Switching from HDD to SSD off a backup image?

Hey all! Couple of questions for you folks if you don't mind lending your expertise:

Question 1:

The HDD in my system has Windows 7 32-bit installed on it. I created a backup of this install using Acronis True Image Home 11. I am planning to replace the HDD with a brand new SSD.

What do I need to do to properly prepare the SSD to accept the backup I created off the HDD? I am also reading a lot of talk about SSD alignment; how do I ensure that my SSD is properly aligned to ensure a successful restore of the backup I created?


Question 2:

On a separate system, I'm getting ready to install Windows 7 64-bit on a brand new SSD. Is there anything I need to do to prepare the SSD for the install of the OS? Also, what do I need to do to ensure a proper OS install where alignment is concerned?

Thanks!

 

The only reliable way to guarantee an aligned drive is to do a clean Win7 install.

Other 'sure fire' methods are still hit and miss - not to mention they fail to allow the O/S to prepare itself for the SSD optimally.

 

Hey garetjax; I did this with my m4 SSD.

Firstly I used Acronis TI Home 2011 to backup/clone/image (w/e you wanna call it) my then existing HDD onto an ext. USB HDD while it was still in my notebook. I did this by booting into Acronis via the boot disk. IIRC I 'viewed' the drive in 'Disk view'...and selected the entire disk to be backed up.

Then I dropped in the SSD and installed Windows 7 on it. This way the SSD is aligned and primed, if you will.

I then went on to restarting the computer and booting via the Acronis boot disk to do the restore from the ext. HDD. Restore finished in about 20 mins. or so for me. (About ~34 GB of data brought over from HDD)

After the restore I booted into my imaged SSD and then began my testing and tweaking (for performance). All is well, and even with the SATA II speeds that my MoBo's chipset is limited to...the speed, alignment, SSD Health etc. is looking just fine.

Nothing special needs to be done; once you install Windows 7 on the SSD it (Win. 7) should detect it as such and treat it as such (an SSD) and set everything for you, including alignment.

To check proper alignment see below links.

http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/checking_ssd_alignment

SSD Alignment - Windows 7 Forums

 

Great topic Garetjax, I'm buying a brand new SSD and had the same doubts. Should I make a image or install a fresh Windows on it? What should I do before? Etc etc

After reading the answers above, it seems that the SSD is like a regular HDD: just plug it, and install the windows on it like we would do on any HDD.

great! =D

 

Great post +1 rep
I want to mirror this guide to move the factory hhd raid0 on to two Kingston hyperX ssd's. I can setup a raid. And I'll let windows Install on the array so proper alignment is achieved. My question is Acronis necessary? Can I just restore a backup image from windows after windows installs? Using the win7 built in backup and restore utility.

 

Hmm, with RAID this may be a little tricky...and tbh I'm not certain about going about it.

But Windows built-in backup may be the better option. The only thing is; if you don't want a headache, I believe that you'll need to shrink the partition(s) on the Raided (<-- Is that a word? ) HDD to fit the SSD(s) in question. (So in essence the source data should be smaller than the destination)

See here for details.

I personally would have tried that method with my m4 initially but I couldn't get my HDDs' partition to shrink enough so I opted for the Acronis method.

Wish I knew an easier way for your RAID 0 scenario.