Best way to transfer OS to new SSD

[StoneT]

Hi all,

 

First of all - MERRY XMAS :o:

 

Before flaming me please have a little patience .... I am new to the SSD business and did a lot of searching with Google as well as in this forum ....

 

I got a Force F80 as Xmas pressie - happy days .... but now I have to install and use it. Hence I have a few questions ....

 

I have a Windows 7 32-bit installation already on a good HDD and I would now like to transfer this to the new SSD drive and use the F80 as my boot drive (and keep the "old" HDD as data storage).

But I am in doubt on how best to go about this due to "alignment issues" etc.

 

I have Acronis True Image 2010 which I would I would like to use to clone my "old" HDD to the new SSD - but is this a viable way to go and not screw up any alignments etc. ??

.... or must I re-install Win7 and everything ??

 

Thanks for the patience answering this :p:

 

Happy holiday,

StoneT

[rhesuspieces]

There are several issues you have to deal with.

 

1. Partition the drive (this is where the the offset is important)

2. Create the file systems with the appropriate file system block size.

3. Copy the data to the new file systems. Some products can increase or

reduce the size of the file system being copied. Windows requires that

certain files reside at specific locations in the file system.

4. Copy Windows specific file system metADATA (active, drive letter, etc)

5. Copy information necessary for the system to boot from that drive.

With Windows 7 this information is kept in the first partition on the drive.

6. Your installation of Windows 7 may include a hidden partition or two.

The vendor may create a partition for recovery purposes. You need to

copy these also.

 

The product I chose was Acronis Disk Director. I wanted a product that would copy disk to disk, even from an active file system. I also needed to copy from a larger file system to a smaller one. I was moving from a 320GB internal disk to a 240GB SSD.

 

I was surprised that everything worked out well. The Acronis Disk Directory was easy to understand and use. I've read that some people have used Acronis True Image.

 

I purchased an enclosure and connected the SSD via the USB port. Once I was done with the copy, I switched drives. The partition offsets and file system block size were fine.

[RAM GUY]

The version of Accronis you have will work great just use that to image the drive to your new SSD. But I would update the firmware before you start the connect it and then quick format it and test with ATTO after you update and secure erase with Parted Magic.