HDD Upgrade to SSD - How to transfer?

[jase888]

Hey Guys,

I'm finally getting a SSD for my PC as my current HDD seems to be making a bit of noise when loading up windows (The disc isn't loose or anything like people say just makes a funny noise), some programs and slower to boot.

I want to transfer my operating system (win 7) to the ssd and a few games and programs and using the hdd for documents, pictures, etc. Is this easy to do or would you recommend installing win 7 on the ssd and then delete windows 7 on the HDD?

I've read a few walkthroughs but they seem a bit confusing

Thanks for help

[GroundZero3]

What part is confusing?

[tony_j15]

Shouldn't be too confusing. Most retail SDD packages include a cloning software to make the process painless.

I would definitely reccomend putting your OS on the SSD. You'll be wasting most of its speed value otherwise.

[jase888]

Oh right didnt realise they came with cloning software, do intel SSDs?? And the walkthroughs ive read seemed confusing doing stuff in bios and other things.

But if intel SSDs come with clone software its all goo, if not which ssds u guys recommend??

[tony_j15]

If you have Windows 7, I don't think there should be any BIOS settings you should have to mess around with. It all depends on how your computer is set up, of course. Intel makes top of the line SSDs. Their prices are top of the line as well.

I would do a little digging and figure out how much you want to spend and take a look at what you can get for that price range.

[GroundZero3]

Depends on where you are buying it, read the advertisement for the ssd and it will tell you if it comes with cloning software or not. I just bought a crucial SSD drive and it didnt come with any cloning software

[Taxmancometh]

My SSD didn't come with any cloning software either. I used Acronis to clone my drive.

[jase888]

Thanks for the replies everyone, my has come with some cloning softwrae but everyone says i wont be able to use it because i have more data on the hdd than there is space on the ssd.

What I plan on doing is starting again and reinstalling windows 7. How will I then delete the OS off the HDD?

I haven't wiped my machine before so bit unsure of what il need to do when i reinstall it, pcspecialist seemed to set it all up for me. Do i just need to install drivers and are they easy to find?

Just want to clarify before I wipe it and mess up my 1 grand system lol.

[MTAtech]

Even if you have no cloning software, you can use Win 7's backup software to make an image on another price (not one of the two described) then recover it from that drive using a created emergency recovery disk to the SSD.

[jase888]

yeah im doing that now, as a precaution but think its better to do a clean install and start fresh from what everyone has said.

[MTAtech]

yeah im doing that now, as a precaution but think its better to do a clean install and start fresh from what everyone has said.

Nobody above said anything of the sort.

Look at it this way. Presuming your original drive was not corrupt, it contains the bits that are your OS, applications, settings and data. Creating an image puts all that information into a file. When you restore that file Win 7 Backup and Restore faithfully copies that information to another disk recreating the bits that are your OS, applications, settings and data into the new disk the same way it was on the original.

I see no evidence that going through the process of installing each one at a time is better. People have the idea that they must suffer in order to gain something. It just isn't true.

I just finished using this process to put my server image on a bigger disk.

[jase888]

I asked a question on yahoo answers and they said clean installs. I think im making it bit confusing haha.

I did a system image backup onto external hard drive so are you saying i can put that onto ssd? If so how as its to large to go on a disc and would you just use disc like os disc?

[jase888]

Just thought if i install windows on they ssd then i recover the image file from external hardrive, would that be the correct way of doing it?

[GroundZero3]

I would just do a clean install if you are going to SSD, but thats just me

[jase888]

haha thats what i mean 50/50 some say do some say don't. If i didn't do a clean install would i just do the following way

"install clean copy of windows on the ssd then i recover the image file from external hard drive once windows was installed"

i would do clean install as i have loads of programs I don't use but then cant be bothered spending hours looking for drivers for each component.

[GroundZero3]

You back up everything you currently have, music, word docs, webpage bookmarks to the hard drive you currently have (usually I just make a folder on my desktop and put everything in it that I want to move over to the new system.) I also download all the drivers for the computer and put it in that folder. Windows 7 will pick up a lot of hardware drivers but of course certain things like video cards, chipset drivers, usb, and soundcards you want to get the latest from the manufacturing. If there are any applications you installed from the internet you want to use I go and get the .exes and put that into the folder. If you have software lisence keys you bought record that stuff down too.

Once you get everything back up you want to save, I usually unplug the old drive plug in the new drive do the windows installation onto the new drive. If windows picked up the network card do all the updates. Once that is all done I install the old drive and startt installing drivers/applications/moving word docs/music/videos/pictures

Doing a clean install can be a lot of work depending on how much crap you have on your computer. Installing Windows 7 onto the SSD drive should take less than 10 minutes. Once you get your system up and running there are some tweaks you will need to do optimize for windows 7 and a SSD drive

[jase888]

Thanks for that reply, very helpful I have already backed up everything onto an external hard drive, so I will now download drivers too ready for clean install.

I have a disk for my motherboard driver, should i install that or not, i've reformatted xp pcs at work before but never installed motherboard drivers and they work all ok?

Once i get that done i will look at wiping os off original hdd so its only got data on. Cheers for help Groundzero

[GroundZero3]

Get the latest drivers for your motherboard from the manufactures website. Motherboard drivers are install just like any other driver. Usually just an exe you run and the program does the rest

I never bother with drivers on CDs

[jase888]

ok il get them downloaded later. When i put my normal hdd back in will that become the D: im guessing? and to reformat it will I just go into system management disk part and click format on the drive?

[MTAtech]

When you are confident that everything works as desired you can reformat your original disk and assign a new letter for other uses, using System Management.

My take is that if the only thing that changed is the drive, there isn't much gained reinstalling from scratch, that's all.