Using Windows 7 with System Image Restore to migrate to a SSD - A little clarification... Then Do It!

Replacing my SATA C: drive on my Windows PC with a Solid State Drive (SSD) has probably been the single most cost effective improvement I have made to this system. The machine is vastly more responsive in almost every respect. Even Web pages seem to load and display faster. What was sluggish and at times irritating is now nimble and a pleasure to use. As an objective indicator, the Windows satisfaction / performance index previously rated the machine at 5.9 which was also the Hard Drive index. It is now rated at 7.2 and the Hard Drive index is 7.9!

However, upgrading to an SSD drive by migrating my C: drive from the original 500GB SATA disk to the new 256GB SSD has also been one of the more frustrating processes I have encountered.  Even though the C: partition occupied only 200GB of the 500GB disk and there was only about 160GB of data in that C: partition. (The remainder of space was allocated to the D: drive.)

A clean install of Windows on the new drive is the recommended approach, but of course that means hours of re-installing your programs… if you can. Fortunately, there are some excellent guides on how to “clone” your Windows / boot drive to SSD but it took me a week of evenings at the computer to finally succeed. There are some reference links at the end of this blog.

I first tried Nero Back-it-Up to create a boot DVD and drive image but the restore was to no avail. I still don’t know what the problem was. I then read that it is usually fine to use the built in Windows 7 repair Disk and imaging facilities. You can buy other software, but why not use what is free? Well it worked, but with a caveat. Even though Windows prompts you to specify which partitions to include in the image to be copied, it still assumed I was copying a 500GB drive rather than a 200GB partition to  the new 256GB drive. Thus when, I tried to copy the image to the SSD drive, I received the message “no suitable disk available”. No other information, which I think is a bit poor. The work around was to back up the data on the  D: partition and to delete the D: partition, making it unallocated space. Then create the image of the C: partition and Master Boot Record. This was acceptable to the Windows imaging program. Ah, the relief!

There are a number of other issues to address if you are planning to proceed with this upgrade and they are well addressed in the excellent articles below, and elsewhere. I hope my small contribution helps clarify for you what was somewhat unclear for me.

References

Recovering Windows 7 with System Image Restore Disks: http://archive.benchmarkreviews.com/?id=439&Itemid=72&option=com_content&task=view

Migrating to SSD:

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2011/12/ssd-migration-made-easy-in-windows-7/

http://www.howtogeek.com/97242/how-to-migrate-windows-7-to-a-solid-state-drive/

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/922976

Sendkeys Programming Alternative

Like a number of programmers, I have been disappointed that Sendkeys (the command which allows a programmer to emulate from within their code, keystrokes on a PC ) generally no longer works under Win7 due to security restictions (UAC). Although I have found it a bit flaky, I have used it for some time under WinXP when opening another program from Paradox10, to enter user name and password information as well as search criteria which is then applied. Recently my work changed our operating system to Win7 and I had to return to entering the data manually. However, you may be interested to know that I have discovered a Sendkeys emulation executable which so far seems to be more reliable than Sendkeys itself.


You need to download the skeys.exe file from Michel Claveau to your :Work directory (or where you wish to cite it) . I found it at http://www.mclaveau.com/batch/util.html#315 . The information is in French but I think it is clear enough. An example of how to code with it is at http://www.theusenetarchive.com/usenet-message-re-sendkeys-8166395.htm but here is an excerpt.

“One main difference is, that you can't use multiplier like {DOWN 4}, you'll
have to substitute this by {DOWN}, {DOWN}, {DOWN}, {DOWN}. You'll have to
start it with execute(...) from within OPAL.

Example: ... ;some code of my custom method, not shown here incl. vars declaration.
;stKeyString holds the command-string
stProgZeile=getAliasPath(":work:")+"\\skeys.exe "+stKeyString

TRY
;Parameter: const programName String [ , const wait Logical [ , const
displayMode SmallInt ] ] ) Logical
if NOT execute(stProgZeile, loWait) then fail() endIf
RETURN TRUE
onFail
errorShow()
RETURN FALSE
endTRY

HTH
Egbert”

You will note that there a few small differences in the way you code with this version of Sendkeys compared with the original… eg some of the ”abbreviations” and the multiplier issue…

My other problem needing to be solved as part of this was how to activate a check box by simulating a left mouse click… Again, many have asked this question, but I could not find the answer until reading this http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449 . Sure enough, {Space} does the trick! I guess you all new this!

I have had no problems with this since I have had it up and running under Win7 but please let me know if you have any troubles.

Regards

Paul