Cloning partition changing to SSD

[grandpatzer]

I'm going to remove my 500gb mechanical drive and put in a SSD 64gb Crucial.

The laptop came with a Windows 7 home 64bit license.
The installation files are on a hidden partition(laptop has no DVD).

What I'm going to do is make research for best partition cloning software, boot to DOS from USB stick or ESATA harddrive(the SSD that goes in laptop later).

Copy the hidden partition from laptop to the ESATA(SSD 64gb Crucial).

Remove 500gb from laptop, install the SSD with the cloned partition and install windows 7.

^^^^^^^^^^
Is there going to be any problems with this?

 

[Old Hippie]

Is there going to be any problems with this?

I'd start with the problem of trying to put a 500GB drive on a 64GB drive.

You won't be able to clone (bit for bit copy) that drive and I doubt you'll find any program that will image that drastic of a drive size change.

Hopefully you can just clone that partition and keep it the same size on the new drive.

I'm sure Acronis can do this because it seems to do every trick in the book.

Hopefully you've already made a recovery disc from the hidden partition because I've read of some models that only give you a limited amount of 'start-ups' to make a recovery disk.

If you're planning to install a new copy of w7 you won't need the revovery partition anyway.

 

[grandpatzer]

I'd start with the problem of trying to put a 500GB drive on a 64GB drive.

You won't be able to clone (bit for bit copy) that drive and I doubt you'll find any program that will image that drastic of a drive size change.

Hopefully you can just clone that partition and keep it the same size on the new drive.

I'm sure Acronis can do this because it seems to do every trick in the book.

Hopefully you've already made a recovery disc from the hidden partition because I've read of some models that only give you a limited amount of 'start-ups' to make a recovery disk.

If you're planning to install a new copy of w7 you won't need the revovery partition anyway.

No I'm only trying to clone the hidden partition with windows 7 and laptop driver installation files.
It's like a windows 7 DVD but on the Laptop harddrive.
It should be ~4gb so it easily fits the 64gb SSD.


I'm trying to figure out the right BIOS command to boot from the hidden partition or put the windows 7 and drivers on USB stick or external harddrive.