Starting: Raid 1 with 2 500gb discs, 1 SATA clone, 1 hot swappable SATA bay, Windows XP 32 bit Ending: SSD in AHCI with the 2 500gb discs each being a bootable backup clone, 1 hot swappable bay, Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium.Īnd let me save you the HOURS AND HOURS of time I spent doing trial-and-error:ġ. Just wanted to post my experiences in Windows 7 64 bit Home Premium migration from HDD to SSD, having switched from a Windows XP Raid system.

Once complete, Windows 7 should behave exactly as before, with all software and settings intact, but with the exception of running much quicker thanks to the SSD.

Optional: Set up the original OS HDD as a drive for data.

Have Windows re-rate the OS drive so it recognises it as an SSD.

Resize the OS partition to fill the SSD capacity.

Restore the OS image from the 2nd or external HDD.

Make an image of the OS partition to a 2nd or external HDD.

Shrink the OS partition to fit the new SSD.

Move data off any non-OS partitions from OS HDD and delete these partitions.

To clone from HDD to SSD with Windows, the process is summarised as follows:

However, this is not a choice for everyone, especially those who may not have the original OS or software discs, such as with a consumer PC/laptop that does not come with OS/software installation media. Ideally, to get the most out of an SSD, it is best to start with a clean OS installation. The user just needs either an external HDD or a second internal hard disk, the SSD to clone to and either a blank CD-R or the Windows 7 OS installation disc. While there are a wide range of disk and partition cloning utilities available, many users may not realise that Windows 7 has its own disk imaging utility that is just as effective, but with the advantage of not costing anything to use.

Windows 7 ssd laptop