk management utility, but to gain the most space you would need to defragment your drive first with a program like Defraggler and also delete your hibernation and page files to gain the most space.

richms

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#1239622 15-Feb-2015 22:16

Intel does. That's all I tend to buy for SSD. Just grab it from their site and so long as an intel drive is plugged in, it will run. I dont even know if you have to be going to the intel drive or if its just a requirement to install.

Richard rich.ms

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#1239633 15-Feb-2015 23:22

I haven't heard of 'pre installed' do you mean its an OEM key?

If you've downloaded the ISO from above there is a very simple text change you can make to change it from a retail version (that dont like some OEM keys) to an OEM version that will except OEM keys.

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