Possible to transfer operating system from HDD to SSD?

[AliRidha]

Hi guys yesterday I bought my first SSD ( a Kingston 128gb) I want to put my operating system on this SSD from my 1tb HDD. Is there anyway to put the operating system to transfer it or do I have to buy the operating system again?
Note: I don't have the operating system cd and yes it is a genuine windows 7 premium.

 

[noidea_77]

You can download the windows iso file and install it from there. The only thing you need is the key of your installation. It should be on a sticker on the case, if it's a pre-build system.

 

[glamdringfh]

Hi AliRidha,

I'm afraid there isn't a way to ONLY clone the OS off your drive.

If you have an external backup drive here's a common path to cloning:

- Move all of your data (execpt the actual operating system) to an external backup drive
- once you had no more than 100GB left on the HDD clone it to the newly installed SSD
- From here you can re-format your old HDD drive and transfer the data from the backup onto the clean HDD drive

Here is a tutorial on the cloning process if that is what you want to try: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/faq/id-2839729/clone-drive.html

 

[rchris]

If you can borrow or somehow get the Windows 7 media, you should be able to do a clean install on the SSD and use the license key that came with your original computer (or OS) to activate it. If your existing computer is a retail model (Dell, HP, etc.), it will probably activate automatically.

You could also do a transfer from your HDD to the SSD, but only if everything will fit on the SSD. I don't think there is anyway to segregate just the OS for the transfer. Worst case, maybe you could transfer all your data off of the HDD to an external drive, delete some of the programs, etc. until you get below the 128GB of your SSD. Then you would be able to do a direct image transfer to the SSD.

 

[photonboy]

Same motherboard means you are fine.

You have two options:
1) Reinstall Windows, or
2) CLONE from HDD to SSD

Cloning isn't possible if you can't reduce down to under 90GB roughly though (some of the SSD should be overprovisioned).

Other:
*You can also UPGRADE to Windows 10. There's an easier way coming this month, but for now you can do it THIS way:

1. Upgrade W7 to W10 on the hard drive.
2. Shut down, remove hard drive, and attach SSD
3. Boot to W10 install media (explained below), install W10, drivers, programs etc.
*skip any key requests. W10 will activate automatically over the internet if you previously upgraded the same PC.
4. Attach HDD (may need to change BIOS boot order or it might boot from HDD instead of SSD)
5. Copy any files needed to SSD
6. Delete or Format the hard drive (may want to create a temporary folder to move files to... if you have Steam games you'll want to keep the Steamapps folder. Explained below)

Other:
Media Creation Tool: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows-10/media-creation-tool-install
a) Download and run tool
b) choose "other PC" to allow to download the ISO image
c) Burn image to DVD (imgburn) or USB thumb drive (Rufus)
d) Use for CLEAN INSTALL to DVD (or run from Windows to do the in-place upgrade from W7 if normal method fails)

STEAMAPPS:
a) Install Steam to c-drive (if clean install), then
b) create another folder on e-drive (hard drive) from Steam settings->library...
c) MOVE the Steamapps folder that previously existed to the new one on the hard drive
d) Reboot
e) "verify integrity of game cache" for each game before starting.

Summary:
A bit confusing I know, but my advice is to end up with a CLEAN INSTALL of Windows 10 on the SSD.

 

[clutchc]

You can clone the HDD to the SDD if you pare down the used space on the HDD to fit the SSD.
Or you can do a clean install of Win 7 to the SSD and use your product key to activate it (make it legal). If you have a legit product key, you can download the .ISO file here and burn yourself a disk: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7
You will have to re-install all your apps and pgms again, of course.