HDD to SSD
I am not yet a TIH owner yet. I have a relatively new HP DMZ1, almost netbook, Win7 64bit, external USB backup HDD drive, external DVD drive, an installed 320gb HDD, and in hand a new Kingston 128gb SSD.
I am horrified I actually bought the SSD reading all the problems with aligning partitions.
Currently I have a system image backup on the external USB HDD and a DVD system restore disk. I have no Win 7 installation disk as that cost extra and I didn't buy it.
My hard drive currently has 4 partitions. A system reserved NTFS 199mb unlettered active partition, a 278.7gb NTFS boot partition C:, a 19 gb NTFS recovery D:, HP_Tools 103mb FAT32 unlettered partition probably for the quickweb feature. All partitions are primary.
So should I buy the TIH or am I looking for a week of misery? Pointing to a nice applicable step by step guide for properly installing the SSD would be nice. I have a home desktop so I could take everything there to do this to avoid any complications with all the external attachments if any.
When it is all said and done I would like to for once in my life have a nice easy routine of backing up stuff without needing terabytes of storage space.
Would like to get it right the first time. Am I asking too much? Or should I forget this ssd idea?
Thanks Pat great information! Looks like I am aligned as the offset is at 1mb. Never knew about that resource.
. A couple of clarifications will help greatly. 1) When you say ATI 2011 is that ATI Home 2011? Or do I need a plus pack or something like that?
2) When I do this should I back up first with ATI 2011 and use that or will it work straight forward on the system restore image I have already done with Win 7?
Yes, ATI Home 2011
After you install 2011, create your Acronis recovery CD (unless you receive ATI 2011 on a disk: this disk is bootable).
Boot the computer on the recovery CD, do a full disk system backup (select all partitions) onto a USB disk. Once the backup is complete, validate it. Note that on the recovery CD, the partitions letters will be different than in windows. Don't worry about it.
Swap the disks.
If you can put your hands on a Windows installation DVD, you could get rid of those HP partitions to save some space on your SSD. Without it, you would need to find a tool to edit your boot records an recreate a new MBR on your disk.
Restore the backup on the SSD. Let's do it one partition at a time, in the same order you had them on the other disk. You don't need to reboot in between, When you get to your C:partition, specify a size so that you can accomodate. Your computer should reboot.
If you don't restore the HP partitions, you will need that tool to rebuild the MBR.
If you have the same partitions as before, restore your MBR & track0, your disk signature.
You should be good to go.
thanks Pat you are a great resource!
the one partition I might consider getting rid of is the 19gb NTFS recovery partition. If I have this system going I don't really see the need for it. The HP partition is only 1/10th of a gigabyte and I might use that. Ideally, I would use the 19gb for the recovery partition to increase my C: drive.
I am a little confused about the need for the installation DVD or some MBR editing tools.
Win 7 has partitioning software couldn't I just delete the D: partition (recovery partition) from the disk management console and expand C: from there before embarking on the rebooting with the Acronis recovery CD and doing a full system backup? Or alternatively delete it after a full conversion with all the partitions to the SSD when I get to the point of needing the space?
I have resolved to practice the entire backup strategy as I am tired of losing data. My tendency is to wait till I need the space but when I need the space I might not have time to practice. So I am committed to the full drill.
Most likely, there is some code in the MBR that links to this partition. If you delete the partition, the MBR will point to something that doesn't exist. In some systems, the computer wouldn't boot.
There is no risk to try. Just don't delete the partition. On the contrary, back it up. Just don't restore it. Restore your MBR and track 0. If the compute boots, maybe you will just lose the F12 or whatever key you need to hit to start the recovery. Then you can live with it.
If it doesn't work, just redo your restore. No big deal.
thanks so much Pat! I think I am armed with the information to move forward and practice this, spare hard drives, screwdriver, software, etc. Going on the road will write back in a couple of weeks how it all worked out.