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PARAGON MIGRATE OS TO SSD IN ACTION
Our migration today will use as the source disk a Samsung 830-series 128GB SSD. It has been recently backed up to an identical Samsung 830-series 128GB SSD. We have uninstalled Samsung’s migration software and the Samsung Magician software. The source drive is ready for migration.
Our destination drive is a Corsair Force LS Series 240GB SSD, which we recently reviewed here. Above we see Disk Management’s diagram of the drive partitions. In the top row, we see the primary partition of a little over 107GB (the 11.9GB partition to the right is for overprovisioning), and the small “system reserved” partition.
The second row shows a single partition of 223.57GB. Corsair uses a default amount of 7% of available drive capacity for overprovisioning. Subtracting the 16.4GB / 7% from the 240GB raw capacity leaves us with the 223.57GB of usable storage.
INSTALLING THE PARAGON MIGRATE OS TO SSD SOFTWARE
The Paragon “Migrate OS to SSD” version 4.0 software is downloaded from Paragon Software here. When you purchase the product, you will receive by e-mail your product key and serial number. When you download the software, choose the “run” option. The first screen you will see will be the product key and serial number entry screen.
Enter the Product Key (which can be copied and pasted), then enter the serial number in the four lower blocks and click “OK”.
After your product key and serial number are authenticated, you will see the above screen, which states “To continue, click “Next””.
This brings us to the inevitable end-user license agreement screen. Click the upper button to accept the license terms, and then “Next” to continue.
Next we receive a “Customer Information” screen. Entering any info into the “User Name” and “Organization” fields is entirely optional, but we need to pay attention to the two buttons toward the bottom of this screen. If there is more than one user account on the computer you are installing this software on, you will likely want to select the second “Only for me” option. Access to this software by inexperienced users is NOT recommended. Click on the lower button “Only for me”, then click “Next” to continue.
The next screen shows the destination folder that the install wizard will install the software to. The default location is fine; click “Next” to continue.
Now we see the “Ready to install the Program” screen. This is your last chance to go back and make any changes, or to bail on the install! Click “Install” to proceed.
“The InstallShield Wizard has successfully installed Paragon Migrate OS to SSD 4.0. Click “Finish” to exit the wizard.” Now that we have our migration software installed, let’s get right to the actual migration!
Thanks for a great review.
Thanks for a great review, without which I probably would be sitting pondering over how to approach for a lot longer. Your review shed light on all (for me) relevant topics, plus ended research for software alternatives.
I have a source HDD that’s bigger than the destination SSD. I know the software can handle that, since all the data fits on the new SSD. The SSD will simply have a smaller partition with less free space. But I have a question: In the migration process, will the Paragon software shrink the source partition? Also, does it really change the drive letters of the source partition, as seen in your screenshots? I’d prefer if either of these didn’t happen. Just in case something goes wrong I’d like to be able to boot from the original HDD with NOTHING CHANGED.
Yes it will shrink the partitions proportionally to fit on the SSD, but no changes are made to the partition sizes on the source HDD. If 1% of the original HDD’s space was for system reserved, and the O/S partition was 30% full and 69% free space, the SSD will have the same percentages used. Yes, it will change the drive letters to have whichever drive you are booting from be the ‘C’ drive. If after migration, you still want to boot from your old HDD, pick the HDD in your BIOS to boot from, and it will again show up as the ‘C’ drive. Windows always treats the drive you are currently booted from as the ‘C’ drive. Nothing will have changed on the HDD.
Thank you so much for this information! Going to pull the trigger in a few minutes 🙂
Worked like a charm, and faster than I could have imagined! Definitely worth the couple of euros I paid.
Excellent…my personal fav program!
The speed with which it completes the migration is what impresses me about it too. Glad you pulled the trigger and it worked well!
Does the Paragon software take care of the TRIM situation on the drive being migrated to?
I bought the Samsung Pro SSD and cloned my Windows 7 x64 to my Athlon 64 and it boots up in under 30 seconds now. The software is free with Samsung SSD`s.
I installed the Paragon 64 bit version of OS to SSD. It appears to complete the migration process but I do not see my SSD as an option for booting in the BIOS/UEFI. Interestingly, this is a new system with a new drive. When I installed W8.1, I do not have a System Reserved partition. However, the W8.1 boots just fine from the HDD. Can someone tell me how to properly use the Paragon tool assuming that I did something incorrectly? Does the lack of a System Reserved partition on the source drive make a difference? If so, then why does my system boot perfectly without it?
i migrated win7 from an HDD to my new Kingston SSD using Paragon. I boot from the SSD and all of my files seem to be where i left it but when i try to open them, they dont work. what do i do?
Our suggestion might be to reinstall the migrated image, or even start from scratch. Having said that, we NEVER recommend a HDD to SSD migration because their are so many, as yourself, that experience unexplained difficulties and go to the fresh install in the end anyway. FRESH INSTALL RECOMMENDED.
What if I don’t have any partitions on my 2TB HDD. Can it still move the OS? Does it create partitions or how does it work? I currently have about 400GB used on my HDD and am adding a 250GB SDD
You have to have one partition for the OS. It simply duplicates your drive, reducing partition size of you are going from larger to smaller and there is empty space.
Okay, I’ll have to check again, but I think the problem that I may have is that my OS partition is the full 2TB of the drive. Will it be able to fix that or should I just re-install windows completely. I really just don’t want to re-install all of my programs.
So could I just create a new partition somehow and move a bunch of my files over to that?
This software makes an exact copy of your hard drive/SSD. You font create partitions…just follow the instructions.
Yes I think I figured out how to do everything I need using AOMEI Partition Assistant for free. Yeah, I think I figured out what you’re saying, but basically I had to split up my 2tb hdd into two partitions then move all the extra files overto the second partition, then shrink the first partition and clone it over to the ssd. Took a while to move 500GB though…
Hello:
My Toshiba Satellite L505-S6959 (running Win 7 Ultimate w/Bitlocker) Died and I removed the SSD from that and installed it into a Toshiba Satellite _______ that had been running Win 7 Home Premium.
Everything Works EXCEPT I seem to have lost the Network Controller and Ethernet Controller. I downloaded appropriate Network and Ethernet Drivers to a USB and then attempted to let laptop Update with best driver (web and computer).
Still tells me that No driver can be found.
I cannot get to internet and it says No Connections Available………..
I went to a computer store to see about a new laptop and the salesman said to download Paragon Migration software and use that to reclaim the network and ethernet controllers and drivers.
However, from reading this analysis, it doesn’t appear that this is what I should do as I do not want to wipe this SSD clean. I’m not copying from one SSD to another, just using the same SSD that was in one computer and putting it in another computer.
Any Advice as to how to get these controllers back and access the internet and WiFi?
Any Assistance would be greatly appreciated!.
Your only solution is to find out what hardware is in the new laptop that you are trying to do the installation on. Aside from that, Win7 with BitLocker enabled should also pose another problem on the migration no?
Thanks. Bitlocker isn’t enabled right now. I found a great support site and the solutions worked for a lot of folks. However, one solution, registry edit under Local Machine, System, Network, etc… pointed out the fact that the only line of code in that Branch is the default. There should be six lines and mine’s just empty. I’m fairly computer literate but l will have to do some more study in order to I’ll have to copy the registry entries for Network from a working computer. I don’t know if this program can help with that.