I have read things from here from time to time when I have had a problem, but I never joined or was able to provide anything new, but I may have something now (unless someone else figured this out already and I just couldn't find it lol
)So, here was my problem - My years old very first 60GB SSD was degrading. It was still working, but it's health was bad. So, I needed a new one. Many of you have probably had this issue. The problem (and I've had to live through it before) is that I have a lot of copyright saves that I know won't work. Just FYI, I use the HDHomeRun Prime on Comcast. But, thankfully, I found a solution that actually works. New SSD running great with all my recordings playing back perfectly - and all for free!
What you will need - DriveImage XML, your current WORKING drive with windows, and your Win 7 install media
1 - Unplug or remove your current windows drive and Install windows on the new SSD. Don't create any partitions, just do an install with the unformated drive. This needs done so that you get a copy of the ~100 MB "System Reserved" partition that is created. I have tried cloning this before and it never seems to work well and I end up with an un-bootable drive. I am sure there are other ways, but I know this way works.
2 - Go through the windows setup all the way until you get to the desktop. Don't worry about activation or proper settings or anything because we are not keeping this windows installation.
3 - Verify the "System Rerserved" partition is present in Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management. (When I tried installing on a partition this was not present and was included in the windows install partition, but since we aren't keeping that, that is no good).
4 - Put your current drive back in along with the new drive and boot from the CURRENT drive. If you are trying with a laptop, you can try connecting the new drive through USB if you have an adapter.
5 - Open Disk Management and select the NEW drive. Right click and "shrink" your NEW Drive's Windows partition to greater than or equal to your CURRENT drive size (as close as you can but never smaller). This is important so you can later "extend" your drive and get to use the entire volume. Leave the remaining space "undefined" (black bar).
6 - Install and Run DriveImage XML - its free.
7 - Select "Drive-to-Drive" and select your CURRENT drive (probably C) and click next.
8 - Leave the Hot Imaging Strategy to "Try Volume Locking First" (although it will likely fail, but don't worry) AND select "Raw mode" then click next. Raw mode is important because it copies your old drive to your new drive bit by bit to the new drive and ensures it's an exact copy. This is also why its important to "shrink" your new drive partition first because it will make it an exact copy and if it is smaller than your new drive, your new drive will be stuck being the same size (I couldn't find a way to recover the lost volume).
9 - Select your NEW drives windows partition that you shrunk down before and click next. The windows install you did before will now be erased which is why we didn't care about the settings before.
10 - The program will summarize what you are doing and once you click copy will ask you to verify by typing in the physical drive description to proceed. Once you do this, the copying process will commence.
Do NOT be worried if it tells you your new drive cannot be "locked" - just click ignore.
11 - Have a sandwich because the copying will take a little bit. My small 60GB SSD I was replacing took over 20 minutes to complete.
12 - Once the copying is complete, you should shutdown your computer and unplug or remove your OLD drive and set up your computer to boot from the new drive. It should start up exactly the same as your old drive now.
13 - Open up Disk Management again and you should see your new drive with the still un-allocated space. Right click the windows partition and select extend to get that space back.
14 - Enjoy! Your windows should be exactly the same as it was before with literally no change. Access should be the same and when you open up WMC all your media should play with no issues from playready or anything like that.
The best part of going about it this way is if it doesn't work, no biggie, your old windows install disk is still there and now a great backup just in case. Get a case and save the drive.
I hope this helps any of you trying to deal with needing a new drive. Unfortunately this only works if your current drive is still in good shape.
-Deez
