Help, new SSD drive

COVKID

Thank you all for your replies.Will probable do it at weekend.Will let you know how got on

COVKID

Success at last.Fitted drive using manual.Tried to download Macrium copy but message stated OS was needed.Downloaded the 5 HP recovery discs,had to do it twice to get it to work.Loaded Macrium but kept getting,not enough space message, when I tried to transfer it.Eventually found out how to bypass the problem using Macrium tuition site.When I went to transfer image the next problem was that it would not do it because windows was running in another programme.After another search found that to overcome that problem you needed to use the rescue media disc and boot from the dvd drive.You can imagine my relief when that was successful.Thanks to everyone,i always know where to come for help.I am 80 but I just like to have a go.

paddyrg

If anyone hits this again, I've just swapped a 1TB HDD for a 480GB SSD, nearly given up a few times, but Acronis True Image did the job in the end. Instructions aren't terribly clear, but what worked for me...

Got the drive from Crucial, so also got one of their transfer kits for convenience (includes Acronis licence*).
Run Acronis to create a bootable USB thumb drive (not a disc image, just a bootable copy of Acronis)
Remove HDD, replace with SSD (SSD must be internal drive, not accessed via USB, this is important)
Boot from USB Acronis image
Use the cable from the kit to connect HDD to a USB3 (ideally) socket.
'Clone' the HDD to SSD**
Remove external drives and reboot.

*Despite the instructions pointing you at v2014, it's not compatible with Windows 10 - go to Acronis forums and there's a link to the 2015 version that the same licence key works for
**'Clone' can actually be set to exclude certain files or folders, and can 'clone' to a smaller disk/SSD as long as the data will fit. You can choose a bitwise true clone, but that needs a larger target drive as it copies across all the empty space, too! Very handy that you can choose to exclude the Windows.old folder containing the dust that was your Windows 8.1, if you previously upgraded.