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How do you do a clean install of Win 7 onto SSD and transfer all software from old HDD

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I have an OCZ Vertez 2 SSD and I did a clean install of windows 7 on it because I heard cloning can cause problems with the partitions. That being said, I want to transfer all my programs over from my caviar black to the new SSD (Office, thunderbird, etc). Is there an Acronis product that will do this? Is there any other way to do this? I do a system image, albeit, not an acronis one. Can I just apply my system image to the new hard drive?

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Justin,

With Acronis products you can't transfer just your programs across such as Office etc as they require entries in registry to work. Any program that doesn't use the registry or data file can be transferred across and will work.

Your options are.

1. Make a rescue CD and ensure it will boot your PC and see all your drives.

2. Assuming no problems with #1 above, make a partition image of your old drive.

3. Make a Windows Recovery CD - for extra insurance :)

4. Recover the partition image to your new drive.

5. Remove the old drive from the system, reboot.

6. If Windows complains it can't find NTLDR or just hangs at a blue screen, boot from the Windows Recovery CD and let if fix the BCD. You may need to run the CD a number of times as it only fixes one item per run.

7. If Windows boots OK, then check your sector offset - if it is still at 4K boundaries then all is well.

8. If not, then the only way to re-align the partition will be to clone it back to the old drive and then clone the clone back to the new drive - according to Acronis.

9. There is a product by another company that claims to be able transfer your files and settings over. Although I have a copy, I've not tried it.
a PM is awaiting you.

Justin Armstrong wrote:

I have an OCZ Vertez 2 SSD and I did a clean install of windows 7 on it because I heard cloning can cause problems with the partitions. That being said, I want to transfer all my programs over from my caviar black to the new SSD (Office, thunderbird, etc). Is there an Acronis product that will do this? Is there any other way to do this? I do a system image, albeit, not an acronis one. Can I just apply my system image to the new hard drive?

Trying to transfer programs onto a clean install could create major problems and eliminate all the benefits of a clean install. Your best bet is to reinstall all your existing programs on your new boot drive.

However you can easily transfer all your data files to your new SSD. To do that, in Acronis is fairly easy as you can mount your original image on your PC and then copy the appropriate data files to your new SSD. If your disk image cannot be mounted (depending on the system you used) then restore it to another drive or a partition on PC. Once you have copied these files you can then delete that particular partition and/or unmount the Acronis image.

Cheers

Hi
is there an Acronis article that is current on switching from a HDD(with OEM, recovery and systtem disk partions), running W7 to a smaller SSD?
(there is lots of unused space on the HDD' system partion)
thanks

@adxltd,

Not as fas as I know, but I recently moved a 74GB HDD's worth to a 64GB SSD.

Method:

1. Made a complete disk image (for my system this contained 3 partitions) to another drive.

1a. Made a W7 repair CD - if you are using Vista then a Vista repair CD or XP the installation CD - these are just as a precaution.

2. Switched off PC and installed SSD temporarily in a spare Sata slot.

3. Rebooted PC into Windows.

4. Opened (in my case) ABR10. DD2010/2011 method the same

5. Chose to only 'recover' the C:\ partition

6. Recoverd the C:\ partition with auto resize option to new SSD drive.

7. After recovery, closed ABR10, shutdown PC.

8. Detached data cable from old HDD (left physically in the PC in case something had gone awry).

9. Rebooted

10. Because I had not recovered the other two partitions the Windows 7 BCD file was out of wack and O got a black screen error message that the boot files couldn't be found.

11. Ran W7 repair CD - had to do this twice as the CD only repairs one item at a time.

12. Rebooted - Windows booted as it should.

If you are using XP, you probably won't have XP refusing to boot. If you have only a single partition on your current drive, you again, will probably not get the problem I had if using W7 or Vista. If you do then follow the above #11 above. XP would be approached slightly differently if it wouldn't boot.

If you discover the SSD hasn't been partitioned using 4K boundaries, the answer is to clone the SSD back to the old drive, and then clone the old drive back to the SSD. I believe Paragon Alignment Tool - can actually re-adjust the SSD on the fly, however only the paid for version has the facility, the trial doesn't have the option.

Sadly an option missing in Disk Director.

I recently restored a not aligned partition with TI 2011. It got restored aligned. So there should not be a problem with your SSD too. Just try it and look if the offset is correct.

You could use the Paragon Alignment Tool - there might be still free versions out since it was free until June or July I think. But my experience was not so good with it because it destroyed the extended partition table entries in a way that I had to scan the whole 2 TB disk with the (free) software testdisk to repair it. After this bad experience I restored with TI 2011 and (to my surprise) it was aligned to SSDs and 4 K disk standards. All other partitions restored with TI 2011 were aligned too. So no need for the Alignment Tool.

Hi all
thanks for these contributions .

TI 2011 offers a clone function with the ability to manually resize the partions - you guys are not considering this - going for the restoration of an image approach. Is there a reason for this?

Lastly, how can i check what the offset is?

thanks
Bob

adxltd,
One reason why many of us avoid cloning is the risk factor.

=================================================
Cloning Risks:
In theory, there should be no risk to the source drive during cloning as the disk is only read. In practice, however, there has been far too many postings of something going wrong during the process. Sometimes it is the operator choosing the wrong disk and cloning the blank onto the master; other times, the power fails during the process; at other times, the computer freezes and the the drive is lost. Simply stated, why take the risk of cloning when it takes on a few minutes longer to do the restore and the master disk is not even connected.
=================================================

sound advice - i will go the image and restore route.

Any ideas about what toll to use to determine the offset?

thanks

One way to check the sectors assigned to the partitions is to use TrueImage Home.

If using 2010, this applies to both Windows and Rescue CD.

If using 2011, this viewing only appears when booted from the Rescue CD.

Simulate performing a backup or restore, either one will produce the first picture below. As shown in image 2, with a few changes , you can make your options shown in image 3 which shows the beginning and ending sectors.

Click image to enlarge viewing.

Image 1

 Image 2

Image 3

From within Windows using ATI 2011, this information is available using the Disk Editor built into 2011.