Move Windows 8 System partition to new harddrive

2

Currently I have an Intel raid of two drives with the bootable system partition on a mirrored partition.

I want to move this to a new SSD drive outside of the array, and as I only recently rebuilt it I'd rather not reinstall everything again.

Feasible? Previously I might have used Acronis, but my licensed 11.5 (latest) is still not Windows 8 compatible. I am happy to buy an alternative if that is required.

I've read in other posts about CloneZilla live CD, which seems like a possibility, but I will be going from a larger partition of the Intel raid array to a smaller partition on an SSD. Also, I'm not sure whether Windows 8 specifically adds anything to the mix that would cause that to fail.

Ian

Posted 2013-02-18T20:54:15.833

Reputation: 845

If you are looking for product suggestions that wouldn't be on topic for Superuser. – Ramhound – 2013-02-19T13:31:36.857

2I'm looking for a solution. Do you have anything positive to contribute? – Ian – 2013-02-19T14:07:08.560

Answers

2

Well, I've found two possible candidates. The first is to use the Hidden Windows 8 back up and clone

The second option is to try Acronis True Image 2013 which claims Windows 8 support. Fortunately I have a 2011 copy so the upgrade cost is minimal.

Norton Ghost is not currently (18/02/2013) compatible with Windows 8, nor is Acronis workstation backup.

I haven't tried CloneZilla.

EDIT: Update; I've now completed the move successfully. I used TrueImage 2013 to backup my boot partition and then restore it to the new drive. I then changed the bios settings to move the new drive higher on the boot priority list.

Two things of interest:

First, I didn't have to destroy the original partition until I was comfortable that the booting from the new drive was working.

The SSD I bought, Plextor in this case, included a license for software to copy a source hard drive onto the new hard drive. I didn't use this in the end because I couldn't find a way to select only the system partition, not all partitions. Apparently it is common for the SSD to come with a license for some software, so check in the docs to see where to download it from. Might be a suitable free alternative.

In summary, there was no issue moving from one partition on a striped raid drive to a new SSD.

Ian

Posted 2013-02-18T20:54:15.833

Reputation: 845

Asked: 2013-02-18T20:54:15.833

Viewed: 7 538 times

Active: 2013-02-20T15:59:22.157