Thursday, August 13, 2015

How can I transfer Windows from a partition of an existing hard drive to a new (smaller) SSD?

I have a 500 Gb hard drive currently split into two partitions:


+---------------------+--------------+
| Data (D:\) | System (C:\) |
+---------------------+--------------+

Now, I just bought a new SSD with a capacity of 120 GB, which is just slightly higher than the "System" partition above, where I have Windows 7 currently installed. I also bought a new hard drive with 1 Tb, to use in place of the "Data" partition above.


What I want to do is to basically copy the Windows installation from C:\ to my new SSD so that I can start booting directly from the SSD, while copying all my data from D:\ to my new hard drive. (The 500 GB has started to make weird noises, which is why I'm trying to replace it.)


So I want an end result that looks like this:


120 GB SSD:


+--------------+
| System (C:\) |
+--------------+

1 Tb hard drive:


+---------------------+
| Data (D:\) |
+---------------------+

Is this possible? My main concern is that the boot area of my current drive is at the beginning (right?); so if I just clone my C:\ partition to my SSD that won't actually make my SSD bootable. Or am I mistaken about that?


Obviously I can't just clone my entire 500 GB drive onto the SSD, as the SSD doesn't have enough space for that.


Unfortunately, while I realize reinstalling Windows from scratch wouldn't be a really big deal, that isn't an option as I seem to have lost my installation disc.

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