Windows 8 Upgrade to new SSD

GeorgeK

Honorable Member
I have a 1T hard drive running Win 7 and want to upgrade to Windows 8, but put the Windows 8 on a new SSD drive, pluse the main programs I use. I rather not loose all my settings, etc., on Office and several other programs. The SSD is 250G and I have over 400G on the hard drive.

Any Ideas?
 
Given the fact that Windows 8 would run better as a clean install on the SSD, if you want to install over Windows 7, then you could move the Windows 7 install, then upgrade, or upgrade and move that install... Unless the total partitioned space on the 1 TB drive was less than what the SSD could hold, you would need a third party utility to move the install.

I have not tried using the transfer wizard to move your Windows 7 settings to the new install, but I know it does not move entire program installs, those must be reinstalled.

You can install Windows 8 directly to the SSD (clean install), assuming this is an upgrade version of Windows 8, with the Windows 7 drive (sacrificial OS) connected. If this is an MBR install, you would have to make very sure which drive shows as primary in the bios. If they are both UEFI installs, it is a little more complicated.
 
Thanks, for the Info. Of course my 1 TB drive has more on it than the SSD can hold and I plan to still use the 1TB for overflow, pictures, graphices, etc. I hate to do a clean install because of the time it will take to get everything going again. I did upgrade my Laptop without hardly any problems, but it is not as necessary as my Desktop is. I'll look into some third pary software. Thanks Again.
 
If you could fill in your system specs, that would be a big help.

I would suggest, powering down, unplug the AC cord, then pull the power and data cables from the 1 TB drive, install the SSD and power up. Leaving the 1 TB drive unplugged. Then clean install your windows 8 on the SSD. The power down and and unplug again, now reconnect your HDD and power back up. Once you get to your post screen, use the F12 key to get to the boot menu, from there you can select what drive you want to boot from.

This way you have a complete clean install on each drive. A dual boot set up but with separate drives.
 
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I have a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz my OS is Windows 7 64bit, which is an OEM, I don't think that the Windows 8 upgrade will install without the 1 TB drive operating. I do have a backup disk for it.
 
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