Having problems transfering a system image including windows to my new SSD

I recently picked up a Samsung 256GB 470 SSD for my Alienware M17X R3. I had the laptop delivered with a 750GB HDD which I plan to use in my second HDD bay. I have no problems physically installing the drive. My problem is that I have tried many ways of transferring my original system image file from the HDD to the SSD with no luck.

Here is what I have done:

Created a system image file (131GB) on an external HDD as well as a backup set of DVD's with the same file on them.

Installed the SSD in the drive slot 0

Left the HDD out of the machine and used a boot disc to boot the computer.

I followed all prompts to recover the drive using the image file but that's where the problem lies. My computer does not recognize that the external HDD with the backup file on it is even connected. None of the ports (USB) work. I tried using the DVD's and when I put in the last disc as prompted it says there is no image file that it can recover from. Same when using the first DVD.

I put my internal HDD in slot 1 (secondary slot) and windows boots from it instead, obviously. All ports work and the computer recognizes the external HDD. I tried simply transferring the image file from the external HDD to the SSD and them boot off of it but that doesn't work either.

I then downloaded the trial version of Acronis 2011 and created a backup image file on the same external HDD. With the boot disc that Acronis burned I started the process again with just the SSD installed. Using that program I am able to pull up the backup file from the external HDD but it does not recognize the internal SSD for me to transfer the cloned file to.....

This round about stuff is annoying me. I know it's probably something I did wrong but if I could just get the computer to recognize both the backup file from the external HDD and the destination being the SSD it should be as simple as recovering the file from one to the other and rebooting from the SSD.

Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions welcome.

Thanks guys

 

This is what you need to do.

1. put your old 750GB back
2. shrink the C: to less than 256GB(take into account the MS GB <> HDD GB)
3. REMOVE any partition AFTER C:
4. then make system image as before
5. proceed with restoration as you have done

The key is 'the total allocated space as seen in the partition table must be less than your new drive size' or windows 7 would refuse to restore anything.

 

So I found out that the USB port problem is simply because I had it plugged into the USB 3.0 instead of the 2.0

It will now recognize the external HDD and shows the image file to be restored from. I am still getting the same message that says the image recovery has failed and that there is no disk to perform the recovery (or whatever).

I do not see why the image file can not be restored onto the SSD?

The size of the file is only ~135GB and the SSD has a 256GB capacity.

 

it is not about the size of c: but total partition size for the whole drive. you have to make sure it is smaller than 256GB

 

Yeah I figured it out last night. Had to clean the SSD and then make sure its in AHCI (in that order). Then it showed up and I was able to download windows onto it. Now I just have to go through and try to download everything that is needed to make it back to the way it was with the HDD.

Would it be better to copy the disc image from the HDD to the SSD to restore all of the other programs and functions (including alienware respawn and FX, etc.)?

Getting all of those programs back and then downloading all of the drivers again. Then making sure the SSD drive is the drive that the computer is booting from. Anything else I need to do after installing windows on the SSD?

This is the first time I have dealt with upgrading my hard drive. Sorry for all the rookie questions.

 

Without knowing your original disk layout,hard to tell. Assuming you have the recovery partition at the beginning of the HDD, I would just copy that part and restore it via the vendor's built-in feature(if you want).