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I got a 1 TB hard disk. However the C drive is only 150GB. Also only 67 GB uses.

My plan is to ghost that C drive to an SSD. And then arrange that next time the SSD is the OS drive.

How would I do so?

I tried ghosting but it doesn't work because the C drive is 140 GB and larger than the SSD even though only 67GB data is used

No, I'm sorry for not being clear. I was meaning use Ghost to create images of the partitions and then restore those images onto the new drive. As opposed to the Ghost "Copy Drive" feature. Unless you happen to have a laptop that can hold 2 hard drives internally. You really need to have the hard drives directly attached to the systems motherboard to ensure you get the correct drive translation, Using an external USB case for one of the drives to do a "copy drive" is just asking for trouble.

But an image is just a large file, using a USB drive to hold an image file is fine.

You said you have the same problem, is your new drive smaller than your old drive or are you having a problem trying to do the actual restore?

Dave

http://community.norton.com/t5/Other-Norton-Products/Norton-Ghost-15-Error-EC8F17B3/td-p/632733

I tried to back up to the D partition first but after that if i want to restore the computer, how would I do so?

Is there a program, say on CD that I can boot, and say things like, move OS to SSD?

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2 Answers 2

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This is what I do:

  1. Install windows in your SSD like usual. Verify that it works. This is to set up the mbr, bcd, boot sector, or whatever, plus sanity check.
  2. Use acronis true image to back up your original volume
  3. Use acronis true image to restore the back up the ssd
  4. Set bios to boot from your SSD

Works well for me. Finally after trying so many different technique.

I think acronis isn't even necessary. after installing windows like usual on ssd, switch operating system to the old drive. Copy everything to SSD. Then switch booting to SSD. Should work but I haven't tried.

Basically, once the SSD is bootable, we need a way to copy file normally from old drives to SSD. It may require another way to boot the computer. It may not. Windows original CD would work fine too.

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  1. Defragment the C partition.

  2. Shrink the partition to be smaller than the available space on the SSD (don't make it the exact same size). You can boot from a Linux LiveCD/USB and use GParted for this.

  3. Clone the C partition to the SSD.

  4. If there's a lot of unallocated space left on the SSD, extend the partition to fill the available space.

  5. If system does not boot from SSD, boot from the Windows DVD and run Startup Repair.

Alternately, a program such as Acronis True Image might be able to do all the above (although I haven't personally used it to clone a bigger to smaller disk yet).

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    I've used Acronis True Image (supplied with Intel SSD) to transfer large system disk onto smaller SSD (of course actual data was smaller than SSD capacity). All went perfectly.
    – Petr Abdulin
    Feb 27, 2013 at 4:39
  • You need more detail here. How do you defragment C partition? Many files are unmoveable and defragmenting while windows run won't work.
    – user4951
    Feb 27, 2013 at 7:16
  • @JimThio: I might have bothered if not for the fact that it's already been answered in a previous question of his. (His last 3 questions are all related to the same issue - migrating from HDD to SSD.)
    – Karan
    Feb 27, 2013 at 7:18
  • That one is not exactly the same question. Also the answer there is not very good anyway. Your answer is better.
    – user4951
    Feb 27, 2013 at 9:32
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    @JimThio - What files can't be moved that can't also be disabled in order to shrink the volume? One shouldn't have to explain how to remove the fragmentation of a system unless that question is specifically asked.
    – Ramhound
    Feb 27, 2013 at 13:20

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