Clone old HDD to SSD windows 7 64 bit

- Use Windows disk management to verify that the active partition on the system disk.

- Print a screen shot of the disk management console for future reference,

- do a full backup of your current disk (before changing the partition size). Include all partitions, even the hidden ones (no need to use the sector by sector setting)

- uninstall any program you don't want on the SSD (eg: games, ). You can leave content and move it later out of the SSD.

- put your SSD at the same spot at your current disk. Remove your current disk from the computer for the time being.

- boot your computer on the Acronis recovery CD

- restore each partition at a time in the same order they were laid out (use your screen shot). This will allow to control resizing and offset to align the disk

- leave a 1MB space before the first partition (maybe system reserved?)

- mark the correct partition active (maybe system reserved?)

- leave the drive letter change option alone

- do not resize any partition except the C:\system partition or any partition you created and want on the SSD

- no need to reboot inbetween partition restores

- after the last partition, restore the MBR+track0 and the disk signature

That's it.
Reboot on your new SSD. Then, if you want to use your old disk, put it back in the computer, reboot. Delete whatever you want, etc.
You have some tweaks to optimize your SSD:
- disable automatic defragmentation of that disk,
- disable superfetch service, leave prefetch
- leave the page file on the SSD
- verify that TRIM is activated http://www.ghacks.net/2010/09/14/verify-that-trim-is-enabled-in-windows…

well that sounds doable... now i feel confident enough to go out and actually pruchase that SSD drive that i want. i will let you know how it all works out when i do it. in the meantime, thanks for the great response.

You said,

Pat L wrote:

- put your SSD at the same spot at your current disk. Remove your current disk from the computer for the time being.

Problem is, I cannot do it: my old C hard drive is SATA II, while a new SSD is SATA III and connected through an additional PCIE SATA III card. Does it make a difference?

This means that the disk controller is changing. When the disk controller is changing, you are in a dissimilar hardware situation. You'd have to use the Universal restore function that comes with the Plus Pack (a paid-for add-on).
You can still try. If the disk doesn't boot, you will have to repair the computer startup because the boot records might not be work any longer (I am not sure). Even if it boots, you might get a BSOD. At that point, either you use the Plus Pack, or you reinstall Windows and the apps and move your content (I would do the last option right away).

Thanks again, Pat, I also decided it'll be easier just to re-install Windows. A clean installation never hurst anyway, and I did it many times. A good thing is I still have Acronis Images of that machine, so no data would be lost.

Followed ALL suggestions and Help given for Cloneing on THREE different systems - same error every time. Tried backup and recover individual partition - partition disappeared from screen when trying to recover.
Wasted THREE days with trying dilligently to get this program to work - more I tried the more frustrated I became.
Cloneing should be straight forward - not have the jump through hoops to get it to work, same goes for
backup and recovery. I finally swithed to another company clone software and It worked first time exactly as advertised.
Requesting a refund.
Maybe these folks have TOO many customer service managers as displayed on the home page and not enough programmers and testers to put out an error free product.

Pete Bucki wrote:

Cloneing should be straight forward - not have the jump through hoops to get it to work, same goes for
backup and recovery. I finally swithed to another company clone software and It worked first time exactly as advertised.

Hey Pete,
Could you tell us to which clone software did you switch?

Thank you

As I was installing a Crucial SSD , I used thier recomendation EGgig - IV.

I couldn't use EZ GIG IV because it would not recognize my Crucial disk and would not execute without their product Apricorn. Wound up cloning with Acronis 2011 which left me with a misaligned ssd drive.

I followed the steps above to "clone" my hard disk to an equivalent sized SSD. However, when I tried to reboot, the computer could not reboot. It seems not to find the disk as a boot device.
Windows recovery was suggested, but it showed no OS disk. However, the disk is there and recognized by Acronis.
The only problem I had with the above is that there is no place that I can find the disk signature. How do restore the disk signature.
I could restore the MBR, but found nothing about the disk signature in my recovery process.

Charles,
Which operating system? When TI? Which computer brand?

The disk signature is an automatic part of the clone. The only time you see such an option is during a restore function--not a cloning function.

Go into the bios and make sure your SSD is the selected boot device. Even though you may only have 1 disk, sometimes this is necessary.

Still if nothing works, you could retry to clone but do a manual clone and use the "as is" option.

If you decide to do a reclone, I do suggest you use the Acronis "ADD new disk" option and delete he partitions off the SSD.

The cloning should be done from the Bootable media CD and best that the SSD be inside the computer in its planned boot position.

Could anyone provide any help with removing the "This Computer is not running genuine Windows" error message everytime I boot up, and I can't run windows update, etc and if I try and open windows update, it hangs).

I'm having the same issues and become frustrated that a simple clone disk (restore) does not work very easily. I have a perfectly fine 320gig harddrive with windows 7 Ultimate. I made a complete image of this (all partitions, and have done this nightly for several years, not realizing how difficulte it would be to restore if a problem actually arose).
I purchased a new 750gig harddrive and wanted to simply put this harddrive in, and restore my current drive contents to it. Not so easy. 4 days later and still trying. Let alone if I had actually lost my 320gig HD and tried to restore, I was completely unsuccessful in restoring the image.

My Process:
1) Made full image backup of all partitions of old 320gig HD.
2) Pulled 320gig HD out of computer and installed the new (empty) 750gig HD (the drives are identical in brand, type, etc, other than size)
3) I then booted from Acronis boot disk
4) Selected to restore from my full image
5) Chugged for a couple hours and said successful
6) Rebooted. Failed. Missing MBR (however, I selected all this to restore during the restore process in step#4 above.
7) Tried again. Same result.
8) So tried different approach.
9) plugged 320gig harddrive thru USB drive (lucky I had 320 drive and it had not actually crashed)
10) Selected to Clone disk (open was not available, it only showed my USB drive)
11) So tried the "Add New Disk" option. Figured this is where I went wrong???
12) had to individually Add partitions to match the old drives partitions
13) They selected each partition to restore to the original one (although, I am sure the placement was all wrong, but I had no idea about this at the time, until just now when reading the posts above. But why should I have to worry about this? Shouldn't the clone/restore handle this for me?
14) Selected to proceed
16) Chugged for several hours (failed)
17) Tried to clone disk again
18) Chugged for several hours (success), Yay! .... kinda
19) Rebooted (success), Yay!
20) HOWEVER, now everytime I boot, I get "This computer is nnot running genuine Windows" message and I can't update my windows, and if I try and open the Windows Update on my computer, the application hangs.

Any ideas on how, what went wrong, and how to fix it?
How difficult is it supposed to be to restore an image to a drive?
I thought if you have a full image, then booting from Acronis should HELP restore that image to the new drive?

Blw,

Do the restore, not the clone. Restore one partition at a time, in the same order they were on the first disk. Then restore the MBR+Track0 and the disk signature. With the same disk signature you should be fine with Windows.

If you have an MBR issue, use the Windows installation DVD to repair your computer.

If you still have a Windows activation issue, you can call MS support to fix the activation issue.

Thanks, I'll give that a try this weekend and post back how it goes.

As you restore one partition after the other, you will have a chance to:
- verify that the offset for the first partition is 1MB.
- verify that the size of each partition is a whole number of MB,
- adjust the size of C:\ or any other user created partition. Do not resize any system hidden partition.

Okay, I redid it one partition at at time starting with them in order. They all restored okay, but had to use my Windows installation disk to fix the Missing BootMgr issue as it wouldn't boot when I finished. HOWEVER, I still get the "This computer is not running genuine Windows" message.
How/Where would I go to "Get Windows Support" that you mentioned in your earlier thread?

What about this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/950929 ?

If as a last resort, you wish to try this, it may help or it may also make it worse--but if you have a backup, you should have a recovery.

My suggestion at this point in time would be to use your backup and restart the recovery.
At the point where you choose what to recover, checkmark only the MBR/TRACK0 and nothing else.
On the next screen which you select the 750 target disk, ALSO select the "Recover Disk Signature".
Proceed with the recovery

Other options would be to repeat the restore to a blank disk but follow ALLl the steps listed in item #1 at this link.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29618

Or another option would be to do reclone to a blank disk (use the add disk option) and then use the manual clone but choose the Manual "as is" method of cloning. After the cloning, the non-expanded partitions can easily be resized to your size choices. If and when resizing needed, post a screen capture of your Windows Disk Management graphical view and more detailed resizing instructions can be issued. if you choose the clone method, be very careful to correctly choose the source and target disks.

Do I save the full system backup on the original disk? I believe it should need a lot of disk space. My logical partition is small. Can I use the Primary partition for saving the backup?

I have attached a screen shot of my disk management. Which can be considered the layout - the graphical representation below or the ordered list above. I am asking this because the order of partitions is different in both.

Also, approximately how much time does it take for the first full system backup?

Thanks

If the picture you attached is the original unchanged disk, the graphical view is the correct restore view. If restoring a backup, you would restore the partitions in the same order as shown by the graphical view. The ordered list is not ordered and not usable. If you click on the column title headers the listed order will change but the graphical view has only one order and that is the order as displayed by the rectangles. When you did your restore, the graphical view order should have been the sequence in which the partitions should have been restored.

I am not understanding your question. My suggestion did not involve restoring any data. My suggestion involved restoring only the mbr/track0 and the Disk Signature Recovery.

A backup of your disk would take about an hour (without validation) and the compressed backup size would be about 50-55GB iif drive E not included within the backup.

TrueImage will permit you to create a backup of C and store it on C or E--assuming there is enough storage space. While a backup of C and stored on C is permitted, its possible use is minimal in that the backup can be used to restore C if the same backup resides on C. If the backup resides on E, then the backup can be used to restore C and the hidden partition--if included in the backup.

The best place to storage a backup is another disk--such as an external or network disk.

Thanks for the reply GroverH!

I am migrating from a failing WD 250 GB HDD to a 500 GB one. Currently, my new hard drive sits in a Transcend enclosure and can be connected via USB cord. As I understand the process, it is:

1. Create a full backup of old hdd
2. Install the new hdd in the laptop
3. Connect the old hdd (via USB)
4. Connect the bootable Acronis pen drive (I will be using a pen drive)
5. Boot the computer in recovery environment
6. Restore the image partition by partition on the new hdd

Since I have just two drives, I believe I have to store the full system backup image on the old (250 GB) hdd itself. No other partition on my drive has enough space except the primary OS partition. Therefore, I was wondering if I can do that and restore this image in the primary partition to the new (500 GB) hdd.

Dell User

I believe in your circumstances, a clone would be your best bet as it would be a one step process. If it fails, you could still then try making a backup to your old drive from your old drive as you have suggested, but I think you will run into more problems then it is worth when attempting to restore to your new drive from the backup you create. Only my opinion, others may vary.

Your statement " Since I have just two drives, I believe I have to store the full system backup image on the old (250 GB) hdd itself. No other partition on my drive has enough space except the primary OS partition. Therefore, I was wondering if I can do that and restore this image in the primary partition to the new (500 GB) hdd." is an assumption that you can make a full system backup to your primary OS partition. A full system backup would include all of your partitions and your MBR/boot track, and will probably fill up your system partition if it fits at all. I would only attempt this if a clone does not work sucessfully. If you do this before cloning, and your problems become worse instead of better with your failing hard drive, you may be unable to do anything at some point.

I do suggest that modify the volume name on drive C. Right Click on the Drive C icon and choose properties. Add or change the volume name to
Win7-C or whatever your OS is. I suggest you actual list the drive letter as part of the name.

As MVP JamesF has indicated, I too would agree that your best choice (at this point in time) would be to attempt a clone. Any use of the hard drive makes increases the possibility of a disk failure with no recovery of anything. If your CLONE process, my suggestion would be to use the MANUAL method and the "AS IS" method for the Move option. The resulting unallocated space can easily be corrected later.

My preferred choice would have been for you to get yourself an additional drive to be used as additional storage disk for your backups and perform a disk option backup onto the new storage disk.. Storing your backups on the main disk is risky because if your disk fails, you lose your backup. You needs to store backups in two different disks to spread the risk factor.

Creating a backup of Drive C and storing it on the same drive C is not recommended except as the only choice possible.
If you do decide to create a backup of your old disk and store the backup file on drive C, here is the method I would attempt to use and you have no assurance that TrueImage will agree. TI may indicate you do not have sufficient storage free space for the backup image.

..0. Boot from the TI Bootable media flash drive or CD, etc. Not from within Windows.
..1. Choose the disk/partition for the type of backup.
..2. Select the disk as what is to be included within the backup (all partitions including E)
..3. In the Backup options under Exclusions, specifically list Drive E to have all its contents excluded. The purpose of this exclusion is the reduce the size of the backup to increase the chances that TI will allow the backup to occur. Also be sure that *.tib is listed as an exclusion. See Note below.
..4. Choose the backup destination as "My Backups" on Drive C.
..5. If there is data on Drive E which you wish to retain, it is not being included within the backup and will need to be copied later--if the drive holds up long enough to get this done.

Thank you James F and GroverH!

I understand the logic and will attempt cloning first. I will also consider buying a new HDD in some time, may be an external one this time.

Thanks for all your help!