Migrating Old HDD Boot drive to new SSD

[timpelton99]

Okay, I'm in the home stretch. I was copying everything on the C Drive to Backup but there were some corrupted files in the Windows folder so I downgraded to a new Windows 7 Pro and activated it. I've copied everything on the C Drive to the backup hard disk (La Cie) except the old Windows folder. Here is the screenshot. https://imgur.com/a/ZE52L. I have EaseUS Todo loaded up and ready. Should I just delete the old Windows folder from the C drive before cloning? Anything I need to know before moving it all over? And once it's there, I'm assuming I can just restart, then jump into the BIOS to tell it which drive to use to boot up with. Am I right? Then once that is working can I just erase the old HDD to use it for storage?

 

[timpelton99]

MERGED QUESTION
Question from timpelton99 : "Migrating Old HDD Boot drive to new SSD - part 2"

Okay, I'm in the home stretch. I was copying everything on the C Drive to Backup but there were some corrupted files in the Windows folder so I downgraded to a new Windows 7 Pro and activated it. I've copied everything on the C Drive to the backup hard disk (La Cie) except the old Windows folder. Here is the screenshot. https://imgur.com/a/ZE52L. I have EaseUS Todo loaded up and ready. Should I just delete the old Windows folder from the C drive before cloning? Anything I need to know before moving it all over? And once it's there, I'm assuming I can just restart, then jump into the BIOS to tell it which drive to use to boot up with. Am I right? Then once that is working can I just erase the old HDD to use it for storage?

 

[coozie7]

As long as the SSD is larger than the HDD you can do the clone and wipe the old HDD as planned.
One question: With your data already saved out and backed up to an external HDD why not just fresh install windows to the SSD?

 

[USAFRet]

Okay, I'm in the home stretch. I was copying everything on the C Drive to Backup but there were some corrupted files in the Windows folder so I downgraded to a new Windows 7 Pro and activated it. I've copied everything on the C Drive to the backup hard disk (La Cie) except the old Windows folder. Here is the screenshot. https://imgur.com/a/ZE52L. I have EaseUS Todo loaded up and ready. Should I just delete the old Windows folder from the C drive before cloning? Anything I need to know before moving it all over? And once it's there, I'm assuming I can just restart, then jump into the BIOS to tell it which drive to use to boot up with. Am I right? Then once that is working can I just erase the old HDD to use it for storage?

Assuming your current consumed space on the C drive is smaller than the new SSD....
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe as necessary.
Delete the 450MB Recovery Partition, here:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/4f1b84ac-b193-40e3-943a-f45d52e23685/cant-delete-extra-healthy-recovery-partitions-and-healthy-efi-system-partition?forum=w8itproinstall
-----------------------------

 

[USAFRet]

And as coozie7 commented...since you just did a clean install of Win 7, why not just repeat that on the new SSD?
Wipe the old drive(s) later.

Clean install on the SSD. Guaranteed to work.
And do that install with only the SSD connected.