How To Move Win7 To New Hard Drive

Hi guys, little confused here

i am buying an SSD for my new computer that i have had for a week and i have already put all of my files and installed all the programs i wanted, im just wondering how do i transfer all of my stuff and win7 to my new SSD?

The SSD is G.Skill Pheonix Pro 120gb, and i have a esata port on my laptop so would i use some sort of cable to transfer ?

 

what is the size of your HDD and what is the partition setting ?

If the TOTAL allocated partition size < 120GB, you can use W7 system image backup/restore. I did it to transfer my 120GB drive installation to a 80GB x25m(by removing any thing beyond 80G as unallocated).

 

on my 320gb hardrive (in the laptop) i have used 107gb of it.

ive been researching and i see True Image, i could clone the disk from there then put it on my external hardrive, then run windows 7 from there THEN clone it again to the SSD when ive put it in.

or do you have a better way cause not sure you can boot windows 7 from external hardrive... so confused please help

 

ok i thnk ive got it , so i create recovery disks, then backup my c drive on my external hardrive THEN i insall win7 on new hardrive but click from restore and then it will be like i left off ? i think ? cause this way sounds so easy

 

You can create a bootable cd with acronis and use that to restore the image.

 

You may already be in trouble with your 120GB SSD if you put 107GB on it. My reding indicates that SSD disks like 20% free(although this does seem high). In any case you will soon run out of space. You may want to do a clean Win7 install and then install other programs to a USB connected HD to keep your load on the SSD down.

 

@Patrikc8

you have to be sure that the TOTAL partition size(including any after your C doesn't exceed 120G and Feral1 is right that 107G out of 120 would have an effect on performance and endurance. if that is your needed size, you better get a larger disk. The optimal OP is actually around 28%(intel did a study on that and that was Sandforce's initial OP size).

 

Okay. Well I've got programs installed but I really don't think they add up to 100gb. So how do I do a clean install without ruining my files. Would I just have to install everything again? I just created the system image and it says it's 128gb and I have NO idea how . I'm jut scared the clean install will mess up HP's version and I will have to get another product code plzplzplzplzplzpl help mee

 

this was what I did:

1. install all the programs I need and configure properly(like disable page file, hibernation if needed)
2. use PD 11 to do defragmentation, multiple times(including boot time) so they are all close to the front of the partition
3. shrink the partition to say 110G
4. remove all partitions after C: so all space after it becomes unallocated
5. use the standard backup system image tools to do the backup(to external drive)
6. create recovery CD(or just use standard W7 DVD, the architecture must match, i.e. x86 setup cannot restore 64 bit existing system)
7. follow the instruction to restore

just make sure your existing setup is properly aligned(a new Vista/W7 is ok by default, if you are upgraded from XP, it is guranteeded to be not).

you can use AS-SSD to check the alignment.