Transferring Windows 7 From Hard Drive to SSD?

Hey,
Black Friday is coming around the corner and although I would just love to go to a pandemonic Best Buy the day of, I figured it would be a little safer to do shopping for a new computer online. I am looking to purchase a Sager NP6165 ( Sager NP6165 / Clevo W150ER - XOTIC PC - Sager 15.6" Laptop) with the hopes that there might be a deal that drops the price by a decent amount. But, before I make such a purchase, I have a few questions about what I should be purchasing along with the Sager and how I might set some of these things up.

My first question pertains to the hard drive. On my ‘what laptop should I buy’ thread (where I was persuaded to go with the sager), I was told that SSDs are the way to go. After looking into them a bit more, I have decided that I would love to use one. The Sager, which I believe is capable of holding two drives, comes with a 500gb drive stock. I have the option to either replace that drive with a 120gb SSD for +100 dollars, add a second drive on top of the 500gb one (SSD drive for +170 dollars), or keep the 500gb stock drive and purchase an SSD drive of the same size for much cheaper on amazon (I favor this choice).

If I were to go with this third option, should I have them install Windows 7 on the 500gb hard drive for +80 dollars? I do not believe the Sager comes with Windows 7 factored into the price. Here comes the big question: If I were to do this, I would like to use the SSD to hold my operating system, drivers, and games/large programs and I would use the 500gb drive as a storage device for programs. So, how would I transfer Windows 7 from my 500gb drive to my SSD drive without a disk (i.e. usb)? Also, how would I then use my 500gb drive solely as a storage device and have all installed programs installed on that drive? Is there anything I need to watch out for when doing this? I am a pretty much complete ‘noob’ at these sort of things. I have done a lot of searching on the subject, but no case seems to apply directly to mine. Anyways, I hope I haven’t bored you all to death with these unnecessarily long paragraphs and thanks for your help.

 

bump (not sure what the bump rule is on these forums =(

 

Hi, you can only bump a thread once every 24hrs.

I don't know what your configuration options are, but I think you should get it with the 500GB drive, don't pay for the Windows install, and just load it yourself on the SSD when you get it. Even better if you can buy both drives yourself, as I'm pretty sure they overcharge for that stuff in general.

 

Okay, my turn to 'bore' you; but only because you can't google very well.


I agree with 'doing it yourself' vs. buying from the manufacturer, but I would recommend an SSD of no smaller than 240GB (Intel 520 Series or Sandisk Extreme models) or a Crucial M4 at 256GB nominal capacity.

Any one of these SSD's should be partitioned to at least 30% smaller than their nominal capacity so as to 'over-provision' the drive giving you the most sustained, highest performance possible with the least WA (write amplification) and best long term reliability you can currently expect.


Note that if you order the system with only one HDD that you may or may not get the notebook ready to use with two drives. You could possibly be missing the HDD/SSD caddy, the wiring (to the motherboard) and the actual proprietary connector to hook up the SSD to that wiring... You have been warned.

The easiest way to ensure that you have all the right pieces is to order with two of the cheapest HDD's you can. Then you will be able to swap for any SSD/HDD you desire. And with an inexpensive external enclosure; get a data drive for backup purposes too.

As for moving the system to the SSD, your new notebook will come with a DVD set that will allow you to re-install on a new HDD/SSD at any time. If a DVD set is not included, the system will ship with a utility that will create these 'recovery' DVD's (or bootable USB key) for you.

CAUTION: you will only have one chance to create these disks (the 'create recovery dvd's/usb key' program will not allow you to run it multiple times).

With this DVD set or USB key created; you will be able to install on any new storage medium as already mentioned, but this is NOT what I recommend.

A clean Windows install is recommended for the best possible system performance, reliability, stability and longevity, imo.

Finally; if you want to have the most balanced 'system' possible: forget about Windows 7.

Get Windows 8 x64 PRO and have a modern and up-to-date O/S that takes FULL advantage of all the hardware we're currently enjoying.

As to installing to the HDD... why? Forget about getting an SSD then.

If you insist; simply point to a folder you create on that drive as the install destination while installing your programs.


If they're charging you $80 to install Windows (not simply buy it), then I would skip that option (and enjoy my $80 elsewhere while learning to install Win8x64PRO...).

If they're charging that to sell a Windows license to you; might be a good deal (and will only cost you $15 additional to get Win8)? Are you a student? Do you have an existing Windows setup that you can use to get a $40 upgrade price for Win8 and install to this new computer? Do you have a job/contract that allows your company to give you a Windows license?

So, here is my wall of text. Hope some of it helps.

Good luck.

 

I appreciate the time you took to help me out

Seeing as though I am not someone who strives to get every bit of performance and speed possible out of my PC, would a 240gb SSD truly be necessary? I figured I would just install Windows 7/8 to the SSD and use the HDD as a storage device so I don't clog up the SSD, thus making a 240gb SSD a bit superfluous for my needs.

I am thankful you brought to my attention the issue I might have if I were to not purchase 2 hard drives. I might contact XoticPC and get information on how they wire/build their notebooks with only one hard drive. Hopefully I can save an extra 70 or so dollars.

So, what I'm getting is, I should do the following: Buy the laptop with the 2 cheapest drives (or just one if they wire it 'right'), without Windows 7/8 pre-installed, purchase an aftermarket SSD drive (160-240gb), and do a clean install of Windows 7/8 using a disk.

Thanks :thumbsup: