Migrate to SSD

I'd like to migrate to an SSD. Win7 x64 now on 1TB drive, but only 180GB used.
I'm testing this by migrating the system to a 320GB SATA Laptop drive, just to debug process while I'm waiting on my SSD which should arrive on Monday. Shiny new Samsung 250GB 840 is on the way.
Screenshots here:
http://s1123.photobucket.com/user/windygamer/library/Migrate to SSD

It's not going that well.

1. Clone drive using Casper 6.0. But it would not boot.
2. Used Bootsect.exe from Win7 install disk to fix boot partition. Looks like a success, but won't boot.
3. Drive is seen in BIOS.
4. After over an hour of copying the disk, I'd rather not start over. Just want to fix the boot record or whatever without reformatting the drive and starting over.

What is the problem?

And why, after all this time, has no one fixed the Open Source Clonezilla to make this process fool proof?? Poor clonezilla still won't copy a partition to a smaller one even tho the data will fit. At least Casper would do that.

Thanks,
ww

What brand is Ur 1tb drive? I know Seagate and Maxtor have there own cloning software that works well, I have used it in the past

http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/discwizard/

That works for seagate and maxtor drives

I guess it's a Seagate. The HD id is ST31000528AS. It came in this Alienware Aurora that I'm doing my testing on. So I don't have any access to SW that might have come with a Retail drive.

So disk wizard is going to be willing to copy from a SeaGate to a WD drive? I'll give it a try.

Update:
No joy in using the SeaGate program. It looks like it's going to copy the partitions and copy the data, but it does nothing. Also I could not say just copy the one partition and forget about the others. I don't need a recovery partition on my SSD. And there is a wasted space partition of some sort on there too. When i decided to give it a try and just copy everything, it did nothing. No error, nothing. Just back to the previous screen. My clone was not modified at all. Wasn't even trashed as far as I can tell.

- ww

I don't know then there is something else going on... Have u tried using a different PC if u have access to one?

I used to complain about software which, even if the drive is only half full and you make an image of it, you still need the same size drive or larger to restore the original image.

In other words, if the drive is a 640GB drive and you only used up half of it, you still cannot reimage to a 500GB drive.
You still would need a 640GB or larger drive to restore the image.


But then I realized that the software that does that actually works, whereas the other ones do not always work.


Do you maybe have a hidden partition which actually contains boot data, which may not be on the visible OS drive?

If all else fails and you want to risk it, then reducing the drive size to around 300 GB then cloning to 320 GB will definitely work, if your BCD boot info is on the same drive as OS.
But doing that is risky business.

I used Paragon Migrate OS to SSD 3.0 when I changed my HTPC over. Worked like a charm. I had absolutely no issues. It will even "strip" out your OS from the large drive and put it on your SSD leaving your data in place. I know a clean install is better, but this HTPC has been so customized I would have spent weeks getting it back up and the wife and kids won't have that!

Paragon Migrate looks very nice. I tried the demo of one of their copy programs and then bought the program. 20 bucks is very reasonable. However, I get the same result. BOOTMGR not found. when I try to boot the clone. The files appear to all be on the clone device. Also, Paragon only took 20 min to copy the 160GB and Casper took 1.5 HOURS to complete. Quite a difference.

I have submitted a support request to Paragon.

- ww

Do u happen to have 2 drives in Ur system it is possible the boot manager is on the other drive...

There is Joy in Clone Land

In a MS Forum, Darrel Whitehead helped with:

If you want manually recreate the boot manager and it's options, you should set the drive as system, disconnect the 1tb drive, and then run BootRec.EXE from the install disk. Options include /FixMbr to create a new MBR table, /FixBoot to re-write a win7 boot sector, and /RebuildBcd to scan for installed OS's and compile the boot table.

Click to expand...

I had to replace the DVD drive to be able to boot the Install DVD. [sigh. It died somewhere along the way.]

When the install DVD came up, it went into a repair immediately, but after all of that, it still didn't boot.
But the next time I booted from the DVD there were a list of choices, with the last one being a command prompt. I did the three commands that you suggested.

The first two reported success, but the last one reported that the installation was C:/xxxWindows.old and I was fairly certain that I was not running from that one, so I didn't choose to boot from that one.

Booting back into the original disk, checking proved that the %SYSTEMROOT% was indeed C:\Windows, so I deleted the xxxWindows.old folder [which contained a complete install of windows. [I got this machine used, but it's OEM so reinstalling it completely is not that easy.]

Booting back into the install DVD with only the clone connected, the /RebuildBcd option again did not find the C:\Windows installation. Even the most powerful arcane spells do not always work apparently.

But then I chose the first choice - automatic repair of the installation.
This choice reported that the found and repaired a missing or corrupted BootMGR and

Voila. The drive booted and it is running as we speak.

Talk about Arcane??

It would seem interesting to be able to run these diagnoses from a running system on a clone rather than having to boot the install disk.

How about some enhancements to the Disk Manager snapin [Just assign a summer student to the project for goodness sake.] Or put this code in Casper or Paragon Migration or some other such interesting tool.

We still haven't figured out why the repair tool fails to see C:\Windows as a valid installation in the /RebuildBcd option. But the system works. So I can do these arcane spells when I get my SSD. Also it's interesting to note that Paragon's Migrate OS to SSD product copied the clone in about 20 min when Casper took about 1.5 hours.

I write this long response in the hopes that others may find it useful as they do this oft traveled path of migrating to SSD. May the force be with you; Live long and prosper; For the Horde!

Thanks Darrel for the magic arcane spells that finally worked.

- Darrell aka WindyPlayer aka windyweather

Glad u got it working, have to save this if I ever run in to this issue lol

I just did the same thing with acronis. (without the issues)

http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=731389