Migrate OS to SSD - Questions for Early Adopters

[Maeghas]

I have to agree with Lightbearer (see reply above mine). This program needs some major improvements if it is to compete with other Paragon programs. Note my own comment about how long Migrate OS to SSD takes versus installing a new copy of Windows 7.

Does the ability of migrating Windows to a smaller drive exist in any other Paragon program? I don't have any of the Hard Disk suites yet so I cannot verify for sure. Incidentally, I had already ear-marked Hard Disk Manager 2010 Professional to use on my system, but I thought I'd test Migrate OS to SSD before deciding to buy HDM 2010 Pro.

Also, system info for my PC, since I forgot to include that, on my original message:
ECS A780GM-A motherboard (v1.0)
Windows 7 64-bit
1GB WD HD split into two 500GB partitions. Partition 1 is the system drive.
1GB WD HD (intended as a backup drive)
64GB Kingston SSD
Lite-on 16x DVD
Lite-on 12x Blu-ray
Floppy 3.5 drive
Iomega ZIP 100 drive
NVidia GeForce 9400 graphics card (upgrading to EVGA NVidia GTS-450 Overclocked)
4GB DDR2 6400 RAM
M-audio Delta sound card
Firewire PCI-e card
4-port SATA PCI expansion card

[Maeghas]

Just a followup...my second attempt also did not work. I think it may have something to do with 64-bit Windows 7. I noticed that the program seems to work under 32-bit according to reviews. Unfortunately, I don't have a way to test it myself.

[DeeJay]

1. Was your OS migration successful?
a. Yes, Though is did revive the Windows setup as one of the boot options in boot manager after it was complete and the SSD was exchanged into the laptop. As well the time remaining was out to lunch.

2. Was the migration process intuitive?
a. Yes

3. Were all the program dialogs clear to you?
a. Yes

4. Do you think that Migrate OS to SSD needs additional features?
b. No.

5. Have you found some excess features?
b. No.

6. Do you think that Migrate to SSD solution functionality needs to be extended?
b. No. It is good already and complete.

I copied a 500GB HD with 80GB of data on it, to a 160 GB SSD. It did exactly as it was supposed to, and quickly. The total time from install of the software to reboot on the new drive was about 30 minutes using a USB 3.0 external drive case.

[johnsmith]

1. Was your OS migration successful?
a. Yes

2. Was the migration process intuitive?
a. Yes

3. Were all the pogram dialogs clear to you?
a. Yes, but:
a) The OS migration selection source dialog would be clarified if it mentioned the name of the hardware on which the OS partition resided or to be transferred to eg "OCZ-Vertex" or "Toshiba MK1234GSX" as well as drive letters, as most uses will be most aware of the name of the hardware they have (most probably) just fitted to their PC. This is similar to the use of drive hardware names in the destination selection dialog. An additional extra reassurance would be to indicate which of the operating system(s) that have been found is the one currently active and running. On of my installed OS's was described as "Invalid" but I could not find any help as to what this means.
b) the timing estimate was way out and kept getting extended when I migrated from a 120Gb SSD to a 100Gb 2.5" SATA laptop drive

4. Do you think that Migrate OS to SSD needs additional features?
a. Yes. The option to have Windows use the boot selection menu when it restarts rather than just moving to the newly created boot drive, as this would allow user to create working OS backups as well as "full on" transfers

5. Have you found some excess features?
b. No.

6. Do you think that Migrate to SSD solution functionality needs to be extended?
a. Yes. See 4 above

Overall
A useful utility that I could use to keep a spare OS image just in case my SSD reflashing goes wrong

[jrgeoffrion]

1. Was your OS migration successful?

a. Yes

BUT... I am now presented with a "Select OS" prompt and the choices are: Windows 7 and Windows 7.

If you need a file from my system, please let me know.

If someone knows how to remove this boot option, it would be great.

2. Was the migration process intuitive?

a. Yes


3. Were all the program dialogs clear to you?

a. Yes

HOWEVER, the option to select or deselect particular folders was not visually obvious -- I only saw it because I was looking for this particular feature.

RECOMMENDATION: add a step showing the folders selected to be copied with the option to deselect or just click next.

4. Do you think that Migrate OS to SSD needs additional features?

a. Yes.

RECOMMENDATIONS: I would love to have the option to images/copy more than just the OS. For e.g., my OS is on C: while my data is on F: -- both on the same physical drive. I would have loved the option to clone the entire physical drives with the two partitions.

ALSO, I would be nice to create an SSD tweak cheat sheet with recommended settings for the various OS to optimize performance as well as ensure longer SSD drive life.

5. Have you found some excess features?

b. No.

6. Do you think that Migrate to SSD solution functionality needs to be extended?

b. No. It is good already and complete -- with features in 4 above.

PS: Process was FAST, FAST, FAST compared to competitors' products. I was able to clone and restart in minutes without a hiccup. No longer a "task" that requires a block of time.

[jyv]

1. Was your OS migration successful?
Yes

2. Was the migration process intuitive?
Yes

3. Were all the program dialogs clear to you?
Yes

4. Do you think that Migrate OS to SSD needs additional features?
No

5. Have you found some excess features?
No

6. Do you think that Migrate to SSD solution functionality needs to be extended?
No. It is good already and complete.

I have migrated Windows 2008 Server x64 from a RAID 0 2x Western Digital Raptor 73GB 10KRPM to 1 single Intel X25-M 160GB Postville in less than 30 minutes, removed the RAID 0 drives, reset the RAID configuration in Bios, set the Intel X25M as primary drive and boot drive, and the Windows 2008 started successfully, a dialog box asked to reboot after the first start, I rebooted 1 time, and everything has been completed successfully.
Note: I have not read the documentation, I have not read the content of the dialog boxes, only clicking on the Next and Proceed buttons -> everything just run properly.
Note: the tool to migrate hard disk to SSD X25M provided by Intel (Acronis) is not working for Windows Servers.

[frons]

System: Intel i5, Windows 7 32bit, 320Gb HDD to OCZ Vertex2 60Gb SSD.

1. Was your OS migration successful?
a. Yes
It was a bit confusing though, I started the procedure, went away for lunch, came back and the program was closed. No messages whatshowever, I suggest to display some information after the sequence is completed.

2. Was the migration process intuitive?
a. Yes
Very easy, just select target. Warnings are clear.

3. Were all the pogram dialogs clear to you?
a. Yes

4. Do you think that Migrate OS to SSD needs additional features?
a. Yes.
- An option to create a bootable disc, from which the software can be loaded without booting the OS / installing the software local.

5. Have you found some excess features?
b. No.

6. Do you think that Migrate to SSD solution functionality needs to be extended?
a. Yes.
- See point 4.

[Rongeohar]

System OS Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit. Intel 980X OCZ Vertex 2 SSD

1. Was your OS migration successful?
No

2.Was the migration process intuitive?
More or less. It would be even more explicit if the instrictions indicated that items not to be migrated were to be unchecked.

3. Were all the pogram dialogs clear to you?
Yes

4. Do you think that Migrate OS to SSD needs additional features?
Yes. Maybe some way to determine if the image transfer will be bootable?

5. Have you found some excess features?
No

6. Do you think that Migrate to SSD solution functionality needs to be extended?
Since it didn't work for me, this is difficult to say. The migration seemed to complete properly but the disk would not boot even if it was the only disk with the OS and selected as the boot disk in the BIOS. Windows Recovery (from the installation disk) didn't even see the OS.

Cannot seem to attach requested files. Message returns invalid link!

[Rongeohar]

I couldn't give up on this and so, in case this helps others for whom the operation hasn't succeded, I performed the entire operation again. This time though, I went into MSConfig and stopped all start-up programmes and then into services and stopped all non-Microsoft services. Upon completion of the migration I rebooted and found myself still booting from the HDD. The SSD had been given a volume name the same as my boot HDD but not given a drive label. I assigned it a label, in my case G:. For no good reason I restored normal boot configuration to the HDD in MSConfig.

Using Easy BCD I added a second boot entry (distinguished by name, my HDD being Windows 7 and my SSD being MS Windows 7).

I then rebooted and was given the selection choice at boot time and chose MS Windows 7, naturally. I wasn't going to be easily convinced that my SSD was the boot drive until I discovered that I was still in modified boot mode. Then I went to Administrative Tools, Computer Management and Disk Management. The SSD was now identified as the C: drive, together with boot active status. My HDD carried the disk label G:.

As a postscript, I'd like to mention that this is the second time I used Easy BCD to attempt this. The first time around when I selected MS Windows 7 the system would not boot and gave an "autochk missing" error message and went straight into reboot. The only difference between the two attempts was that, the second around I modified the start-up configuration. I'm not technosavvy enough to know if that had anything to do with the outcome but I recount it just in case.

I've read elsewhere that people using 64 bit Windows have experienced migration failures and I hope that this might be useful for some of you. I wonder if Paragon has any information elsewhere on this issue?

[Mech_An]

Hello Rongeohar,

Could you please upload log files from last attempt to migrate to FTP? Please use credentials from private message.

LOG files: "PWLOG.TXT", "STUBACT.LOG", "BioNTlog.TXT" in "C:\Program Files\Paragon Software\[Program Name]\Program" . Then zipp all files in archive .