Best way to migrate OS HDD -> SSD without reinstall? (1 Viewer)

[TheBatfink]

As per topic.. whats the best way to convert from HDD to SSD without reinstalling. Are there downsides to doing this over a fresh installation? I just get a sad face when I think about reinstalling and trying to setup all the configs and codecs and other programs again

Thanks!

Probably worth noting I have a WHS 2011 server which takes nightly backups.. but I've never used this to restore and don't know if it can from blank hard drive? (I mainly use it for NAS purposes).

 

[Jay_UK]

Hi there,

You can use a simple imaging/cloning software.

Once installed on the SSD if you run the MS assessment tool it should detect it as SSD and configure the OS accordingly (if not there are plenty of websites which detail what to do - disable prefetching, defrag, etc).

Just check the blocks are aligned (most modern imaing software takes care of this).

As for a reinstall, you could consider using the backup plugin to capture all the MePo config...and then use it to restore after the fresh install.

J.

 

[infinite.loop]

1. install the SSD drivers (if such are required as for i.e the revo drive)
2. use a software like trueimage to create an image of the hdd
3. "Restore" that image on the ssd - i prefer that over driveclinibg because that had let me down many times in the past

 

[TheBatfink]

Thanks for the replies. I'm glad its really this simple, I think I'm going to treat myself to a OCZ Agility 3 120GB along with a GT430 graphics card. I assume SATA3 is backwards compatible with SATA2 as thats all my motherboard has. Is it still worth going this route considering I don't have SATA3?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Jay_UK]

Hi there,

SATA is backwards compatible.

As to 2 or 3...it depends on whether you think you'll ever upgrade to a SATA3 MB?

If not, there are some good deals on SATA2 drives.

J.

 

[ryan20021982]

Windows 7 can do it by itself. Just Control Panel>Backup and Restore>Create a system image(on the left pane)

Not sure if WHS can but I have done this in Win7 and works great, had a hdd failure and reinstalled on a new even different sized drive and everything went fine.

 

[TheBatfink]

Hi. Thought I would post alittle about my experience with migrating to my new SSD. It wasn't quite as simple as I'd hoped.. I do have a question at the bottom of the post which I hope someone can help me with too!

So my new OCZ Agility 3 120GB SSD came. I checked the firmware version of the drive as explained on their website. Basically looking at the hardware ID within the details tab of the drive in device manager. It was the latest available.

What I found was WHS has a great feature were it takes incremental backups (only storing data on what has only changed on your system since the previous backup to minimize space) so all those backups its been taking of my client were going to be useful after all. You can boot up your PC, with a new blnak HDD in it via USB stick (created from the server and useable in any client on the network) and reinstall any backup up it holds of any of the client computers it takes backups from.
Windows 7 also has built in image creation as mentioned above in this thread.

The sad thing.. NEITHER will let you reinstall back to a smaller disk than the one the backup was taken from, even if the data actually contained on the source HDD is smaller than the new target HDD/SSD capacity. So my 60GB of C:\ system drive data from the old 360GB HDD will not restore to the 120GB SSD I brought using any of the Windows / Microsoft utilities..

fter some reading I came across another method that was a) Free! and b) really simple and easy.. so here it is,

1) Download 'Acronis True Image 2012' Acronis backup software and recovery services in UK. Backup and restore system software and PC system utilities for Windows and Linux OSs - This basically creates images much like Windows or WHS but DOES allow installation to smaller drives than the one the backup came from as long as the data will fit on the new drive.
The beauty of Acronis? They have a 'Try Me' 30 day full trial available of their software which has no restrictions other than the time you can use it for.

2) Create a one time single backup of C:\ containing everything and include the MBR record - Its real easy with Acronis and the process took about 25 mins for my 60GB System drive to backup to my other HDD which I use for timeshifting.

3) Create a bootable USB drive, again using Acronis - Again real easy with Acronis.

4) Installed the SSD Drive, removed the old OS Drive. Set BIOS to boot from USB first and boot into the USB drive. In here you can select your backup from where you saved it and then point it to your new drive to restore to. - This took about 25 mins again.

5) When it completes, pull out the USB drive, restart the computer and hey presto your fully up and running again Minimal fuss, no real expertise needed. Warm feeling inside lol.

6) After being told to run the Windows Experience Index I tried to run this and kept getting an error that the Video Playback couldn't be performed. - This was due to other codecs being installed. once removed the Index refreshed and went from 5.9 to 7.1 for the Disk section.

7) I also ran a program called CrystalDiskInfo to check Trim and NCQ etc had been enabled on the device CrystalDiskInfo - Software - Crystal Dew World and it had.

As for the actual SSD, I was quite underwelmed to begin with. I had initially decided on the SSD for a few reasons.

1) My TV guide (240 channels, around 56000 program enteries on a EPG scan) was horrifically slow. It took ages to load up whilst watching TV and even scrolling through it was clunky and slow and plain missing that something.
2) I thought some of my stuttering / dropped frames / other general issues with TV maybe because of my system activity on the HDD.
I'd just noticed doing these things the HDD would go mental and then things were ussually ok when it stopped, so I figured it was just the latency added from the HDD. The good news is, the SSD (although I have coupled this upgrade with a GT430 graphics card) has solved this. The TV guide loads in a flash and scrolling through is fast, no clunky pauses at all. Generally all nice

I don't find that windows now boots in a fraction of the HDD boot time. Now does MePo load up from the desktop really that much faster. But it feels snappier when say opening control panel or windows explorer. Obviously no sound is audible at all now from the SSD. It maybe because its not fully utilised as I have a SATA2 motherboard and the drive is capable of SATA3. But copying a file over my network or from a second HDD to the SSD is no faster at all than it was to my old HDD. My main gain seems to be all in no seeking time.

So maybe someone could help me with why transfering a file over my gigabyte network (I know these two WHS servers I have can sustain 100mbs transfer between them over network, they have raid 0 arrays in them with 2tb green HDDS) I only get 40/50mbps, whilst with my old HDD it easily did 50/60mbps? My SSD definately feels faster, but I think thats because theres no seeking. In terms of data transfer rates, I think its actually slower than my couple year old HDD?! Any ideas?

 

[te3hpurp]

I would simply use freeware Clonezilla, which is marvelleous. We use it in our company. It can make disk to disk disk to image etc.

Br,

 

[TheBatfink]

I read Clonezilla will also not work with a destination HDD smaller than the source. Maybe its new functionality added since the websites I read.

 

[te3hpurp]

I read Clonezilla will also not work with a destination HDD smaller than the source. Maybe its new functionality added since the websites I read.

That is a problem of course, but you can bypass it by shrinking OS & boot partitions beforehand, so that they'll fit

Br