Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

Finally purchased an SSD for main PC to replace hard drive, the SSD is 120 GB in size and it will replace a 300GB hard drive of which only 74GB is used. I understand that to transfer an image both drives should be of the same size otherwise errors occur. So i've tried to reduce my volume but the smallest it will shrink to is 152GB and theoretically it needs to drop to 120GB to transfer with no faults or errors, how do I overcome this problem. Do I have to uninstall programs, am I better off doing a clean install, is there a simple way of getting this to work, any ideas greatly appreciated.

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

I did a fresh install when I got my ssd then once it had everything i needed on it I created an image in case i ever needed to set it up again.

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

The way I do thing's is I use a normal sata drive use to be a 1tb drive but then I bought a 160gb dedicated for the job.

I install windows and apps and games on to the normal sata drive either the 160gb or the 1tb drive, and then I use Acronis Boot Disk to clone it across to the SSD after I have done a secure erase on the SSD.

When you use the Acronis boot disk and tell it to clone the 2 drives it will give you 3 option's but the best to choose is the one where, it shrink's the partition down to the size of the new disc or increases it, dependant on whether you are going from smaller to larger or larger to smaller which is the case when moving from normal sata to ssd.

I have had no issues with mine since I started using a ssd doing it the way I do it and to be honest I have never heard, of it causing issues of cloning a larger drive to a smaller drive.

You will be fine if you use Acronis or something that is the same as it and aslong as you are not trying to clone more data than, the ssd can hold as a 120gb ssd will normally give you about 105gb to 110gb to use after it is formatted etc.

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

I have got acronis so might try that, operating system is windows 7 pro and tried earlier swapping over on my laptop and recieved errors about system image, and main error is original drive being larger than new drive even though there is plenty of space this seems to be a common error.

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

When you run the Acronis boot disk one of the options is proportional which will reduce the size of the main drive down so it is small enough to go on to the ssd, the only issue I could see you having is if you have the large drive split in to 2 or more partitions with data on the 2nd or more partitions.

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

I did just this using http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

1. Resize your big partition using the above to something smaller than your SSD, say in your case 80G.

2. Do a partition copy of said partition to your new SSD where you will be left with a 80G partition on your new SSD probably on a drive now known as 'g:' or 'h:'. Either way it won't be 'c:'. Use one of those external SATA/USB interfaces

3. Resize this partition on your SSD to the max of your SSD.

4. Now put the SSD in your machine and remove the big disk and reboot. You will get an error about cannot boot from 'h:' or whatever.

5. Either pay to use the full blown version which outside Win (as a bootable CD) will allow you to change the SSD back to 'c:'...or insert your original Win install disk as it will sort it out as a repair (well Win 7 did no probs).

Using the above software be aware I had to reboot between stages to let the effects take place. I am sure Acronis etc can do it but the principle is the same.

I may have missed the odd step like activating the new partition but it was a few months back.

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

Used Acronis seemed to work a treat. At the moment I can honestly say the ssd is no different in speed to the Raptor I replaced, my asus striker extreme has 3Gb sata ports, do I now need to puchase a 6GB sata controller card to improve the speed of the ssd or will this make no difference.

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

EASEUS (if on windows) or the partition tools in Puppy linux will clone the drives and resize as you go. There should not be an issue with the resizing

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

My old mans c300 on a sata 3 connection flies compared to a rapter. However if you install a Sata 3 controller do not expect it all to just boot that easily it will need a boot driver to be seen most likely

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

In which way is it not faster? You should see a huge improvement in response times and depending on the model a fair improvement in transfer speeds. What make/model is your ssd?

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

just a gues with it being 120 gig and sata 3 its the OCZ Vertex 3?

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

Good guess, yes its the ocz vetex 3. I bought two and placed one in a laptop and again i'd say not much improvement. Do these only run fast speeds with latest motherboards and processors. I thought it would be lightning fast as everyone says when purchasing an ssd but hhmmmm disappointed so far.

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

Have a look on the Cosair website as that's where I found all sorts of tweaks and I think I posted the links on this site a couple of months ago.

Still it should be a massive improvement.

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

Hope this is not hijacking the thread but I would like to ask Royaltiger and Kymmy an opinion. I need to clone my hard drive. Acronis Home 2011 has lousy reviews on Amazon and EASEUS free edition (latest due out today) seems to have good reviews. Would you care to comment please? I had Acronis in my sights for several months until I read some reviews. I am not a geek so one button cloning is what I am after. Apologies for my intervention!

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

Is this wise if you're copying your boot partition? maybe windows will want make adjustments for being on a SSD.

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

For a simple clone of a windows HDD then both and others like Ghost/gparted (gparted is found on puppy linux) are perfectly good. It's only when you start getting into virtual drives that you'll find an issue.

Hiren's boot CD used to have ghost on it which was always the best but now seems to stick with Seagates drive tools.

You have to remember that as you're only reading the source disk if anything goes wrong you can just start again with no loss of data. All you're losing is time ;)

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

@xtopher. Like yourself I have read some bad reviews of Acronis 2011. I am using an older version (Acronis 11) which works fine for me on Windows 7 64bit. No problems or complaints. If you can pick up the older version cheaply I'm sure that would do the job for you.

Re: Transfer system image from Hard Drive to SSD
 

Thanks Ky and DN for repsonses. Much appreciated