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How do I split my backup so that I can setup an SSD drive

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I am using Acronis 2012. My 1tb hard drive is giving off signs that it may be on the way out.

I have a full disk back-up which I am expecting to be able to use in an emergency. Cloning the drive to a new drive looks pretty straighforward.

I would like to take this opportunity to move to an SSD drive for Windows 7 initially and later I would like to move some of my key software as well.

Is there a way that I can backup/restore or clone just Windows 7 and whatever else is needed to bootup to an SSD drive and then to backup/restore or clone everything else to a normal harddrive?

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If you have your 1TB drive split into more than one partition, and your Windows 7 OS partition and the Windows System Reserved partition (if it exists) are smaller than the SSD you wish to put in its place, you could restore just those partitions to the SSD. If you hard drive is not partitioned, you would have to do some maintenance on your setup. The key here would be to create an additional partition for your data, and move your data from the OS partition to the new partition you create. Once you have the reduced the OS partition data size down to a small enough size (along with the Windows System Reserved partition) to fit the SSD, you could then create a new full disk backup, install your SSD and then restore just the OS and System Reserved partitions using the Acronis Recovery media. To create a new partition on your 1TB drive, you would need to use Windows 7 Disk Management and shrink you existing OS partition. You would want to shrink it to slightly larger (at least 10% larger) than the amount of data that it currently has on it. You will then have unallocated space on your drive in which to create a new partition. You would then create the additional partition and format it. The new partition would then be ready to use for moving your data.
Be sure to have a complete disk backup BEFORE doing ANY partition changes.

Thanks James, I'll give your suggestion a go. I have a 240g SSD so I have a bit of space to play with. One complication is that I am using a Virtual PC running XP so I can get some of my old genealogy software to work (64 bit Win 7). Is there a way to move the virtual machine or will I have to uninstall/reinstall?

Maybe someone else can help with that, as I have limited experience with Virtual PC.

Neil Bradley wrote:
I am using Acronis 2012. My 1tb hard drive is giving off signs that it may be on the way out.

I have a full disk back-up which I am expecting to be able to use in an emergency. Cloning the drive to a new drive looks pretty straighforward.

I would like to take this opportunity to move to an SSD drive for Windows 7 initially and later I would like to move some of my key software as well.

Is there a way that I can backup/restore or clone just Windows 7 and whatever else is needed to bootup to an SSD drive and then to backup/restore or clone everything else to a normal harddrive?

I don't know why you want to "move some key sw later"? Just make a .tib image backup of your entire 1TB drive, and restore it to your SSD. After, you want to make a few tweaks in your W7 settings for the SSD e.g. turn-off defrag and a couple others (search on "replacing HDD with SSD").

The Restore operation to your SSD should result in everything working exactly as before, including your Virtual PC. Then you can do what you want with your 1TB i.e. keep it as a storage drive or something (you could keep a lot of SSD image backups on it for example).

Neil,

The Virtual PC environment will move with your OS and your apps. The virtual machine files can be anywhere on your pC and are easy to move.