Can i move my windows installation to a new drive?

Darkreaper7

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Nov 16, 2013
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Good day,
Yesterday i bought a few items on newegg, notably a 120gb ssd and a 1TB hard drive
-SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227928
-Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236339
I needed more storage as my files undoubtly are becoming too much for my measly 500gb Hard Drive.
Anyways i wanted to move my windows 7 installation to my SSD (For obvious reasons) but what is the most painless way to do it? So far i've read the best way is to clone your drive, but all i want to actually move is my Windows installation. I'm not asking for a guide but a point in the right direction as to what to research will be much appreciated :)

Also to save money i bought a refurbished SSD, are these trustworthy? Just a side topic

Thx yall ;D
 
Solution


Yes...a clean install on the new drive is the best option.

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
For a variety of reasons, you can't move 'only' the Windows OS portion. As you install applications, they all become part of "Windows".

Your best and recommended path is to reinstall on the new SSD.

And I would never, ever buy a refurb SSD.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


This does not answer the OPs question:
1. He wanted to move 'only' Windows
2. In the majority of cases, going from an HDD to an SDD doesn't fit. The existing HDD data is to large to be cloned to the new SSD.
 

Darkreaper7

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Nov 16, 2013
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Sorry I changed it to the actual ssd my bad.

From what I get, I guess there's no way "around" it. My items still have a while to reach to me as i dont live in the US, but for now the clean install seems like the best idea, thanks guys!
 
Sep 22, 2013
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While this is true, it can depend a bit on how (if at all) fragmented your current drive is whether this will work well. I your windows disk defragmenter is set to run regularly and fragmentation is very low, you should be fine. However, if the drive is highly fragmented, you may run into bad sectors and read/write issues that really can only be solved by defragmenting first. In Win 7/8 this isn't much of an issue ASSUMING you regularly use your PC and that you haven't changed the default defrag settings.

A fresh install would still be the best option to ensure a clean working drive.

What you CAN do (if installing the same version of windows) is make a backup of your old registry, install just the OS on the SSD, run all updates via Windows Update and then AFTER backing up the NEW registry, import the old one.

I would only do this after you have copied over the folders from the original drive for all programs you want to have installed.

Once you reboot (do NOT try to run anything prior to this after updating the registry) you should be able to run the old programs again.

This may be more of a pain than its worth though, and isn't guaranteed to work properly.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


Yes...a clean install on the new drive is the best option.
 
Solution
Sep 22, 2013
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10,810


I just want to clarify that this really depends on how it's done.

If there is a partition that is small enough to fit on the SSD then you can clone only the partition; you don't have to clone the whole disc.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator


Right. But generally that partition or drive is larger than the new SSD in question.

And in any case, I always recommend a fresh install on the new SSD drive.
Why haul all of that cruft onto a new fast drive?
 


I hope that you do not have a Haswell system because that SSD is not compatible with Haswell chipsets and simply will not work. I know because I have 2 useless Vertex 2s sitting on the shelf right now.

Yogi

 

Darkreaper7

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Nov 16, 2013
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I have a i5 2500 (non-k) thats Sandy Bridge if i remember correctly, also i wish i had more money, alot of refurbished ssds seem to give out shortly after the warranty ends :/