transfer win8 to ssd without discs

[incognito247]

ok so I just got this laptop with a 500gb hd and I want to transfer the OS to a smaller 120gb ssd. what is the best/easiest way to do this? I dont have any discs so I assume cloning it is my only option. (unless there's a way to create one on an acer v5 with installed software) I don't mind reinstalling the apps if I really had to but again I have no discs for a clean install.

this is the laptop:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Aspire+1...11.6&cp=1&lp=1

and this is the ssd:
http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-Technology.../dp/B00BHSWF5W

 

[corkyg]

If the total space used on your HDD is less than the size of the target SSD, you can proportionally clone the drive to the SSD. What does Acer provide for a restore to factory condition? Most OEMs use a separate partition for that, and provide for a way to create a disk from that.

 

[jiffylube1024]

I really like the program Acronis True Image 2013. I've used it to clone several Windows installations from HDD > SSD or SSD > SSD, etc. Works great!

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

You can get a free 30-day trial from their website.

 

[incognito247]

thanks. i seem to run into this acronis software alot on cloning so I decided to just go to staples and get this ssd instead:

http://www.staples.com/Kingston-SSDN...0#revs_content

seems to have everything i need plus acronis.

I think acer has a recovery software to create an image and save it to an external drive and I think recovery discs but I wanted something simple but more so effective. appreciate the feedback

 

[kmmatney]

If your hard drive is a WD or Seagate drive, then you can use a free version of Acronis from the Seagate or WD websites. The free versions work great for cloning. In my case, my laptop came with an IBM drive, so I took it out of the laptop, and connected it to my desktop machine, which has a WD drive, and was able to clone it directly to the SSD there.

I've also used Norton Ghost and CloneZilla to clone SSDs.

I think Acronis 2013 is a bit bloated, and it also has had many issues, one of which was very bad, and brought a lot of my company's computers down to a grinding halt. We had to manually apply patches to our computers, and were forced to deploy a bunch of hotfixes at customer sites. I'm sticking to the older free version

 

[incognito247]

thanks for the info. unfortunately i couldn't use acronis because my ultrabook didn't have a disc drive so kingston recommended macrium reflect which works with windows open and worked like a charm.