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Moving current Windows 7 to a SSD

K

Kolvir

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 21, 2014
34
1
Iowa
I'd like some advice on the best way to accomplish this.

I have an upgraded Mac Pro ('09 ->10) with several hard drives. Video card with no boot screen, using bootchamp. Currently 10.12.6, but would upgrade that first. I've been lazy about swapping my original GPU back in to do the upgrade.

Hard Drives:
750 GB SSD in the second optical bay as the OS X boot drive.
640 GB Mac drive in bay 1
1 TB Windows 7 boot drive bay 2
3 TB split partition half Mac/half Windows bay 3.
This setup is kinda odd as the drives were added gradually over time.

I want to add a bootable Windows 7 500 GB SSD, bay 4 if possible, but things can be swapped. Will need to use bootchamp with High Sierra(that still work)?

Is there anyway to transfer my existing Windows installation to the New SSD?(trimming it down to under 500GB first) Am I stuck with a new install? Any kind of cloning options?
I don't think I have my W7 install disc anymore, is it downloadable somewhere if I need a fresh install, and can I use my current serial?

Are there issues with any SSDs being Windows bootable? Do I need a certain brand, model, or bay location?
 
Kolvir said:
I'd like some advice on the best way to accomplish this.

I have an upgraded Mac Pro ('09 ->10) with several hard drives. Video card with no boot screen, using bootchamp. Currently 10.12.6, but would upgrade that first. I've been lazy about swapping my original GPU back in to do the upgrade.

Hard Drives:
750 GB SSD in the second optical bay as the OS X boot drive.
640 GB Mac drive in bay 1
1 TB Windows 7 boot drive bay 2
3 TB split partition half Mac/half Windows bay 3.
This setup is kinda odd as the drives were added gradually over time.

I want to add a bootable Windows 7 500 GB SSD, bay 4 if possible, but things can be swapped. Will need to use bootchamp with High Sierra(that still work)?

Is there anyway to transfer my existing Windows installation to the New SSD?(trimming it down to under 500GB first) Am I stuck with a new install? Any kind of cloning options?
I don't think I have my W7 install disc anymore, is it downloadable somewhere if I need a fresh install, and can I use my current serial?

Are there issues with any SSDs being Windows bootable? Do I need a certain brand, model, or bay location?
Click to expand...

BootChamp can work in HS with SIP disabled.

WinClone (MacOS) can clone your Windows partition. I believe something like Clonezilla (Linux) can do it as well.

Not sure if you can download the W7 ISO file from MS, you better check their website or ask their online support. A genuine personal use serial should be re-usable.

Never heard any issue to use SSD in W7. In my own experience, any native SATA port work.
 
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Kolvir said:
I don't think I have my W7 install disc anymore, is it downloadable somewhere if I need a fresh install, and can I use my current serial?
Click to expand...
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7

You'll need a full (or never used OEM) product key. If you can't remember it, the free Belarc Advisor (http://www.belarc.com/ba5.html?B) will display all of your license keys:

  • Microsoft - Windows 10 Professional (x64) 00330-80000-00000-AA198 (Key: VQDR2-6MRGT-3WTVG-9XG9T-7QJ83)
  • Microsoft - Windows SDK for Visual Studio 2008 Headers and Libraries 12345-111-1111111-60597
 
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Found my Windows 7 install disc if I need it.

I've checked out winclone; one thing I'm not sure of is if it will allow me to clone the 1 TB drive to the smaller 500 GB SSD, even if it isn't using more than the SSD. Has anyone been able to clone to a smaller drive?

I've dug around in their forums but haven't found an answer. I may have to post there.

I haven't done a fresh windows install in a while. If needed, do I need to do it through bootcamp, or can I start up from my install disc and install that way and then install the apple drivers separately? I seem to remember the last time I installed windows that I had problems using the bootcamp installer, but can't remember exactly the issue.
 
Kolvir said:
Found my Windows 7 install disc if I need it.

I've checked out winclone; one thing I'm not sure of is if it will allow me to clone the 1 TB drive to the smaller 500 GB SSD, even if it isn't using more than the SSD. Has anyone been able to clone to a smaller drive?

I've dug around in their forums but haven't found an answer. I may have to post there.

I haven't done a fresh windows install in a while. If needed, do I need to do it through bootcamp, or can I start up from my install disc and install that way and then install the apple drivers separately? I seem to remember the last time I installed windows that I had problems using the bootcamp installer, but can't remember exactly the issue.
Click to expand...

This might be what you need:

Shrink a Winclone Image
https://support.twocanoes.com/hc/en-us/articles/202479423-Shrink-a-Winclone-Image
 
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with both my Samsung and my crucial SSD in the box was instructions on where to get there free HD clone software, used that to clone my win 7 install from a HD partition to my SSD.
worth a try
 
Although I didn't carefully analyze the link I provided above for shrinking a Windows installation, I have used previous versions of WinClone to move my installation to a smaller sized drive and it was very easy.

A WinClone option created a image file of my Windows installation at the minimum size possible by removing any cache files and unused free space. I could then use this minimum sized image to clone to the new drive, and it would expand it to the maximum size available on the new disk drive as part of the WinClone process. All my data and program files were included in the clone.

I would then again use WinClone to create a backup of this new installation and update it as necessary.

I hope this works as well for you ... good luck!
 
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hfg said:
Although I didn't carefully analyze the link I provided above for shrinking a Windows installation, I have used previous versions of WinClone to move my installation to a smaller sized drive and it was very easy.

A WinClone option created a image file of my Windows installation at the minimum size possible by removing any cache files and unused free space. I could then use this minimum sized image to clone to the new drive, and it would expand it to the maximum size available on the new disk drive as part of the WinClone process. All my data and program files were included in the clone.

I would then again use WinClone to create a backup of this new installation and update it as necessary.

I hope this works as well for you ... good luck!
Click to expand...

That sounds great. It took me so long to tweak my current windows install to my liking that I dread having to do a new installation. Now I just have to decide what gets to be on the new SSD and what stays spinning.
 
Another question:

Do I have to have enough free space overall to make an image of the BC drive, 1TB, before I can shrink it and restore it? I don't have that much free space unless I ditch my mac backups.
 
Kolvir said:
Another question:

Do I have to have enough free space overall to make an image of the BC drive, 1TB, before I can shrink it and restore it? I don't have that much free space unless I ditch my mac backups.
Click to expand...

Can you use an internal/external temporary drive to store the images rather than your main OS X drive which has limited free space?
 
Windows 7 and Windows 10 64 bit both work fine in bootcamp from SATA SSDs. I have Windows 10 loaded on a mac pro 3,1 with 16gb ram. Its on a 256gb ssd from a macbook in one of the sata bays. If you load and activate windows 7 pro 64 bit, then install the bootcamp drivers, you can install windows 10 and it will be fully activated and functional. I may have needed to manually reinstall the realtek sound driver thats all. It would be a similar story with a 4,1 or 5,1.

You should be able to clone an existing bootcamp installation to an ssd as well. If you have a samsung ssd then use the samsung cloning software as its really good. I am not sure if the cloned drive will show up in the boot selector on the mac side. If you dont have a flashed video card in your mac pro that could be a real pain.

I also have Windows 7 64 bit running on a mac pro 1,1. Though if you go that way instead of 32bit you need to manually install the bootcamp drivers and even modify the windows install disk or it will not boot. I am not sure its worth the trouble unless you have a 1,1 with a lot of ram you would like to address. Next time I would just load 32 bit windows 7 and 10 in this machine.

The 3,1 is also running Sierra with DosDude's installer hack but its interesting that it was able to run Windows 10 natively, without a hack, and very, very well. You do need the drivers (from bootcamp) though, like any PC.
 
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I've got Win10 Pro installed on a Samsung 850 EVO SSD. It was originally upgraded from Win7 on an old spinner HD, but I very easily copied it to the SDD using Paragon's awesome Hard Disk Manager software, and without issues. This is exceptionally good software for copying, repairing and changing partition profiles/types, as well as doing a range of things that no other tools do.
 
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