How do I move windows 7 from one hard drive to another?

wighty

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Sep 19, 2013
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I have just bought a 128GB SSD purely because I want windows to boot faster as well as some other programs (games). I have searched for how to move the OS over without losing any data but I can't find anything. The hard drive windows is on at the moment a standard 1TB HDD.
 
you can't.

your best option will be to transfer your settings from one windows install to another. the MS install disk has the utility on it, put the disk into the disk drive and let it load while you're in windows. then select the option to save your settings/transfer your settings to a new install. it will run for 5-10 minutes, then you can install windows on the ssd, and import your settings/files

overall i am not sure that windows utility is worth it, but it did save me a lot of time when i upgraded my windows version from 32 bit to 64 bit... so it did it's job.
 

mushpuppy

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Nov 28, 2007
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While you may/may not be able to move to a smaller one you could move to a bigger one, as detailed here: http://www.pagestart.com/win7bckuprstrnhd072610.html
 

bubba_83835

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Sep 12, 2009
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Thanks for that answer! :love: The link was a life saver to say the least. It explains how to clone one disk at a time; use disk to create image, then move image to disk to be upgraded.
I used my desktop pc for the clone process, plugged both the laptop drive and the new SSD in and did a disk to disk clone. Worked excellent after a few trial runs. My first mistake was using the SSD on the sata 3 chipset while the other was on the sata 2 chipset. For what ever reason I kept getting a freeze part way through on any program I used. I finally plugged both drives into the same chipset, started the program as Admin, and the clone went flawless. I didnt even need to fix the windows boot partition as the Lifehacker article describes. I literally installed the SSD and it booted windows right up. Amazing free disk clone software.

Laptop 5400k rpm 500gb drive cloned to 240gb SSD on windows 7. As long as you dont have a lot of space used "movies, music", you absolutely can migrate to a smaller SSD. ;)