Clean install of Vaio Z W/ new harddrive - is this possible?

So.. I am very close to buy my very first sony notebook - nice!

I just need to get this one more thing clear:

I'll buy the VGN-Z540NAB and put in 3 GB of DDR3 ram and a 120 GB Vertex SSD drive.

But - I have been wondering how I am going to do the harddrive part - this is my plan.

1. Make a clean install on the old haddrive as soon as i get the notebook using this guide: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=293880

2. Make a back-up image of the harddrive using Storagecrafts shadow protect( http://www.storagecraft.com/products/ShadowProtectDesktop/)

3. switch to the new SSD harddrive

4. load my back-up image on the clean new SSD harddrive.

5. and i'm ready to go

So.. is this possible?

any help would be highly appreciated!

 

Yes,Congrat for new Z.It much easier if you create a set of recovery disc,swap the SSD.Do a semi clean install with you recovery disc.
You good to go

 

As long as you clone the ENTIRE disk this will work. However if you clone ONLY the C: partition, the resulting system most likely won't boot. The reason for this is the boot loader is expecting to find the OS starting at a particular PHYSICAL location on the drive. Cloning just the C: partition, will most likely result in the OS not being at that EXACT same location. That's not a huge issue though, as you can boot from any Vista install DVD and repair the boot loader so it points to the NEW location of the OS.

Gary

 

thanks a lot for your answers

 

as mentioned above - make a back up disk from your recovery partition.

There are a minefield of problems with copying data froma spindle drive to an SSD.

Also one thing to note - I previously upgraded to a SSD and had issues with the processor working at 50% capacity post change - something in the bios. Fortunately a new bios came out and it immeadiately fixed the issue - be wary of it!