best way to minimize disruption when fitting new hard drive

dipsomaniac

thinking of replacing sata drive (win 7) with ssd drive. what is the best way to go about it? full install of win 7 etc, disc image existing drive and transfer image or is there a better way?

letsbehonest

I would backup all your data to another drive first,all the stuff you really need then install the new drive and do a clean install of your O/S onto the new drive then install your saved data.

Figment

That's OK unless the OP has a lot of programs etc that would need reinstalling too.

Personally I'd fit the SSD in place of the existing HDD, put the existing HDD into a USB caddy (or if we're talking about a desktop PC put it in a spare drive slot) then use something like Clonezilla to clone the contents of the HDD to the SSD.

dipsomaniac

Figment wrote: »

Personally I'd fit the SSD in place of the existing HDD, put the existing HDD into a USB caddy (or if we're talking about a desktop PC put it in a spare drive slot) then use something like Clonezilla to clone the contents of the HDD to the SSD.

thanks for the replies. when you say replace existing hdd with ssd do you mean cables too. If so, what would happen when you boot as i am assuming current drive would go from c drive to f drive (d dvd, e external) or have i got it wrong?

sho_me_da_money

dipsomaniac wrote: »

thanks for the replies. when you say replace existing hdd with ssd do you mean cables too. If so, what would happen when you boot as i am assuming current drive would go from c drive to f drive (d dvd, e external) or have i got it wrong?

I like going for a clean build. My experiences of using cloning/imaging software to deploy an OS onto a brand new drive results in a performance hit.

Do the following:

1. Add the new SSD to another slot in your rig with new cables (leaving the other drive as it is)

2. Depending on SSD, place HDD mode into AHCI in the BIOS (reportedly better for SSDs)

3. Boot to the installation media (Win 7 DVD/USB)

4. Format the SSD and install a fresh copy of Windows 7

5. Once installed and rebooted, the system will detect two operating systems to boot into. You will have an option to select which one to boot and will have 30 seconds to make your choice. Choose the SSD drive/OS.

6. Once logged into Windows, go to My Computer. The other drive should appear as an additional data drive. If it doesn't, go to disk management and assign a drive letter to the S-ATA drive (you may have to import the disk in - easy stuff).

8. Go back to My Computer and migrate the data you need from the old to new drive.

9. Once complete, format the spare drive and either leave it as a secondary drive for additional space or remove and sell it.

robmar0se

Figment wrote: »

Personally I'd fit the SSD in place of the existing HDD, put the existing HDD into a USB caddy (or if we're talking about a desktop PC put it in a spare drive slot) then use something like Clonezilla to clone the contents of the HDD to the SSD.

Figments point about whether you have a desktop or laptop is key here.

In all probablity the ssd will be smaller than the existing drive. so before you jump just make sure that by replacing you aren't just giving yourself a potential problem.

So maybe adding rather than replacing would be a better option? Then if its a laptop as most don't have a spare slot for a second drive, I wouldn't recommend replacing. If a desktop go ahead and add the ssd drive.

Its your call then whether to clone or do a clean re-install. If its a relatively new system then cloning is a possibility but usually the target drive must be (i) the same size, or (ii) larger, or (iii) resize the existing drive partition so it matches the new drive. Once cloned then re-locate your personal folders so that they continue to reside on the old drive (having reformated the old C partition).

If its an old system, there will be benefits from doing a clean re-install, making sure you have access and licenses for any software you want to re-install.

dipsomaniac

it is a pc. put win 7 on about 6 months ago.

marms

sho_me_da_money wrote: »

I like going for a clean build. My experiences of using cloning/imaging software to deploy an OS onto a brand new drive results in a performance hit.

Do the following:

1. Add the new SSD to another slot in your rig with new cables (leaving the other drive as it is)

2. Depending on SSD, place HDD mode into AHCI in the BIOS (reportedly better for SSDs)

3. Boot to the installation media (Win 7 DVD/USB)

4. Format the SSD and install a fresh copy of Windows 7

5. Once installed and rebooted, the system will detect two operating systems to boot into. You will have an option to select which one to boot and will have 30 seconds to make your choice. Choose the SSD drive/OS.

6. Once logged into Windows, go to My Computer. The other drive should appear as an additional data drive. If it doesn't, go to disk management and assign a drive letter to the S-ATA drive (you may have to import the disk in - easy stuff).

8. Go back to My Computer and migrate the data you need from the old to new drive.

9. Once complete, format the spare drive and either leave it as a secondary drive for additional space or remove and sell it.

That won't actually work, after step 9 you'd be left with a computer that won't boot.

googler

My preference, on the assumption you have your Win 7 install disc, and the install discs for any software you want loaded on the new system and/or the downloaded install executables for any software you've downloaded.......

Disconnect current primary drive from PC.
Install SSD as primary drive
Install Win 7 upon it
Install any softare you have install discs for.

Once this is all working satisfactorily, install the previous primary disc as a secondary

You can either leave your data there to access, or copy the data from the secondary to SSD primary.

You can also retrieve the executables to install downloaded software from there, and either run them from where they are, or copy them to the primary drive.

fwor

marms wrote: »

That won't actually work, after step 9 you'd be left with a computer that won't boot.

I suspect you're right there - though it would still boot Ok if the old HDD is not removed.

One other thing to bear in mind if you are thinking of cloning: Win7 is able to customise the drive parameters to make best use of the way in which SSDs work, but it may only do this at installation time. If so, you may find that with a clone you won't have the TRIM option enabled - in which case SSD's performance will deteriorate over time.

IMO the best bet would be as googler suggests.