Moving (not reinstalling) Windows 8 over to an SSD w/ drive letter

[clemon79]

Alright, I looked at the FAQ, I read through the first several pages of thread topics, I don't think this has already been covered. Apologies if it has.

I just recently built a new Windows 8 machine. Since I knew I was going to be getting an SSD down the road, I planned ahead:

Nutshell, the C: drive, the boot drive, is at the end of the partition, sized to 220 DB, so I knew it would be smaller than the 240/256GB drive I knew I'd eventually be getting. I set it up during install for the Users folder to live on the D: drive, so the C: partition is only the OS and apps. Everything's dandy.

I have spent the last couple of weeks getting apps installed and Windows set up just how I want it, so I don't want to reinstall.

I found EasyBCD and used it to move the boot manager over into the C: partition, so theoretically that's all I need to move over to the new drive. So what I want to do is move the C: partition over to the SSD, have it stay C: once it's there, and then have it boot into that partition. (Note that I cannot disconnect the hard drive when it's time to reboot because that's where the Users folder lives and I don't want to break that.)

I keep running into problems with the "keeping it C" part. When I clone the drive over, the old drive stays as C: (as you would expect), and the new drive gets a new letter. Attempts to change those letters using DISKPART from the Win 8 install DVD have been either futile or disastrous.

(By extension, I'm also having issues getting the boot manager to switch over to the SSD, and apparently it's not as easy as editing boot.ini anymore.)

I've been using the free version of Macrium as my cloning / imaging tool...is there a better free tool I should be using? Is there a better method I should be using? I really want to get this done and get on with my life.

Thanks for any help.

-- Chris

 

[Arkaign]

Cliffs easy part for you if you don't want to go through hell.

Plug in an external USB drive, copy off everything you have on D to it. Boot back up, get rid of your D drive on the system completely.

Boot to Acronis boot CD (pm me, I'll let you use my copy), go to 'tools' > 'clone disk', and accept the auto settings.

Once you boot up with the new drive, go to disk management and expand the volume (if acronis doesn't expand it for you automatically).

 

[clemon79]

Okay, but:

When I installed Win 8, I used the tutorial here to put the users folder on the D: drive entirely. So I can't get rid of that D: drive. I need it there.

I'm not afraid to get my hands a little dirty here, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need one of the toolsets that boots on its own to do the drive-letter trick. I have Parted Magic and MiniTool Partition Wizard burned, but the ones I have looked at seem to want to clone and not move. (And I really don't want to pay for a utility that near as I can tell I'm only gonna need once.)

I'd rather not do this either, but would this work: Clone the drive over using one of these tools, then kill the original partition off of the hard drive. Now, when it reboots, the boot manager (which will have been moved over to the SSD prior to any of this with EasyBCD) is going to choke because the partition it wants no longer exists, but would Automatic Repair on the Windows 8 disk find the new installation on the SSD and make it C: for me, D: never changes, and then everything's fine?

I was hoping to keep the old installation there as a safety net until I could verify the new one to be working on its own, but if that's the only way to make this work, then c'est la vie. I have a hard time believing that's the only way to make this work though.

(And I greatly appreciate the offer of your disk.)

 

[Elixer]

Hmm, USB is too slow to do clones.

I would just use one of the many free clone programs to clone the system reserved partition, and your OS partition (C and stick that on the SSD, in the same order you see in disk management.
Change your BIOS boot selection to boot from the SSD.
Now, assuming you have a valid boot sector on the SSD, you will be good to go.
If not, you would do a repair install of the OS on the SSD, it should "see" 2 copies of windows, and just make sure you select the SSD.

 

[clemon79]

This is what I thought might work, but: when I would clone with Macrium it would assign the new SSD partition a new drive letter, which I don't want it to do. Now, admittedly, Macrium works from within Windows so I can understand not being able to move a letter on the fly, which is why I suspect I'll need a standalone-boot solution like MiniTool.

But here's what I ran into: yes, I can move the bootloader to the SSD and clone the drive. Yes, I can go into the BIOS and switch it to boot from the SSD first. The problem there was that it would find the bootloader on the SSD just fine...and then boot to the old partition because that's what it's pointing to. So I need to change that as well.

(Also, what's the advantage to the System Reserved partition, anyhow? Aside from the bootloader residing there by default I'm not sure what it does, and everything I have read indicates that it doesn't need to be there if you move the bootloader off.)

 

[Elixer]

Suffice it to say, that it should be there for win 8's sake, in case you ever need to repair the OS and whatever else it uses that for.
It also just happens to align the SSD correctly as well, for the OS partition.

With the clone program just tell it to NOT assign any letter once the clone is done, and seeing as you already cloned it, don't do it again, it isn't needed, and will fubar SSD performance if you don't do a secure erase first.

 

[VirtualLarry]

If you ever clone a Windows OS partition, then you should NEVER have BOTH the old and the new disks connected up at once, during first boot. It will royally hose the OS.

Disconnect the OLD drive, leave the new one connected, boot the OS, it will then re-assign C: to the new OS drive, and then afterwards, shut down the system, then plug the old drive in, and give it a new drive letter.

 

[tweakboy]

create image put it on external hard disk. Then just connect the SSD only and do a re image ...... it will restore it to your SSD , and thats it.

backup icon btw in cpanel

you click on create image, also make sure to make a repair disc

GL

 

[clemon79]

Well, like I said, since the Users folder is there on the D: partition and I don't want that association to break, I don't really have a choice. That said, keep reading.

Also, since I screwed up when I made the "System Reserved" for the SSD (still didn't understand what it was for or why it needed 350 MB), I'm guessing a secure erase is in my future. (Tips on how to do that easily would be welcomed.)

So I think I have a gameplan:

1) Get the boot manager back to System Reserved on the original HDD, re-mark that as active. Basically get that drive back to what you see above.
2) Secure-erase the SSD, when I can figure out how to do that.
3) Using MiniTool (either Partition Manager or Drive Copy, whichever one applies better to this), clone over both the System Reserved and C: Windows partitions to the SSD.
4) Once that is done, while still in MiniTool, delete those partitions from the HDD, keeping the D: partition.
5) Exit out, go into BIOS, switch up boot order.
6) Boot, hopefully into a nice speedy Windows. If the boot manager doesn't work (and I still suspect it won't because we're dealing with a different drive and the partition it's looking for just got blown out in Step 4)...
7) Use the Win 8 DVD to attempt automatic repair, or come crawling back here for help fixing the boot manager. (Ostensibly, if I have a Windows partition, there's gotta be a way to make it boot, yes? From there it will find the D: drive 'cuz it will be the only one left.

Will this work?

And if I have to reinstall from scratch, so be it. It'll suck but at least I'm not losing any important data, just my time.

 

[yefi]

Hm, can't you image the partition with Macrium to D:\, then boot from Macrium's WinPE recovery disk, delete C:\ with diskpart and clone from the image to the new ssd?

If you have trouble booting, you can run bcdedit from Windows recovery or WinPE to check that the boot parameters are correct, and reset them to the defaults if they are not.

 

[maxP]

If you ever clone a Windows OS partition, then you should NEVER have BOTH the old and the new disks connected up at once, during first boot. It will royally hose the OS.

Learn to use reg to delete a couple of keys on the new windows partition before first boot and you will be fine.

See my powershell script for details:

Start-Job { #Apply-Wim    R:\backups\gen8_backups.wim ( New-VHD C:\VHd\w7B 15GB -Fixed ).Path -wimIndex 2
    function Apply-Wim ($wim, [String] $applyPath, [Alias('Name')][String] $wimName, [Alias('Index')][String] $wimIndex, [Switch] $quick, [Switch] $notDismountVHD ) {
        $_image = if ( $wimName.Length -gt 0 ) { "/Name:$wimName" } else { "/Index:$wimIndex" }
        if ( $quick ) { dism /apply-image   "/imagefile:$wim" "$_image" "/applydir:$applyPath"                          }
        else          { dism /apply-image   "/imagefile:$wim" "$_image" "/applydir:$applyPath"  /checkintegrity /verify }
        attrib -s -h (Join-Path $applyPath 'Boot\BCD')
        cmd /c del (Join-Path $applyPath 'Boot\BCD')
        bcdboot (Join-Path $applyPath 'windows') /s "${_drvLetter}:" }
    Apply-Wim  R:\backups\gen8_backups.wim g:\ -wimIndex 3
}
reg load   HKLM\systemG      g:\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM
cmd /c echo Yes | reg delete HKLM\systemG\MountedDevices /v "\DosDevices\C:"
cmd /c echo Yes | reg delete HKLM\systemG\MountedDevices /v '\DosDevices\G:'
reg unload HKLM\systemG
bcdedit /store G:\Boot\BCD /set  `{default`} hypervisorlaunchtype    Auto 
bcdedit /store G:\Boot\BCD /copy `{default`} /d "Windows Server 2012 (Hyper-V Off)"
bcdedit /store G:\Boot\BCD /set  `{c8ecbc53-4886-11e2-9400-c7bddb2e719f`} hypervisorlaunchtype    off
bcdedit /store G:\Boot\BCD /displayorder `{c8ecbc53-4886-11e2-9400-c7bddb2e719f`} /addlast
bcdedit /store G:\Boot\BCD /enum all

Oh, and whoever teaches or uses EasyBCD deserves to be an idiot. One just needs to nuke the old bcd and uses bcdboot to build a new one. Refer to code above for details.

 

[clemon79]

Alright, well, I'm at Step 7 up there, and the disk is saying it can't fix it. I thought I remembered reading that you had to try more than once, so I am doing it again, but I don't think it's going to work this time either.

So right now the system doesn't boot on the second attempt to repair. I will probably go in with Parted Magic or something with a file manager so I can see if the Windows files at least copied accurately.

If they're there, some quick steps on how to fix this myself would be really useful...

EDIT: Well, files appear to be there. I just need to know how to get the System Reserved booting and pointing to the Windows partition.

 

[clemon79]

...and now it's stuck in Attempting Repairs. How long am I supposed to give this?

Okay, so it's possible a Repair Install may be in my future, which will really blow as I will have to reinstall non-Modern-UI apps. If I do a Repair Install is the Users folder preserved, especially if I used audit mode to send it to another partition when I first installed?

Dammit.

 

[tweakboy]

Its stuck, gotta reboot ..... gl

 

[clemon79]

Well, here's where we are after Day One: precisely back where we started.

After Attempting Repairs spun for a *really* long time, it rebooted. Failed again. Then another Automatic Repairs actually asked me what version of Windows I wanted, but still couldn't repair. So went into DISKPART, and...turns out Automatic Repairs undeleted my old System Reserved and Windows partitions, and when I switched the boot order back to the HDD...well, I was back where I started. So I secure-erased the SSD once more to make sure it was clean again and called it a night.

So I'm at...Step 3 again. Could be worse, I guess. I think the conclusion I am drawing is that MiniTools's software blows and I should be using something else, since it clearly failed to move the boot sector over.

So, erm, what else should I be using? What tool will clone partitions (including boot info) without doing weird crap like assigning new drive letters?

(Oh, and would I do well to switch my drive cables around so that the SSD is now 0 and the HDD 1, or does that matter? I'm wondering if that's why Automatic Repairs chewed on fixing the HDD instead of making the SSD bootable.)

 

[coxodoina]

I would just use one of the many free clone programs to clone the system reserved partition

 

[clemon79]

Ah, one more question:

It seems like CloneZilla might be a good way to get the partitions cloned over accurately to the new drive, but since I'm not taking the D: drive with me the MBR can't be brought over wholesale and as such has to be rebuilt.

So could I clone the partitions, then erase them from the HDD, and then boot into the Recovery Console and do a

bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /fixmbr

to recreate that? (And is that the right order?) I'm wary about that because I was getting "Element not found" errors when I was trying it tonight, but I think it's possible that I didn't have the partitions flagged right...the System Reserved should be marked active, but the actual OS one should be flagged boot? I don't think I did the latter thing.

 

[Elixer]

Use Acronis (free version via HD maker, or get the trial), or clonezilla or ...
Remember to tell it NOT to assign a drive letter when done (if you are doing this in windows--I don't, but the option is there for Acronis)
Then, just copy partition 0 (system reserve) & partition 2 (OS partition) to the SSD.
Once that is done, shutdown computer. Disconnect the HD.
Now, see if it boots from the SSD, keep hitting F8 to get the safe menu stuff for windows.
If you are at the menu, then shutdown computer, and go to step B, if not, go to step C. (Note, if you missed your chance and you are at the login screen, DON'T login, just shutdown computer)

Step B) [use when you CAN boot from the SSD]
Plug the HD in again.
Enter BIOS, to make sure you are booting off the SSD.

When OS boots back up, you will see c: (SSD), drive D and the old C will be E most likely.
(In the off chance that D is really E, and old C is D, then swap drive letter D to F, and then E to D. You can now unmount F (old OS drive)
Now, in disk manager, unmount E: (remove drive letter).

Reboot.
Now, everything should be working as expected. You make now nuke the old system reserve & OS partition, or leave them alone.
Done.

--------
Step C) [(only if you can't boot from the SSD!)]
If, you can't boot from the SSD, then you need to repair install the OS, all you really need is fix the boot loader.
Once that is done, you can go to step B.

 

[clemon79]

Mmkay. At first I was reading your post and becoming very frustrated because I've said more than once that my Users folder is on the HD and as such I can't be without it, but it's starting to make sense now.

MiniTool did not give me a choice and assigned drive letters. I am absolutely convinced that that tool sucks now. Clonezilla is gonna be the way to go, I think, because I have Parted Magic and it's on there. Does anyone know how to be *sure* it's not gonna assign a drive letter? (It's a Corsair drive and no software came with it, alas...the trial of Acronis isn't crippled?)

(Also I need to ensure in gparted before I shut down that the System Reserved is in fact the one flagged as boot.)

So, the disk drive: I don't want to disconnect it because of the Users folder, but I think I see where you're going...if I don't log in, it doesn't try to find that folder and fail and get screwed up, so just make sure I can get to the login prompt (or even the point before it with an F8 boot) and go no further? That would make sense and that would be a case where I would be fine disconnecting the HD for a bit.

 

[Arkaign]

Yeah this kind of goes back in a circle to what I normally like to do.

I too move my profile folders to other hdds than my SSD, but for this purpose you can easily move your data off temporarily and create basic 'dummy' folders on the C drive (or let it re-use the ones that were already created during setup for that account). In my experience you simply right-click each folder in your profile, and 'move' the folder to where it should be on C: \users, and then it's no longer looking at another drive for those profile folders.

Once that's done, and you're booting strictly to the C drive, and everything is hunky dory (minus the fact that all your user data is sitting on a backup drive), then you can acronis over the drive using acronis drive copy with auto settings to your new SSD. Immediately boot up the new SSD with nothing attached, make sure everything is happy. Then you can boot up with the mechanical hdd plugged back in (make sure bios is set to boot to the SSD HDD first), disk management > delete all partitions > create new one(s) as you want > move your profile data to that drive. Oh yeah, at this point you can erase the partition that will be sitting on the SSD drive that used to have your profile data and expand the C drive up.

There may be an easier way, but that's always worked for me, though I usually have an extra hdd that I can plug in internally for data backup duties as USB can take a while (sometimes a couple of hours or more for ~300-400gb).

 

[yefi]

Well, here's where we are after Day One: precisely back where we started.

Just do what maxP said. Clone C:\ as you did in the first instance, then load the system hive for the new drive and delete the entry for C:\ under MountedDevices key to break the link.

 

[clemon79]

I honestly don't understand what maxP was saying, so "just do what he said" doesn't help a lot. I get that he's command-line-editing the Registry, but...is he blowing out those drive-letter assignments? Why would they even be in that Registry; wouldn't they be in the one that's going away?, or do the drive letters get assigned pre-cloning?

I'd be curious to know how Arkaign moves his User folders over in the first place; my suspicion is that his method isn't nearly as complete as what I did, found here, which was to boot into Audit Mode during the installation process and run a script that basically sets it up so that D:/Users is the only user folder path it ever knows.

So in the event that the HDD *does* flip the D/E letter assignments, it seems that the only fallout from changing them will be that it will create a new Users folder on the old Windows install partition, and then when I switch them and reboot everything ought to be back to normal? (And I'm guessing I'll know something's up before I log in because it won't find my account picture.)

I think something else I'm gonna do is swap the physical location of the drives when I unplug the HDD for first boot, because I want my main boot drive on SATA 0 anyhow. I suspect this will increase the chances of the drive letters getting assigned correctly when the second drive comes back into play.

 

[yefi]

I honestly don't understand what maxP was saying, so "just do what he said" doesn't help a lot. I get that he's command-line-editing the Registry, but...is he blowing out those drive-letter assignments?

The \DosDevices\ values in MountedDevices tie drive letters in Windows to a disk signature and partition offset.

So when Windows boots on your new ssd, it sees that C:\ is already assigned to a partition on your hdd with disk signature whatever, and puts your new boot drive on a different letter.

Why would they even be in that Registry; wouldn't they be in the one that's going away?, or do the drive letters get assigned pre-cloning?

They are in the registry for the one that's going away, so you could try deleting \DosDevices\C: then cloning it. That could work, but the most surefire method is probably the one demonstrated, which you could do by booting into Windows PE after cloning (just make a WinPE recovery disk in Macrium), firing up cmd and typing:

reg load HKLM\hmm E:\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM
reg delete HKLM\hmm\MountedDevices /v "\DosDevices\C:"
reg unload HKLM\hmm

Where E: is assumed to be the drive letter of the new boot drive.

 

[clemon79]

Alright, I will give this a shot. The WinPE disk is going to be useful to have at any rate. Thanks very much! (Will I be able to tell when I boot into the WinPE disk what the drive letter ends up being for the hive I want to edit?)

 

[zephyrprime]

Disconnect your old drive and just use the windows cd to fix the partition on the new ssd.