Dell Precision M4600 transfer Windows from included HD to SSD

Did anyone successfully create and transfer a backup of the included OS and apps that Dell provides from the Dell supplied hard drive to an SSD that you used to replace the original hard drive?

A post in the M4600 lounge seems to indicate that this cannot be done and I was wondering if anyone who replaced the original Dell hard drive with their own (e.g., SSD) was able to transfer the Windows 7 OS and apps to the new hard drive without issues.

 

Why transfer it? It's always better to do a fresh install onto a SSD. You can find all the apps and drivers on Dell's support site. IMO, partitioning or having a separate drive for data and OS/software, makes formatting and reinstallation much simpler.

 

To do a fresh install legaly, you need to have a Windows disc and license that allows you to do that. What comes with a Dell laptop does not - they do not provide you with Windows media, only some options for recovery, if you corrupt your Windows partition. However, certainly upgrading a hard drive does not void your Windows license with Microsoft. Therefore, if you want to use the SSD as the system drive or as the only drive, you are only left with one option - backing up the original HD and restoring it onto the SSD.

Even with Windows media, if you want to fork over more dollars for two Windows licenses, where you really only need one, it is still a royal pain in the rear to have to download and install everything from scratch. People that have corporate Windows licenses or are really meticulous about what software is preinstalled on their shiny new laptop go through this onerous process, but most of us that want to do something as simple as to upgrade a hard drive can live with the software that Dell auto-installs, with possibly a few software removes for the real junk, after the fact.

 

Would have to be less than the size of the SSD. This isn't mSATA, is it?

I know some Intel SSDs SKUs come with a kit with a USB adapter to help you migrate from your old laptop HDD to the SSD:

SSDSA2CW120G3B5

They used to also provide software, though I'm not sure if that's still the case.

 

The windows media I got with the M4600, is a windows 7 business dvd with Dell printed on it, just like every other windows disc I've had from Dell going back to 2k, I didn't get a dell drivers and bloatware disc though which is a first.


I did a reinstall from the media, only downloaded and installed the minimum amount of drivers and basically no dell suites, disabled paging, backup, system restore, etc etc etc etc and made an image with acronis after that.

The Dell image on the original hard drive would have filled up over a quarter of my mSata SSD before I did anything with it.

 

Yes, but if you get Windows 7 Ultimate, the Windows media is not included with the M4600. It says so right on the customization form and I did not see any option to choose otherwise.

In any event, I don't want to do a full reinstall of the OS, find all of the drivers on the Dell page and install them. I just want to image it in half an hour, unattended. Then, plug in the SSD and restore the image, also unattended, and be done with the whole process.

 

Give Dell a call they will send you Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit DVD for free . I used acronis and didn't have any of the problems that you are having

 

If Acronis will do the job (or Norton Ghost), then I don't need the original DVD. That's the crux of my question. Can a third party backup app be used to transfer the Windows OS from the included HD to my SSD, allowing me to replace the original HD with my SSD.

 

I am Still not sure why you don't want to take 30 minutes and do a clean install but yes Acronis worked for me

 

The short answer, which I gave in a previous reply is that, yes 30 mins will be used for the Windows install. But, then I have to find, download and install all of the 1,001 drivers (well, I count 46, actually, with a few being mutually exclusive depending on hardware selections) with I don't know how many reboots in between. I don't want to take the time to do that (and possibly miss a driver or two, in the process).