Free software to tranfer win7 to new drive

[dc9mm3]

Ok I got a new 180gig intel SSD drive. I also have the 80 gig intel SSD for a while now. Its almost full. I want to transfer win 7 home premium 64 bit to new 180 and make that the new boot drive. I initially downloaded the free trial of Acronis software only to find out this feature is disabled in trial software. I go to remove this software and it fails. So now i manually remove most of that software.

Intel offers free migration software but its actually a version of Acronis software and it wont install because of the darn trial software that didn't uninstall correctly. So looking for some simple software to transfer my C drive to new 180gig SSD. Nothing to complicated.

Or does win 7 have this feature built in some were?

I also tried this software Reflect Disk Imaging but what it did was make the partition on the new 180 gig drive same size as the one on the 80 gig. Why it did this i have no clue. I cant imagine why anyone would even want to do this, makes no sense to me. So it copied all info to new 180 gig drive but it was full as it only was same size as 80 gig drive about 74 actual gig. I tried it again trying to figure out why its messing with the partition but cant figure it out.

 

[npaladin-2000]

Ok, first of all, when you're putting in an SSD< it's recommended to do a fresh Windows install.

That said, Windows 7's Backup and Restore utility offers the ability to make a backup "system image" of the HDD, which is essentially the same thing as Acronis does, which is the same thing so many other utilities do.

There is also a bootable LiveCD called PartEd Magic that contains multiple utilities to do the same thing, the best of which is probably the CloneZilla utility.

With either utility, you would be well advised to have a USB drive connected to the local PC to store the image file on, or transfer to and from. Network storage is possible, but much slower, and driver dependent.

 

[dc9mm3]

It has a SSD drive in it now its a 80 gig intel. Iam just replacing it with a larger SSD intel drive. I did a fresh install when I originally put in the 80 gig SSD, I will try the win backup. Iam hoping i can make a drive backup on one of the other mechanical hard drives i have on my system. Once i get home I will look at the win 7 backup and restore utility.

I was thinking about downloading trail version of Ghost but not sure if all features are available in trial mode like Acronis did.

Ok, first of all, when you're putting in an SSD< it's recommended to do a fresh Windows install.

That said, Windows 7's Backup and Restore utility offers the ability to make a backup "system image" of the HDD, which is essentially the same thing as Acronis does, which is the same thing so many other utilities do.

There is also a bootable LiveCD called PartEd Magic that contains multiple utilities to do the same thing, the best of which is probably the CloneZilla utility.

With either utility, you would be well advised to have a USB drive connected to the local PC to store the image file on, or transfer to and from. Network storage is possible, but much slower, and driver dependent.

 

[npaladin-2000]

It has a SSD drive in it now its a 80 gig intel. Iam just replacing it with a larger SSD intel drive. I did a fresh install when I originally put in the 80 gig SSD, I will try the win backup. Iam hoping i can make a drive backup on one of the other mechanical hard drives i have on my system. Once i get home I will look at the win 7 backup and restore utility.

I was thinking about downloading trail version of Ghost but not sure if all features are available in trial mode like Acronis did.

Ghost is even worse if I remember correctly. You can do the winbackup and then restore to the new drive, or you could use PartEd Magic to just transfer and resize the partitions, either with partEd itself or with CloneZilla. If you go this route, it would be beneficial if you can have both SSDs connected at the same time, through a USB enclosure or whatever. Then you're just doing a straight transfer, and not a backup/restore.

 

[JohnnyChuttz]

C:/ > Right Click > Copy

 

[razel]

As npaladin mentioned, the Win7 image backup will work for you. And yes, you can store the backup onto the mechanical drive, then replace the 80GB with the 180GB, boot off any Win7 DVD or USB and perform a restore.

IIRC after the restore you *may* have to extend the partition it creates. It may only create a 80GB partition, but you can easily extend that to cover the entire 180GB in 'Disk Mangement' after you bootup.

Have fun.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

http://www.apricorn.com/products/software/ezgig.html

Says it's only compatible with their drives, but google found plenty of references to people using it on whatever drive.

 

[GrumpyMan]

Macrium Reflect does it great too.

 

[Engineer]

Macrium Reflect does it great too.

Yes it does. Was going to post this but I'll 2nd your post.

Have used it from HD to SSD and from SSD to SSD several times.

Not sure if it will copy from larger to smaller partition. I do know if going from a smaller drive to larger drive it will create a partition the same size as the smaller drive. Easy to extend the volume in Windows 7 though.

 

[dc9mm3]

Ok I got it done with Reflex. What it did was clone the disk along with the same 74 gig partition from the 80 gig drive. So I just expanded the partiton in windows manage disks to use all the 180 gig drive. I didnt realize I would have to do that. That confused me.I thought the software would clone the disk and leave the disk partiton alone but it didnt.It resized it to same as what was on 80 gig SSD drive. Either way i got it running now useing the whole space on new SSD 180 gig drive. Now iam useing the 80 gig SSD as a scratch disk for Photo shop. That helps alot.

Yes it does. Was going to post this but I'll 2nd your post.

Have used it from HD to SSD and from SSD to SSD several times.

Not sure if it will copy from larger to smaller partition. I do know if going from a smaller drive to larger drive it will create a partition the same size as the smaller drive. Easy to extend the volume in Windows 7 though.

 

[VirtualLarry]

C:/ > Right Click > Copy

Joking?

 

[GrumpyMan]

Ok I got it done with Reflex. What it did was clone the disk along with the same 74 gig partition from the 80 gig drive. So I just expanded the partiton in windows manage disks to use all the 180 gig drive. I didnt realize I would have to do that. That confused me.I thought the software would clone the disk and leave the disk partiton alone but it didnt.It resized it to same as what was on 80 gig SSD drive. Either way i got it running now useing the whole space on new SSD 180 gig drive. Now iam useing the 80 gig SSD as a scratch disk for Photo shop. That helps alot.

Good job, I love Macrium Reflect, now that I have been using the free version I'm going to buy the professional version since it's really cheap and just works. :thumbsup: