OS to new SSD.

[Trapt In A Jar]

Hey guys I just had a couple of questions regarding getting a new SSD and transferring my OS (8.1) to it.
I built a pc awhile back and have my OS on a 1TB HDD. I'll be receiving my SSD later today and I'm not quite sure how to go about swapping the OS.
Do I have to remove it from the HDD? Or can I have a copy on both drives in case of a failure of one of the drives? (Only have one key).

 

[ronintexas]

For optimal results, the procedure should be backing up the hard drives, removing the hard drives from your computer, installing the SSD, installing Windows on the SSD, then placing the hard drives back in. If you want to recover the diagnostic partition on the hard drives, you will need to remove the partitions and create a new one, format it, and then restore the data.

Some drives ship with tools to migrate the drive, and there are tools out there you can purchase (less than $20) to migrate the software/hardware, some have luck with it, others do not.

 

[nukemaster]

You may also be able to clone with Macrium Reflect Free

Used it once and it worked great. You do have to copy other partitions that contain the boot loader as well.

If you have a recovery partition at the end of the drive, you can take or leave it.

You clearly have to have your Windows and extra partitions small enough to fit on the ssd.

Once all is done, you can decide to either make a new image of the full ssd(as an image file) to the hard drive then back that up and use it instead of the recovery partition(this is generally more easy if you have another system when you restore because you can just restore the image on the other system and place the ssd back in the first system).

Whatever you do, test the system with the hard drive removed after just to make sure everything is working the way you want it to before clearing out the hard drive for other duties.

 

[Trapt In A Jar]

I'd like to clone if possible but I have 320GB on my current harddrive and only got a 64GB SSD. Cloning copies all files on the drive correct? What are the bare minimum folders I can get my harddrive down to before doing to clone and still be able to boot into my OS.

 

[ronintexas]

Paragon makes a good migration software that allows you to choose what files to migrate to the SSD.

http://www.paragon-software.com/technologies/components/migrate-OS-to-SSD/

It is $19.99.

 

[nukemaster]

I can not argue with the above poster.

Just one more option, if most of the space is taken up with your personal files(Windows will allow you to tell it to use the hard drive for users folders with the location tab, you would do this after everything is cloned), you ca shrink your windows partition and move those files over to another partition. This may bring your windows partition down to the size it needs to be.

64 gigabytes is not allot of space.

 

[ronintexas]

Paragon makes it easy - it gives you pie charts and with simple clicks will allow you to choose what to copy and what not to copy. Without backing up your drive, reinstalling Windows on the SSD, then updates, then your programs, then installing the hard drive, formatting it, and restoring personal files, this is the easiest way.

Like nukemaster suggested, make sure all your personal files (music, documents, pictures, videos, etc) remain on the hard drive....you won't get much of a boost by putting them on the SSD.