migrating pre-install of Win 7 to SSD

[master7045]

I'm looking at purchasing a SSD for my Dads new Dell tower I bought him as it is much cheaper to buy one from MC/Newegg than have Dell install one from the factory.

The PC came w/ Windows 7 pre-installed,like every other Dell. I would be adding a 3rd party SSD and then I'd like to migrate/copy/clone/etc the preinstalled win 7 to the SSD. Is this as simple as creating a DVD restore disk then using that on the SSD? Can I perform the re-install using the special partition that Dell puts on it's PCs? I only ask as I've never done a re-install w/o a physical disk. As you know, Dell doesn't supply these anymore. My dad has the PC, but hasn't turned it on yet, he is waiting for me to help set it up this weekend, so nothing has been installed, which makes it the perfect time to do this. My big concern is going from the 500GB HDD Dell partition to an 80-120 GB SSD. Thanks!

 

[razel]

Brings back memories and a wasted weekend story.

I recently worked on a 2011 Dell laptop trying to upgrade it's 500GB HDD to a 80GB SSD. Win7's built in disk image backup or creating the DVD restore disk is probably the easiest, however both will not preserve the Dell restore partition.

Your usual suspects of favorite disk cloners (free and paid) all will keep the partition but will fail at restoration because the Dell restore actually looks at the disk size. It wants it to be the same or (I assume) larger. I ended up having to manipulate the configuration files on the Dell partition to finally be able to keep everything as-is just like from the factory.

If I were to do it over again, I would have just made the restore DVDs, use 'Disk Manager' to shrink my OS partition to a size below the GB of the SSD, then just use Win7's built in image backup. Win7's image backup will not let you restore to a smaller size automatically. Then, I would have gotten my weekend back.

Except for the shrunken OS partition that you can easily extend back to the original, this method will preserve the data on your original HDD as-is and you can go back to it in case anything goes wrong.

 

[master7045]

Honestly, I don't care about preserving the Dell recovery partition, I was just curious if I could boot from that, but point the restore to the SSD. Sounds like a "no" as it wants to match the original HDD size.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but to sum up, I need to shrink the partition on the Dell HDD to below my SSD size. Then create a DVD restore disk(s), remove the HDD, install the SSD, then boot from the recovery disks and install to the new SSD?

Found this page as well. Looks to go into more detail, but basically follows the steps I outlined above. Anyone see any fundamental flaws with these steps?

 

[razel]

Since you don't care about the partition and I forgot that you have a desktop, that makes life easier.

- Install the SSD and old HDD onto your desktop.
- Install your favorite disk cloner or check online for free one from Western Digital, Seagate, Intel. Your new SSD doesn't have to be from them, you just need one of their drives installed.
- Clone either the entire drive or just the OS partition from the HDD to the SSD.

You *shouldn't* have to worry about alignment or resizing. I'm assuming their software has been updated. After this Win7 should automagically adjust itself for your SSD. You can easily check 'Disk Defragment'. Under the schedule, check to see if the SSD drive is available. If so, you may need to refresh Windows Experience to kick it.