How to move OS from HDD to SSD? - shrinking C: a possibility?

madrerik

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Jun 25, 2013
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I am trying to clone my OS (Win7 Home Premium -64bit) from my HDD into the SSD but I have some issues with that:



    ■ SSD's capacity is of 120GB and it has 111GB free (Samsung 840 120gb)
    ■ I have 168GB of Data in the HDD
    ■ Samsung Data Migration software automatically selects the OS and important files but since I don't have sufficient space in the SSD to clone everything successfully, the program allows me to select the files that I want to leave behind to free up space but not all the files appear except for My pictures/videos/music which allows me to free only 30.2GB of space
    ■ I have to free 79GB of space in order to be able to clone




So my question is: Is there a way to free up lots of GB's from my HDD, like messing with the system's restore points and such? (I plan on backing my HDD entirely before even attempting to do anything) or should I just go and get a SSD with more capacity?

What about shrinking, is that a possibility? like shrink C: and somehow leave it with the OS in it and the rest of the data in the other partition so that the Samsung Data Migration software can clone the OS and then I restore backed up data.. that possible?


Thanks in advance!!
 
Solution
Right, you need a reality check.

Bearing mind that SSD's work absolute best when they have some free room, you realistically need to have at least 20GB free on that SSD for optimal performance.

So you have to turn your 168GB in C: into no more than 90GB!

One very effective tool is:
http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/
Treesize. It displays your folders based on the size of the contents! (Why windows doesn't do this is absolutely beyond me!)

Another is clear out your temp files etc. Windows fortunately does have a good tool for this:

Open 'My Computer' - right click your C: and select 'Properties' and then click 'Disk Cleanup'.
Depending on how often you do this, you may have to wait a while for it to think about it.

Select...

teh_gerbil

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Apr 9, 2012
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Right, you need a reality check.

Bearing mind that SSD's work absolute best when they have some free room, you realistically need to have at least 20GB free on that SSD for optimal performance.

So you have to turn your 168GB in C: into no more than 90GB!

One very effective tool is:
http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/
Treesize. It displays your folders based on the size of the contents! (Why windows doesn't do this is absolutely beyond me!)

Another is clear out your temp files etc. Windows fortunately does have a good tool for this:

Open 'My Computer' - right click your C: and select 'Properties' and then click 'Disk Cleanup'.
Depending on how often you do this, you may have to wait a while for it to think about it.

Select the components which you would like to clean, like 'Temporary internet files' etc and select OK.

Now, another move you can perform is to delete your noncurrent system protection files.

To do this:
Open your control panel, and select 'Advance system settings' select the tab: 'System protection' click 'configure' and just above the OK/Cancel/apply is the 'Delete all but the most recent'.

Now, how much space do you have free after peforming the above?

You may have no other option but to install applications you have installed on the device.

Also, once you have your system drive on the SSD, so long as you have a fast enough machine, you can also
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-ntfs-compression,3073-11.html
enable compression. As per the above review, it can signifcantly (10gb) add more free space to your drive.
 
Solution

JohnA

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Aug 20, 2010
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You've obviously got a lot of movies, music, or documents. Move them all into one folder, copy to external drives or another PC, then delete. You can restore them to another drive later. Just don't copy out things that are installed, such as programs