Installing a new System drive on WIndows 7 PC

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RDK45

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Nov 25, 2012
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I want to add a new 250GB SSD to my Windows 7 PC and then restore/clone a backup copy (Acronis True Image) of the current C-System hard drive to it.

The goal is to upgrade/replace the current System partition with the new SSD drive.

I know how to install the new SSD and how to restore the current System partition copy to it.

I also know how to update the BIOS to boot from the new drive.

The problem is that the physical hard drive for the current, C Drive System partition has two other partitions on it so I can not simply take it out and put the new one in. So for example that hard drive has a C, G and H partitions. There is a second hard drive with only "D" partition and two optical drives (E and F).

When I add the new SSD drive, it will only be the new "System" drive. The old System partition will eventually be reformatted.

So, what is the correct way to proceed? Install the new SSD and accept whatever disk ID Windows 7 provides? Restore/clone the backup copy of the current System drive to it? Modify the BOIS to put this drive at the top of the list?

If it's ID is the L drive, will Windows boot up ok and will all of the registry entries, etc function correctly?

Finally, when all back up and running smoothly, I will upgrade the PC to Windows 10.

Thanks....RDK
 
Solution
jasonkaler
What you plan on doing is often problematic with apps and data ending up on the correct drive letter.
Your new drive will get new drive letters (e.g. L as you said) but apps will be installed on or point to G or H.

I would really suggest doing a fresh install. It's a difficult pill to swallow and you need to re-install all your apps but it is the most reliable.

If you really have a good reason for not doing a clean install, do the following:
1) Connect the new drive
2) Remove any partitions on it in disk manager.
3) in disk manager, For each partition on your existing drive, right click on it and choose "create mirror" and mirror it to the new drive.
4) Remove the old drive and boot using the new drive
5) go back to disk manager and...
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jasonkaler

jasonkaler

Distinguished
Nov 22, 2011
514
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What you plan on doing is often problematic with apps and data ending up on the correct drive letter.
Your new drive will get new drive letters (e.g. L as you said) but apps will be installed on or point to G or H.

I would really suggest doing a fresh install. It's a difficult pill to swallow and you need to re-install all your apps but it is the most reliable.

If you really have a good reason for not doing a clean install, do the following:
1) Connect the new drive
2) Remove any partitions on it in disk manager.
3) in disk manager, For each partition on your existing drive, right click on it and choose "create mirror" and mirror it to the new drive.
4) Remove the old drive and boot using the new drive
5) go back to disk manager and select "Break mirror" for each drive letter.

You will then have an exact copy of your original system and all its drives, with no chance of messing anything up, and your old drive will still work as a backup.
 
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Solution
Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

Judicious
Jul 31, 2014
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Hey there, RDK45.

Basically both @jasonkaler and @Antennas44 have pretty good points. Fresh install is always recommended and cloning a drive means that your clone will end up with the exact same partition you had on your source drive. So here it goes: disconnect all drives from your mobo except for the cloned system drive and boot to Windows to make sure that the cloning process has been successful. If everything is OK, connect the other drives and boot from your newly cloned drive (make adjustments to your boot priority by going to the BIOS if necessary). After you've booted to Windows, backup the data from the other to partition (the ones on your old drive), reformat that HDD, so that you don't have any leftover/residual OS files and partitions. After that just move the backed up data back to it and you'd be left with a new OS drive and a fresh secondary storage drive. After that you can go ahead and upgrade to Win 10.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD
 
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