Moving OS from HHD to SSD

[Razorsedge877]

 I want to move my OS to a SSD. What is the best program to use? Clonezilla says to copy to the same size HD or a Larger one. My computer came with a 1 Terabyte HHD but I want to copy to a 250gb SSD. Can I still use clonezilla

[phazer11]

The problem you're going to encounter is yeah you can copy it over but it'd probably not a good idea not only will you likely have to reregister you licenses for say Adobe Products but you'll almost certainly have to re-activate your OS.

[stoppingby4now]

 I want to move my OS to a SSD. What is the best program to use? Clonezilla says to copy to the same size HD or a Larger one. My computer came with a 1 Terabyte HHD but I want to copy to a 250gb SSD. Can I still use clonezilla

You'll need to clone the disk (not the partition) so you get the system reserved space, and the MBR (Master Boot Record). Clonezilla will in fact complain if you attempt to disk clone from a larger drive to a smaller.

 

You're best option in this case is to use EaseUs Partition Manager Free which you can run in Windows, and it will get everything you need from the drive, and resize the partition. Then power down, unplug the original drive, and boot up into the SSD.

 

Have your Windows, or recovery, disc available in case the MBR needs repair. Let the OS boot onto the SSD, then you can hook the hard drive up and reformat to serve as a data disk.

[Vexzarium]

I can attest to the above poster.

 

Be very careful what you try, some programs WILL allow you to make the mistake of cloning a larger drive to a smaller one and you may, almost will, encounter a massive problem with the new drive.

 

I used the same program moving up to a SSD and all I had to do was, create a bootable recovery partition on a flash drive, the I shrank my HDD to less than what the SDD was and then ran EaseUs. Not sure if you need to check "Optimize for SSD" but I did anyway. Be sure to click "Shutdown after completion" (wording may vary) and remove the old drive before booting back up. After all booted back up, I also extended any unpartitioned space on my SDD and ran through the files to make sure nothing extra was left lying around just to clean things up a bit.

 

Then I wiped and reformatted the old HDD, a 5400rpm clunker, after I ran on the new SSD for a few days and was sure there were no issues. Now it can clunk all it wants to as it's slow speeds wont hurt basic storage much. ;)

Edited January 26, 2015 by Vexzarium

[viper37]

 I want to move my OS to a SSD. What is the best program to use? Clonezilla says to copy to the same size HD or a Larger one. My computer came with a 1 Terabyte HHD but I want to copy to a 250gb SSD. Can I still use clonezilla

Hi,

 

I have tried many things that did not work, so in the end, I paid 20$ for this software:

Paragon migrate OS to SSD

It works flawlessly, no need to do anything on your part, it's totally safe, though I'd still recommend a backup (for this, a free Clonezilla would do the job perfectly).  If you use CLonezilla, you might have to edit the Windows boot record to make it work.  It's quite a hassle imho, and you might lose everything in the attempt.

 

And the free Partition Wizard, in case you still need to manually set the SSD partition to "Active".

 

Full step:

- Use clonezilla to make a backup of your current hard drive on a USB drive

- Use Partition Wizard to create a second partition out of the free space of your HDD

- Move all your data from the main HDD partition to the new one, resize the partitions as needed with Partition Wizard

- Shrink your partition to below the SSD's size with Partition Wizard

- Launch Paragon Migrate OS to SSD, make the transfer

- Shut down computer, disconnect the HDD, remove all USB keys/drives, reboot.

- If it doesn't work, reboot on your HDD and use Partition Wizard to set your SSD partition to "active"

- Than reboot on your SSD

- Once you are sure everything is working ok, use Partition Wizard to delete the main HDD partition and re-create a new one.

- Expand the secondary partition where your date is to fill the whole disk

- If you want other partitions on your HDD, you can create them now, otherwise, leave it as it is

- You are done and your computer should boot in 10 seconds or less :)

Edited January 26, 2015 by viper37

[viper37]

Also, for post transfer needs:
-Steam Mover.  It will let you move your games (and mods, if they are in Steam Apps directory) effortlessly back&forth between the HDD and the SSD (free)

- Application mover.  It costs 15$ but imho it's worth it.  Will let you move all kind of applications between your hard drive and SSD.  I use Steam Mover for Steam's games and this one for EA games and I quite like it.