IFW advice for Win8 copy for SSD

Hi there I'm looking for advice and help on how to copy my Windows 8 partions to an SSD.

Reading other very helpful threads I decided I'm going to use IFW, but I have a couple twists.

First I have several partitions on my original HDD:
HD - 0 - GPT 476940 MiB (7ED6E082)
. WINRE (400 MiB) HTFS/NTFS (01)
. EFI system partition (260 MiB) EFI system (02)
. Microsoft reserved partion (128 MiB) GPT Entry (03)
. (C) OS (449178 MiB) HPFS/NTFS (04)
. (D) RECOVERY (26969 MiB) HPFS/NTFS (05)
HD - 1 - GPT (30534 MiB) (15878940)

This is a new HP laptop ultrabook. I have a 120GB Samsung 840 Pro SSD I am wanting to migrate to, but the OEM's recovery options don't allow a restore to a smaller drive than the orginal 500GB drive. I'm corrently using the 30 trial of IFW, but plan to buy this the next time I need it if it works.

My main issues are:
a) I don't quite understand how the GPT or EFI partions work, or what precise options I should use when copying them. (like "copy first track" / "validate byte to byte' / "update boot partition" etc.)

b) When I tried copying the main partition, there is not enough space on the SSD to copy. It say's it needs 266467 MiB, but I only have 113684 MiB free space available.

I have another 500 GB hard drive I could use as a temporary staging ground.

When I experimented with it, it seems my main partition needs a minumum resize option of 95241 MiB. (Not sure if that means the partition will need to at least by 95241 MiB or 255467 MiB).

Either way, it looks like using my 500 GB drive as a "staging ground" is in my future, because I don't want to harm my current drive an in way.

So my questions are:

1) what copy options should I use for each partition type
2) should those options change depending when I'm copying to my staging drive or final drive.
3) do I really need all these partitions ("RECOVERY" is worthless IMO).
4) Is there any problem if I copy my staging drive to the final SSD from within my XP machine (because I have 2 SATA connections I can use there).
5) Why won't my OEM give me a doggone system disk that would allow me a to do a fresh install?!?!?!

That last question was just rhetorical of course. I could vent all day on that topic, but that's not what this forum is for!

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

 

JanMay,

IFW supports UEFI but I haven't seen any threads about copying a UEFI HD to a SSD. Someone must have done it? Personally, I'd copy every partition except Recovery.

But first you need to resize your Win8 partition....

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=554

Everything has to be done in the HP laptop. Not in another computer.

 

Thanks Brian. It was actually your posts that got me this far, and led me to look at IFW. I guess I don't even know how much I don't know about UEFI/GPT. If you haven't done it, it's got me a little concerned about why I'm thinking to attempt it!

For anyone who has insight into this, I'm not necessarily tied to IFW. I was also looking at Paragon's "Migrate OS to SSD" product or anyting else that might work.

 

I've done quite a few GPT/UEFI restores and copies and they all seemed okay (I used IFW). Some were SSD to HD, but I don't think that would be any different than HD to SSD.

I think what I would do in your case would be to make a backup of the drive (just to have everything safe), then delete the Recovery partition (sounds like you don't want it or need it) and compact the Windows partition so it's small enough to fit on the new SSD. Then just do a copy to the SSD using the Scale to Fit and Change Disk ID and GUIDs options. If you want to do a restore instead of a copy just create a new backup of the drive after deleting the Recovery partition and compacting the Windows partition and then restore that to the SSD (use the same options).

You should also check that the Align Partitions on 2048 sectors option in IFW Settings is enabled, though IFW should keep the existing alignment.

 

Mudcrab,

An amazing method. Thanks.

 

Not sure if it matters or not, but I should point out that the Windows partition didn't have any booting files on it (they were on the EFI system partition). I didn't try "fixing" those files.

 

I'm further down the road now, but now I am having have bootup problems.

I managed to copy the partitions to my spare drive, compact and resize the big partition there, then copied them to the SSD. I used the "change GUID" step for both options, and also had the 2048 sector alignment and use host geometry options on.

That all seemed to go well, but when I try to boot from the drive, I get a blue screen (but not a BSOD) with:
Windows Recovery
Your PC needs to be repaired
A required device isn't connected or can't be accessd
Error code: 0xc0000225.

Doing some googling, this seems to be a common error people get when they start playing around with partitions in UEFI systems, but I couldn't quite get all the help I needed out of them. Something seems to be wrong with my BCD. Maybe because the partitions have different GUID's. Or they start on slightly different sectors because of the 2048 option that makes sense with SDD's. Or because of all kinds of other things I have little clue about.

One positive thing I have going for me over most of the posts I read is that I still have my old working drive. And I can still use it to further work on the new drive.

Anybody have any idea what I can further look for or do to try to make these drives more identical, or fix whatever the root problem is?

Thanks for your help thus far.

 

I ran into that error in testing. Are you trying to use the existing booting files and BCD? If so, I would try deleting them (remove the bootmgr file and the Boot folder) and then booting to the Windows 7 Repair Disc and doing a boot repair (may take several times to repair everything).

 

Still no luck. It immediately goes into this "required device isn't connected or can't be accessed/ Error Code 0xc0000225" screen no matter what I seem to do.

I tried booting from a repair disk, but I think the UEFI firmware is purposely customized to not allow boot disks and is recognizing the problem with the drive even before it gets to the BIOS/legacy options of being able to boot from a DVD drive.

I may later try putting the repair disk on a USB, but for now I'm out of time and patience to find out what the next hurdle will be....

I'll update the thread if I ever find a solution.