If you're going to install Windows fresh onto the SSD instead of cloning the OS partition, then you don't have to regedit anything. (Although it'd be a really simple operation that you couldn't really mess up.) Just disconnect the hard disk, connect the SSD, enable AHCI in the BIOS, and install Windows. Then connect the old hard disk as well, boot into the SSD, move over whatever you need from your old OS partition, and format the old OS partition to be used for other data.
If your current hard disk is one single partition, then things are a bit trickier. You need some place to put all your data while you delete/reformat the old OS install. So you may need additional storage space just for the installation. However... a backup hard disk would be recommended anyway... Always have backups.
See this is the part that I'm least familiar with and want to make less painful. I still have my Win 7 disk and product key, but my drivers are
all screwy. Long short something with my mobo/VGA drivers resulted in BSOD a while back and somehow I reinstalled/updated them to work now about 95% of the time with no issues. Don't laugh I actually bought $14 driver updater software and it seemed to do the trick... I promise I tried fixing it on my own for countless hours. :'(
Basically I would prefer to avoid a fresh install so I could just transfer my OS and drivers without needing to update and customize that stuff again. I do have a an extra HDD so I have room to 'park' my files and make a backup.
I foolishly did not partition my HDD and isolate my OS and drivers. So I might have to just move all of this data elsewhere to make the the clone of the OS and drivers and programs fit. Alternatively, I wanted to try the EVO and use
Samsung's custom software which supposedly allows you to pick and chose with files to migrate.
Here is where I am confused. I don't know the difference between: migration, cloning, transfer, image, etc. Ideally I would want to just pick and chose which data to transfer from my HDD to the SDD. My rough understanding is that cloning an image takes the entirety of one partition to another, which obviously won't work here unless I park all the extra files elsewhere. What data migration is idk...
Another issue about AHCI I'm wondering about is why would I wait for the SSD to enable it? I'm going to be using this current HDD for data storage in conjunction with the SSD anyways, why not just enable it now and then when the SSD comes migrate/clone the data and OS?
Oh, and lastly, I don't know what the practical implications would be of either making a clean install of windows 7 or cloning/migrating it. Would I need to delete it off the old HDD? Would MS somehow look at this as 'not genuine' now? I only ask because I just got that message on the bottom right of my desktop for some reason yesterday...
Just peeked into BIOS, and it has two AHCI options:
PCH SATA CONTROL MODE: IDE, RAID, AHCI
GSATA CONTROL MODE: IDE, AHCI
I don't know which one(s) would be correct to enable AHCI.