Copy hidden Windows 7 recovery volume. How to copy a hidden partition

Attention! Before you start implementing any of the things described below, I strongly recommend that you backup using AiRecovery, as well as copy all personal information from your hard drive!

The process itself consists of several stages:

1. Deploying the extracted OS and configuring it (uninstalling/installing software).

To implement your plan you will need:

• laptop with a working Recovery partition;
• boot disk or USB Windows flash drive PE with ImageX.

After making sure that everything important information copied and you have an AiRecovery DVD backup, boot the laptop with Windows PE.

In the command line window that appears, enter the commands:

Diskpart list disk

The specified commands will launch the utility Diskpart and will display a list of available disks. We are interested in the disk that is installed in the laptop and, judging by its size, it is Disk 0

Select disk 0 list partition

Using these commands, we selected the laptop disk (Disk 0) and get information about the partitions on it (Fig. 3).

Based on the sizes of the existing partitions of the selected disk, we find the partition Recovery. In the example under consideration, this is Section 1.

In order to verify this, let's look at its properties.

Select partition 1 detail partition

Hidden partition properties Recovery are shown in Fig. 4.

Let's make a section Recovery visible by changing its type and looking at its properties again:

Setid id=07 detail partition

Changed properties of the section in Fig. 5

Section properties Recovery dynamic disks GPTs will be different from those above. To change the partition type, instead of the setid id=07 command, you must enter gpt attributes=0X0000000000000000. In this case, the changed partition properties will take effect only after a reboot. Those. You will need to restart the laptop and boot again from Windows PE. IMPORTANT! Before changing properties Recovery section remember the original value of the partition type (command: detail partition)

Close the utility Diskpart and launch notepad (Fig. 6):

Exit notepad

Using notepad, look at the contents of the section Recovery and copy the files with the extension *.swm. To do this, select in notepad File=>Open… and in the window that appears again, change the file type from « Text documents(*.txt)" on "All files"(Fig. 7). Without closing the window "Open" let's go to My computer=> section Recovery(Typical contents of this section are shown in Fig. 8) and using context menu(RMB on the file) copy files with the extension *.swm per section Data

Deployment of the extracted OS and its configuration (removal/installation).

At the stage of copying images, you probably noticed which letters were assigned to the partitions. In the example under consideration, the section OS letter assigned "WITH", and the section Data - "D".

Now let's format the partition OS and deploy the OS from the copied images. Going back to the command line, enter:

Diskpart select disk 0 select partition 2

Note.

Why partition 2? As you remember, earlier after entering the list partition command we saw a list of partitions available on the laptop disk (Fig. 2). When copying using notepad, we also had the opportunity to observe all sections in "My computer". A simple ratio of the size and the name of the section can easily determine the one you need.

You can also select available sections one by one with the command select partition and view their properties with the command detail partition. The section we need will have the following properties:

Format the selected section:

Format fs=NTFS label="Os" quick

We deploy the OS from images (Fig. 9):

Imagex /apply D:\asus.swm 1 C: /ref D:\asus2.swm

After the process is successfully completed, you need to boot the laptop from the disk itself. In this case, loading the OS will be accompanied by characteristic messages about updating the registry, starting services and installing devices, identical to if the OS was being restored regular means using F9.

The loaded OS, which we deployed from images, will be launched in Audit. In this mode, we can, through the control panel, at our personal discretion, remove unnecessary software and add our own. In this case, during the process of uninstalling (installing) programs, a reboot may be required. The main thing is not to change the parameters of the window shown in Fig. 10 and don't close it!

Configuring the OS at your discretion in the window "System preparation program" activate the parameter "Preparation for use", meaning "Shutdown Options" change to "Shutdown" press OK(Fig. 11).

Creating images of a customized OS.

Having completed the OS setup stage, we boot the laptop with Windows PE again. But before creating an image with an individually configured OS, let’s delete the previously copied “factory” version of the OS, i.e. files asus.swm And asus2.swm. To do this through command line launch notepad again and change the “File Type” and delete the above files from the “Data” section.

Partition image "Os" in which the configured OS is located is created by the command (Fig. 12):

Imagex /capture c: d:\asus.wim "Windows 7 Asus" /compress maximum

The resulting image must be divided into 4Gb parts:

Imagex /split d:\asus.wim d:\asus.swm 4000

Thus on the section "Data" we will get 3 files, 2 of which have the same name and extension as those that we previously copied from "Recovery" - asus.swm And asus2.swm(Fig. 13).

Replacing OS image files in the Recovery section.

Now the resulting OS image remains (files asus.swm And asus2.swm) copy to section Recovery. Copying is carried out by analogy using a notepad. Because on the section Recovery In my case, there was enough free space, so before copying, I decided to leave the “factory” files of the same name and simply renamed them. (If you plan to do this in the future backup copy using AiRecovery, then old files asus.swm And asus2.swm better to remove).

Returning section properties Recovery to its original state:

Diskpart select disk 0 select partition 1 setid id=1C exit

Instead of a command setid id=1С you need to enter the command: gpt attributes=0X8000000000000001, where 0Х8000000000000001 is the initial value of the partition type Recovery.

We close everything and try to run OS recovery ( F9).

As a result, with these actions you can get an individually customized OS with installed drivers which can be restored at any time using standard means.

Sources of inspiration:

1. www.outsidethebox.ms
2. technet.microsoft.com
3. support.microsoft.com

× Attention!
Log in to your site account or Create one to get full access to our site. Registration will give you the opportunity to add news, comment on articles, communicate with other users and much more.

Question: Transfer Recovery Windows 7 to another hard drive

The RECOVERY section can be copied to any folder by regular copying from the root. Next, the most important point is that when creating a section, each section is assigned a unique identifier which is always different. But in the BCD and the reagent.xml file there remain identifiers that were assigned to the RECOVERY section; when we create a new one, they will not match, they will not match for all sections, so it is better to create a general BCD from scratch than to edit it, the same situation is with reagent.xml it is configured with the command reagentc /? output help on command.

The idea is something like this, we create as many partitions as there were on the old disk, since it happens that you need not only a RECOVERY partition but also WinRE or some other one from which winre.wim already loads what is in RECOVERY, depending on the whim of the company whose laptop it is. In general, we create the same sections and manually register them in BCD and reagentc.
The key to which the recovery was called is set as reagentc /bootkey 4300, for example F9, if other keys are needed, there is a table of keyboard scancodes on the Internet.

On almost all laptops the mechanism is approximately the same.

Perhaps there is simpler option, this is to understand on which partition winre with the factory system reinstallation program is located, for example, if only RECOVERY then we create RECOVERY on an empty disk, copy the contents there from recovery on the factory disk, make it active boot, then immediately when the laptop starts, without pressing the return button, it will turn on Instead of the main system, the factory reset system will recreate all partitions and itself will recreate the BDC and reagent.xml. If I wrote something wrong, I don’t remember exactly how it works, let someone correct me.

Answer: A backup is a copy of the system. Might come in handy

Question: Windows cannot be installed on a hard drive that already has an OS.

Answer: pmari, no, if the system was, as you say, “sharpened”, we would most likely see BSOD, in your case I assume that the disk was incorrectly prepared for installation, that is, in other words, the old bootloader does not see the system and goes around in circles looking for the OS, it is needed delete. This hidden section 100MB.

Question: Transferring Windows XP to another hard drive cloning

I get BSOD after copying is complete. I understand that you need to remove the HDD driver, what is the best way to do this? Will something like this work?:
Clear the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices on the cloned OS

Answer: After long and persistent attempts, I found a solution. In the Manager Windows devices found IDE controller and changed it to a standard one (not Nvidia), rolled up the image and everything went without problems.
Actions such as deleting Mounted Device, universal restore, decoupling from the hardware with Paragon did not give any results.

Question: Is it possible to transfer windows from one disk to another without losing data?

Answer: londar, look

Question: I forgot the password on 1 hard drive from Windows 7 but I have access to it from the second hard drive

Answer: Rus1an, it wouldn’t hurt to clarify exactly what the password is, from the account or from the disk...
and the title of the topic is not clear...
but you can remove any password

Question: Make a backup of the system and deploy it on another hard drive

The goal is to swap the disks.

Answer: persen27, and also, do you know, if I installed Acronis 2015, can I somehow make an image of this Windows directly from under it?

Added after 4 minutes
You know, forgive me for being meticulous, but I also wanted to ask, on that new hard drive I created 2 partitions today, one for system recovery, the second for files. And on the second section I threw several folders from work.

Do you know if I can somehow restore Windows to the first partition? Without touching the second one? So that the second logical partition does not erase all the files?

Question: Windows installation With hard drive

Answer: Yes, no Windows can be installed starting from 2003 XP, 7, 10 MSI board, comes and asks for wood for the CD, maybe the tire is broken from the CD to the mother, maybe something else... in general, I would like to try (installing from a flash drive is the same problem) from a hard drive, so as not to think about it. In general, I boot from the LiveCD, dump the image onto the C: drive, shutdown, take out the disk from the LiveCD, turn off the computer, and then how do I start the installation?, where should I boot from to run setup.exe or can I run it without leaving the LiveCD? installation, then with what parameters for XP?

Question: Windows 10 stopped loading after trying to insert an old hard drive into the laptop

Answer: If you can get to the battery on the motherboard, you can try disconnecting the battery and removing the battery for a few minutes or hours.

Once I came to visit my friends and they asked me to transfer Windows 8.1 along with hidden partitions from the laptop hard drive to solid state drive SSD. But my friends had a crush on me several conditions:

1. After transferring to SSD from covered partitions with factory settings should remain operational.

2. Activation should not fail with Windows 8.1.

My friends had no Internet, and Acronis True Image and Paragon Home Expert were also not available. Yes, and I had nothing with me except a blank 32 GB flash drive, but after an hour everything was ready.

Hello friends. I have written several articles on the topic Windows migration 7, 8, 8.1 from laptop hard drive to solid state SSD drive.

Today’s article describes the easiest way; you don’t even have to download and install any programs on your laptop. Truly they say that everything ingenious is simple. In the following articles everything will be a little more complicated.

• Note: read the following articles on this topic - .
• If you are unable to transfer Windows 7, 8, 8.1 along with hidden partitions from a laptop hard drive to an SSD, then simply.
• What to do if, after transferring Windows 8.1 from a regular hard drive to an SSD, the factory reset program stops working on the laptop or
• If you are interested in the article, visit the special section where you can find from one storage device to another.

In a nutshell, what such a transfer includes, suitable even for a novice user. We will use the built-in The laptop manufacturer uses a factory reset program. We will create a recovery flash drive (you will need a blank 16 GB flash drive), or you can create recovery disks (you will need 3 blank DVDs), using a flash drive or disk we will transferWindows 7, 8, 8.1 along with hidden partitions from laptop hard drive to SSD.

• In simple words,in today's article we will roll back the laptop to factory settings, but we will roll back not to the laptop's hard drive, but to the SSD. In the end, nand on our laptop everything will work as before, but only noticeably faster.

  1. Hidden partitions with factory settings will remain operational.

  2. With Windows 8.1, activation will not even work.You can return the hard drive from your laptop at any time, meaning you don’t lose anything.

In the following articles, we will use Acronis True Image and Paragon Home Expert programs for transfer.

The whole difficulty of transferring Windows to an SSD solid state drive (120 GB or 240 GB) is that SSD capacity probably less than the capacity of a laptop’s hard drive (500 GB or 1 TB), and in addition to running Windows, we need to transfer hidden partitions with factory settings to the SSD, so that the ability to roll back to factory settings is not impaired. Is it possible to carry out such a transfer? Yes, it's possible!

What prompted me to write these articles? Of course, your numerous requests to describe the transfer of the entire contents of a laptop hard drive to an SSD. At first I had the idea to take the easy way - to find a detailed article on this topic on the Internet and post a link to it on my website, but after wandering through various forums I found only “raw” thoughts on this topic that could lead an inexperienced user to a dead end.

You may ask - What to do with a simple laptop hard drive?

After transferring to a solid-state drive, the Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 operating system will work perfectly, the program to restore the laptop to factory settings will also work, in short, everything on your laptop will be as before, only instead of a hard drive there will be an SSD solid-state drive. Even if your SSD is 120 GB, then for operating system this is more than enough, but for data storage you can use a laptop hard drive in an external box or a simple portable USB hard drive.

Many attentive users may ask, “What are the hidden sections on a laptop?”

And the question is asked correctly, if you decide on such an operation, then you must know everything about the existing partitions on the hard drive of your laptop.

Before starting the transfer, let's find out all the information about the hard drive of my laptop, then go to "Disk Management" of the operating system and I will explain everything to you.

For example, Windows 8.1 is installed on my laptop. Manufacturer of my Toshiba laptop, in the disk properties you can see the name of the hard drive manufacturer, also Toshiba.

Volumes tab. The hard drive has a standard GPT partition table format; you can see this on the Volumes tab. Just below you can see the capacity of the 700 GB hard drive.

Disk Management window

If you have a different laptop manufacturer, there may be a slight difference that does not affect the overall process of transferring Windows to an SSD.

1. First hidden section without a letter, with a capacity of 1.00 GB. Good (Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partition), this is a service partition of the laptop manufacturer with a factory reset program. The laptop manufacturer specially creates such a partition in case of emergency, if your operating system does not boot due to your careless actions or due to a virus, then you can roll back the laptop to the state it was at the time of purchase of the laptop.

2. Second hidden section, volume 260 MB Healthy (Encrypted (EFI) system partition), there are files on it Windows boot 8.1, also Windows 8.1 recovery environment files.

3. The third section has the letter C, volume 344 GB, Windows 8 operating system installed. Disk C:, despite its volume of 344 GB, is filled with 80 GB of files.

4. The fourth section under the letter (E:), volume 341 GB, with data files: music, movies and so on.

5. Fifth hidden section, without a letter, 10.75 GB, Good (Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partition), this partition contains the factory image of the operating system Windows systems 8.

Attention: If you have deletedfirst hidden sectionwithout a letter, with a capacity of 1.00 GB andfifth hidden section, which does not have a letter, with a capacity of 10.75 GB, then transfer it as described below in a simple way Windowsit won't work on an SSD and here's why.

For transfer I want to use the built-inby the laptop manufacturer, a factory reset program called Recovery Media Creator, which works with hidden partitions returning the laptop to its factory state. And if you have deleted hidden sections, then the programRecovery Media Creator will not work.

Creating a flash drive or recovery discs

All laptop manufacturers provide their devices with their own factory reset program. Each manufacturer calls it differently, but they all work almost identically. For example, in Toshiba laptops, such a program is called Recovery Disc Creator or Recovery Media Creator; in laptop manufacturer Acer, such a utility is called; in laptops, the program is called Samsung Recovery Solution 5, for laptops, for HP laptops - HP Recovery Manager. All these programs are similar to each other and work on the same principle. So, no matter what kind of laptop you have, you can safely use these instructions for yourself.

We connect the power adapter to the laptop so that when creating an image of the hard drive, the laptop does not turn off and the process is not interrupted in the middle.

Move the mouse to the lower left corner and click the left button,

The program asks us to createReanimator media for system recovery, that is, we can create DVD recovery discs, you will need several (3-5) blank ones DVD, the program will ask you to insert three DVDs into the drive one after another and the entire Windows image will be recorded on them, by the way, the whole process is described in detail in our article .

We can also create a bootable recovery flash drive, but the flash drive must be large, with a capacity of 16-32 GB.

I will choose the Kingston DataTraveler Mini flash drive , I have it in the amount of 32 GB (but 16 GB would be enough).

Be careful, all data on the flash drive will be deleted.

OK. Created USB flash drive for recovery.

Creation process bootable flash drive completed.

Replacing a laptop hard drive with an SSD

Friends, now you need to replace the hard drive in your laptop with a solid-state drive. The replacement should happen without problems, since the form factor of the laptop hard drive and the SSD solid state drive are the same - 2.5 inches. We also have several articles on this topic.

The hard drive is attached to the laptop with two more screws, we also unscrew them, then carefully pull the silicone tab and the hard drive is disconnected.

But on our laptop Toshiba L50 - A - K3K, there is no such compartment, which means we have to remove the entire laptop lid.

Turning the laptop over. First of all, you need to remove the battery from the laptop, but in our case this will not work, since it is also under the cover.

• Important! : The article is given to you for your reference, if you have never disassembled a laptop, then do it better in service center. Before disassembling the laptop, remove battery, if it is not removable, then disconnect it from the laptop’s motherboard; this must be done in any case. When removing the hard drive, do not touch the components located on the hard drive with your hands or a screwdriver. motherboard laptop, otherwise the motherboard may fail, and it makes up 85-90% of the cost of the laptop.

We unscrew all the screws securing the back cover of the laptop (bottom), in my case there are 14 screws.

We take out the drive

and carefully remove the laptop cover, despite the fact that all the screws are unscrewed, the laptop cover is removed with very light force, since the cover is attached to the laptop body using plastic clips

Neither the latches nor the clips that fit into the latches on the case can be broken, because the cover will have to be put back.

And here is our hard drive

it is attached to the laptop case with two screws, unscrew the screws and remember exactly where the laptop hard drive was secured with screws to the motherboard.

Carefully disconnect the hard drive from the SATA connector.

The laptop’s hard drive is located in a kind of slide, we disconnect it.

Well, then we attach the sled to the SSD solid-state drive. The form factor of the 2.5 laptop hard drive coincides with the form factor of the solid state drive and our SSD will fit perfectly in place of the laptop hard drive.

Our solid state drive SSD Kingston HyperX 3K capacity 120 GB

and connect it to the SATA connector on the laptop motherboard and secure it with two screws.

We put back the laptop cover and the drive, do it carefully, the clips on the cover should fit into the plastic latches on the case.

We turn on the laptop, press F2 or Del when loading and enter the BIOS, as we see our SSD is perfectly defined in the BIOS, which means you can work with it.

Deploying Windows 8.1 from a recovery flash drive to an SSD

We connect our flash drive restoration Kingston DataTraveler Mini 3.0 32GB and reboot, when loading the laptop, press F2 and enter the BIOS. If you have a UEFI BIOS, then the option Secure Boot set it to Disabled.

We do not touch Boot Mode and leave it in the UEFI Boot position.

Then we change the boot priority to the flash drive or simply press F12 and enter boot menu laptop, select our flash drive and press Enter, the laptop boots from the recovery flash drive.

The Toshiba Recovery Wizard laptop factory reset program window appears, select the first item and click Next.

Select the first item "Recovery" software, installed by default at the factory" and click Next.

The recovery process begins

We accept the license terms

Use standard settings

If you have a Microsoft account, then enter its details. If account Microsoft does not, then create a simple local account.

That's it

Windows 8.1 boots and works fine

We enter Disk Management and see oursolid state drive SSD Kingston HyperX 3K, capacity 120 GB.

Please note that the volume label C: remains the same, but it does not bother us, and if anything, it can be changed.

In the disk properties you can see the name of the hard drive manufacturer

The only negative is that you will have to install all the programs on the laptop, since in fact, in today’s article we rolled back the laptop to factory settings, but rolled it back not to the laptop’s hard drive, but to the SSD.

If you bought a new hard drive or SSD for your computer, it is very likely that you have a great desire to work on reinstalling Windows, drivers and all programs you do not have. In this case, you can clone or, otherwise, transfer Windows to another disk, not only the operating system itself, but also everything installed components, programs and more. Separate instructions for 10 installed on a GPT disk in a UEFI system: .

In fact, Seagate DiscWizard is a complete copy previous program, only to work it requires at least one Seagate hard drive on the computer.

All actions that allow you to transfer Windows to another disk and completely clone it are similar to Acronis True Image WD Edition (in fact, it is the same program), the interface is the same.

You can download the Seagate DiscWizard program from the official website https://www.seagate.com/ru/ru/support/downloads/discwizard/

Samsung Data Migration

The Samsung Data Migration program is designed specifically for transferring Windows and data to a Samsung SSD from any other drive. So, if you are the owner of such a solid-state drive, this is what you need.

The transfer process is carried out in the form of a wizard with several steps. At the same time, in latest versions programs are possible not only full cloning disk with operating systems and files, but also selective data transfer, which may be relevant, given that the size of SSDs is still smaller than modern hard drives.

The Samsung Data Migration program in Russian is available on the official website https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/

How to transfer Windows from HDD to SSD (or other HDD) in Aomei Partition Assistant Standard Edition

Another free program, also in Russian, that allows you to conveniently transfer the operating system from a hard drive to a solid-state drive or to new HDD-Aomei Partition Assistant Standard Edition.

Note: this method works only for Windows 10, 8 and 7 installed on an MBR disk on computers with BIOS (or UEFI and Legacy boot), when trying to transfer the OS from GPT disk, the program reports that it cannot do this (perhaps simply copying disks to Aomei would work here, but I was unable to experiment - failures when rebooting to perform the operation, despite Secure Boot being disabled and checking digital signature drivers).

The steps for copying the system to another disk are simple and, I think, will be clear even to a novice user:

If everything goes well, upon completion you will receive a copy of the system that can be booted from your new SSD or hard drive.

Download Aomei Partition You can download Assistant Standard Edition for free from the official website https://www.disk-partition.com/free-partition-manager.html

Transfer Windows 10, 8 and Windows 7 to another disk in Minitool Partition Wizard Bootable

Minitool Partition Wizard Free, along with Aomei Partition Assistant Standard, I would classify as one of the best free programs for working with disks and partitions. One of the advantages of Minitool's product is the availability of a fully functional bootable ISO image Partition Wizard on the official website (free Aomei allows you to create a demo image with important functions disabled).

Having written down this image to a disk or flash drive (the developers recommend using Rufus for this) and by booting your computer from it, you can transfer a Windows or other system to another hard drive or SSD, and in in this case We will not be hampered by possible OS restrictions, since it is not running.

Note: I tested cloning the system to another disk in Minitool Partition Wizard Free only without EFI boot and only on MBR disks (Windows 10 was transferred), I can’t vouch for its performance in EFI/GPT systems (I couldn’t get the program to work in this mode, despite Secure Boot being disabled, it looks like this is a bug specifically on my equipment).

The process of transferring a system to another disk consists of the following steps:

Once complete, you can close the Minitool Partition Wizard, reboot your computer and set it to boot from the new disk to which the system was transferred: in my test (as I already mentioned, BIOS+MBR, Windows 10) everything went well and the system booted as usual which did not happen with the source disk disconnected.

Download for free boot image Minitool Partition Wizard Free is available from the official website https://www.partitionwizard.com/partition-wizard-bootable-cd.html

Macrium Reflect

Free program Macrium Reflect allows you to clone entire drives (both hard drives and SSDs) or individual sections, regardless of what brand your drive is. In addition, you can create an image of a separate disk partition (including Windows) and later use it to restore the system. It also supports creating bootable recovery disks on Windows based P.E.

After launching the program, in the main window you will see a list of connected hard drives and SSDs. Mark the disk where the operating system is located and click “Clone this disk”.

At the next stage, in the “Source” item the source hard drive will already be selected, and in the “Destination” item you will need to indicate the one to which you want to transfer the data. You can also select only individual partitions on the disk to copy. Everything else happens automatically and is not difficult even for a novice user.

Official download site: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

Additional information

Once you have transferred Windows and files, be sure to either set the new drive to boot in the BIOS or disconnect the old drive from the computer.

Once I came to visit my friends and was asked to transfer Windows 8.1 along with hidden partitions from the laptop’s hard drive to an SSD. But my friends had a crush on me several conditions:

1. After transferring to SSD from covered partitions with factory settings should remain operational.

2. Activation should not fail with Windows 8.1.

My friends had no Internet, and Acronis True Image and Paragon Home Expert were also not available. Yes, and I had nothing with me except a blank 32 GB flash drive, but after an hour everything was ready.

Hello friends. I have written several articles on the topic of transferring Windows 7, 8, 8.1 from a laptop hard drive to an SSD.

Today’s article describes the easiest way; you don’t even have to download and install any programs on your laptop. Truly they say that everything ingenious is simple. In the following articles everything will be a little more complicated.

• Note: read the following articles on this topic - .
• If you are unable to transfer Windows 7, 8, 8.1 along with hidden partitions from a laptop hard drive to an SSD, then simply.
• What to do if, after transferring Windows 8.1 from a regular hard drive to an SSD, the factory reset program stops working on the laptop or
• If you are interested in the article, visit the special section where you can find from one storage device to another.

In a nutshell, what such a transfer includes, suitable even for a novice user. We will use the built-in The laptop manufacturer uses a factory reset program. We will create a recovery flash drive (you will need a blank 16 GB flash drive), or you can create recovery disks (you will need 3 blank DVDs), using a flash drive or disk we will transferWindows 7, 8, 8.1 along with hidden partitions from laptop hard drive to SSD.

• In simple words,in today's article we will roll back the laptop to factory settings, but we will roll back not to the laptop's hard drive, but to the SSD. In the end, nand on our laptop everything will work as before, but only noticeably faster.

  1. Hidden partitions with factory settings will remain operational.

  2. With Windows 8.1, activation will not even work.You can return the hard drive from your laptop at any time, meaning you don’t lose anything.

In the following articles, we will use Acronis True Image and Paragon Home Expert programs for transfer.

The whole difficulty of transferring Windows to an SSD solid-state drive (volume 120 GB or 240 GB) is that the volume of the SSD is probably less than the capacity of the laptop hard drive (500 GB or 1 TB), and in addition to running Windows, we need to transfer hidden partitions with factory defaults to the SSD settings, so that the ability to roll back to factory settings is not impaired. Is it possible to carry out such a transfer? Yes, it's possible!

What prompted me to write these articles? Of course, your numerous requests to describe the transfer of the entire contents of a laptop hard drive to an SSD. At first I had the idea to take the easy way - to find a detailed article on this topic on the Internet and post a link to it on my website, but after wandering through various forums I found only “raw” thoughts on this topic that could lead an inexperienced user to a dead end.

You may ask - What to do with a simple laptop hard drive?

After transferring to a solid-state drive, the Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 operating system will work perfectly, the program to restore the laptop to factory settings will also work, in short, everything on your laptop will be as before, only instead of a hard drive there will be an SSD solid-state drive. Even if your SSD has a capacity of 120 GB, then this will be more than enough for the operating system, but for data storage you can use a laptop hard drive in an external box or a simple portable USB hard drive.

Many attentive users may ask, “What are the hidden sections on a laptop?”

And the question is asked correctly, if you decide on such an operation, then you must know everything about the existing partitions on the hard drive of your laptop.

Before starting the transfer, let's find out all the information about the hard drive of my laptop, then go to "Disk Management" of the operating system and I will explain everything to you.

For example, Windows 8.1 is installed on my laptop. The manufacturer of my laptop is Toshiba, in the disk properties you can see the name of the hard drive manufacturer, also Toshiba.

Volumes tab. The hard drive has a standard GPT partition table format; you can see this on the Volumes tab. Just below you can see the capacity of the 700 GB hard drive.

Disk Management window

If you have a different laptop manufacturer, there may be a slight difference that does not affect the overall process of transferring Windows to an SSD.

1. First hidden section without a letter, with a capacity of 1.00 GB. Good (Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partition), this is a service partition of the laptop manufacturer with a factory reset program. The laptop manufacturer specially creates such a partition in case of emergency, if your operating system does not boot due to your careless actions or due to a virus, then you can roll back the laptop to the state it was at the time of purchase of the laptop.

2. Second hidden section, volume 260 MB Healthy (Encrypted (EFI) system partition), it contains Windows 8.1 download files, as well as Windows 8.1 recovery environment files.

3. The third section has the letter C, volume 344 GB, Windows 8 operating system installed. Disk C:, despite its volume of 344 GB, is filled with 80 GB of files.

4. The fourth section under the letter (E:), volume 341 GB, with data files: music, movies and so on.

5. Fifth hidden section, without a letter, 10.75 GB, Good (Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partition), this partition contains a factory image of the Windows 8 operating system.

Attention: If you have deletedfirst hidden sectionwithout a letter, with a capacity of 1.00 GB andfifth hidden section, which does not have a letter, with a capacity of 10.75 GB, then transfer it using the simplest Windows method described belowit won't work on an SSD and here's why.

For transfer I want to use the built-inby the laptop manufacturer, a factory reset program called Recovery Media Creator, which works with hidden partitions returning the laptop to its factory state. And if you have deleted hidden sections, then the programRecovery Media Creator will not work.

Creating a flash drive or recovery discs

All laptop manufacturers provide their devices with their own factory reset program. Each manufacturer calls it differently, but they all work almost identically. For example, in Toshiba laptops, such a program is called Recovery Disc Creator or Recovery Media Creator, in laptop manufacturer Acer this utility is called, in laptops, the program is called Samsung Recovery Solution 5, in laptops, in HP laptops - HP Recovery Manager. All these programs are similar to each other and work on the same principle. So, no matter what kind of laptop you have, you can safely use these instructions for yourself.

We connect the power adapter to the laptop so that when creating an image of the hard drive, the laptop does not turn off and the process is not interrupted in the middle.

Move the mouse to the lower left corner and click the left button,

The program asks us to createReanimator media for system recovery, that is, we can create DVD recovery discs with you, you will need several (3-5) blank DVD discs, the program will ask you to insert three DVD discs into the drive one after another and the entire Windows image will be written to them, by the way , the whole process is described in detail in our article .

We can also create a bootable recovery flash drive, but the flash drive must be large, with a capacity of 16-32 GB.

I will choose the Kingston DataTraveler Mini flash drive , I have it in the amount of 32 GB (but 16 GB would be enough).

Be careful, all data on the flash drive will be deleted.

OK. A USB flash drive for recovery is created.

The process of creating a bootable USB flash drive is completed.

Replacing a laptop hard drive with an SSD

Friends, now you need to replace the hard drive in your laptop with a solid-state drive. The replacement should happen without problems, since the form factor of the laptop hard drive and the SSD solid state drive are the same - 2.5 inches. We also have several articles on this topic.

The hard drive is attached to the laptop with two more screws, we also unscrew them, then carefully pull the silicone tab and the hard drive is disconnected.

But on our laptop Toshiba L50 - A - K3K, there is no such compartment, which means we have to remove the entire laptop lid.

Turning the laptop over. First of all, you need to remove the battery from the laptop, but in our case this will not work, since it is also under the cover.

• Important! : The article is given to you for your reference; if you have never disassembled a laptop, then it is better to do it at a service center. Before disassembling the laptop, remove the battery; if it is not removable, then disconnect it from the laptop’s motherboard; this must be done in any case. When you remove the hard drive, do not touch the components located on the laptop’s motherboard with your hands and a screwdriver, otherwise the motherboard may fail, and it makes up 85-90% of the cost of the laptop.

We unscrew all the screws securing the back cover of the laptop (bottom), in my case there are 14 screws.

We take out the drive

and carefully remove the laptop cover, despite the fact that all the screws are unscrewed, the laptop cover is removed with very light force, since the cover is attached to the laptop body using plastic clips

Neither the latches nor the clips that fit into the latches on the case can be broken, because the cover will have to be put back.

And here is our hard drive

it is attached to the laptop case with two screws, unscrew the screws and remember exactly where the laptop hard drive was secured with screws to the motherboard.

Carefully disconnect the hard drive from the SATA connector.

The laptop’s hard drive is located in a kind of slide, we disconnect it.

Well, then we attach the sled to the SSD solid-state drive. The form factor of the 2.5 laptop hard drive coincides with the form factor of the solid state drive and our SSD will fit perfectly in place of the laptop hard drive.

Our solid state drive SSD Kingston HyperX 3K capacity 120 GB

and connect it to the SATA connector on the laptop motherboard and secure it with two screws.

We put back the laptop cover and the drive, do it carefully, the clips on the cover should fit into the plastic latches on the case.

We turn on the laptop, press F2 or Del when loading and enter the BIOS, as we see our SSD is perfectly defined in the BIOS, which means you can work with it.

Deploying Windows 8.1 from a recovery flash drive to an SSD

We connect our Kingston DataTraveler Mini 3.0 32GB recovery flash drive and reboot, when loading the laptop, press F2 and enter the BIOS. If you have a UEFI BIOS, then set the Secure Boot option to Disabled.

We do not touch Boot Mode and leave it in the UEFI Boot position.

Then we change the boot priority to the flash drive or simply press F12, enter the boot menu of the laptop, select our flash drive and press Enter, the laptop boots from the recovery flash drive.

The Toshiba Recovery Wizard laptop factory reset program window appears, select the first item and click Next.

Select the first item “Restore factory default software” and click Next.

The recovery process begins

We accept the license terms

Use standard settings

If you have a Microsoft account, then enter its details. If you don't have a Microsoft account, then create a simple local account.

That's it

Windows 8.1 boots and works fine

We enter Disk Management and see oursolid state drive SSD Kingston HyperX 3K, capacity 120 GB.

Please note that the volume label C: remains the same, but it does not bother us, and if anything, it can be changed.

In the disk properties you can see the name of the hard drive manufacturer

The only negative is that you will have to install all the programs on the laptop, since in fact, in today’s article we rolled back the laptop to factory settings, but rolled it back not to the laptop’s hard drive, but to the SSD.