What I described is exactly that, backing up the partition on which each Operating System (OS) is contained and restoring it to the new disk. An image backup is required to transfer a working operating system with all of its components to a new disk in a manner that will continue to allow it to boot. A file based backup will transfer the data, but will no longer be bootable. In short you will be doing this:
HDD: |--Partition 1--|--Partition 2--|--Partition 3--|--Partition 4--------------------------------|
Partition 1: System Reserved with Boot Configuration Database (BCD)
Partition 2: C: Windows 7 and Installed Applications
Partition 3: D: Windows 8 and Installed Applications
Partition 4: E: Personal Files and Data
Create Image:
HDD: |--Partition 1--|--Partition 2--|--Partition 3--|--Partition 4 (Backup of Partitions 1, 2, 3)--|
Partition 1: System Reserved with Boot Configuration Database (BCD)
Partition 2: C: Windows 7 and Installed Applications
Partition 3: D: Windows 8 and Installed Applications
Partition 4: E: Personal Files and Data including Image Backup of Partition 1, 2, and 3
Restore Image to SSD:
SSD: |--Partition 1 New--|--Partition 2 New--|--Partition 3 New--|
HDD: |--Partition 1--|--Partition 2--|--Partition 3--|--Partition 4 (Backup of Partitions 1, 2, 3)--|
Partition 1 New: System Reserved with Boot Configuration Database (BCD)
Partition 2 New: C: Windows 7 and Installed Applications
Partition 3 New: D: Windows 8 and Installed Applications
Partition 1 Old: E: Unused System Reserved with Boot Configuration Database (BCD)
Partition 2 Old: F: Unused Windows 7 and Installed Applications
Partition 3 Old: G: Unused Windows 8 and Installed Applications
Partition 4: H: Personal Files and Data including Image Backup of Partition 1, 2, and 3
Delete Unused Partitions and Expand Data Partition on HDD:
SSD: |--Partition 1--|--Partition 2--|--Partition 3--|
HDD: |--Partition 4 (Backup of Partitions 1, 2, 3)------------------------------------------|
Partition 1: System Reserved with Boot Configuration Database (BCD)
Partition 2: C: Windows 7 and Installed Applications
Partition 3: D: Windows 8 and Installed Applications
Partition 4: E: Personal Files and Data including Image Backup of Partition 1, 2, and 3
Delete Image Backups:
SSD: |--Partition 1--|--Partition 2--|--Partition 3--|
HDD: |--Partition 4------------------------------------------------------------------------|
Partition 1: System Reserved with Boot Configuration Database (BCD)
Partition 2: C: Windows 7 and Installed Applications
Partition 3: D: Windows 8 and Installed Applications
Partition 4: E: Personal Files and Data
The last two steps of deleting partitions or image backups you would only want to undertake when sure that the transfer and configuration on the SSD is satisfactory.
If your disk does not have a 4th partition and instead looks like the following:
HDD: |--Partition 1--|--Partition 2------------|--Partition 3------------|
You will need to shrink your operating system partitions to make room for a data partition which can hold the image of your operating system partitions, something like this:
Shrink Windows 7:
HDD: |--Partition 1--|--Partition 2--|--Partition 3------------|----------|
Shrink Windows 8:
HDD: |--Partition 1--|--Partition 2--|--Partition 3--|--------------------|
Create Data Partition:
HDD: |--Partition 1--|--Partition 2--|--Partition 3--|--Partition 4--|
You would then want to move as much of your personal data as possible to the Data partition so as to minimize the size of each image backup, which will include all contents of the partitions being backed up.
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