Changing my OS HDD to SSD

[Cadence]

Hey guys, my Raptor 150GB is finally dying! I got all my applications installed on a seperate hard drive, I have a total of 5 HDD's in my pc for different things. Anyways I remember reading somewhere that you can save all the files that make your apps still work after you re-install windows, does anyone know how to do this? I'm in a rush! sorry
Thanks!

Lmk if I'm not being clear enough.

EDIT: I'm talking about the registry files

[Shadowmeph]

Well I am not sure about " All " of your applications but some or most of the files are in "C:\Documents and Settings\(your username) \Application Data and also in C:\Documents and Settings\(Your user name)\Application Data" that is on the windows 7 OS those files are all of your settings I think that is all that you need oh and if you are playing any games then you will probably want to save the save games which most likely are located in the "C:\Documents and Settings\( Your user name)\Documents " area.
myself I try to make all of my programs portable so that if I need to do a reinstall all of my programs are portable so that everything is already done I just copy paste my portable folder onto my new operating system and make shortcuts to the programs I use.

Edit
I just read the last bit, for the registry files ok well if everything is going to be exactly the same but the not so smart way is to just back up your registry ( Run regedit go to file then export) then reinstall it on your reinstall. but the proper way is to install your OS then reinstall all of the applications you are going to use then copy and paste all of your backed up files from here "C:\Documents and Settings\(your username) \Application Data and also in C:\Documents and Settings\(Your user name)\Application Data" that is on the windows 7 OS ,

[Zero82z]

To preserve your registry settings would be a huge pain since you'd probably have to go in and find them all manually. Your best bet is to just grab a drive imaging software like Acronis True Image and use that to clone your OS drive to the SSD.

[Shadowmeph]

Originally Posted by Zero82z

To preserve your registry settings would be a huge pain since you'd probably have to go in and find them all manually. Your best bet is to just grab a drive imaging software like Acronis True Image and use that to clone your OS drive to the SSD.

I am not sure if that would work properly going from a HD to an SSD, I thought that I read some where that there was problems doing this.

[Zero82z]

Originally Posted by Shadowmeph

I am not sure if that would work properly going from a HD to an SSD, I thought that I read some where that there was problems doing this.

It works fine.

[ipaine]

It works fine, I have done it myself and had no real issues. I still ended up rebuilding it later because lets face it half of the stuff doesn't need to be on there. So really I say take this as a good time to start fresh.

[rjbarker]

Clean install...(why clone garbage and unnecessary Registry junk that accumulates)..back-up important stuff....I do this about once every couple of yrs or so regardless....especially if your starting out with a nice new SSD for your OS.

[Closed Note]

I'm making ghost images, and restore them the same way.

[frontier204]

+1 for HDD cloning - you're looking for trouble if you try copying the files and hoping the registry works.

The Windows 7 install on my primary rig has went from an HDD to a SSD and back to an HDD (needed the SSD for a laptop) with no problems, except for a little issue with alignment of the OS partition.

One note about HDD cloning is that you may lose the alignment of your OS partition if your SSD is empty when Acronis copies the partition over to it. Acronis True Image (and possibly others) use a Windows XP-style partitioning which will make the "partition starting offset" of drive "C:" equal to (32768-512) which does not play well with an SSD that has 4k sectors. (since 32768-512 does not divide evenly by 4k)

If you have the ~100MB System Reserved Partition at the beginning of your HDD, you should be fine, as it seems to be sized such that your primary OS partition will start at exactly 101MB, which is 4k aligned. Otherwise I'd check the alignment of the OS partition before and after you copy everything over.

To check alignment, open up "System Information" (type that into start menu search) and then go to Components -> Storage -> Disks. The "partition starting offset" should be divisible by 4096 without a remainder.

EDIT: slight clarifications

[gingerbee]

Acronis+ PAt tool and your good to go.