Question about Cloning Drives

[coper210]

Hello, I am going to be upgrading to an SSD and I will be cloning my Hard Drive to the SSD using Apricorn USB to SATA SSD Upgrade Kit but I have one question, Since I am just going to be "cloning" the Hard Drive to the SSD won't there still be my OS and all the other files on the Hard Drive after I clone the data to the SSD? If so, what should I do with that data?
-Thanks!

 

[RetiredChief]

Let me say right off, I much prefer a Clean Install when Moving from a HDD to a SSD.

But sometimes it's just not practicial, SO:
1) Yes it will still be there.
2) How big is your "C" drive, Not so much total size, but used space?
3) On My Wifes' system; Just used EZ Gig IV (Note version IV is a free down load if you got ver II).
.. It did a great job.
A) It enabled Trim
B) It placed the System partition On the SSD
C) And the Alignment was OK.

What I did in prep for the Cloning.
1) I verified the HDD was set up using AHCI, mine was. BUT if Your windows on the HDD was installed with the BIOS set to IDE, The FIRST Fix it, switch it to AHCI.
.. You can not just go into bios and change, if you do it will prevent you from booting into windows. Google "ide to ahci windows 7" for instruction.
2) I ALWAYS partition My HDDs - C Is for OS + Programs and D (or other partitions) are for MY data.
.. Her partition for C drive was a little larger than the SSD, So I shrank it using windows disk management. You do Not need to do this, EZ Gig will check "used" space on Old HDD and Space on the New SSD. It will partition accordingly. If files on "C"-drive take up to much space you will have to decide on what to take over and what to leave behind.

After clonning, based on your system, you should be able to Daul boot untill you delete windows on old HDD. My Wifes system still has windows 7 on the HDD. Boot priority i set to SSD. If she needs to use windows from the HDD, all she has to do is hit F12 during the post. When Post completes, a Boot menu pops up and she can select which Hard drive to boot from. Which ever drive is selected becomes the C-drive. Rebooting auto reverts back to the SSD unless F12 is again Hit.

Once you are satisfied that SSD is runing smooth, you can ditch it.


Read up on tweaks that help keep your SSD runing smooth.

 

[coper210]

Let me say right off, I much prefer a Clean Install when Moving from a HDD to a SSD.

But sometimes it's just not practicial, SO:
1) Yes it will still be there.
2) How big is your "C" drive, Not so much total size, but used space?
3) On My Wifes' system; Just used EZ Gig IV (Note version IV is a free down load if you got ver II).
.. It did a great job.
A) It enabled Trim
B) It placed the System partition On the SSD
C) And the Alignment was OK.

What I did in prep for the Cloning.
1) I verified the HDD was set up using AHCI, mine was. BUT if Your windows on the HDD was installed with the BIOS set to IDE, The FIRST Fix it, switch it to AHCI.
.. You can not just go into bios and change, if you do it will prevent you from booting into windows. Google "ide to ahci windows 7" for instruction.
2) I ALWAYS partition My HDDs - C Is for OS + Programs and D (or other partitions) are for MY data.
.. Her partition for C drive was a little larger than the SSD, So I shrank it using windows disk management. You do Not need to do this, EZ Gig will check "used" space on Old HDD and Space on the New SSD. It will partition accordingly. If files on "C"-drive take up to much space you will have to decide on what to take over and what to leave behind.

After clonning, based on your system, you should be able to Daul boot untill you delete windows on old HDD. My Wifes system still has windows 7 on the HDD. Boot priority i set to SSD. If she needs to use windows from the HDD, all she has to do is hit F12 during the post. When Post completes, a Boot menu pops up and she can select which Hard drive to boot from. Which ever drive is selected becomes the C-drive. Rebooting auto reverts back to the SSD unless F12 is again Hit.

Once you are satisfied that SSD is runing smooth, you can ditch it.


Read up on tweaks that help keep your SSD runing smooth.

Space is no problem right now since I will be getting a 120GB SSD and I only have around 80GB's of space taken up on my HDD. These are the steps I am going to take to transfer the files over please tell me if I am doing this correctly.

1. Before even plugging in the new SSD I will change to AHCI. (I found a guide on these forums)
2. Plug in the SSD to my motherboard and upgrade to the latest firmware using Corsairs firmware update tool.
3. Unplug the SSD from my motherboard and plug it in using the Apricorn SATA to USB adapter and run EZ GIG and transfer everything over.

 

[RetiredChief]

That should work.

 

[coper210]

That should work.

I have heard a couple of people saying that I should do a clean install of windows, do you think I should do that?

 

[RetiredChief]

MY FIRST statement was: Let me say right off, I much prefer a Clean Install when Moving from a HDD to a SSD."

Personally, I always do a Clean install when going from HDD -> SSD.
To date, only ONE exception and that was My wifes system. Her system is a Nightmare to re-install all programs.
Her system story:
Started as an XP system, she Need a new system in a hurry so she bought a low end system. It had vista on it so I bought a program to transfer her programs from XP -> vista. I replaced her system with a Home build (Gave her new vista computer to my sistor). Installed Windows 7, Bought a new program to transfer Vista just her programs from Vista machine to Win 7 Machine. Since win 7 does not have an email client I ported vista win mail over to Windows 7. She has been using that for the last 8 months. It developed a problem, It would NOT down load and install service pac 1, so I re-installed windows 7 over windows 7, which kept all her programs (probably screwed up iTunes). I then cloned it to a 120 gig SSD.

Clean Install:
1) Never a dought, Trim will be enabled.
2) Partition willo be agligned and a 100 mb system partition will be created.
3) There is NO BETTER way to clean up a registry than a clean install.

 

[coper210]

MY FIRST statement was: Let me say right off, I much prefer a Clean Install when Moving from a HDD to a SSD."

Personally, I always do a Clean install when going from HDD -> SSD.
To date, only ONE exception and that was My wifes system. Her system is a Nightmare to re-install all programs.
Her system story:
Started as an XP system, she Need a new system in a hurry so she bought a low end system. It had vista on it so I bought a program to transfer her programs from XP -> vista. I replaced her system with a Home build (Gave her new vista computer to my sistor). Installed Windows 7, Bought a new program to transfer Vista just her programs from Vista machine to Win 7 Machine. Since win 7 does not have an email client I ported vista win mail over to Windows 7. She has been using that for the last 8 months. It developed a problem, It would NOT down load and install service pac 1, so I re-installed windows 7 over windows 7, which kept all her programs (probably screwed up iTunes). I then cloned it to a 120 gig SSD.

Clean Install:
1) Never a dought, Trim will be enabled.
2) Partition willo be agligned and a 100 mb system partition will be created.
3) There is NO BETTER way to clean up a registry than a clean install.

Well I can not find my windows 7 CD for some reason. But my computer is completely clean, all I use it for is gaming and I hardly download things and I hardly have any files so I guess I will just do a clone and not do a clean install unless I can find my windows 7 CD. I feel really stupid for mis placing it, I hope I didn't accidentally throw it away

 

[RetiredChief]

As long as you have your key, you should be fine.
You can even "barrow" a copy. JUST DO NOT use their key, Skip entering the key untill after the install is complete.
You may even be able to down load the install dvd ISO from MS.

It is not the DVD you are paying for, it's the license.

 

[coper210]

As long as you have your key, you should be fine.
You can even "barrow" a copy. JUST DO NOT use their key, Skip entering the key untill after the install is complete.
You may even be able to down load the install dvd ISO from MS.

It is not the DVD you are paying for, it's the license.

I am chatting with someone from Microsoft on their website and they say that if you change the hard drive it will void the licence key. I do not believe him though, this might be another way to get me to buy another key. What do you think?

 

[coper210]

Best answer selected by coper210.

 

[RetiredChief]

OEM versions are tied to the Computer instsalled first on. Other versions you can move arround as long as only on one computer (exception multi license versions).
For OEM versions you may re-install on your system UNLESS you Upgrade the MB. If MB dies and you replace, then you should still be able to re-install OEM on New MB. Hard drive is irrealavent , HDD are replaced all the time, iether the old one died, or user needed to get larger on. !!!