How to replace current system disk with a new SSD?

[snahl]

Hello,

I've got a Thinkpad W701 4323CTO running Windows7 64-bit.

So far everything has been running fine.

Now I wish to make use of a new SSD and use it as the primary disk to start the system.

The idea is to basically transfer the current and complete environment (with all partitions: SYSTEM_DRV, Windows7_OS, Lenovo_Recovery) from the existing internal Seagate disk to the new SSD and in the future use the Seagate disk as additional disk for user-data only.

Currently the Seagate disk is connected to a 'Intel(R) ICH8M-E/ICH9M-E/5 Series SATA RAID Controller' and thus running in RAID mode (set in BIOS for the corresponding controller). If ever possible I'd also like to have the new SSD run in AHCI mode.

But I am not really quite sure how to best perform this task.

Would appreciate to receive a possibly detailed explanation on how to achive this objective.

Thanks for feedback.

[hazart]

The way I'm doing it is to leave the RAID configuration intact, buy a ThinkPad Serial ATA Hard Drive Bay Adapter III (43N3412), put the SSD into the adapter, replace the optical drive with the adapter, install O/S and programs on the SSD, and use the RAID volume solely for storing personal data. The SSD will be in the AHCI mode and can boot up the OS on its own.

[snahl]

Thanks for your feedback 'hazart',

but your suggestion does not quite meet my anticipation.

Yes, the SSD should run in AHCI mode.

I want to TRANSFER all contents from the current boot-disk onto the SSD and use that as the new boot-disk.

I don't want to reinstall OS and programs.

Once the system boots and runs well off the SSD, the old boot-disk can be erased and used for data.

I am certain there is a way to do this.

Hope my clarification helps finding the solution.

[GatorBob]

I very strongly urge you NOT to transfer your old op sys and data to the new SDD.  I did that and the wasted space was immense. I then did a clean install and everything including Windows 7-64, MS Office 2010, Creative Suite 5 and all my software installed in less than 60 GB. A 128 GB SDD would have been more than adequate as a boot drive -- but only as a clean install.  (I have a Crucial 300 256GB SDD.)

[andyP Community SuperMod · Accepted solution]

snahl, welcome to the forum,

please take your time to read members comments in this thread. You might also find this post from goretsky interesting and helpfull.

[snahl]

Andy.

Thanks for providing the links leading to the answer of my original question.

...excellent

[Bailifei]

a complete disk clone might be a good choice, or backup the original system disk to an image and restore it to the SSD. but due to the difference between SSD and normal disk, the sectors must be aligned, otherwise the system cannot boot from the SSD.

and here's a recommended free disk backup and clone tool that do a good job in backup system to SSD.