Noob needs help transferring from 320GB HDD to 128GB SSD on laptop

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stephen0983

Gawd
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Feb 3, 2010
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Ok I'm putting a SSD in my laptop to boost performance. I was just going to do a fresh install of Windows (Vista Home 64bit) but it really doesn't need it that bad. So if I just delete things on my current hard drive down to a 128GB or less size, I can make an image and transfer it to the SSD, right?
Just wondering what programs are best for this sort of thing. I was thinking about using something to make the main partition 100GB first. Then using another app to create the image onto an external hard drive. Finally, using the same app to restore the image on the SSD. Does this sound right?
Most importantly, what do you recommend in this scenario? I'd rather not purchase any software to do this, or download shady apps from a torrent site either. If there's no way around that then I'll just fresh install everything
TIA for the advice
 
I see that Norton Ghost has a 30-day trial. Maybe I could just try that. Would I need to partition it first so it's less than 118GB (actual size of 128GB drive) ?
 
i'd do a fresh install and use the easy transfer wizard to migrate docs/etc.
programs will need to be re-installed.

I use Acronis True Image Home (09) to handle my backups, It can make an image of an existing drive and transfer it to a new one.
 
@Roliath - You're probably right. I'd just like to save some time is all.

Looks like most agree Acronis is a good choice. I may play around with that a bit.
 
another vote for Acronis, i used the Clone Drive option to clone c: drive (50GB) of my dying 640GB drive to a 80GB hard disk - and use it for a week, and cloned that drive again on the primary partition (75GB) of my replaced hard disk. worked like a charm. now i cant imagine installing and updating everything from the scratch.
 
just wanted to share that ive recently had a terrible experience with ghost. go with acronis if you can
 
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