Migrating only SOME partitions to an SSD
I have a Seagate Momentus 500GB drive in my laptop, partitioned as follows:
C (20GB): Win XP Pro SP2
D: (10GB) Additional Programs loaded on Win XP
E: (35GB) Window 7 Pro SP1
F: (30GB) Additional programs loaded on Windows 7
G: (30GB) Data (My Documents etc.)
H: (30GB) Pagefile for Windows 7, and Additional data
I: (95GB) Additional data
J: (175GB) Additional data
I'm getting a 120GB SSD, which I want to install as my main drive. The Seagate wil be installed as a second drive in the optical bay of my laptop.
Here's the thing -- I want to install just Windows 7 on the SSD (no Win XP partitions), i.e., just the E: and F: partitions of my existing HDD (which would then become the new C: and D: partitions of the SSD), and leave the rest of the SSD for an additional partition for data (which then becomes the new E: partition, on the SSD). So I would end up with --
C:, D: E: on the SSD (with C: having Win 7, D: having Win 7: additional progs, and E: for data)
F: G:.. and so on on my Seagate HDD.
My question -- what's the best way of going about this, *without* doing a fresh install of Windows 7? (I have Acronis Trueimage 2012, and also Acronis Disk Director Home 2011.) Can this even be done, or would there be a complete mishmash of drive letters after? Would my programs work, given that all the drive letters are changing? And what about this SSD alignment problem?
Been through several forums, and I'm now even more confused than I was when I started...would appreciate all and any help!
Thanks
Installed program may have trouble with moving from F: to D: if they somewhat recorded in the registry that some of their parts were on F: . Probably it would be better to preserve partition letters.
Thanks for the reply.
I opened ATI, but didn't find any 100MB reserved partition -- it just shows 'C: D: E: F: G: H: I: J: Acronis Secure Zone'. So, then I assume the bootmanager is on the same disk as the Windows 7 system files, i.e., E:? Or on C: (Win XP, which was installed first before the dual-boot arrangement into Windows 7 later)?
The new drive *will* be a different size (I'm thinking about a 128GB SSD) from the original drive, but the partitions I just want to restore on to the SSD are definitely smaller than the SSD capacity, so that's not a problem.
"Installed program may have trouble with moving from F: to D: if they somewhat recorded in the registry that some of their parts were on F: . Probably it would be better to preserve partition letters."
Yes, I'm worried about that too...this may be a stupid question, but is there any way to fix this without fudging around with the partition letters? Since I'll be eliminating Win XP, I would like to start with new drive as C: ...I guess it's a mental thing ;-)
Thanks for responding.
Rajeev,
There is no simple answer here. I am thinking that your operation is risky and if I were in your shoes, I would start from a bare metal configuration and reinstall the system the way I want.
In this new configuration, for example, I would consider running XP from a virtual machine on the Win 7 OS host.
Yeah, Pat, I'm beginning to think the same...oh well, it was worth a try (thinking that someone just might have a magic solution!)
Thanks anyway