Moving O.S w/o Windows 7 disk

[jb3131jb]

Hey all!
Im getting 2 Kingston Hyper X drives soon- 90 gigabyte 3k's, and i just realized i have no idea how i should migrate the operating system from my 500gb drive, to the new drives. I have no back up, and I prefer by far to not have to spend any money on programs. I also don't have the Windows Seven disk, having lost it a long time ago. Anyone have any suggestions on moving the O.S to my new drives? I really don't to have to re install all of my games, as a gamer that might take literally days. Thanks for the advice in advance.

 

[eggbrook]

You either spend money on some program to do it, or you reinstall windows. Those are your only options. This website, http://www.mydigitallife.info/download-windows-7-iso-official-32-bit-and-64-bit-direct-download-links/ , has legal ISO downloads of the windows 7 discs. You can redownload your copy of windows' disc and then reinstall that way. You still have to use the key that came with your copy of windows to activate.

 

[ubercake]

If you have less than 90GB used on your 500GB HDD, you can use Acronis Home or Apricorn EZ Gig II (Apricorn sells a cool migration kit) to make a clone of your HDD to your SSD (check the 4k alignment box if prompted during cloning).

If you have over 90GB (the size of an SSD) used on your 500GB drive, you can uninstall all of your apps (everything but your drivers and OS), use Acronis Home or Apricorn EZ Gig II to make a clone of your HDD to your SSD (check the 4k alignment box if prompted during cloning), then re-install all of your apps.

You can do this all without having to re-activate Windows 7.

I know you said you prefer not to spend money, but you can spend $110 on an OEM edition of Windows 7 Home Premium or $20 on a data migration kit that works:

http://www.apricorn.com/products/notebook-hard-drive-upgrade-kits.html

The $20 kit on the bottom right (link above) will work for laptops or desktops.

But you need to get your 500GB drive capacity down so you can fit the contents onto your SSD. If you do what I said and remove the apps and re-install them after you move your OS to the SSD, you'll be able to separate the OS from the apps making future upgrades even easier.

 

[rus2]

Hey all!
Im getting 2 Kingston Hyper X drives soon- 90 gigabyte 3k's, and i just realized i have no idea how i should migrate the operating system from my 500gb drive, to the new drives. I have no back up, and I prefer by far to not have to spend any money on programs. I also don't have the Windows Seven disk, having lost it a long time ago. Anyone have any suggestions on moving the O.S to my new drives? I really don't to have to re install all of my games, as a gamer that might take literally days. Thanks for the advice in advance.

Buy or use a usb docking station. Download free EaseUS ToDo Backup. Install it. Put your new 90g in the docking station and clone your old OS disk to your new one. Remove the old disk and install the new one. Turn on your computer and see if it doesn't look like the old system.

 

[jb3131jb]

Best answer selected by jb3131jb.