Please double check the order of the steps

All is perfect except Step 8.
"8) Spend the rest of my life reinstalling drivers, programs, etc."

Change that to:
8) Spend the next 2 days reinstalling drivers, programs, etc.

Well for me I prefer to do the Disk stuff first.


U have bought the disk as u mentioned, plug into your rig and use Computer Management in "Control Panel- Administrative tool", then choose disk management on the left. So u should see Disk 1 (apart from the old disk) which has space but unallocated, right click the disk area on the screen and choose "new simple volume", so the wizard pop up, click next, choose how large u want on the partition, click next and leave the settings alone, click next until u see the end, so defaultly it will automately format your partition and u can use it now. So u could start copying your stuffs in it. Here is the detailed tutorial in case u'r confused w/ the word: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5SptMUksS4, so u finish step 3 as u mentioned, and it's the most important job.

(This step is rather difficult but could save u tons of time if u could get it right, if u couldn't finished it in an hour jump this step)
Are u familiar w/ Ghost software? U could google it if u have no idea on it. Ghost 11.0 is a good disk backup and partition clone tool. So it would hopefully save up your time restalling your OS and softwares and drivers.

Make a DOS startup USB disk or ghost bootup disk (u could google it too), dump Ghost program file (ghost.exe or stuff like that) on it. Use the USB disk to boot up the system in DOS mode, start the ghost program by typing ghost and press Enter if u make a traditional DOS bootup disk, choose "local-partition-to image, so remember the size your OS partition and your hide "system reserved" partition (100M) 'cause it only shows partition number instead of C,D or E in Windows.

So by doing this select your old drive, then select the 100MB hidden boot partition and save to one of the other partition other than C: (so tht's why it's important to remember the partition size), after this is quickly completed, do it the same way with your partition C: (where the OS is stored)

Set the AHCI on before adding your SSD.

So plug your SSD in, choose to boot w/ DVD Drive, use your Windows 7 boot disk to create partition and also format it. But don't install the OS, 'cause this serves as a media to partition your new SSD disk. Quit the program and use your USB thumb disk to boot the rig and startup Ghost.

OK u have the partition allocated w/ your new SSD, this time choose "local-partition-from image", find out the 100MB *.gho files u've backuped, then select the new disk, choose the 100M reserved partition u've created and click OK, so it starts to move your old boot partition back, at the same way could recovered your OS partition.

After all this stuff finished, make sure yor OS can be booted and add your RAM.

Or if u couldn't handle the ghost stuff, add your RAM first, make sure it's usable, then reinstall your OS to your SSD as u mentioned.