OS to SSD

[Balo0]

Hello, i bought an 120 GB SSD drive and i would like to move the OS to the SSD. unfortunately i dont seem to be able to make it work. i dont mind have to reinstall or something like that. the problem is that i dont have a instalation disk for windows 7. i bought my laptop with windows 7 preïnstalled. so either i would like to migrate the OS directly to the SSD or make a USB or DVD backup of my system and reïnstall it to my SSD. hopefully someone will be able to explane me how to do this.
Thanks

 

[RealBeast]

Not a problem. Just go to DIGITAL RIVER and download an image of the same Windows 7 version as you currently use in SP1, burn it to a DVD or put on a USB stick with the Microsoft USB installer maker, and use it for a clean install. Use the activation key on the sticker on the bottom of your computer to activate.

Don't forget to download the latest version of all your drivers before starting.

A clean install is really best when you are going to an SSD the first time. Disconnect your HDDs, and set AHCI mode in your bios just before the SSD install.

 

[noidea_77]

If your laptop came without a disk it has a recovery partition on the hard disk. The manual should tell you how to create / burn an installation disk from that.

 

[christop]

you can also clone your old hd to the new ssd.

 

[Balo0]

i've tryed most of your sugjestions. unfortunately cloning my HDD is hardly possible sinds its a 120 GB SSD and i've made a instalation disk from the recovery partition only to find that it could not booth from the disk. could not figure out why. i hope it will work with a clean install. just a few questions. why download all the latest drivers if i'm going to reïnstall everything? and how can i make my SSD the the drive from which my pc should booth when i put the HDD back in? i guess through the BIOS?
Thanks for all the help!

 

[J_E_D_70]

Unplug the hdd before installing to the ssd. Yes you select boot order in bios. Reconnect hdd after the install is complete.

 

[RealBeast]

i've tryed most of your sugjestions. unfortunately cloning my HDD is hardly possible sinds its a 120 GB SSD and i've made a instalation disk from the recovery partition only to find that it could not booth from the disk. could not figure out why. i hope it will work with a clean install. just a few questions. why download all the latest drivers if i'm going to reïnstall everything? and how can i make my SSD the the drive from which my pc should booth when i put the HDD back in? i guess through the BIOS?
Thanks for all the help!

So why not go get a legitimate image from the linked Digital River and do it the easy way?

The latest drivers will be the most updated for your computer and generally have fewer bugs.

If you do a clean install with only the SSD and CD/DVD drives attached everything will install properly and then just attach your other drives, you can delete the old Windows install once you get all your data off the drive following installing the new OS.

 

[Balo0]

i tried to do it with the clean install, got it from Digital River. it works up to the point of installing. the instalation asks for a driver cd and when i instert the driver cd provided with my laptop it does not recognise it. how can i fix this? everything else worked so thanks for that part!
hopefully someone knows how to fix this last bit.

 

[RealBeast]

Are you doing a custom install and deleting all partitions and then trying to install to the single unpartitioned space? Windows does not need any drivers for a laptop install until after the install is done.

If there is an issue with installing from DVD, you can create a USB stick with THIS MS TOOL.

Are you sure that you got the identical version, except in SP1?

 

[Balo0]

i am installing a clean install of exactly the same version: windows 7 home premium SP1. exept that the version i am trying to install is in english and my current instalation is dutch. i created the USB instalation with the tool you sugjested. So i dont have a clue why it asks for drivers before even starting the instalation. and i removed the HDD so that shouldn't cause any problems as well.

 

[RealBeast]

How does it ask for drivers, with the hit F6 to install drivers?

If so, and you ignore that does it continue install after 30 seconds or so as it should or is it some kind of error window?

 

[Balo0]

No. at first it says: load driver. a requiered CD/DVD drive device driver is missing. If you have a driver CD, DVD or USB, please insert it now. here it gives you the options Browse or cancel. and when i browse and select the driver CD i have which came with my laptop it does not recognise the drivers. and when i cancel it gives another notice. no device drivers were found. there is no posibility for next or anything. i've tried making another copy of the instalation USB. no difference. any sugjestions?

 

[RealBeast]

Try again doing the install with the USB installer stick and when it stops and asks for the driver click cancel, it should return to the Welcome screen, then detach the USB stick and insert into a different USB 2.0 port and click Install again. Then it should continue on with the install.

If that fails, look in your bios and set your SATA mode to IDE and try installing again, the switch back to AHCI after install is easy and I'll post it if you have to do that.

 

[Balo0]

both didn't work and the second option crashed my USB stick. cant acces it anymore. says it needs formatting but when i order to format it, it suddenly does not recognise the USB drive anymore. but well that's not the point. i just hope you have other sugjestions. have tried creating the USB install from another PC and the instalation procces still gives the same message. tried it with a burned DVD install disk as well still the same. i thought it might help if i just backup all my files and do a recovery from the recovery disk and then try it all over. maybe there is something in my system messing with the creation of the install drives. or is that a stupid idea?

 

[J_E_D_70]

Think I've gotten confused... Are you installing the SSD in a PC or a laptop? How old is the PC or laptop and what make/model?

What's the make/model of the SSD?

Just asking because I tried to install an Intel SSD 320 on a PC with an older nVidia chipset and it would not work.

 

[RealBeast]

If you have disconnected all hard drives and only have the SSD and DVD attached, nothing from the old install could mess with your install. The only problem that I can see is that you are not installing the same OS as you have already -- the Dutch version.

Did you make your USB stick installer using the Microsoft USB tool from HERE along with the correct 32 or 64 bit iso image?

 

[Balo0]

yup, same USB tool, same 64 bit windows. i have been looking for the dutch windows version. the right version is x16-96072. microsoft website only offers windows 8 sinds the release and besides that this version is nowhere to be found.
i guess i'll just have to buy the instalation dvd from the place where i bought my laptop. i contacted them and they could sell me one for a small fee... i'm going to give it one more shot mysellf and otherwise i'll get the disk. thanks for all the help. hopefully i'll get it to work with an original instalation disk.

and to J_E_D, i'm installing it on my laptop. it's a kingston hyperx 120 GB SSDrive. my laptop is 5 months old and its the ASUS n76mv series. it does recognise the drive. i can move files to it and use it when i booth windows from my HDD so that's probably not the issue. thanks anyway!

 

[Balo0]

it finally worked! still don't know what the problem was. i guess a error in the creation of the install disk. i created the install on a DVD with my girlfriend her laptop and the insallation did not ask for any drives, it just worked properly. now my laptop is so much faster! thanks for all the help. i learned a lot from all the adivice. now i just have to find a dutch language pack
Thanks again.

 

[J_E_D_70]

Congrats

 

[RealBeast]

it finally worked! still don't know what the problem was. i guess a error in the creation of the install disk. i created the install on a DVD with my girlfriend her laptop and the insallation did not ask for any drives, it just worked properly. now my laptop is so much faster! thanks for all the help. i learned a lot from all the adivice. now i just have to find a dutch language pack
Thanks again.

Good deal, I knew you could do it.

Get the 64 bit Dutch language pack HERE and follow the instructions at the bottom of the page.

 

[Balo0]

Thanks! , the language pack was easy compared to the Windows instalation

 

[Balo0]

Best answer selected by Balo0.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

This topic has been closed by SR-71 Blackbird