Transferring OS/Data from HDD to SSD in Laptop using External Hard Drive?

Okay guys, I'm completely stumped. I've tried for about the past two days now to transfer all of my data from my current 250gb HDD to my new 128gb SSD in my Alienware M15x. There's only 69.7gb on the old hdd, and I've shrunken the partition down to 106gb to fit into the 128gb (119gb in actuality) SSD. The M15x only has one SATA port (correct term?) for me to fit in an HDD/SSD, so I'm forced to use a 200gb external hard drive (again, the partition shrunken down to 94.1gb to fit into the new SSD) as a "middleman" to transfer the data. I've attempted the "Create a system image" option by creating a system image in the external hard drive, taking out the HDD and replacing it with the SSD, putting in a Windows 7 64x installation disk, and selecting the "Repair my computer" option to recover the system image from the external hard drive into the new SSD. When I try to do so, however, I get an error message stating: " No disk that can be used for recovering the system disk can be found."

Another note: When I attempt to create my own system repair disk and use them, I get an error message (I forgot what it said, it was just a bunch of numbers), therefore I'm forced to use a different Windows 7 64x disk I got off the internet (and that I know works). I do have the original Windows 7 64x disk that came with the Alienware M15x, however, when I attempt to use that, I never get the "Repair your computer" option, it only gives me the option to install the OS.

So essentially, here is my question: Does anyone know how I can transfer my OS/data from my old HDD to my new SSD? If you new any more details, or anything else to help me resolve this problem, feel free to ask. Thank you in advance!

 

I would always do a clean install anyway. You can easily connect the hdd externally to transfer the data manually, or use the Windows transfer wizard if you want to make it easy for yourself. Either way, it doesn't take long.

 

The way I did it was to use freely available cloning software to produce an identical copy of my data from my HDD onto my SSD. I deleted all personal files beforehand and once it was done, performed a reset on Windows 8 (essentially a clean reinstall), then finally copying my personal files that I had backed up on external drive into the new SSD. Obviously my method was using Windows 8 but there's no reason why it wouldn't work on Windows 7.

It would just be easier to fresh install on the new SSD if you have any storage medium available, like a DVD.