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AS SSD was until recently the only benchmark created specifically for SSD testing. For the most part, AS SSD shows us “worst case scenario” SSD transfer speeds because of its use of incompressible data. Enthusiasts often prefer AS SSD for this reason, as they seek to see minimum performance as well as maximum performance. AS SSD also shows us if the partition being tested is aligned properly. AS SSD can be downloaded for free by clicking on the “AS SSD BENCHMARK VER 1.7” heading just above this paragraph.
After downloading AS SSD and letting it finish its test run, we get the above results screen. Take note of the upper left box with a heading of “Corsair Force LS SSD.” We see in green the two representations: the top one is the storage driver being used, and the bottom one is the primary storage partition.
As we can see, both are designated as “OK”, indicating proper alignment. If this were not the case, this would appear in red along with a “bad alignment” warning, also in red. At this point, we can now consider this operating system migration to be an unqualified success!
MIGRATION AS A BACKUP METHOD
Migration is also utilized by some more experienced users to create periodic complete backups of their operating system drive. If you have a spare SSD of similar or larger capacity, as you have seen demonstrated here , migration has become a relatively straightforward and uncomplicated process. Whatever your backup schedule is, even if it is best described as “intermittent”, there are some key points when an actual complete drive migration would be preferable to a standard backup. Anytime a significant update is installed, such as Windows every-second-Tuesday-of-the-month updates, is a key time that you might be better served with a complete system backup. Depending how often you run full system antivirus and malware scans, immediately following such a full run of both is an opportune time to do a fresh migration. Bear in mind that each and every time that you do a migration as a backup, make sure that you can boot from the migrated partition before you assume that you have a good backup.
The best possible scenario for using migration as a backup method is to an SSD that is identical to the source SSD. In a previous life, our second identical Samsung 830-Series 128GB SSD used to be paired with its twin brother in a RAID0 configuration. We eventually realized that the second identical SSD had far more value as a complete system backup rather than letting it try to coerce its twin brother into being a fellow speed demon.
As quick and simple as migration is with Paragon’s “Migrate OS to SSD” version 4.0 software, migration as a backup method just got a whole lot easier.
FINAL THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSION
The Paragon “Migrate OS to SSD” version 4.0 migration software has one significant advantage over most competing drive migration or imaging software. “Migrate OS to SSD” operates entirely within Windows, whereas Acronis TrueImage, Norton Ghost, and others operate outside of Windows. The ones that operate outside of Windows reboot into their own environment to facilitate migration of the partition(s). This equates to more steps and at least one additional reboot as compared to Paragon “Migrate OS to SSD.”
Now let’s talk about how much faster the Paragon “Migrate OS to SSD” is at having you migrated and booting from the newly-migrated operating system. Now that we are familiar with the process and the individual steps involved, we ran through the same migration a second time just as a pure elapsed time study.
This involved opening the software, waiting for it to analyze and identify the drives and operating systems, and begin to prompt us to choose our source and destination drives. After specifying to format the destination drive, the formatting and copying processes begin. Once the migration is complete, we then have to go into the motherboard BIOS and change the first boot option to be the destination drive. Finally we boot fully into the freshly-migrated operating system. Total elapsed time was a very impressive 9:10 — that’s nine minutes and ten seconds!
Paragon Software’s “Migrate OS to SSD” 4.0 is easily the most efficient and quickest operating system migration software we have used to date. We were a long-time Acronis TrueImage user, and have utilized variations of Acronis and Norton Ghost that come bundled with new SSDs, and have used Samsung’s own migration software numerous times. It just might be time to kick these to the curb. The ability to operate within the Windows operating system streamlines and accelerates the process significantly. Its “alignment aware” aspects keep our partition alignment concerns in check.
At the regular price of $19.95 for a single license, “Migrate OS to SSD” is an excellent value. At the current price of $11.95 for a single license, it is an absolute steal! Paragon Software’s “Migrate OS to SSD” 4.0 is totally deserving of our “Top Value” award!
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.