HDD to SSD.... Keeping OS

[boinger88]

Quick Question:

I just bought a Patriot 64gb SSD and i want to use it as my Primary drive for the OS...

Is there any way to transfer the data on my old C:\ Drive to the new SSD??

Im looking to avoid having to reinstall my OS on the SSD

Is there any program that will allow me to do a clean transfer... i know the OS takes an image of the Hardware and it will not allow me to simiply copy and past my entire C:\ drive to the new SSD...

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Thanks,
Neil

Windows 7 64bit
XFX 780i SLI mobo
dual 9800GT's
.....

 

[sub mesa]

Two ways:

- shrink your C: partition to below 60GB and raw copy entire disk using Ubuntu (my preference)
- re-install cleanly

The reason to install cleanly may be that otherwise, cloning applications will create the partition at 31.5KiB offset - like Windows XP does. This can hurt performance because of misalignment. Windows 7 should create partitions starting at 1024KiB, giving you no such problems. It could be you have a 'proper' partition right now, but after cloning are stuck with a 'bad' partition.

Besides lower performance, it would also cause more wear on the SSD, impacting 2 flash cells where normally only 1 would be affected. The same issue presents itself with striping RAID (anything besides RAID1).

So ideally, re-install cleanly.

 

[sub mesa]

Also consider leaving some space unused on your drive. 5GB or so would do. This space is actually used by the SSD to accelerate random writes and will prevent early performance degradation.

 

[boinger88]

OK enough said... looks like im going to be doing a clean install....

Thanks for your help

 

[darkguset]

Why only give the guy one option? Linux only? Mate, you can use Acronis True Image and make a working copy of your current Windows configuration and make it run straight off the SSD.

It is true that doing a clean install is probably the best option in terms of performance and avoiding any potential problems, but doing it the Acronis way is fast and much less fussy. There are always other software of course like Norton Ghost, etc. They all do the same job and you do not even have to resize your current HD as long as your current partition is equal or less to the HDD obviously.

 

[andy5174]

Acronis True Image works well, but I also recommend that he does a clean installation.

 

[guskline]

Go for the clean install

 

[boinger88]

Yea im gonna go with the clean install, but thanks for the quick responses.

 

[sub mesa]

Why only give the guy one option? Linux only? Mate, you can use Acronis True Image and make a working copy of your current Windows configuration and make it run straight off the SSD.

It is true that doing a clean install is probably the best option in terms of performance and avoiding any potential problems, but doing it the Acronis way is fast and much less fussy. There are always other software of course like Norton Ghost, etc. They all do the same job and you do not even have to resize your current HD as long as your current partition is equal or less to the HDD obviously.

I think you didn't understand my point that using any "ghost" utility rather than a binary copy of the raw disk contents, would lead to a misaligned partition. Misalignment that normal HDDs can't bother, but reduces performance and lifespan on SSDs.

My guess is that because his C: partition is too large to be copied raw, any use of a clone utility will write the partition table itself; probably locating the partition on 31.5KiB offset - the wrong way. I don't think people want to spend big $$$ on an SSD only to let it run in a bad configuration that halves lifespan and reduces performance.

 

[sub mesa]

http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=486637&sid=b4255b1a249e417e78ba3a508783f4da

May be an interesting topic with similar issues.

 

[sminlal]

When I got my SSD I didn't really have much choice other than to do a clean install because my previous system was the Windows 7 Release Candidate. But I was pleasantly surprised - reinstalling Windows, a couple of dozen pieces of software, and configuring everything the way I wanted went much faster than I expected because of the speed of the SSD. It was a completely tolerable experience.

 

[darkguset]

I think you didn't understand my point that using any "ghost" utility rather than a binary copy of the raw disk contents, would lead to a misaligned partition. Misalignment that normal HDDs can't bother, but reduces performance and lifespan on SSDs.

My guess is that because his C: partition is too large to be copied raw, any use of a clone utility will write the partition table itself; probably locating the partition on 31.5KiB offset - the wrong way. I don't think people want to spend big $$$ on an SSD only to let it run in a bad configuration that halves lifespan and reduces performance.

Not true any more. Have a look at this: http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=244075

I have used Acronis True Image my self, although i used version 10 (latest) and it preserves the correct alignment.

Regarding his partition to be too large, why did you assume that? I did not see his partition size anywhere, unless i missed it.

I just wanted him to know that there are more than 2 options.