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I've bought a new SSD, and would like to replace the ageing hard drive that contains XP and C:\Program Files.

What's the easiest way to do this these days? I don't have the physical Windows CD* (although I copied it to my C drive). I really don't want to re-install Windows, and I'd also prefer not to burn any CDs if it can be avoided (I'm not sure if the burner works, and I don't have any blanks.)

I'm comfortable with repartitioning drives etc, but it's been a looong time since I've done this, and I suspect the best tools have changed.

*It's a legitimate copy, but installed long ago. I don't store CDs.

EDIT for TMI: Drives are currently 200Gb, 60Gb (about to get thrown out), 1Tb, 250Gb and 500Gb. The new SSD is 60Gb. I'm in the process of rationalising my storage :)

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  • Basically clone drive (image) & repair boot? What are the drive sizes?
    – Bob
    May 18, 2012 at 8:55
  • Use what to clone? And can you elaborate on "repair boot" :) Old drive: 200Gb, new: 60Gb. So I'll move everything off onto another drive and downsize it first. May 18, 2012 at 8:59
  • I don't know the details, sorry, you'll have to wait on someone else to answer. I can see the smaller drive size being an issue.
    – Bob
    May 18, 2012 at 9:05
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    Just do the same thing you would do if the old drive had failed and the new drive was the replacement. If the data on the old drive is important and you have no recovery plan, forget about the SSD for now and work on that problem! May 18, 2012 at 10:11
  • FYI that SSD is going to slow to a crawl over time without TRIM support. You also need your SATA operation to be to AHCI mode for TRIM to function and then you need to load f6 drivers to boot XP in AHCI mode (which is impossible without reinstalling). It seems you have not thought this through... You can go with a strait forward clone with clonezilla but performance will degrade quickly. May 18, 2012 at 12:37

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Moab's answer was great. I used Paragon's Migrate OS-to-SSD and it worked brilliantly. The hardest part of the process was reducing my OS drive to under 60Gb. Having done that, Paragon completely automated the process of switching over.

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