Post by ZF on Dec 9, 2015 10:20:18 GMT -5
Before you continue, you need to be sure you have your SSD properly installed in your computer. If so, it’s time to fire up DISKPART. To properly use DISKPART, we need to open up a command prompt in Windows 7 with elevated privileges. To do so navigate to All Programs –> Accessories and right click on Command Prompt; select Run as administrator (alternately you can type cmd in the run box and press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER).
Once the prompt is open type in the following commands, in the following order. Read the commands and the accompanying notation very carefully or you will erase the wrong disk.
Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is your SSD’s number as provided by the previous command)
Create partition primary align=1024
Active
Exit
Now your SSD is ready to rock; it’s properly set up and aligned.
If your SSD drive is bigger than the operating system partition you’re cloning (i.e. you’ve got a 120GB SDD and you’re going to clone a smaller partition onto from your current OS disk) then Clonezilla is a great open-source choice.
Choose Local Device to Local Device cloning;
If your SSD drive is smaller than the operating system partition you’re cloning, Clonezilla won’t play nice (it, very strictly, will only go from bigger to smaller and has no tools for shaving down a too-large partition). In this case, since we’re already working in Windows, we can use EaseUS Partition Master, a free and simple to use cloning tool—you can use this application whether you fit into either the former or latter partition situation we just outlined, by the way. Partition Master will resize partitions as necessary, the only requirement is that you have a small enough volume of data to fit onto the new SSD. So, for example, you can clone a 200GB partition with 80GB of data onto a 120GB SSD with no problem; Partition Magic will dynamically resize the partition during the cloning process.
To get started run the application and highlight your current OS disk. Select Copy partition from the left-hand navigation panel. This will launch the Partition wizard which will in turn prompt you to select which disk you want to copy your OS disk to. Select your SSD. Double check your selection before pressing Next. Click through until the end of the wizard until you reach the Finish button. Back in the main window click the Apply button in the upper left corner. Your computer will reboot and the cloning process will take place.
Once the cloning process has completed, boot down your machine and unplug your original HDD (the source of the clone). Reboot your computer (this is the point where you may need to use the Windows recovery CD if the Master Boot Record has been corrupted). On some motherboards you may need to plug the new primary drive into the exact same SATA port the old primary drive was on—we didn’t, but you may.
Booting Back Into Windows and Tweaking Your SSD
Once you are back into Windows, running off your brand new SSD of course, it’s time to go through and toggle a variety of settings. When you do a fresh Windows 7 to SSD installation Windows toggles these settings for you. Ideally Windows 7 should detect the SSD and make the proper changes but we’re not going to take any chances when it only takes a few minutes to check. You can re-run the “Windows Experience” program to toggle some of the settings but doing so takes just about as many clicks as checking those settings yourself.
Make sure TRIM is turned on. TRIM is a special set of commands that help SSDs effectively manage empty space on the disk (if you’re curious you can read more here). Open up the command prompt and type in the following command:
fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify
This lengthy command has a very simple output, either a 0 or a 1. If you get a 1, TRIM is not enabled. If you get a 0, TRIM is enabled. If you need to enable it type the following command:
fsutil behavior set DisableNotify 0
Turn off defragmentation. There is no need to defragment an SSD and doing so on a regular basis will radically shorten the life of your drive. Open the start menu and, in the run box, type dfrgui to open the Disk Defragmenter. Click on the Schedule button and then uncheck Run on a schedule (recommended). Your days of running a defragmenter are over.
Turn off indexing. Driving indexing is a relic of the HDD age. SDD drives are so lightening fast you don’t need a file index to help offset drive lag. You’re wasting time and disk read/writes by leaving it on. Go to My Computer, right click on your new SSD drive, and uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contexts indexed… to turn off the indexing. This will, annoyingly, probably take a little while. Windows is going to scan the entire drive and toggle the file permissions on all the files. We got a cup of coffee while we waited.
A word on other SSD tweaks and tricks. Be cautious about tweaking beyond these simple fixes. Many SSD guides suggest increasing performance by turning off the Superfetch (dubious evidence that this tweak improves performance at all) or disabling the page file (decreases writes to the SSD but at a steep cost; if you run out of RAM the applications that need that RAM will crash). The tweaks we’ve suggested here will definitely increase performance and with no negative side effects. Proceed with caution deploying tweaks you find in other guides and in discussion forum posts. That said…
Congratulations! You’ve cloned your disk, saved yourself hours of reinstalling Windows and customizing your apps, and you’re ready to enjoy a faster and quieter system disk.
SOURCE: www.howtogeek.com/97242/how-to-migrate-windows-7-to-a-solid-state-drive/
Once the prompt is open type in the following commands, in the following order. Read the commands and the accompanying notation very carefully or you will erase the wrong disk.
Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is your SSD’s number as provided by the previous command)
Create partition primary align=1024
Active
Exit
Now your SSD is ready to rock; it’s properly set up and aligned.
If your SSD drive is bigger than the operating system partition you’re cloning (i.e. you’ve got a 120GB SDD and you’re going to clone a smaller partition onto from your current OS disk) then Clonezilla is a great open-source choice.
Choose Local Device to Local Device cloning;
If your SSD drive is smaller than the operating system partition you’re cloning, Clonezilla won’t play nice (it, very strictly, will only go from bigger to smaller and has no tools for shaving down a too-large partition). In this case, since we’re already working in Windows, we can use EaseUS Partition Master, a free and simple to use cloning tool—you can use this application whether you fit into either the former or latter partition situation we just outlined, by the way. Partition Master will resize partitions as necessary, the only requirement is that you have a small enough volume of data to fit onto the new SSD. So, for example, you can clone a 200GB partition with 80GB of data onto a 120GB SSD with no problem; Partition Magic will dynamically resize the partition during the cloning process.
To get started run the application and highlight your current OS disk. Select Copy partition from the left-hand navigation panel. This will launch the Partition wizard which will in turn prompt you to select which disk you want to copy your OS disk to. Select your SSD. Double check your selection before pressing Next. Click through until the end of the wizard until you reach the Finish button. Back in the main window click the Apply button in the upper left corner. Your computer will reboot and the cloning process will take place.
Once the cloning process has completed, boot down your machine and unplug your original HDD (the source of the clone). Reboot your computer (this is the point where you may need to use the Windows recovery CD if the Master Boot Record has been corrupted). On some motherboards you may need to plug the new primary drive into the exact same SATA port the old primary drive was on—we didn’t, but you may.
Booting Back Into Windows and Tweaking Your SSD
Once you are back into Windows, running off your brand new SSD of course, it’s time to go through and toggle a variety of settings. When you do a fresh Windows 7 to SSD installation Windows toggles these settings for you. Ideally Windows 7 should detect the SSD and make the proper changes but we’re not going to take any chances when it only takes a few minutes to check. You can re-run the “Windows Experience” program to toggle some of the settings but doing so takes just about as many clicks as checking those settings yourself.
Make sure TRIM is turned on. TRIM is a special set of commands that help SSDs effectively manage empty space on the disk (if you’re curious you can read more here). Open up the command prompt and type in the following command:
fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify
This lengthy command has a very simple output, either a 0 or a 1. If you get a 1, TRIM is not enabled. If you get a 0, TRIM is enabled. If you need to enable it type the following command:
fsutil behavior set DisableNotify 0
Turn off defragmentation. There is no need to defragment an SSD and doing so on a regular basis will radically shorten the life of your drive. Open the start menu and, in the run box, type dfrgui to open the Disk Defragmenter. Click on the Schedule button and then uncheck Run on a schedule (recommended). Your days of running a defragmenter are over.
Turn off indexing. Driving indexing is a relic of the HDD age. SDD drives are so lightening fast you don’t need a file index to help offset drive lag. You’re wasting time and disk read/writes by leaving it on. Go to My Computer, right click on your new SSD drive, and uncheck Allow files on this drive to have contexts indexed… to turn off the indexing. This will, annoyingly, probably take a little while. Windows is going to scan the entire drive and toggle the file permissions on all the files. We got a cup of coffee while we waited.
A word on other SSD tweaks and tricks. Be cautious about tweaking beyond these simple fixes. Many SSD guides suggest increasing performance by turning off the Superfetch (dubious evidence that this tweak improves performance at all) or disabling the page file (decreases writes to the SSD but at a steep cost; if you run out of RAM the applications that need that RAM will crash). The tweaks we’ve suggested here will definitely increase performance and with no negative side effects. Proceed with caution deploying tweaks you find in other guides and in discussion forum posts. That said…
Congratulations! You’ve cloned your disk, saved yourself hours of reinstalling Windows and customizing your apps, and you’re ready to enjoy a faster and quieter system disk.
SOURCE: www.howtogeek.com/97242/how-to-migrate-windows-7-to-a-solid-state-drive/