Solved How to Migrate OS to new Hard disk.

theog

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How to Migrate OS to new Hard disk of the same or different size.

For this example, I am using a 500gb HDD moving a 250gb HDD.
Windows 8, uEFI, GPT & Secure Boot.
Using Paragon 12.


1) Download Paragon 12 from here:
PARAGON Software Group - partition manager, drive backup, hard disk partitioning
Free try link:
Paragon Backup & Recovery Home


2) Install your New HDD to a USB Dvice.

Clone 1-1.PNG

3) Install & Open Paragon B&R 12.

4) Click on Hard Drive Migration.

Clone 2-2.PNG

5) Click Next.

Clone 3-3.PNG

6) Click Next.

Clone 4-4.PNG

7) Click Next.

Clone 5-5.PNG

8) Click Next.

Clone 6-6.PNG

9) Click Next.

Clone 7-7.PNG

9) Click Yes & Next.

Clone 8-8.PNG
Clone 9-9.PNG

10) Click Finish.

Clone 10-10.PNG
Clone 11-11.PNG

11) Remove old HDD & replace with New HDD.

Clone 12-12.PNG


All Done.

http://www.eightforums.com/installa...installed-windows-8-hdd-ssd-7.html#post168528


Epoch said:
IT WORKED!

So I know you posted this awhile ago, but I hadn't tried it because I could only find the paid version. After you posted this link I found the free trial version. I installed the program, went to Disk Migration, automated everything, took out the HDD, put in the SSD, and it boot in less than 5 seconds, perfectly.

Wow! There is a solution.


SSD
diesele said:
This app checks alignment
Download AS SSD benchmark 1.7.4739 - Technical Details - FileHippo.com

Hover the mouse in the top left box and it will indicate alignment or not.

Getting almost 500Mbps read and 400Mbps best write on the SSD :)

As Paragon have updated for Windows 8.1, you will need Paragon 14.


Paragon Hard Disk Manager Professional - Overview
 
Last edited:

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Hi Theog,
Thanks for posting this step-by-step tutorial. It is very helpful indeed. As usual, just a few questions...thanks for your time.

Questions:

(1): When cloning the data in the HDD to SSD, will Paragon delete all the hidden partition in the SSD? THis is because the SSD's manufacturer has created a hidden partition to store its firmware in it. I am afraid Paragon will wipe out this hidden partition (with the firmware in it).

(2): What does step 8 means for
"Remove free block between partitions?"
Does it mean Paragon will shrink the size of the copied partition in the SSD to remove any free space?

(3): What if i want to maintain the same partition size in the target SSD? Hence, i just need to choose:
Copy options >>> Partition raw copy.
Is that the correct option?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Wind 7 Home Premium 64 Bits/ Win 8 64 Bits
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo IdeaPad Y580
    Other Info
    Be kind...complete newbie here...
1) NO

2) Yes, will shrink to suit.

3) To have all the same partition sizes, you need the drives to be the same size.
 

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3) To have all the same partition sizes, you need the drives to be the same size.

Hi Theog,
Thanks for the fast reply. Just a follow up on Question 3.
The problem is:
The original HDD is 500 GB, all of which is unused except for the hidden partition (which has the OS and drivers) which is about 30GB.

THe target SSD is 120GB, all of which is unused.

Hence, can i maintain the same partition size of 30GB when copying from the HDD to SSD since there is plenty of empty space in the SSD?

Thanks again.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Wind 7 Home Premium 64 Bits/ Win 8 64 Bits
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo IdeaPad Y580
    Other Info
    Be kind...complete newbie here...
When you get to step 8 check the partition sizes, if happy with sizes click next.

If not use copy options, never use myself.
 

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    Notebooks x 3

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Thanks for the good info, I'll be doing this conversion this week for my neighbor. We'll be moving from a 500GB hard drive to a 120GB SSD. He'll keep his data on the 500GB drive and use the SSd for Win7 and apps. Thanks again!
 

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Hi, I would like to deeply thank you. It worked in minutes and it got everything from the previous hdd.
It was a big difference between not being able to keep the windows that came with my notebook in my sdd to have it completely migrated.

You have to mention that people need a way to connect their new hdd/ssd to the computer, I was lucky to have a sata external drive case.

It'll be especially helpful for Lenovo owners so I think you should add some keywords.

Thanks again
 

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    Ubuntu 12.04
Hi all, just want to thank THEOG for the very useful tip. Managed to migrate from my HDD to SSD using his pointers. THANK YOU THEOG....:party:
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Wind 7 Home Premium 64 Bits/ Win 8 64 Bits
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo IdeaPad Y580
    Other Info
    Be kind...complete newbie here...
Hey guys im new here but first I would like to say that this worked prefectly with no problems and my windows 8 is working great so thanks so much

But I had a question as I am new to using this.
I downloaded the alignment app but when I divide it by the number in the original post (by 4096 i believe), i get 257.5 which is not a whole number as told in the other post.

How bad is this and what did I do wrong? Sorry so many questions but I have no knowledge of this.

Im using the Asus X501A which i upgraded ram to 8 and threw in the 120gb samsung 840 since it kinda slow
And just as a side note it was a little tough to upgrade this asus since it was my first time upgrading but i got it done:)
 

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Hi all;
Need to ask how to hid all the partitions in the factory installed HDD for Lenovo Y580.

This is the scenario.
Firstly, i successfully migrated all of the following partitions:
OEM/Hidden partition,
C partition: boot drive/ program files and data drive &
D partition: containing drivers

from my Lenovo factory installed HDD to the SSD and to use the SSD as the primary boot drive :thumb:. Thanks to THEOG for this life saving thread. Now, i plan to use the factory installed HDD as my data drive. (I am using a caddy tray for this whereby i plan to swap out the optical drive and pluck in the Lenovo factory installed HDD) However, for "safety reasons" i do not plan to re-format the entire factory installed HDD but rather to keep those partitions just in case if my SSD fails.

Hence, how do i turn all the three partitions above (in the Lenovo factory installed HDD) to become dormant? I want the computer to boot up from the existing SSD but then to treat the factory installed HDD as the data drive and not to read from any of the three partitions in the factory installed HDD.

ANy ideas on how to accomplish this? By the way, i am planning to use EASUS as my disk partition freeware.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Wind 7 Home Premium 64 Bits/ Win 8 64 Bits
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo IdeaPad Y580
    Other Info
    Be kind...complete newbie here...
Hi all;

Need your assistance on how to fix the Lenovo One Key Recovery (OKR) 8.0. My Y580 comes pre-installed with Windows 8 and have the OKR8.0. The Lenovo OKR8.0 is functioning well until last night when i clone the HDD into the SSD.



The stock Lenovo HDD has 3 partitions:
C: Windows8_OS
D: Lenovo Drivers
Hidden partition: OEM partition


Last night, i clone the stock Lenovo HDD into my SSD using Paragon software and weird things start to happen. The hidden partition in the stock HDD becomes visible with a letter attached to it. This has never happen before when i clone it earlier in the day. Also, the Lenovo's OKR becomes unusable in the stock HDD after the cloning was done. The function of the Paragon software is to clone the stock HDD into the SSD and not to mess around with the stock HDD~!!!


Then, the Lenovo's OKR in the SSD becomes unusable. This is expected because Paragon has shrinked all the partitions when cloning the data from a 500GB HDD to a 120GB SSD.



My questions:
(1): How to hide the OEM partition in the stock Lenovo HDD?
(2): How to fix the broken Lenovo OKR8.0 in the stock Lenovo HDD?
(3): How to fix the broken Lenovo OKR8.0 in the SSD?


Please help....

 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Wind 7 Home Premium 64 Bits/ Win 8 64 Bits
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Lenovo IdeaPad Y580
    Other Info
    Be kind...complete newbie here...
I tried but the target drive supposedly has a different sector size and therefore cannot be used as the copy target...
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
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    nVidia GeForce GT 630M
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    Seagate Momentus XT 750GB
    Samsung SSD 32GB
I tried but the target drive supposedly has a different sector size and therefore cannot be used as the copy target...

I would do a clean install in that case.
 

My Computer

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    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
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FINALLY!:dinesh: This tutorial WINS. I really worked! I cannot believe it took me a week on & off of trial and error and fresh installs, etc. The one constant that kept it intact was preserving my original hard drive untouched especially the original Recovery Partition.

THANK YOU THEOG. PARAGON rules.
 

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I have not had as much success as everyone else! :(
I have a dell 17r SE, 7720 (i7 3630QM edition) - cames with a 1Tb , however I had a 120gb I freed up using paragon on my desktop (sandisk extreme)

I ran the paragon software: something was running so it restarted and used a boot-rom (t?) dos/linux based utility which performed the operation.
rebooted, both drives now "OS" one C: (the original 1TB), and the other E: (the ssd).
tried removing the 1Tb but I just get a BIOS prompt telling me I need to disable secure boot to continue: if I go legacy and force boot from the ssd, it cannot find the OS (no supprise there, but I thought I'd try it).

I could perhaps get a program like FreeBCD which supports UEFI and modify the primary boot drive in Windows Boot Manager?

any help from anyone appreciated: so close to having my laptop "usable" (once you go ssd, you can never go back)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 base
I have not had as much success as everyone else! :(
I have a dell 17r SE, 7720 (i7 3630QM edition) - cames with a 1Tb , however I had a 120gb I freed up using paragon on my desktop (sandisk extreme)

I ran the paragon software: something was running so it restarted and used a boot-rom (t?) dos/linux based utility which performed the operation.
rebooted, both drives now "OS" one C: (the original 1TB), and the other E: (the ssd).
tried removing the 1Tb but I just get a BIOS prompt telling me I need to disable secure boot to continue: if I go legacy and force boot from the ssd, it cannot find the OS (no supprise there, but I thought I'd try it).

I could perhaps get a program like FreeBCD which supports UEFI and modify the primary boot drive in Windows Boot Manager?

any help from anyone appreciated: so close to having my laptop "usable" (once you go ssd, you can never go back)

You need to clone all partitions before C: Windows 8, & remove the old before restarting.

Clone 1-1.PNG

Clone 12-12.PNG

Only cloning C: Windows 8 partition will not work.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Notebooks x 3

    Desktops x 5

    Towers x 4
I have not had as much success as everyone else! :(
I have a dell 17r SE, 7720 (i7 3630QM edition) - cames with a 1Tb , however I had a 120gb I freed up using paragon on my desktop (sandisk extreme)

I ran the paragon software: something was running so it restarted and used a boot-rom (t?) dos/linux based utility which performed the operation.
rebooted, both drives now "OS" one C: (the original 1TB), and the other E: (the ssd).
tried removing the 1Tb but I just get a BIOS prompt telling me I need to disable secure boot to continue: if I go legacy and force boot from the ssd, it cannot find the OS (no supprise there, but I thought I'd try it).

I could perhaps get a program like FreeBCD which supports UEFI and modify the primary boot drive in Windows Boot Manager?

any help from anyone appreciated: so close to having my laptop "usable" (once you go ssd, you can never go back)

You need to clone all partitions before C: Windows 8, & remove the old before restarting.

View attachment 21214

View attachment 21215

Only cloning C: Windows 8 partition will not work.

Perhaps I wasnt clear (that happens sometimes),

I did clone all partitions,
HOWEVER (this seems like its important) I didnt remove the old drive before restarting... this makes a big different?

first boot the cloned drive claims "primary boot" status?

I can then replace the 1Tb drive and reformat it for data?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 base
thank you very very muck that was a good guied to helping me making a crack for windows 8
 

My Computer

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  • OS
    win 8 ult
    Computer type
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    MSI
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    kaspersky
Works

This thread is a little old but... Followed the directions just as posted on 8-20-2013 and it still works.
:thumb: = So impressed, I signed up just so I could tell everyone.
Migrated my OEM win8 factory install from the 500GB it arrived in, to an 80GB HD
why?(for backup and practice for SSD).
Both The 500 and 80 gig boot and appear to have no activation issues.
Note: never plug them in at the same time.

One detail worth emphasizing.
Follow the second link to paragon software as is.
You want the Paragon Backup and Restore 12 Home 30 day trial not the 2013 Backup Repair Home free.
The free is fine for backups but it won't do the migration to a smaller drive.
(Or if it can, go ahead and correct me, but I couldn't do it).
Not sure how the trial ware 30 day limit is enforced, so this may be a good 'one time' solution, but if your hardware is in order, that is probably all you will need.
The process was painless enough, so props to Paragon for slick software.
and yet another big, thank you to theog, for a great post.
 

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System One

  • OS
    windows 8 64bit
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Gateway
    CPU
    i5
    Memory
    12GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    GTX 560 TI
Does anyone know how I can migrate my OS to a 3TB drive? When I get to the stage in Paragon where it shows me what the new hard disk partitions will look like it'll unallocate 700gb of space.
 

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System One

  • OS
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