Netbook SSD install - How to transfer OEM OS?

GoStumpy

Golden Member
Sep 14, 2011
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I've ordered an 80GB Intel 320 SSD on black-friday, with the intention to put it in my HP Mini 110 Netbook.

I don't have the drive yet, but I realize that there is going to be some work necessary to get the OS onto the new drive without an optical drive!

Moreso, HP from the factory has a 'Recovery' partiton, which I'm sure contains the copy of Windows 7 Starter. From what I've tried so far, I cannot open the "recovery" folder...

What are my options here?

Thanks in advance!
 

corkyg

Elite Member | Peripherals
Super Moderator
Mar 4, 2000
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Or clone it to an external. Put in the new drive and clone from external to SSD. To do this, you need your cloning software installed on a bootable thumb drive.

That is another subject, and has been addressed many times in these forums.
 

GoStumpy

Golden Member
Sep 14, 2011
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So really the best way is to remove the HDD, hook them up to my tower and just clone em, then put the SSD in the netbook?

Seems simple enough!
 

irishScott

Lifer
Oct 10, 2006
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If you're looking for good free cloning software, I recommend a cloneZilla liveCD.

http://clonezilla.org/

May look intimidating depending on your tech-saviness, but there's very little command line and it's actually quite easy to use. I just used the default options when upgrading my hard drive and it worked beautifully.
 

Engineer

Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
39,230
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If you're looking for good free cloning software, I recommend a cloneZilla liveCD.

http://clonezilla.org/

May look intimidating depending on your tech-saviness, but there's very little command line and it's actually quite easy to use. I just used the default options when upgrading my hard drive and it worked beautifully.

I may be wrong but I don't think Clonezilla will do proper (1024k) alignment on a HD to SSD copy. Might need to format and align the SSD before using Clonezilla. (again, I could be and am often wrong, lol).
 

irishScott

Lifer
Oct 10, 2006
21,562
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I may be wrong but I don't think Clonezilla will do proper (1024k) alignment on a HD to SSD copy. Might need to format and align the SSD before using Clonezilla. (again, I could be and am often wrong, lol).

They do it in this video, using a USB-SATA adapter so they don't have to remove the hd from the notebook. They even walk you through the clonezilla steps, although those may have changed from 2009.
http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Upgrading-Your-Notebook-Hard-Drive-To-An-SSD-A-HowTo/
 

kevinsbane

Senior member
Jun 16, 2010
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I've ordered an 80GB Intel 320 SSD on black-friday, with the intention to put it in my HP Mini 110 Netbook.

I don't have the drive yet, but I realize that there is going to be some work necessary to get the OS onto the new drive without an optical drive!

Moreso, HP from the factory has a 'Recovery' partiton, which I'm sure contains the copy of Windows 7 Starter. From what I've tried so far, I cannot open the "recovery" folder...

What are my options here?

Thanks in advance!

If you have an external HD enclosure, the best way in my experience has been to get Intel's "bundled" drive cloning software. You can get it here. Just plug the SSD into your external HD, install Intel's software, run it, follow the steps and it should do it automatically.
 

GoStumpy

Golden Member
Sep 14, 2011
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I can assume that a 2010 Netbook will be SATA?

I don't have an external enclosure, so I think the best way would be to just hook them up to my desktop and do a drive cloning.

Is there anything I have to worry about with AHCI in the netbook any more than a desktop? I don't even remember seeing a BIOS screen in the netbook, it must be there though :$
 

LowTech

Member
May 22, 2009
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I used Acronis True Image 2010 to migrate all of my systems to SSD and they work great. You can buy them for about $34. Too bad you don't have an external drive because I used them as an adapter to the SSD to clone the Netbook. I think the software also allow you to clone the Netbook HDD to a network drive. In that case then, you can install your SSD to a desktop and clone the Netbook thru network. Good luck
 

GoStumpy

Golden Member
Sep 14, 2011
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Well I'm pleased to report that Intel is awesome.

Got the drive today, and it comes with a USB 2.0/USB 3.0 to SATA adaptor cable, so I can copy everything onto the SSD before installing!! How handy is that!

Also comes with a 3.5" adaptor (can be used later), a small screwdriver (perfect for me!), software, SATA cable, Molex - SATA power adaptor...

My Kingston V200 came with... the drive... and that's it!

Blown away by Intel on this one :)