Cloning win7 boot drive to ssd

[anonxlg_]

i'm going to getting a ssd today, and i'm going to clone my win7 boot drive to to the ssd because i dont have time to reinstall+reinstall programs and settings
my win7 drive is 60gb and only has 15gb of space used so that's not going to be a problem, the ssd is 60gb (and whatever the format goes down to)

i'm wondering, will win7 know it's an ssd and enable trim and whatnot for the ssd, does that only happen when u do a fresh install

also, if there are any free, cloning software that lets me copy my win7 drive to the ssd without any problem, i'd like to know some recommends

also, i have my pagefile on a separate hdd right now, would it be good to put the pagefile back in the same dir as the win7 partition now? (more wear on the ssd if i do that right, but it would be faster)
(have only 2gb ram, and set to 2gb pagefile)

thanks

 

[Vincent]

You can use the built-in Windows 7 backup application to create a boot drive image on another drive. It may offer to burn a CD containing a restore application that you can boot from. Or you can also boot from the original install DVD. Just restore the image onto your SSD. Your SSD needs to be connected to the same SATA port that your original boot drive was connected to.

I believe that Windows 7 is smart enough to automatically turn on trim and disable defragmentation. But someone else who knows better might correct me.

 

[razel]

Win7 by default MS drivers will have TRIM enabled. It will additionally tweak more of itself after updating your Windows Experience Index. I personally always go into the Disk Defragment and uncheck the SSD from the schedule. If like on a laptop you primarily use one drive, then you can safely turn the 'Disk Defragment' service's startup type from 'Automatic' to 'Manual'

Check your HDD's drive manufacturer to see if they offer any free cloning utilities. Western Digital and Intel do. Seagate might. Or if you have a WD or Intel drive, you can plug it into a native SATA port and the free cloning program will still run.

Yes, keep your pagefile on the SSD. Do not worry about the additional wear. I'd worry more about losing out on the performance. If fact, you can set the minimum to about 128MB and let it grow if you want to find out how much you actually end up using. Have fun.

 

[perdomot]

I used Acronis to make and image and restored the image onto the ssd.

 

[bacillus]

You can use some free software.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2010/...o-ssd-free-download-with-license-serial-code/

 

[shabby]

You can use some free software.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2010/...o-ssd-free-download-with-license-serial-code/

Nice...

 

[anonxlg_]

You can use some free software.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2010/...o-ssd-free-download-with-license-serial-code/

thank you very much, i knew there was a software that would do it

i was messing with the windows backup, and it wouldnt let me restore the files to the ssd
then i tried clonezilla, doing it two ways, i thought it was going to work, but it didnt, which didnt make sense
(one of them was cloning the 100mb system reserve partition, then cloning the windows partition, then booting on windows dvd and doing a repair)

so stupid, what a waste of time, that program took like 15 mins
i was messing with this shit for 2 hours

 

[anonxlg_]

question again

should i upgrade the firmware of the ssd?
it is a ocz agility2, 60gb
it was bought on christmas

also, what parameters should i check in windows to make sure all the settings are correct (not talking about disabling defrag)

 

[Vincent]

I used Acronis to make and image and restored the image onto the ssd.

Some versions of Acronis will not align the SSD partition correctly.

 

[Emulex]

intel gives out a free copy with their ssd