Changing C: to SSD after cloning from HD?

[DBissett]

Currently have 2 partitions on HD, C: for OS/programs and E: for storage. If I add an SSD I suppose it will become F: or something. If I then clone C: to the SSD and repartition the HD to eliminate the OS partition will the SSD become C:, or is there a way to redesignate it to be C:? Thanks.

 

[GullyFoyle]

Go in to your BIOS and set the SSD as the first HD to boot from, it should automatically become C:

 

[RebateMonger]

Don't do any of this with Windows running. Especially don't try to boot the PC with an original Windows-containing disk and its clone in the system at the same time. Windows hates that and you might not like the result.

Boot to the cloning software and clone the old C: to the SSD. Remove the SSD for safety. Then boot to your disk management software and get rid of the C: partition from the old disk.

It'd be a good idea to have a full system image of the working system, too, before messing with things.

As suggested, it wouldn't hurt to have your SSD higher in the BIOS disk order than any of the other hard disks, too.

 

[FishAk]

Boot to the cloning software and clone the old C: to the SSD. Remove the SSD for safety. Then boot to your disk management software and get rid of the C: partition from the old disk..

This part I would do a little different. I would disconnect your old drive, and boot off the SSD, to make sure the OS was intact and working before erasing it from the old drive. Once you know the SSD boots into Windows fine, disconnect it, reconnect your old drive, and remove the OS partition.

 

[DBissett]

Don't do any of this with Windows running. Especially don't try to boot the PC with an original Windows-containing disk and its clone in the system at the same time. Windows hates that and you might not like the result.

Boot to the cloning software and clone the old C: to the SSD. Remove the SSD for safety. Then boot to your disk management software and get rid of the C: partition from the old disk.

Just to clarify...do you mean to boot from a removeable disk with the cloning software on it to clone C:, then shut down and remove the SSD (or the HD as FishAK suggested to test the SSD boot), then reboot from a removeable disk and delete the original C: partition, and then reattach the SSD for final step?

 

[FishAk]

I think RebateMonger is talking about booting from the recovery CD you make from your imaging program.

I know with Macrium Reflect, you can make the image file while running windows, than boot to the recovery CD, and restore the image to another drive.

I can't speak for other imaging programs, but the free version of Macrium Reflect:

--Works with 32 and 64 but Windows, at least XP through 7
--Retains alignment on already aligned partitions
--Allows resizing of partitions
--Formats unallocated space for new partition ( not sure about alignment with this option since I always preformat/align)

 

[DBissett]

Can Win7's backup/restore be used for this purpose?

 

[FishAk]

Obviously, MS wouldn't put their recovery set into Windows if it never worked ever. Some people have good luck with it. Others of us can never get it to work on some systems.

Have you tested it on your system? If you did, and it worked, it should work this time. If you haven't tested it, I wish you luck.

I personally would never rely on their setup- even with the one laptop I have that it happened to work on. There are too many better, and more reliable free alternatives.

 

[ElFenix]

1: clone disk from HDD to SSD
2: unplug HDD, see if you can boot all the way to windows using SSD
3: plug HDD back in, go into bios and boot to SSD
4: check to make sure that C: is on the SSD using the storage manager
5: don't do anything else, now you have a backup

 

[FishAk]

3: plug HDD back in, go into bios and boot to SSD

It's been reported that Windows will stomp all over the boot loader of one or both instances of Windows if both are connected on boot.

That said, I run W7 on one set of disks, but have a small XP partition on a single drive that I use to work on my array. The only trouble I have, is that when I boot to the XP disk, it clears out my W7 restore points. There is a tut floating around the web to stop this behavior, but I havn't bothered with it, since I have an image set I rely on.