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Two questions about reloading Windows & bringing programs over
A friend called me with Windows 7 OS problems, so I had him buy
a new SSD disk and put it in his Dell. He's gonna install the OS onto the new disk, and then use the original disk as the D drive to move his data and programs over to the new C drive. Two basic questions: a) Does formatting mean anything to an SSD disk? b) Is there an easy way to bring his programs over |
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#2
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Two questions about reloading Windows & bringing programs over
"Pat O'Donahue" wrote in message
... He's gonna install the OS onto the new disk, and then use the original disk as the D drive to move his data and programs over to the new C drive. Two basic questions: a) Does formatting mean anything to an SSD disk? b) Is there an easy way to bring his programs over Do the vendors of SSDs really refuse to answer these questions? Vendors of HDDs provide both such information and free utilities to clone drives and instal OSs. -- Don Phillipson Carlsbad Springs (Ottawa, Canada) |
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Two questions about reloading Windows & bringing programs over
On Fri, 04 Jul 2014 20:07:47 +0000, Pat O'Donahue wrote:
A friend called me with Windows 7 OS problems, so I had him buy a new SSD disk and put it in his Dell. He's gonna install the OS onto the new disk, and then use the original disk as the D drive to move his data and programs over to the new C drive. Two basic questions: a) Does formatting mean anything to an SSD disk? Yes, it is a disk and must be formatted like any other disk. b) Is there an easy way to bring his programs over AFAIK there is no way to copy programs from one drive to another because most program's files are spread around in different folders. Plus, the program may have needed registry entries. The programs will have to be reinstalled. If one or more of the programs happened to be one of the rare cases where the program is completely contained in a single folder and does not use the registry then it could be copied. -- Wildman GNU/Linux user #557453 The cow died so I don't need your bull! |
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Two questions about reloading Windows & bringing programs over
On Fri, 4 Jul 2014 16:21:25 -0400, Don Phillipson wrote:
Do the vendors of SSDs really refuse to answer these questions? Vendors of HDDs provide both such information and free utilities to clone drives and instal OSs. So what you're saying is you don't know the answer... -- s|b |
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Two questions about reloading Windows & bringing programs over
On Fri, 4 Jul 2014 20:07:47 +0000 (UTC), Pat O'Donahue wrote:
b) Is there an easy way to bring his programs over Maybe not the programs, but you can check C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Roaming For instance, you can copy profile folders for Firefox and Thunderbird. Or settings you've made for certain programs. -- s|b |
#6
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Two questions about reloading Windows & bringing programs over
Pat O'Donahue wrote:
A friend called me with Windows 7 OS problems, so I had him buy a new SSD disk and put it in his Dell. He's gonna install the OS onto the new disk, and then use the original disk as the D drive to move his data and programs over to the new C drive. Two basic questions: a) Does formatting mean anything to an SSD disk? b) Is there an easy way to bring his programs over Formatting used to have a meaning, but it doesn't any more. You can: 1) Create and remove partitions, with a minimum of wear on an SSD (or a hard drive for that matter). Creating a partition requires updating a partition table (1 sector), placing a file system header on the storage device (64 sector), and perhaps adding a master file table or equivalent (can be a bit bigger than the others). None of that absolutely requires visiting every sector on the device. Not even close. The operation can happen fairly quickly if you select the "Quick" option when partitioning in Disk Management (Start : Run : diskmgmt.msc) . 2) If you have sensitive personal information on a storage device, there are ways to erase that information. One way is the Secure Erase command of the ATA/ATAPI command set. Another is to use one of many utilities that writes at least once, to every sector. For modern storage devices, you don't need to write them 35 times. I don't mind doing this to hard drives - but an SSD drive only has 3000 full drive writes available, so I would carefully consider whether that is necessary or not. Notice I've completely avoided the word "format" in that description. ******* At one time, back when I was working on storage devices, they were "soft sectored". There was an index mark, and your controller could sync on index, and write a pattern of sector headers and data sectors. There were "splices" with strong synchronization patterns, between each section in this diagram. Index header data header data... Index That is the classical "format" operation. SSD drives don't have that form of storage. They're not magnetic, they have a physical reality, they're arranged as a large array of storage bits, with a mostly random access structure. You never get to "redefine" the storage structure in there. Modern hard drives, there is a sync structure which is laid down at the factory. It is on each surface on each platter. That is called embedded servo. You no longer "format" the entire surface. The most you can do to a modern drive, is "write" to each thing labeled "data" in the above track description. So it would be inappropriate to use the word "format" to describe that process. To erase the contents of a hard drive, just write zeros to each data sector. ******* To transfer a hard drive to an SSD, you can "clone" the drive. Strictly speaking a "clone" is the most exact copy you can make. "Compromise clones" take the form of transferring a 1TB hard drive to a 256GB SSD, and resizing the largest partition, so the thing will fit. Such a thing is an "information clone", in that the same intelligence is in the copy, but strictly speaking one of the partitions, the size changed, so it is not an exact copy. And it is also possible that some disk identifiers got changed as well, in the interest of giving every device some unique identifiers. Look to the SSD maker for "clone" software. It could be on their download page on the web site. You can resize the partitions on the hard drive first, to encourage an exact copy. But a safer option, is to leave the hard drive as is, and find some good cloning software, that makes the new drive at least "consistent", so that it can boot OK. Since your hard drive was prepared by Windows 7, it has megabyte alignment, and the cloning to the SSD should also have megabyte alignment. Such an alignment aligns things with the flash pages of the SSD, and reduces unnecessary writes or data movements after the fact. So you're already covered there. ******* My next steps would be: 1) Go to SSD maker site, look for free clone or copy software. 2) If not available, use Macrium Reflect Free. (Green button, lower left corner) http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx Reflect Free can clone. If the last partition on the drive, as seen in Disk Management, is the big one, Macrium will also automatically re-size that last partition to fit. Otherwise, if no software is helping you do this job the way that you want, you may need partition management software, of which there are free ones as well. While Windows 7 can shrink a partition to 50% of its original size, that is frequently not sufficient when moving a hard drive to an SSD. Personally, I would prefer not to make changes to the source drive. If I was doing maintenance on someone else's computer, I would make a backup copy of it first. With a backup in hand, I could then mess around with the source disk as I saw fit. The thing is, some of the free partition managers are not bug free, and even something as trivial as moving a FAT32 has caused corruption with them. If you must modify the source disk, making a backup first means not having to say you were sorry, to a friend. The sad thing about this list, is it doesn't even list all the free ones. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...oning_software This is an example of a free one. Note that when a download comes from CNET, it can have toolbars. Not every download has them, but I have to waste considerable time checking them with my toolset, before I even consider double-clicking on them. Just be careful. I hate having CNET as the only source of a file, due to "toolbar suckage" - it means me having to write a lecture on how to avoid toolbars, and this post is long enough. http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html HTH, Paul |
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Two questions about reloading Windows & bringing programs over
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Two questions about reloading Windows & bringing programs over
Wildman said on 7/4/2014 4:22 PM: On Fri, 04 Jul 2014 20:07:47 +0000, Pat O'Donahue wrote: A friend called me with Windows 7 OS problems, so I had him buy a new SSD disk and put it in his Dell. He's gonna install the OS onto the new disk, and then use the original disk as the D drive to move his data and programs over to the new C drive. Two basic questions: a) Does formatting mean anything to an SSD disk? Yes, it is a disk and must be formatted like any other disk. b) Is there an easy way to bring his programs over AFAIK there is no way to copy programs from one drive to another because most program's files are spread around in different folders. Plus, the program may have needed registry entries. The programs will have to be reinstalled. If one or more of the programs happened to be one of the rare cases where the program is completely contained in a single folder and does not use the registry then it could be copied. +1 You can find a lot of .ini files for some programs and copy them. Over the years I've got a long laundry list of all the little data files for programs I use. Crap Cleaner has an ini (if you set it) Pidgin IM has data in home directory. Thunderbird Firefox Google Chrome Filezilla Notepad++ Themes Sticky notes for windows 8 etc etc. Just don't wholesale copy your home directory or the entire AppData folder (hidden) under your home. You'll have more issues after that then you had before. |
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Two questions about reloading Windows & bringing programs over
"Don Phillipson" wrote:
"Pat O'Donahue" wrote in message ... He's gonna install the OS onto the new disk, and then use the original disk as the D drive to move his data and programs over to the new C drive. Two basic questions: a) Does formatting mean anything to an SSD disk? b) Is there an easy way to bring his programs over Do the vendors of SSDs really refuse to answer these questions? Vendors of HDDs provide both such information and free utilities to clone drives and instal OSs. I followed Samsung's directions without experiencing any problems. Win 7 Desktop with 1 TB Hdd with two partitions C/D. C had under 350 GB. SSD 500 GB attached with external USB and Samsung's software made SSD the new C and the old C into F. Physical install of SSD and everything worked on boot. -- Zaidy036 |
#10
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Two questions about reloading Windows & bringing programs over
On Fri, 04 Jul 2014 20:22:00 GMT "Wildman" wrote in
article On Fri, 04 Jul 2014 20:07:47 +0000, Pat O'Donahue wrote: The programs will have to be reinstalled. If one or more of the programs happened to be one of the rare cases where the program is completely contained in a single folder and does not use the registry then it could be copied. The don't need to be reinstalled if you create a backup image of the old drive and restore it to the new one. If upgrading the operating system, this won't work as the responder said. |
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Two questions about reloading Windows & bringing programs over
Jason wrote, On 7/5/2014 12:32 PM:
On Fri, 04 Jul 2014 20:22:00 GMT "Wildman" wrote in article On Fri, 04 Jul 2014 20:07:47 +0000, Pat O'Donahue wrote: The programs will have to be reinstalled. If one or more of the programs happened to be one of the rare cases where the program is completely contained in a single folder and does not use the registry then it could be copied. The don't need to be reinstalled if you create a backup image of the old drive and restore it to the new one. If upgrading the operating system, this won't work as the responder said. If the op's friend is going to do what the op said (install Windows on the new disk - the SSD) then it would seem that creating an image is not part of that plan and consistent with the subject (Reloading Windows..) -- ...winston msft mvp consumer apps |
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Two questions about reloading Windows & bringing programs over
On Sat, 05 Jul 2014 14:19:36 -0400, . . .winston wrote:
Jason wrote, On 7/5/2014 12:32 PM: On Fri, 04 Jul 2014 20:22:00 GMT "Wildman" wrote in article On Fri, 04 Jul 2014 20:07:47 +0000, Pat O'Donahue wrote: The programs will have to be reinstalled. If one or more of the programs happened to be one of the rare cases where the program is completely contained in a single folder and does not use the registry then it could be copied. The don't need to be reinstalled if you create a backup image of the old drive and restore it to the new one. If upgrading the operating system, this won't work as the responder said. If the op's friend is going to do what the op said (install Windows on the new disk - the SSD) then it would seem that creating an image is not part of that plan and consistent with the subject (Reloading Windows..) But nonetheless a prudent idea. Besides that, although it's been a while, ISTR that when I install a new OS or get a new computer, it's nice to have the old drive around as a reference. That way I can easily see what programs used to be installed, and so I can reinstall some, and if I'm being sensible, *not* reinstall (many) others. -- Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch) |
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Two questions about reloading Windows & bringing programs over
Gene E. Bloch wrote, On 7/5/2014 3:44 PM:
On Sat, 05 Jul 2014 14:19:36 -0400, . . .winston wrote: Jason wrote, On 7/5/2014 12:32 PM: On Fri, 04 Jul 2014 20:22:00 GMT "Wildman" wrote in article On Fri, 04 Jul 2014 20:07:47 +0000, Pat O'Donahue wrote: The programs will have to be reinstalled. If one or more of the programs happened to be one of the rare cases where the program is completely contained in a single folder and does not use the registry then it could be copied. The don't need to be reinstalled if you create a backup image of the old drive and restore it to the new one. If upgrading the operating system, this won't work as the responder said. If the op's friend is going to do what the op said (install Windows on the new disk - the SSD) then it would seem that creating an image is not part of that plan and consistent with the subject (Reloading Windows..) But nonetheless a prudent idea. Besides that, although it's been a while, ISTR that when I install a new OS or get a new computer, it's nice to have the old drive around as a reference. That way I can easily see what programs used to be installed, and so I can reinstall some, and if I'm being sensible, *not* reinstall (many) others. I agree, imaging (saved to external media) imo is a good option for the op's friend even when reloading an os clean is the plan. We all need to declutter as time goes by. Hopefully we'll be able to remember to do so (as time goes by). This newsgroup could use some decluttering too. The OT garbage of late is a perfect example of why usenet will continually lose readers. -- ...winston msft mvp consumer apps |
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Two questions about reloading Windows & bringing programs over
On Sat, 05 Jul 2014 14:29:48 -0700, Charles Lindbergh wrote:
On Sat, 05 Jul 2014 17:16:16 -0400, ". . .winston" wrote: Gene E. Bloch wrote, On 7/5/2014 3:44 PM: On Sat, 05 Jul 2014 14:19:36 -0400, . . .winston wrote: Jason wrote, On 7/5/2014 12:32 PM: On Fri, 04 Jul 2014 20:22:00 GMT "Wildman" wrote in article On Fri, 04 Jul 2014 20:07:47 +0000, Pat O'Donahue wrote: The programs will have to be reinstalled. If one or more of the programs happened to be one of the rare cases where the program is completely contained in a single folder and does not use the registry then it could be copied. The don't need to be reinstalled if you create a backup image of the old drive and restore it to the new one. If upgrading the operating system, this won't work as the responder said. If the op's friend is going to do what the op said (install Windows on the new disk - the SSD) then it would seem that creating an image is not part of that plan and consistent with the subject (Reloading Windows..) But nonetheless a prudent idea. Besides that, although it's been a while, ISTR that when I install a new OS or get a new computer, it's nice to have the old drive around as a reference. That way I can easily see what programs used to be installed, and so I can reinstall some, and if I'm being sensible, *not* reinstall (many) others. I agree, imaging (saved to external media) imo is a good option for the op's friend even when reloading an os clean is the plan. We all need to declutter as time goes by. Hopefully we'll be able to remember to do so (as time goes by). This newsgroup could use some decluttering too. The OT garbage of late is a perfect example of why usenet will continually lose readers. But you Winston participate in the OT discussions. I suppose your contributions are so worthy of note they do not qualify as clutter? Can you actually do that with a straight face? Astonishing... -- Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch) |
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Two questions about reloading Windows & bringing programs over
Charles Lindbergh wrote, On 7/5/2014 5:29 PM:
On Sat, 05 Jul 2014 17:16:16 -0400, ". . .winston" wrote: Gene E. Bloch wrote, On 7/5/2014 3:44 PM: On Sat, 05 Jul 2014 14:19:36 -0400, . . .winston wrote: Jason wrote, On 7/5/2014 12:32 PM: On Fri, 04 Jul 2014 20:22:00 GMT "Wildman" wrote in article On Fri, 04 Jul 2014 20:07:47 +0000, Pat O'Donahue wrote: The programs will have to be reinstalled. If one or more of the programs happened to be one of the rare cases where the program is completely contained in a single folder and does not use the registry then it could be copied. The don't need to be reinstalled if you create a backup image of the old drive and restore it to the new one. If upgrading the operating system, this won't work as the responder said. If the op's friend is going to do what the op said (install Windows on the new disk - the SSD) then it would seem that creating an image is not part of that plan and consistent with the subject (Reloading Windows..) But nonetheless a prudent idea. Besides that, although it's been a while, ISTR that when I install a new OS or get a new computer, it's nice to have the old drive around as a reference. That way I can easily see what programs used to be installed, and so I can reinstall some, and if I'm being sensible, *not* reinstall (many) others. I agree, imaging (saved to external media) imo is a good option for the op's friend even when reloading an os clean is the plan. We all need to declutter as time goes by. Hopefully we'll be able to remember to do so (as time goes by). This newsgroup could use some decluttering too. The OT garbage of late is a perfect example of why usenet will continually lose readers. But you Winston participate in the OT discussions. I suppose your contributions are so worthy of note they do not qualify as clutter? I'll make an exception this time and recommend others follow the same approach. It's easy to declutter this forum. Just don't respond to you. -- ...winston msft mvp consumer apps |
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