OS Migration From SSD To HDD

[novikyuval]

Hey,

I have a Hitachi 500GB HDD and a Samsung 120GB SSD. My Windows 8.1 OS is installed on my SSD. I'd like to migrate the OS to the HDD (I'm getting a laptop and the SDD will serve as a mobile hard drive).
I have lots of things on the HDD (although I have enough free space for the migration), but all info on OS migration states that the HDD will be wiped completely.
If I create a new blank partition on the HDD, will I be able to migrate the OS to the partition? Is there any way to migrate the OS without wiping the HDD?
(I have Paragon Hard Disk Manager 14, if it helps)

Thanks in advance,
Yuval.

 

[mv2devnull]

Possibly.

A disk has a partition table, the partitions, filesystem in each partition and files in each filesystem. The simplest clone is to read the entire contents of source disk as one raw block and write to the destination. This obviously overwrites that many bytes, including the partition table.

The next version modifies the partition table and (last) partition (and filesystem) to use all the space on a larger destination.

However, one can copy contents (overwrite) of single partition to existing partition on the destination. This is closer to what you desire. In theory it is possible.

The tricky part is that W8.1 probably has more than one partition, and it has stored somewhere info on how it finds its own partition(s).


In every case one should have a good backup.

 

[riahc3]

Hey,

I have a Hitachi 500GB HDD and a Samsung 120GB SSD. My Windows 8.1 OS is installed on my SSD. I'd like to migrate the OS to the HDD (I'm getting a laptop and the SDD will serve as a mobile hard drive).
I have lots of things on the HDD (although I have enough free space for the migration), but all info on OS migration states that the HDD will be wiped completely.
If I create a new black partition on the HDD, will I be able to migrate the OS to the partition? Is there any way to migrate the OS without wiping the HDD?
(I have Paragon Hard Disk Manager 14, if it helps)

Thanks in advance,
Yuval.

Migrate no but......

You could make a huge partition and install Windows on that partition. Then move all the data from the other smaller partition to the one you installed Windows on.

Example:
Your HDD right now is a big 500GB partition with 50GB of data
You would partition your HDD to one partition of 400GB and another of 100GB which would contain the 50GB of data.
You install Windows on that 400GB partition
You move everything on the 100GB partition (50GB of data) to the 400GB (since you said you had more than enough space)
Then you delete that 100GB partition and resize it again to 500GB

This is the logical way to do this.

 

[corkyg]

Here's what I would do using my Acronis TI 2014 bootable media.

1. Connect the HDD to the PC.
2. Boot to TI via Rescue Media (disk or flash)
3. Select Utilities/clone.
4. Manually clone the SSD to the HDD. It will be proportional setting.
5. When done (should take 8-10 minutes) remove SSD.

Now all you need to do is boot to the HDD.

You will most likely have to do a fresh or repair install of the SSD. It will most l;ikely not be bootable in the laptop.

 

[novikyuval]

However, one can copy contents (overwrite) of single partition to existing partition on the destination. This is closer to what you desire. In theory it is possible.

You could make a huge partition and install Windows on that partition.

I have only about 12GB of data (mainly music, as opposed to 300GBs of data on the HDD) on my SSD, and I can move it easily - what I don't want to do is having to reinstall Windows (and all the drivers, software and updates hassle that accompanies that).

4. Manually clone the SSD to the HDD. It will be proportional setting.

Every software or reference I've seen to that process states that the HDD will be wiped clean regardless of partitions, etc.
Does using Acronis TI bypasses that?

Thanks so much for the quick responses!

 

[corkyg]

Every software or reference I've seen to that process states that the HDD will be wiped clean regardless of partitions, etc.
Does using Acronis TI bypasses that? Thanks so much for the quick responses!

I am assuming that you will store all files curerently on the HDD to a temporary locatio. Yes, the HDD will become a clone of the SSD. When that is finished, yopu can then move all those files back onto the HDD. That should not be a biggie. The critical task is cloning the OS.

But - moving to a different machine, i.e., the laptop will most likely require a clean install anyway. So, why not this:

Leave the HDD as is. Files, partitions, etc. Then do a fresh OS install on the HDD in the lap'top. Have all your lap'top drivers handy. You really can't move or migrate an OS from a desktop to a laptop.

 

[novikyuval]

I fear I haven't clarified my wish correctly:

I'm getting a new laptop. I'd like my SDD, that currently stores my desktop OS, to serve as a mobile hard drive for files and backup for my laptop. It will not be a bootable disk or anything like that.
I do not have a temporary location for the HDD 300GB of files and info.
I want to migrate the OS from the SSD to the HDD without losing my HDD info, then I'd wipe the SSD and take it out of the desktop.
Is there a way to migrate an OS to a HDD without losing data?

Thanks in advance,
Yuval

 

[Virgorising]

With yr Paragon, you can copy a partition or the OS!!!

 

[novikyuval]

With yr Paragon, you can copy a partition or the OS!!!

There is an OS migration option in Paragon, but it states that the whole HDD will be wiped, even if I migrate the OS to an empty partition

 

[Virgorising]

There is an OS migration option in Paragon, but it states that the whole HDD will be wiped, even if I migrate the OS to an empty partition

Sigh. I stand corrected, I should have delved more thoroughly.

 

[Elixer]

I fear I haven't clarified my wish correctly:

I'm getting a new laptop. I'd like my SDD, that currently stores my desktop OS, to serve as a mobile hard drive for files and backup for my laptop. It will not be a bootable disk or anything like that.
I do not have a temporary location for the HDD 300GB of files and info.
I want to migrate the OS from the SSD to the HDD without losing my HDD info, then I'd wipe the SSD and take it out of the desktop.
Is there a way to migrate an OS to a HDD without losing data?

Thanks in advance,
Yuval

Yes... just backup to a file. Then you can do whatever you want with that file.
Acronis will do this, as well as Reflect (and...)
You just have to have enough room on the HD for said file (which will be around the size of the SSD - some compression).

 

[riahc3]

what I don't want to do is having to reinstall Windows (and all the drivers, software and updates hassle that accompanies that)

Well, I highly recommend you go with a full format when going from SSD to HDD...

 

[novikyuval]

Yes... just backup to a file. Then you can do whatever you want with that file.

So you think I should just create a restorable image of my current OS, install Windows on the HDD, then restore from the backup?
This sounds better than a full format, I think I'll give it a try after I get my laptop if nothing better comes up, thanks!

Well, I highly recommend you go with a full format when going from SSD to HDD...

How come?

 

[riahc3]

How come?

Besides a "old habit", in updates released thru Windows Update, I believe optimizations were made for SSDs (do not quote me on that though) so when going from a HDD to a SSD, these optimizations kick in, but from a SSD to HDD, do they shut down? One that comes to mind is auto defragmentation.

I highly recommend start fresh I know its a pain in the ass (I have to format my PC and Ive been like this for at least 2 weeks out of laziness) but sometimes its better

 

[novikyuval]

Besides a "old habit", in updates released thru Windows Update, I believe optimizations were made for SSDs (do not quote me on that though) so when going from a HDD to a SSD, these optimizations kick in, but from a SSD to HDD, do they shut down? One that comes to mind is auto defragmentation.

So the restorable backup is not an option as well... Too bad, although I've already memorised the programs & drivers to download and install after a fresh format list by the order from the countless times

Thanks so much for the quick, knowledgeable and helpful responses, mv2devnull, riahc3, corkyg, Virgorising and Elixer!
As I feared, there's no suitable solution to do so, and so I'll do a fresh install.

 

[riahc3]

So the restorable backup is not an option as well...

You can make a backup of the partition and restore that but Im all against it.

Basically, you will problably lose more time doing that than actually formatting and restoring your drivers.

As a tip, Im downloading this today: http://www.windowsupdatesdownloader.com and Im gonna try to install with this This way I avoid restarts and waiting for all the updates to install.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Maybe I don't understand the problem. There must be at least a couple ways to do this.

If you said you had about 12 to 15GB of data on the HDD you wanted to save, AND -- if you have more than that amount of unused space on the SSD OS/boot disk, you could copy the data to the SSD, then clone the SSD to the HDD. You would then have a bootable HDD with the data you wanted to save -- all on the same partition and logical volume.

As long as this is a Windows 7 Service Pack 1 installation, there shouldn't be any problem cloning from SSD to HDD.

Oh. Looking back on the OP's posts, I see that the data on the HDD is 300 GB -- not just ~15GB. OK . . .

Use a program like Disk Director 11 or True Image 2014 to shrink the partition on the HDD so there's just enough space on that partition/logical volume to hold the data. This should leave close to 200GB of "unallocated space." With DD or TI-2014, you can move the data partition on the HDD so that the unallocated space is at the beginning of the partition. But you would need to then be able to clone the SSD to that unallocated space ONLY. I had seen cloning software that would do this, but I'm not sure the Acronis offerings will do it. The cloning operation usually clones whole disk partitions -- not just logical volumes.

the easiest approach would be to use a spare HDD to back up the 300GB on the first HDD, then clone the SSD, expand the resulting HDD partition to use the entire disk (unless you'd already used proportional resizing), then copy the 300 GB of data back to the HDD.