Windows7 Laptop with a 500gb HDD, trying to make my SSD my primary boot device along with my programs such as FL and PT.
I do have an external HDD incase i need a transfer medium.

Do you have a smaller C partition just for OS+programs or is everything in one big 500GB partition on the HDD?

In any case, you can do a backup of your Windows partition with something like Macrium Reflect to an external drive.
Then connect your SSD and restore that partition to it.
If there's more data on the original partition than there's space on the SSD it won't work, obviously. In that case you'd have to move some data from C to some other place before you do your system backup.

http://superuser.com/questions/99211/free-way-to-clone-hdd-t o-ssd

Take note of the whole thread. The are comments half way down of settings that need invoking on a HD to SSD clone which should carry out.

The HDD is just one big partition.
but when i did a windows image back up thing it let me choose what to back up.
would i be able to use that windows image on the SSD?

and that link was great but now i dont know what program to try first.

P.S. i wont actaully be able to do this till christmas but my excitement is making me get ready.

Probably isn't a help but I've used all 3 at various times and they can all do the job fairly well. In fact Parted Magic lives on my keychain for diagnostic emergencies and is an all around handy collection of app's.

I'd however probably recommend Clonezilla as its easy enough to set it up and the is a good start to finish guide on the website if you haven't done it before which should make things easier.

I deleted everything on my computer that i didnt need.
Im down to 140 gb of used space. would i be able to use clonezilla to clone my HDD to my SSD?
maybe i should of mentioned but i want to keep both disks as bootable.
Im going to make the SSD external with the OS and programs. and use my internal to store the stems to songs or my music if i ever start djing again.

i went off topic..
so will clonezilla allow me to clone to a smaller disk if the used space is still under my SSDs capacity?

Yeah, it'll create a partition on the new drive the same size as the one being copied across. You can always then expand this to whatever size you want on the new disk once you've completed the clone via computer managemnet (in control panel).



You going to be swapping boot order in the bios then? How are you connecting this new drive externally?



Yeah, it may need the MBR changing a bit to allow for it after the clone but it should be covered in the links of that thread up above.

But if my partition it will be bigger then the destination drive.
can i make the partition smaller?

I was going to connect it with a sata adapter with usb/esata connections.
But i decided to do it internal now.


I think im going with paragon since it lists that i can shrink the partition to the size of used size. ill post with an update on christmas day if it works.

So i still cant make the C parttition smaller on my HDD but with easeUS partition i was able to copy C to an external HDD and then shrink it.
I'm guessing i should be able to swap my internal HDD with the SSD and then run a bootable cd from clonezilla to copy the partition from my external HDD to the SSD.
A few question have arose though and i cant find the answer for them.

first is do i need to copy the hidden partiotion called system off my HDD?
secondly is having the same drive letter for partition such as C(the boot partition) going to cause problems between my HDD and SSD?

Yeah, it's there for security reasons, but it also has bits of the MBR linked to it which you need to boot windows. It's possible to jiggle stuff about and move MBR stuff into the main partition and in that case you can lose it althrough it's a bit of messing about.

https://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&safe=off&tbo=d&output=search &sclient=psy-ab&q=removing+the+100mb+partition+on+windows+7& oq=removing+the+100mb+&gs_l=hp.3.0.0i30.625.2503.0.3417.19.1 2.0.4.4.2.301.1776.4j6j1j1.12.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.IrMfJZ_at Kc&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.1355534169, d.d2k&fp=fc7fe2b45ce62c75&bpcl=40096503&biw=1173&bih=820



Nah, Windows 7 calls whatever OS it is in at the time C:/ regardless. If both are attached it'll flip each drive between C & D (for example) depending which you boot into.

i copied both partitions of my original HDD into my SSD. system and C
however my computer calls the system partition c and the actual c partition d.
I've run my system recovery disk and also used command prompt to remove and assign drive letters.
still my computer forgets and won't boot up because the drive letters are wrong.

That's one of the reasons I tend to install Windows without the System Reserved partition.

I don't know your exact current situation and what you used to copy the partitions, maybe you're just missing an 'active' flag on the System Reserved partition. That might be fixable with diskpart (command line from the Win7 install DVD/USB) or a 3rd party tool like Partition Wizard (there's a free version as well).

Anyway, something like Macrium Reflect which I mentioned earlier should handle the backup and restore to SSD process on its own. I'd get the free version, make a bootable Windows PE CD/USB and do everything from there.

I can't use CMD because the ssd doesn't remember the settings i apply.
and i can't just back up and restore because i can't shrink the c partition due to unmovable files.

Hmmm... are you doing a clone or a copy? A bit by bit clone shouldn't change the drive letters around.

I just want to do a fresh install of Windows7 now.
this whole process has taken alot longer then i wanted.

I found an iso of windows 7 installation. I am alittle worried about installing an ISO not from windows/microsoft, but the microsoft website hasnt really helped.