HOW TO? move win7 home premium to new HD on laptop?

[ttown]

Hello -

I am considering buying a new laptop with win7 premium already installed. The HD is on the small side, so i will likely want to upgrade the hd soon.

I was wondering what i need to do to move the OS to a new larger hd.
I found some instructions on the internet detailing creating an image and then restoring the image to a new hd via utilities included with win7, swap the old drive with the new drive, and "boot with the original windows dvd".

It's my understanding that laptops these days don't come with OS disks. If that is true, then "booting with the original" is a road-block.

Is there a "system recovery" disk to create in win7 that serves the same purpose in the above?

Alternatively... what is the right way to migrate to a larger HD on a laptop that has win7 premium pre-installed ? (I don't have install disks)

I have never used win7.
tia-
Ttown

 

[JackMDS]

Use this to Save a backup to an external drive (or to other Networked computer).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-022-_-Product

When you first install TrueImage you can generate a boot disk for it.

Then use the boot disk to Ghost the image back to the new drive.


😎

 

[Diogenes2]

Just do an image back-up in Win7 ( type " image" in the search bar ).. Create a restore CD ( Win7 will offer to create one when you do the image back-up ) .. Like above, you will need an external back-up target.

After you install the new HDD, boot the restore CD and follow the prompts..

Of course you can pay for third party software if you choose..

( Hang on to the old HDD for a while, just in case..)

 

[Emulex]

i use the trueimage software that intel brands for its ssd's.

windows 7 has dynamics storage growth option yeah? or is that 2008/R2 only?

 

[ttown]

Just do an image back-up in Win7 ( type " image" in the search bar ).. Create a restore CD ( Win7 will offer to create one when you do the image back-up ) .. Like above, you will need an external back-up target.

After you install the new HDD, boot the restore CD and follow the prompts..

Of course you can pay for third party software if you choose..

( Hang on to the old HDD for a while, just in case..)

Thanks -- the third party route seemed a bit expensive considering it's a one-time use.
I noticed that office-depot had a sign near their laptops saying they would create "restore cd's" for $29 -- which seems excessive, but made me think that maybe it's not a function of the OS anymore.

I've got plenty of external PCs and drives, so space is the easy part.

And ya, i'll update and clean up the original hdd before I do the image and swap -- to have a fall-back hdd for whenever my new one dies.

Thanks all

 

[Diogenes2]

I'm using Home premium right now .. I assure you The imaging system has worked fine for me. I have migrated back and forth from a couple of different HDD's..
As I said, when you use Win7 back-up and restore, it prompts you to create a restore CD. You only have to do it once, but it might be a good idea to have an extra copy or two.
Keep in mind, the restore CD only has the necessary files to restore an image from your back-up media. It does not contain any of your back-up files..

Also, the quickest way to find it, is to type " back " in the search bar. Not " image" as I said before.
The program can actually be found at:

Control Panel\System and Security\Backup and Restore