Category Archives: Windows 8

Cloning Windows 8 from HDD to SSD

  By wolffhaven | August 24, 2013 - 11:47 am |
3 Comments

The only software that I could find that actually cloned Windows 8 from a HDD to SSD was Aomei Partition Assistant Standard Edition.

- I tried creating a System Restore Image from Windows 8

- I tried Symantec Ghost

- I also tried the software the came with my specific SSD drive, Intel Data Migration Software.

 

All to no avail. They would all fail to boot and point me in the direction of a System Repair disk, which would kick off an automatic repair, which would ultimately fail. I also tried manually recreating the BCD but that also failed.

 

This may have been because I was running fairly unconventional partition configuration. My actual Windows installation partition was not the first partition on the disk. This is because I formerly had a Windows 7 installation on the disk before I dual booted Windows 8 and then eventually blew the Windows 7 partition away.

 

I also had a Windows 8.1 VHD file inside the first partition which I used to native boot. This allowed me to trial the Windows 8.1 Preview but also take advantage of bare metal performance.

 

So I’m not sure whether it was my screwy partitions, or the fact that I had a weird boot configuration or maybe none of the above but nothing worked for me except the AOMEI software.

 

 

Pre-Requisites

 

- Aomei Partition Assistant Standard Edition (http://download.cnet.com/AOMEI-Partition-Assistant-Standard-Edition/3000-18512_4-75118871.html )

- USB to SATA adapter

- An SSD drive

 

How I migrated the HDD to the new SSD

 

Connect the SSD to your computer via the USB to SATA converter.


 

Check Disk Management to make sure that it has shown up.

 


 

 

Download and install the software on the system that you would like to clone.

 


 

Open up the software and select the Migrate OS to SSD or HDD.

 


 

Click Next.

 


 

Select your SSD drive.

 


 

This next screen will show you the size of the new Windows Partition after the migration has taken place, you can increase the size if you would like to have some more free space then what you currently have.

 


 

Click Finish.

 


 

Click Apply and then it will reboot.

 


 

Click Proceed and then the machine will reboot and start cloning the Hard Drive.

 

 


 

Click Yes.

 


 

The machine will reboot and then bring up a window like this.

 


 

Once it has finished the migration, the machine will reboot again. Now it’s time to get your screwdriver out and swap out the old hard drive and put in the new SSD drive.

Install Windows To Go in a VHD on a USB Hard Drive

  By wolffhaven | July 1, 2013 - 7:15 am | ,
6 Comments

Ever wanted to boot Windows 8 from a VHD file on a USB Hard drive? Ever wanted to take Windows To Go for a test drive? Probably not, I’ll admit, it’s kinda obscure. However, with USB 3.0 becoming more prevalent in our new Laptops and Workstations, it makes this kind of thing a lot more viable in today’s environment. What can you do with such an installation? Well, for me, it means not lumping around my laptop everywhere. It also means, I can have a whole environment, ready to go, copied on to a USB hard drive. I can then copy that VHD file and have a backup sitting on a computer somewhere if I ever need it. Plus, it’s just fun to do.

WARNING: - This will break things if not done correctly. Don’t do this on your production machine. I’d highly recommend using a spare workstation or laptop to get this running. I’ve found you can actually just do this on a Hyper-V VM. Just offline the USB DRIVE and mount as an IDE drive in the Hyper-V VM.

Prerequisites

Software

  • Windows 7 USB DVD Tool
  • Image X – You can also get this from the Windows Automated Installation Kit.
  • Windows 8 Enterprise ISO

Hardware

  • USB stick 4GB to boot from.
  • USB Stick or USB Hard drive (probably 20 gb at least).

 

Build a bootable USB stick

Install the Windows 7 USB DVD tool and open it. Then choose the Windows 8 Enterprise ISO for the source.

Select USB Device.

Select Begin Copying.

This will then go through and copy the files over.

 

Create a Windows 8 VHD File

Open up Computer Mangement, and navigate to Disk Management. Right click and Create VHD.

Specify the location of the VHD file, the size and whether you would like it to be a VHD or a VHDX. It’s recommended also that if you’re using this for anything but testing then you should use a Fixed Size disk as you will get a performance boost.

**NOTE**- The VHD file needs to be on a Basic disk. This won’t work with Dynamic Disks.

Once that has been created, go back into Computer Management. Right click Disk Management and select Attach VHD

It may already be attached. If so skip this step.

Intialize the disk and create a New Simple Volume. Take note of the Drive Letter.

Mount the Windows 8 ISO.

 

Install the OS on the VHD file

Open an elevated Command Prompt and navigate to the location of ImageX. At the command prompt, type the following

imagex /apply M:\sources\install.wim 1 K:

Where M: is the drive letter where you have mounted your Windows 8 ISO and K: is the drive letter of the VHD file.

 

Boot from the bootable USB Stick

When the OS boots up, hit SHIFT + F10 at the following screen.

 

Run Diskpart at the command prompt. Type the following italicized text at the command prompt.

X:\Sources>diskpart

Type the following commands

DISKPART> Lis vol

In my case E:\ is my USB Hard Drive.

DISKPART> Select vdisk file=E:\windows.vhdx (E: is the USB DRIVE)

DISKPART> Attach Vdisk

DISKPART> Lis vol

In my case F:\ is the mounted VHD file.

DISKPART> Exit

X:\Sources> Bcdboot F:\Windows /s E: /f ALL /v (E: is the USB DRIVE, F: is the mounted VHD file)

To find out what all those switches mean, have a look at this web page. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd744347(v=ws.10).aspx

X:\Sources> Bootsect /nt60 E: /force (E: is the USB Drive).

To find out what all the switches fot the Bootsect command are have a look at this web page. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749177(v=ws.10).aspx

X:\Sources> Wpeutil reboot

Now reboot, take out the bootable usb stick that we used to boot up.

You can also use this to install other Operating Systems. 😀

 

I used the following links to make up this guide. Hope this helps and enjoy!

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825709.aspx

http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/win8vhdonusb

http://www.rmprepusb.com/tutorials/win8togo

http://blogs.technet.com/b/haroldwong/archive/2012/08/18/how-to-create-windows-8-vhd-for-boot-to-vhd-using-simple-easy-to-follow-steps.aspx

http://scn.sap.com/community/events/innojam/blog/2013/05/07/how-to-install-windows-8-into-a-virtual-harddrive

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/GuideToInstallingAndBootingWindows8DeveloperPreviewOffAVHDVirtualHardDisk.aspx