How not to install an SSD drive
 

I have an old Toshiba Satellite laptop, 2nd gen iCore3, 320Gb hard drive, 3Gb RAM, DVD etc which has proved reliable. The only issue I've had is with the hinge supports breaking away from the case requiring extra screws/glue. I decided to replace the drive with a 250Gb SSD since I was only using 104Gb anyway, this proved to be trap 1. Toshiba don't give you any disks, you make rescue backups yourself on initial startup, this was trap 2.

When I was working, we used pc's running DOS, Win3.1, XP and also computers running AIX (IBM's unix) but were never formally trained on any of it. We could use the dos command fdisk to partition the drive, make active partitions and then format c:/s which would add system files and make the drive bootable. The good old days.
The drives used fat32 (format structure) which has many limitations, all of which I'd forgotten.

Anyway, I discovered that Win7 Home Prof won't allow you to image a disk to a network drive so I found Macrium Reflect which will. This program is probably very powerful in the right hands which excludes mine. If I have to google words and error codes I don't believe the program is intuitive.
I eventually store an image on my network and then find an old 140Gb IDE drive, so I buy an adaptor to make it a USB drive and fall into another trap. I assumed "clone" means exact copy (it does) so I had 104Gb used on my 320Gb drive I should be able to clone it to the 140Gb drive, yes? No, because it clones the partitions too, it won't (automatically) reduce a partition size (Trap1). My 320 Gb drive had 3 partitions (system, main active and hidden restore), why the first 2 were not just one I have no idea. Macrium allows you to clone partitions, so I cloned the first 2 and thought I was done. On SSD boot up, the pc announced it was attempting to repair the system but appeared stuck (I'm guessing because the hidden partition was not there). I then used Win7 on the original drive to make an image on the 140Gb but when I tried to restore it using my Toshiberised rescue disks it said it was corrupt, not only that but my Toshiberised rescue disks wouldn't see the network. (Trap2). The Toshiba disks try to be helpful and automate everything but won't allow you to break in and stop them, so if they get stuck, you're up the proverbial creek, sans paddle.

4 hours have elapsed in this quick job. Did I mention, I'm not a patient man? Although, to be fair, I haven't thrown anything (yet).

I notice that my Macrium image on my network drive is only 44Gb, so I could transfer it to my 64Gb usb stick. Remember fat32? USB sticks are usually in that format and they only support 4Gb max file size so you have to format them in NTFS - this took 55 minutes - I have no idea why, I could have written it out in cursive in less time. Meanwhile I find a Macrium Reflect Win7 iso CD (yay!) only to discover it wouldn't boot because of a software bug on the version I had (now fixed), I also find a Macrium Rescue disk which I'd forgotten about and it has the restore software on it (on a roll now). I copy the networked image onto the usb stick, another 45 minutes (for a 44 Gb file!) - there is something wrong here, still, it finished. Must be in Southern Rail format.
Finally, I have the Macrium Rescue cd running and the usb stick plus the SSD in my laptop but still I have the partition problem. Macrium does allow partition size changes but I found it so difficult to navigate/understand I abandoned it and only copied the first two partitions and...it worked.

7 hours later and I've done the quick swap.

Lessons: you can't clone to a smaller drive without reducing parition size. If you use Macrium, read up on it first - looking at the number of people that had googled the same error message, I wasn't alone in my stupidity. You can't directly boot an "image", it is packed so it has to be unpacked first (obvious really, but when I'm ready to throw things, not so much). If I'd bought a 350Gb SSD I wouldn't have had these problems.

One last thing, the drive is a Samsung and I tried to download their "magician" software only to be told (sorry but) they had reached the maximum number of downloads for that day, try again in 24 hours.WTF?

Yes, my laptop is quicker. Was it worth 7 hours? Probably not. :compcrash:

Re: How not to install an SSD drive
 

Pity you didn't ask first, could've saved you a lot of hassle.
What are you doing reinstalling Win7 anyway, its extinct in just over a year's time?
Would make more sense to install a current secure OS with a more long term support.

Re: How not to install an SSD drive
 

and thats how i used to make money.. the average computer user trying to do things themselves.

BTW i doubt that the drive would make much of a difference, more to do with all the bloatware in your startup.

Re: How not to install an SSD drive
 

Don't mention computers to me.
A friends family have handed me 2 laptops to fix.
One was a win 10 update that has frozen the main home screen. Windows key etc now not doing anything and no sign of their files.

The other hand on a black screen on start up.

No back ups. No restore points. Tried setting up a new user, tried safe mode, tried just about everything anyone has suggested. But apparently paying a professional is not to be suggested!

Re: How not to install an SSD drive
 

Didn't have Windows in mind.

https://xubuntu.org/

Many, many other Linux variants are also available.

https://distrowatch.com/

I have an old Core2Duo laptop with an SSD running Xubuntu and its faster than it was when shipped with Windows Vista and a conventional HDD.
Its my main home computer, I also recently acquired a Chromebook (fantastic thing) for out and about.
I haven't used Windows for over ten years, only time I go anywhere near it is when wife's desktop PC plays up.
To give Microsoft their due, since she got a W10 box a few years back there's been very few problems.

Re: How not to install an SSD drive
 

1: Boot with a Live USB and have a look at the drive contents?

2: Can you get to BIOS/UEFI? Tried booting on mains only with battery removed?

Re: How not to install an SSD drive
 

Reducing the partition size wouldn't have enabled you to clone the bigger drive to a smaller one.

Re: How not to install an SSD drive
 

Well that's new, last time I was doing this sort of thing it wasn't possible.

Re: How not to install an SSD drive
 

Like I said I have done all sorts of things using Acronis true image, and also if you want to mess some more there is Acronis disc director - the old saying 'you get what you pay for' ------ ( also, ' you don't always get what you pay for, but if it is too cheap it is invariably sh1t3' )

Re: How not to install an SSD drive
 

i personally have never liked cloning drives. your just coping the shizz that was there over to the new drive, thats never ever going to be good.

having said that it can be useful once you have a fresh install all set up then clone.

cloning can sometimes not work depending on what hardware windows has been activated too.

i'm very much out the game these days but i always preferred to create unattended installation discs.

its much much simpler these days with windows 10 and the free installation media download https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/soft...load/windows10 sooooo much easier. ok so you have to install all your programs again but hey it'll only take an hour max.