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Cloning to SSD

B

Brian Stirling

Diamond Member
I have a new HP Mini 210 HD netbook with Win 7 starter that I want to replace the current 250GB HD with an 80GB SSD (Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M080G2R5 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD). I have Acronis 2010 Netbook version but I understand there are issues with partition alignment that would make using Acronis a bad choice. When I look at the current drive layout from Windows Disk Management this is what I see:

Disk 0

SYSTEM 199MB NTFS
(C) 221.19GB NTFS
RECOVERY (D) 11.40GB NTFS
HP TOOLS (E) 103MB FAT32

When I go into Diskpart, select disk 0 and then list partition this is what I get:

Partition Type Size Offset
Partition 1 Primary 199MB 1024KB
Partition 2 Primary 221GB 200MB
Partition 3 Primary 11GB 221GB
Partition 4 Primary 103MB 232GB


Given the limitation in storage space on the 80GB SSD I'd kind of like to delete the recovery and HP Tools partitions before cloning but I'm not sure how best to go about this. I think if I delete those two partitions then shrink the C: drive so that the combined size of system and C were a little smaller than the SSD and then did a disk copy and restore to the SSD that should do the trick -- yes/no?

If someone has done this are there pointers to a step-by-step procedure for doing this, preferably using Windows 7 tools.


Thanks,

Brian
 
I guess the question is ... is it better to do a clean install to of OS and apps to a SSD versus cloning or restoring a backup to a SSD? I don't have my OS or apps disks to do a clean install with me (I'm on an extended business trip and away from home) so it would be better if I could do a backup of my HD then do a restore to the SSD, but I understand there may be a problem with partition offsets if done this way -- what's the story?

If you can't do a backup/restore without having offset issues that raises the concern about how to recover from a problem that requires restoring from a backup to SSD. In practice, you want to backup your system periodically no matter if you use HD or SSD so having a usable process to do that is important. If a backup/restore is acceptable for failure recovery then it seems to me that doing a backup from HD and restore to SSD as a means of cloning to SSD should also be acceptable.


Brian
 
I am all for clean installs.

My SSD is sitting at home waiting for me, I plan to pull my 640gb drive, install fresh on the SSD, then plug in the 640, and start pulling data over, that I want on the SSD drive.

Nothing wrong with reinstalling...go through these tweaks too :

http://www.ocztechnologyforum.com/forum/showthread.php?63273-*-Windows-7-Ultimate-Tweaks-Utilities-*


EDIT : In your case, there's a few threads on cloning SSD. I'd go and read a few of them, but if I recall, they say Acronis is A-OK for cloning. I think you can remove those partitions as well.

Might be worth trying, but just copy over the recovery partition and try reinstalling off that? then remove/uninstall what you don't need, then blow away the recovery partition (try burning it to dvd?)..It's been a while since i've had to deal with those partitioned images that manuf. load.
 
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One of the concerns I have with doing a clean install directly to the SSD is that it is likely to involve quite a bit of data churn which, like disk defrag, isn't the best thing to do with a SSD. Additionally, since my netbook is only one week old the OS and apps are, essentially, a clean install already so I can avoid the data churn.

I have already backed up my system using both Acronis and Windows Backup so I should have usable copies of all partitions that came with the drive so when I clone I plan to delete the restore and HP Tools partitions leaving only the system and C partitions totaling about 25GB (used). If I shrink the C partition down until the combined size of system and C are just smaller than the 80GB SSD drive. Which begs the final question ... how big is the actual/usable size of the 80GB Intel SSD?


Brian
 
The formatted capacity was 80,024,170,496 bytes. This is slightly (2.2 MB) lower than the official capacity but still above 80 GB. With about 92 MB allocated to the NTFS file system, the actual usable capacity was slightly below 80 GB.
Click to expand...

source : http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=648&pgno=2

If I were you, i'd just install fresh, but it sounds like you do not have any restore disks, so you are better off restoring from a backup.

Doesn't INTEL include a cloning method in their retail 80 x25 M?
 
I think I was wrong, I am not seeing that software on newegg anymore...maybe they did it with the first wave of SSD that came out a year ago or so. I DID find this in a review, for your specific drive...maybe it will give you some more insight :

To clone you need to first shrink the existing HD to less than 80GB. My HD was 250GB of which 34G was in use. I used the free EASEUS to shrink the partition. Then I cloned the drive using clonezella. That was a breeze but I didn't realize it because, and here is the tricky part, this drive must be drive one and the old C drive must be removed before you boot off the SSD. It didn't help that I told the bios to boot off the SSD if it wasn't in the first drive slot, it got all messed up. Even having the old drive in with the bios set to boot off the SSD, windows gave crazy errors. Remove the old drive and put the SSD in the first position and it just works. Like I said, once I figured that out, it was a breeze. Hopefully this will help someone else.
Click to expand...
 
I would create the recovery DVDs for your new NetBook, pull the hdd, and fresh install on the SSD.

You will be double backed up if there is any problem, and nothing makes a geek happier than setting up everything for yourself. Lean and mean!

Keep in mind that ANY Windows7 disk has every version on it. It installs according to the code you have on your Netty. Sounds like you need to find an install disk though.
 
ViviTheMage, thanks again.

With that piece of info and other pieces of info I plan to do the following:


1. Delete two of the four partitions (Restore and HP Tools) from the HD (I have backed them up already).

2. Shrink the C: partition so that the combined size of System and C: is a bit less than the 80GB SSD.

3. Use Acronis TI to make an image of both the System and C: partitions.

4. Remove the HD and install the SSD into netbook.

5. Restore the Acronis image to the SSD.


Looks like I have some work tonight to get ready...


Two last questions for folks with Acronis TI experience ...

A. Should I image the internal netbook HD to an external USB HD or should I burn the image to DVD's?

B. Does the image created by Acronis TI produce a bootable system or do I need a secondary DVD to permit the image to be used?


Brian
 
a. I would use the ext usb hdd....just easier

b. boots rt up 🙂

Both WD and Seagate have free copies of Acronis TI FYI. Just need one of the drives to be of that brand. Sounds like your all set on that software though.
 
jjmIII said:
a. I would use the ext usb hdd....just easier

b. boots rt up 🙂

Both WD and Seagate have free copies of Acronis TI FYI. Just need one of the drives to be of that brand. Sounds like your all set on that software though.
Click to expand...

I actually have like 3 externals with me but I'm going to have to about getting another one for the image...


Brian
 
I picked up a 1TB external last night and spent time shuffling data from a smaller external to my new one and then imaging the system and C: partitions to the old external I just purged. I see from the UPS tracking that my SSD has arrived so I guess I have my night planned out for me.

I should know how things go tomorrow. I'll do a kind of A/B with startup and shutdown times as well as application load times.


Brian
 
jjmIII said:
let us know 🙂
Click to expand...


I didn't have much luck last night and may have to wait till the weekend to give it another go. I backed up my existing HD to both an external HD (SUB) and to DVD's but I could not restore to SSD from either. The system wouldn't even see the external HD so no luck with that. The DVD's were a little better in that it saw the image but refused to load it. The netbook appears to "see" the SSD.

I wonder if the BIOS on this HP netbook (Mini 210 HD) is too 'basic/simple' to support this operation.


Brian
 
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