The only other alternative is to do a complete install of Windows 7 and this is even worse than the above procedure. That's what I thought too, until I recently found an easier way of doing things, and even better -- the tool to use is FREE!
The tool or software I'm referring to is the Aomei Partition Assistant (download here). You can download the Home Edition and it will work for your desktop or notebook. As of this writing, the latest version available is version 4.0.
Download the Aomei Partition Assistant and install it. No reboot required.
This guide was done using my notebook (Dell Latitude D630) so I connected the SSD to the notebook via a USB to SATA adapter. On a desktop, things are a bit simpler by just installing the SSD on a vacant SATA port.
Launch the application, then click on the system/boot drive. On a conventional install, the boot drive should have two (2) partitions. The reserved partition (usually 100MB in size) and the system partition (where Windows 7 is installed).
Click on the "reserved" (or System Reserved) partition and click on Copy Partition. A similar window like below is opened. Copy to the "Unallocated" drive which pertains to the SSD. Do the same for the system partition. You may opt to resize the system partition to fit the SSD. Then "Apply" the change.
You will be prompted to reboot. And before the operating system boots, the PreOS mode of Aomei kicks in to copy the partitions. Once done the computer will reboot. At this point, you can intervene and shutdown the computer to unplug the hard drive and replace it with the SSD.
I followed the same procedure outlined above. And I could feel the difference of the upgrade. Aomei Partition Assistant has made my upgrade easy, straight-forward and hassle-free.
This procedure can also be used to upgrade to a bigger faster drive or to a RAID volume, not just an SSD.
