Migrate from HDD to SSD on Windows 8.

Hi, I am looking for a software to migrate from my HDD to SSD on windows 8.
I Was originally planning to install windows 8 on SSD, but did not recieve SSD from where i ordered as it was out of stock,so i will have SSD in a couple of days and wanted to know which would be the best software to migrate my OS partition to the SSD .

Clean install seems tedious now and I have also installed a lot of programs on the HDD.

Any help is highly appriciated.
Thanks

 

arsenaloyal,

Can you post a screenshot of Disk Management as that will help with our advice?

What size is the SSD?

 

The size of the SSD is 128 gb, C partition size on HDD is 300gb but only 45 GB is used.

Unfortunately i do not have the SSD just yet but i can post my HDD's partitions if you want that.

http://postimage.org/image/ie2007l4f/

 

arsenaloyal,

Thanks for the screenshot. Your booting files are in the 350 MB partition so it is essential this partition is copied to the SSD as well as the Win8 partition. Your Win8 partition is too large to be copied to the SSD even though it only contains 37 GB of data.

Imaging apps typically do sector based copies/restores so if your original partition was....( * is sectors in use, - is free space)

[---**----**--]

then the target partition to restore into can not be smaller than...

[---**----**]

So I'd resize the Win8 partition to say 80 GB before the copy (it can be resized larger later). But what other partitions are you planning to put on the SSD and what size would you like the SSD Win8 partition?

This is a major challenge for SSD users. How to get a larger partition onto a small SSD.

 

Don´t "migration to SSD" programs manage this resizing automatically?

 

Robin,

I don't know how good they are at doing this. Usually you want a different partition layout on the SSD and I prefer to do this manually. Do you have experience with these auto apps?

 

Thanks for the response Brian...

I am just going to put the C partition on the SSD and will give it complete 128GB.

Yes that is exactly why I need the help pf a specialist

 

Yes regarding this I have a thread in the paragon support forum (only partial support for windows 8!) as they have a black Friday discount for their "Drive Copy Pro" which does say that it automatically resizes and clones it as well i think. but i am unwilling to try is lest anything should go wrong.

 

I'd proceed as outlined in Post #4. Will you be creating images on an external HD?

Resize the Win8 partition to 80 GB
Create an image of the 350 MB SRP
Create an image of the 80 GB partition
Remove the current HD from your computer
Install the unpartitioned SSD into your computer
Restore the SRP image
Restore the Win8 image
Boot into Win8
When everything is OK, resize the Win8 partition to the full size of the SSD.

You can reinstall the old HD into your computer after Win8 is booting correctly from the SSD.

Do you understand these steps?

 

Can you try this. Open an Admin Command Prompt, type diskpart (and press Enter), type

list volume (and press Enter)
We want the Win8 partition so if it is Volume 2, type
select volume 2 (and press Enter), type
shrink querymax (and press Enter)

This makes no changes to your partition but lets us know how far diskpart can shrink the partition. Diskpart can only shrink as far as the last non movable sector although dedicated partitioning apps can do much better. What is the number?

 

I forgot to ask. Desktop or laptop?

 

Yes i can create image on external HD,can i USE the internal HD ?
I have created an entire image of C drive in a different partition of internal HD to see if imaging works on windows 8 (it does).

Resize the Win8 partition to 80 GB :--> yes i can do that easily
Create an image of the 350 MB SRP :--> a bit confused here, can i create an image of SRP separately through disk imaging in windows ?
So the rest of the steps just break down for me ...
unfortunately I am complete noob when it comes to imaging as earlier i used to just format my drives as an when needed,but now its a waste of time and i prefer imaging.

thanks.

Its a desktop that i will be installing this SSD on.

 

Yes, you can write your images to another partition on the 1 TB HD but you must remember to disconnect the 1 TB HD before the first boot from the SSD.

Forget Windows 8 imaging, It's too clunky for this procedure. We want separate images.

What is the "querymax"?

How are you planning to resize Win8 to 80 GB?

I haven't mentioned imaging apps yet. Later.

 

i have a disc of partion magic with which i can resize the disk to 80gb.

querrymax was 149 gb or 152710mb .

thanks

 

So Diskpart won't be able to do the resize to 80 GB. Partition Magic should not be used as it isn't 2048 sector aware. We've see several threads where folks have used PM with Win7 partitions and Win7 no longer booted. I suggest Gparted.

Download GParted 0.13.1-2 ISO from...

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php

Make a CD from the ISO. Boot from the CD and press Enter for all challenges
When in GParted /dev/sda is your first HD, /dev/sdb is your second HD.

right click in the Win7 rectangle,
Resize/Move
delete the numbers in the New size field and type in 80000

make sure Align to: is MiB
Resize/Move
you will now see the resized partition rectangle followed by unallocated space
make sure the sizes are correct
click Apply
Apply again
click Close when "All operations successfully completed".
double click Exit (top left)
Reboot, OK
the CD will eject, press Enter when requested

Let us know when this is complete.

 

ok well i have a bootable disc of ubuntu somewhere , which i tihnk has gparted if I am not mistaken, will check it out and follow your instructions.

 

Don't use a version of GParted without the MiB option.

 

just finished installing a SSD (ADATA Premier Pro SP900).

it came with a free download for an Acronis migration tool but i decided to do a clean install.

might take longer but i'm sure there won't be any problems this way.

 

moontan,

I'm confused why you didn't use IFW. It is extremely easy. Just a few clicks.

 

i never tried migrating before so i don't know how reliable the process really is.
beside, i don't know how.
though i wish i would've used it today because i had to install XP first, then the upgrade to Win 8.
otherwise Windows doesn't validate.
fortunately i don't use too many programs.

 

ok downloaded the copy latest of gparted from the website will be resizing the partition today.

well i have a copy of IFW as well, can i use it to restore to SS ? I just use it for back up thats all.

 

Sure. I'll give you some Copy instructions.

 

ok, I have resized the partition to 81gb using gparted.

 

In post #21 you mentioned you had IFW. Not sure why we were not informed earlier. OK, both drives in the computer. The SSD should not contain any partitions. Start IFW. In Settings, make sure Align Partitions on 2048 Sectors has a tick.

Use the Copy choice. Copy the 350 MB partition to the SSD. In Copy Options, leave the default ticks in place and put a tick in

Set Active
Copy First Track
Validate Byte-for-Byte

Now Copy the Win7 partition. Leave the default ticks in place and put a tick in

Update Boot Partition
Validate Byte-for-Byte
Shutdown when Completed
In Resize After Copy, type in the Max number

After the computer has shutdown remove both SATA data cables from the motherboard and plug the SSD data cable into the SATA port the old HD had been using. The old HD must not be connected to the motherboard for the first boot from the SSD. Power on and the SSD should load into Windows. After you are satisfied all is well you can shutdown and plug the old HD data cable into a spare SATA port.

Let us know what happens.

 

Sorry for not informing about IFW, i actually bought in int august just to back up and create image of windows, i had no clue it could restore to SSD!


Will do as you say and post the results!

Thanks a ton for your help.