Results 1 to 12 of 12

Thread: Hard drive dying/SSD switch-over

  1. #1
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2000
    Location
    chicago,il,USA
    Posts
    512

    Hard drive dying/SSD switch-over

    Hi everyone. I'm pretty sure my hard drive is dying. 1tb Western Digital. I am planing on doing the following:

    Back up all partitions (I have several inc. one for Win 7) onto an external drive using win7 backup imaging program

    Swap primary 1tb drive with 30 or so gig SSD and replace failing 1tb drive with a new 1tb drive

    Restore my os to ssd drive and everything else to the new 1tb drive

    Will this work or do I need to image just my OS partition and restore that to SSD and the do the other partitions seperately? Also, I'd really like to do this in using windows 7 backup capibilities if possible.

    thanks
    Brian

    (sorry for formatting... typed from mobile device)

  2. #2
    Stark Raving MOD Midknyte's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Arkham Asylum
    Posts
    22,270
    30G is really small for a Win7 OS partition. You should be looking at an 80G at least.

    You would need to make a separate image for just your OS and restore that to the SSD. I don't see why you would need to create an image for the other partitions. You should be able to just copy the data over.

  3. #3
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2000
    Location
    chicago,il,USA
    Posts
    512
    Makes sense. 80G seems pretty big... I am currently using less than 20. I started with a 15G patition, moved to 20 after about a year and just upped it to 30 after about another year. I don't install anything (anything that gives me an option anyway) other than GPU drivers to the OS partition. I guess win 7 bloats over time even worse than XP.

  4. #4
    Lifetime Friend of Staff
    Join Date
    May 2007
    Location
    Sheboygan, WI
    Posts
    3,921
    Go in and limit the amount of restore points. Then use TFC by Oldtimer to clean out all the temp files.
    http://www.geekstogo.com/forum/files...r-by-oldtimer/

    4.4 GB is the max I have cleaned out so far using it.

  5. #5
    Stark Raving MOD Midknyte's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Arkham Asylum
    Posts
    22,270
    Quote Originally Posted by El_Brio View Post
    Makes sense. 80G seems pretty big... I am currently using less than 20. I started with a 15G patition, moved to 20 after about a year and just upped it to 30 after about another year. I don't install anything (anything that gives me an option anyway) other than GPU drivers to the OS partition. I guess win 7 bloats over time even worse than XP.
    That's why. I don't see the point in separating apps from the OS partition. Up to you.

  6. #6
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2000
    Location
    chicago,il,USA
    Posts
    512
    Well, if I didn't have my OS on a separate partition then I would have a hard time packing a 1TB disk image onto a new SSD drive right? That is one reason. It makes backups faster and easier also. I still think that I will go with a 64G drive. They aren't a whole lot more than a 32G drive. The price jump up to 128 is too much though.


    Thanks for the help!

  7. #7
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2000
    Location
    chicago,il,USA
    Posts
    512
    Well, I tried to do the switchover this weekend. I ended up getting a 60GB SSD. Here is what I did:

    1. Using Windows 7 built in disk imaging I made an image of my OS partition (C: ) and my utilities partition (D: ). I wanted to only clone the OS partition, but the imaging program wouldn't let me deselect my utilities partition. Apparently it has some essential OS files on it?

    In any case, the drive is a 500GB Western Digital. My OS partition is 40GB (about 20GB is used) and my utilities partition is 10GB (5 or so GB used). All in all, the image totaled about 23GB.

    My understanding is that Windows 7 imaging requires that the destination disk for the cloned image be at least as large as total partition size of what you are cloning. In my case that would mean that I need 50GB of space on my new SSD. I have 60GB so I was thinking that it would be no problem.

    2. Shut down. Unplug all HD but the SSD and boot to the recovery/imaging CD

    3. The program finds the image on my external HD. I click on next and after a second or two I get an 0x80042412 error code. My understanding of this code is that it means that the target drive is smaller than the imaged partitions.

    I am not sure what to do at this point... I have heard that sometimes the backup utility will log the backup image as being the size of the full drive (500GB in my case). I'm not sure if this is the case.

    I also have access to Acronis True Image. I didn't get to try it yet because (like an idiot) I decided to swap the drive out at about 7pm last night. I got frustrated and quit working on it at 10pm.

    I'd really like to complete the procedure using the Win 7 tools if possible. Every time I make a new disk image, I am worried that the drive is going to ****-out on me and then I won't be able to copy my other partitions.

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks,
    Brian

  8. #8
    Stark Raving MOD Midknyte's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Arkham Asylum
    Posts
    22,270
    I also have access to Acronis True Image.
    I would use TI instead of the Windows Imaging. Why do you insist on using the built-in tool? TI has been around for a long time.

    TI can restore a larger partition to a smaller partition, assuming the data is not more than the new partition.

  9. #9
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2000
    Location
    chicago,il,USA
    Posts
    512
    Well, I don't insist on it. I just got TI however, and since my HD boots up about 50% of the time, I'd rather use the image I have already made (if possible). I am worried that the drive will die if I try to make another image and I want to make sure that I can get the other partitions onto my new HD before the old one dies.

    Also, I paid good money for Windows 7 and the built in imaging program should work. Then again, after using an android tablet for a couple of months I am beginning to think a lot more highly of Windows 7 lately

    My replacement HD comes today. Got a 1.5 TB Western Digital Black which (from what I have read) is more reliable than the blue or green models. I almost got the 1TB but surprisingly the 1.5 was only $15 or $20 more. Good deal.

    I will try the switch again tonight using TI and report back tomorrow. Thanks for the help.

    Brian

  10. #10
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2000
    Location
    chicago,il,USA
    Posts
    512
    Well, that didn't go so well. I am getting pretty angry at this point.

    1. Made a boot disk in TI
    2. Booted up w/ boot disk
    3. Backed up OS partition
    4. Restored OS partition to SSD (made sure the partition was marked "primary" & "active". It also copied over the MBR)
    5. Unplugged the old HD and the USB backup drive & reboot
    6. Get a error along the lines of "No OS present"
    7. Insert Windows Recovery Disk
    8. Try to repair the drive
    9. Get error "Partition Table is Corrupt"

    Does someone know what I am doing wrong?

    Thanks,
    Brian

  11. #11
    Stark Raving MOD Midknyte's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Arkham Asylum
    Posts
    22,270
    Did you put the SSD on the same SATA port as the original drive?

    Did you try cloning the partition instead of creating an image?

    If the source drive is damaged, it's hard to promise anything.

  12. #12
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2000
    Location
    chicago,il,USA
    Posts
    512
    I figured it out. I needed to first restore the OS to the drive and THEN restore the MBR & Disk ID. I was trying to do both at the same time.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •