Best way to upgrade a Dell Studio 1537 to SDD and Windows 7 64-bit

rljohnsen

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Oct 22, 2014
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I have a Dell Studio 1537 laptop running Windows 7 32-bit on the original 320 GB disk, partitioned into C and D with a Recovery partition on D. It has 4 GB memory of which only 2.99 GB is usable, presumably because of the 32-bit installation. The Windows 7 was installed over Vista 32 using an upgrade Windows 7 3-license package several years ago.

The goal is to end up with Windows 7 64 bit system running on a single partition OCZ Octane 128GB I salvaged from upgrading my main desktop during an upgrade, cloning the OCZ to a Corsair MX100 512GB using Macrium Reflect and a SATA-to-USB external adaptor. I may later put the 320 GB HDD in a CD replacement tray for extra (unneeded at present) storage.

Hopefully this can be done without any double installs (since the Windows 7 disk is Upgrade) or calling Microsoft to transfer registrations. Another consideration is speed - the Dell has only USB2 so I'd prefer to do as much as possible of this on the much faster USB3-equipped desktop machine. Any suggestions on the most hassle-free, speedy method of doing this?
 
Do you have an actual Windows 7 product key, or is it just registered to your machine? If you have the key, it will work for both 32-bit and 64-bit and all you'll need to do is do a clean install of 64-bit Windows and enter your key.

I believe you can actually install Windows and not input a product key right away. You should be able to have both SSD's hooked up to your desktop, perform the install, clone the drive, and then place it back into the laptop after you're done.
 
For help with cloning:

Backup before you do anything. Backup to an external drive.

For cloning (making an exact copy of the entire disk) you need to connect the hard disk to your present computer OR to a different computer and then use a cloning software. There are a few good free cloning software that you can download and run.

There is Acronis (free download from WD's website)

Clonezilla: http://clonezilla.org/

Apricorn (this is what I use): http://www.apricorn.com/products/software/ezgig.html

EaseUS: http://www.easeus.com/backup-software/ (I have used this) - look for the clone option.

After you clone the hard disk (or SSD), use the newly cloned hard disk (or SSD) in place of the old hard disk.

Make a backup of the new setup.
 

rljohnsen

Estimable
Oct 22, 2014
5
0
4,510


 

rljohnsen

Estimable
Oct 22, 2014
5
0
4,510
I have a product key, but it is an Upgrade disk, which I thought required an existing system on the disk being installed - the new SSD is of course empty. Am I wrong about that?
 

rljohnsen

Estimable
Oct 22, 2014
5
0
4,510


 

rljohnsen

Estimable
Oct 22, 2014
5
0
4,510
Thanks for your reply - I have Macrium Reflect, which will both clone and image copy. The problem is the existing system is 32 bit with a recovery partition, and I want 64 bits and no extra partition. I certainly agree about backup - it's a very high priority with me. In this case the existing system is not really worth backing up and my personal data is already backed up so I'm ok on that score