Cloning HD with Win7 install to SSD in same PC?

[bobby_t1]

I'm planning on upgrading to an SSD drive after drooling over these for the past 6 months and given their prices are now getting to more sane levels.

I just got a new desktop PC that will be the candidate for the SSD drive, but I don't want to hold off on setting up the PC since it may be over a month before I get the SSD drive.

I don't want to sink setting up my entire PC twice within 1 month time frame, so I'm wondering if I'm able clone the HD to the new SSD when I get it to avoid reinstalling everything? I would clone, and then swap out the HD with the SSD.

I've heard that Windows 7 has SSD specific improvements, so I'm wondering whether I'll encounter any problems with this approach.

 

[BushLin]

I don't see a problem with that, even if there were a risk you'll still have your original HDD in working order.... unless you image the wrong way around

 

[bobby_t1]

Sorry, "risk" was the wrong word since I know the cloning will work. What I was specifically asking was whether or not I'll be missing any improvements/optimizations that are made during a fresh Win7 install that I'll miss out on just cloning the drive.

 

[zuffy]

I have cloned from HDD to SSD for 3 machines. Did not have a problem. Also, I have cloned from an 80GB SSD to 80GB SSD and an 80GB SSD to a 160GB SSD using Acronis True Home 2010. I did noticed that my disk alignment seem off after the clone by running this script I found on the net but it did not impact performance. Why? Because I got virtually the same score in AS SSD Benchmark after the clone and a new build with the correct disk alignment.

 

[bobby_t1]

I have cloned from HDD to SSD for 3 machines. Did not have a problem. Also, I have cloned from an 80GB SSD to 80GB SSD and an 80GB SSD to a 160GB SSD using Acronis True Home 2010. I did noticed that my disk alignment seem off after the clone by running this script I found on the net but it did not impact performance. Why? Because I got virtually the same score in AS SSD Benchmark after the clone and a new build with the correct disk alignment.

Interesting.. I wasn't familiar with "SSD alignment" until you mentioned it. In a quick web search, looks like there are a lot of guides out there (like this one) to do this.

however, they all deal with step when you create a new partition. I'm not clear on whether (a) disk cloning software will preserve the partition offset that you setup before the cloning happens or (b) whether you can "re-align" after you clone?

Actually, I'm wondering if this will also benefit Windows 7 at all. All the guides I read about tremendous boost in XP, say that Vista doesn't benefit as much but not much mention about Win7.

 

[Emulex]

throw a 100meg partition on the ssd then acronis easy migrate clone to the remaining space? might need to work out the active partition

 

[zuffy]

When I cloned my Windows 7 with the 100MB system partition, the new drive end up with a 101MB system partition and the remaining space allocated for C drive. It did not affect the activation at all but I am using Enterprise edition so I don't know how that is different from the Home, Professional or Ultimate editions.

 

[bobby_t1]

I'm not following how a 100MB partition came up here.. it's due to me being a neophyte to SSDs. Are you recommending to put a dummy 100MB partition that isn't used to get the right offset/alignment?