New PC: Migration from HDD to SSD & HDD to HDD
Hello Everyone!
I am soon buying a new PC, and I would very much like to transfer all my data from my old PC to the new one so I won't have to reinstall my OS (win7 64-bit) and all my applications and games.
I was hoping to do this with Acronis True Image 2014 Premium that I since only recently bought to make backups on my external hard drive. But I am confused about how I should do this.
My new PC will have a 1TB Solid State Drive (Samsung 840 Evo) for my OS, programs and 2 4TB HDD's (Hitachi Deskstar 7K4000) for bulk storage.
My current pc has a 500GB HDD which contains my OS & programs and a secondary 500GB HDD which holds all my data.
So what I was thinking of doing was to make a backup of my current primary 500GB HDD which contains my OS & programs on my external HDD (Iomega 2TB) and recover that onto the new SSD. And then make a backup of my secondary 500GB HDD which contains all my data, movies, music etc. and recover that onto one of the 4TB HDD's.
But I was wondering how I would be able to recover my backup of my primary HDD onto the SSD of my new computer since there is still no OS installed on the SSD.
I mean if I switch on my new PC won't I just see the BIOS? How will I then be able to recover the backup onto the SSD?
Do I take out the SSD from the new PC and connect it it to my old PC that is already bootable to recover the backup?
Also won't this cause problems regarding allignment, or am I lucky because I will be trying to transfer data from a 500GB HDD to a 1TB SSD so I don't have to compress the data in order for it to fit on the SSD?
Or would I be better off using the "Clone Disk" tool included in ATI 2014?
Your advice would be much appreciated.
PS: I added 2 screenshots of my disks & partitions to make things more clear.
Alright thanks for your reply, but I still have a few questions.
"secure the chipset and disk controllers drivers and store them on a flash drive"
I assume the chipset drivers (Intel X79 platform in this case) and disk controller dirvers are all included on the DVD-ROM that comes with my motherboard?
So I will put in the DVD-ROM in my old PC and copy all of it's contents onto an 8GB flashdrive I have lying about before starting the restore procedure.
"boot your new computer on the recovery CD"
With recovery CD are you referring to the boot disc that comes with my ATI or the DVD-ROM that comes with my motherboard? I assume the first one or will both work?
Also why exactly do I have to put the drivers on a flash drive? If something goes wrong during the restore procedure can't I just insert the motherboard DVD-ROM and install the proper drivers that way? Or is this impossible because my optical drive will already be occupied by the recovery CD or is there another reason?
Alright thanks for your reply, but I still have a few questions.
"secure the chipset and disk controllers drivers and store them on a flash drive"
I assume the chipset drivers (Intel X79 platform in this case) and disk controller dirvers are all included on the DVD-ROM that comes with my motherboard?
The drivers are probably not in the .inf format. Most likely in some .exe installer. You can find tools to unpack the .exe and extract the files.
So I will put in the DVD-ROM in my old PC and copy all of it's contents onto an 8GB flashdrive I have lying about before starting the restore procedure.
"boot your new computer on the recovery CD"
With recovery CD are you referring to the boot disc that comes with my ATI or the DVD-ROM that comes with my motherboard? I assume the first one or will both work?
The Acronis True Image recovery CD that you have create with your Premium edition. Otherwise you won't see the Universal Restore feature.
Also why exactly do I have to put the drivers on a flash drive? If something goes wrong during the restore procedure can't I just insert the motherboard DVD-ROM and install the proper drivers that way? Or is this impossible because my optical drive will already be occupied by the recovery CD or is there another reason?
Since you restore the image of computer A onto computer B, you need ATI Universal Restore to insert the low lever chipset drivers in the image as you restore it, or your computer will not boot.
When I check the driver DVD of my current PC which has the Intel X58 chipset I see alot of folders and subfolders and alot of different files with different extensions and assuming this would be the same case as with the new driver DVD of my new PC it is quite confusing what to copy and what not. I placed a screenshot in attachment to clarify what I mean.
Maybe I'd be better off to also fresh install win 7 on my SSD so it already has all the right drivers and then overwrite it with the restored backup.
But then again is it really necessary to have the drivers on a flashdrive? Or is it actually just a precaution in case something goes wrong or the SSD doesn't boot properly?
Since you restore the image of computer A onto computer B, you need ATI Universal Restore to insert the low lever chipset drivers in the image as you restore it, or your computer will not boot.
But if this is so essential to do, isn't it easy to miss one of the drivers that you are supposed to copy? It really isn't clear what to copy.
I wish there was an easier way to do this, I noticed that samsung also provides a migration tool with their SSD's, maybe that's an easier solution?
I'm sorry but when it comes to data migration i'm a real novice.
Yes, Universal Restore is not easy to deal with. Installing Windows to make sure you have the right drivers is OK. If you do that, don't forget to make a backup of your new installation with the recovery CD so that you can restore it, in case you end up with a fresh installation.
Ok thanks, I will try the first procedure that you told me. If I run into any problems I'll post them in this topic. Although this won't be anytime soon since my new PC will only arrive in about 2 weeks from now.
Hello again.
I have an additional question about the activation of windows 7.
Since I will be restoring a full backup of all my partitions of my primary HDD of my current PC containing Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit, Dutch, OEM License to my new PC with an entirely new hardware configuration, I was wondering if the activation of Windows will work on the new PC because OEM licenses are not transferable between PC's.
Maybe I should mention that my current PC is not a branded one but assembled with the components that I chose and that when I ordered it I also added Windows 7. So the webshop where I placed the order of my current PC did not only assemble the PC but also installed Windows that was ordered along with it by me. But i just checked my Windows 7 box and it clearly says OEM license. I hope I will not have to buy another Windows 7 copy.
You are correct you might have an issue with this OEM license. Try, if it doesn't activate automatically, call Microsoft Support and tell them about your case. There is a high risk you won't be able to transfer the license, but call them.