Is this program aimed mainly at making an older operating system run better?
Is there a lot of user attention to make this program run effeciently?

installed. thanks for the helpful reply Paragon.

to #72

Yes, you can perform such operation.

to #58

Yes, this partition will also be migrated.

to #52

1) It depends on where the boot files are located. For further details please contact Paragon support.
2) No, there's no need in additional drivers.

Cannot install. Program install routine reported: "This installation package could not be opened. Verify that the package exists, and that you can access it or, contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows installer package."

I'm using windows vista, not windows 1.0.

There is no msi file. Had to do a trick to get the temp filefolder before it was erased. I have that and I'll try again tomorrow it's much tooooo late to try this any more tonight.

Paragon: please help!

I was asked to uninstall Migrate OS>SSD 2.0, and did so.

Installing, after entering registration information, now I am getting message:

"Error 1316. a network error occurred while attempting
to read from the file
C:DOCUME~1\MMMS\LOCALS~1\Temp\RarSFX2\PROGRAM\win-install\setup.msi"


I hope you can help me. I have uninstalled the previous version now and will be really unhappy if I lose this program, since I am going to buy an SSD in the next few weeks!

Download took a very long time over 1/2 hour. Once downloaded and ran the setup things got ugly. It said it had activated the account, Yes I did get a product number and serial number but could not find the installation operation. So I guess I am in Limbo regarding this now. It is a real confusing setup to go through all of this. Other programs from GAOTD have been a breeze. Why not just enclose an activation key in the read me file to place in the program.

Oh,forgot. Intel i7/2600k, 32gb ram, 750gb hybrid OS drive, 3 and 2 tb data drives. 6670/1gb video. Win7 Pro

@43, I clicked on the setup file, properties and set the compatibility mode to Win xp sp2. That seems to be the fixall for install problems I have had. It allowed this program to install fine for me. It might no work for all.
P.s., I didn't install as admin either.

Post #11 by NothingIsFree > "why is Ashraf missing? (Maybe he/she is the GOTD team…)..."

Ashraf explained this a long time ago. He is spending his time on his own site dotTech.

Having installed this giveaway on one PC and started the program, it appears that the software needs to be installed ON the PC that is being migrated from ... however, the PC I really need to migrate from has problems so I didn't install this gaotd there first -- now it is refusing to run setup on that pc, saying it's unable to connect -- though everything else connects to internet fine. Are we restricted to ONE gaotd install on this package?

one last question please. as a follow up to question 44, could i install the Win XP on another fresh SATA drive, then transfer it to the new SSD in the netbook? thanks again for replies.

The registration keys are required to complete the installation of paragon's app. For anyone having trouble getting the registration info via the installer here is the direct link to the reg key request page:


http://registration.paragon-software.com/mos2ssd3_static.html

Once you get the reg info, run the installer and go directly to the install option. It will ask for the reg keys & then complete the installation.

I also suggest that you download the User Manual and Top Tips PDF docs from Paragon's web site. They are NOT installed automatically.


http://download.paragon-software.com/doc/MigrateOStoSSD_RG_eng130113.pdf


http://www.paragon-software.com/docs/The_Top_Seven_Tips_for_System_Migration_to_New_High-capacity_Drives.pdf

Re Installation path:
The default is to install the app under \Program Files but a different path may be specified during installation. Read the menus carefully.

After a successful installation a desktop icon/link is created as well as an entry in the Start Menu. Look for "Paragon Migrate OS to SSD...". if there are no link then the installation probably failed.

It would be nice if it could get registered. Clicked the link like 10x in a half hour and never got the code

#58 for me, it copied my recovery (hidden partition) partition..plus my OS...total two partitions.

thank you, took 13 minutes to do my windows 7 64x laptop. btw, is it allowed to post here how to transfer this awesome software to another comp? thanks.

Downloaded software at least four times and followed the instructions for each FAILED installation. Entered required registration information (full name, e-mail, location, etc.) received product key and serial number - same keys and numbers each time - but after entering the info the installation fails. Looks like it's just another ploy to gather personal contact info. Now let's see how much spam I receive for this total WASTE of time.

I have downloaded it but it won't open. I have to go home now. Will I still be able to register it tomorrow? Assuming I can get it to open?

l have used give away for years with no problems but I get this massage: this installation package could not be opened verify that the package exists and you can access it or contact the application vendor to verify that it a valid windows installer package. 4 times and get the same message.

Paragon products have always been difficult to use. It's confusing what actions you need to do to get the result that you want. I've tried Paragon products before and I tell you....it's more pain than gain.

While the support is great, the products themselves forces you to ask for support so frequently that it is really energy sapping, to say the least. That was my experience some years ago and I'm still having the phobia of using Paragon products now. I doubt not much changes over a few years.

I, like others, cannot find where this program is installed. I am quite an experienced PC user but simply cannot find any existence of the files supposedly installed and there is no entry in Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. Does this mean it hasn't installed and, if so, why doesn't the Paragon installer let me know it's failed.I am running Windows 7 Home Premium. I execute the zip file and it is automatically opened and the files are supposedly installed into a temp library. I then register the product and it says successfully registered but it does not give me the option to input the registration details supplied by email from Paragon.It is simply unbelievable that Paragon should make this so difficult. If the installation and registration has been successful why doesn't it create a desktop icon. Can you please offer some advice Paragon or, even better, supply installation software that works properly. Thanks
Dave

Update to my previous comment.
Used the suggestion in 20 by Paragon, to launch the msi by hand, that worked, it installed.

Registration for this product FAILS. After completing all the information and pressing SUBMIT, nothing happens. I have tried 4 times with no luck.

Install fails on Win8 Pro x64 (tried running as admin).
Get a popup that says:

This installation package could not be opened.
Verify that the package exists, and that you can access it or, contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid Windows installer package.

We have a previous version of this program which we also got from GiveAwayOfTheDay (version 2.0). We have used it twice and it worked great both times. Easy to use and very smooth transfer from a regular hard drive to an SSD with no problems. It just works! Placed a new SSD into a slim external case and connected it to the laptop (second time was a PC) with a USB cable, then ran the Paragon Migrate program. It recognised the available empty drive (it can be SSD or just another regular hard drive, either one works) and suggested that as the "target" to copy/migrate everything to.

There seems to be some confusion regarding installation of this software, but really it's not very difficult.
1. Download the software from here.The download is a compressed/zip file.
2. Right-click the downloaded file and select "Extract All". The files will be un-zipped into a regular folder with the exact same name in your Downloads folder (or wherever you downloaded the file to).
3. Open that newly created regular folder and double-click on "Setup"
4. A new window/box will appear. Click on Registration.
5. A Paragon internet page opens. Fill in the requested information and click on Submit. They will send you an email with a Product Key and Serial Number.
6. DO NOT CLOSE THE PARAGON INSTALL/REGISTRATION WINDOW/BOX ON YOUR DESKTOP !!
7. Go to your email and open the message from Paragon.
8. Highlight and Copy the Product Key shown in the email. Minimise the internet page but do not close the browser.
9. In the Paragon install box/window on your desktop click on the Migrate OS to SSD on left side of box. The blank spaces for Product Key and Serial Number will appear.
10. In the Product Key blank space right-click and Paste in the Product Key you just copied from the email. Do NOT close the window yet!
11. Go back to the email message from Paragon and this time highlight and copy the Serial Number.
12. Return once more to the Paragon Install box. In the FIRST blank space for Serial Number right-click and Paste in the Serial Number you just copied from the Paragon email. It should fill in all the blank spaces.
13. Proceed from here to run the software and watch how it scans for available drives on your computer, etc. This should confirm that the software is working. Now it's safe to close the program when you are done.
14. Since the software cannot be installed after today, you may wish to go back to your Downloads folder and Delete the original zip file as well as the un-zipped folder containing the Paragon software.

We've used several different Paragon programs that we got here at GAOTD. They have all worked without problems. These guys make pretty darn good software.

My Windows 7 installation has the 100MB boot partition. How does Paragon Migrate OS to SSD handle that? Does it include that partition in the OS transfer or do I have to transfer it separately?

The 1st attempt to install said I had another Paragon product that needed to be uninstalled but did not state which one:
BACKUP & RECOVERY v11
DRIVE BACKUP v9
DRIVE COPY v11
VIRTUALIZATION MANAGER v12

During the 2nd attempt to install I received a message from WINDOWS INSTALLER stating that the installation package could not be opened and when I looked at it in my temp directory, RarSFX0 was empty.

Paragon Support: What should I do? Do any of the 4 Paragon products I listed above already have the functionality of MIGRATE OS?

Thanks,
Dan

#13 Giovanni and #48 Mike,

Very useful and appreciated comments and analysis!


Regards,

Tom

Do all the Windows Registry entries from my previously installed (GAotD) programs carry over to my new HDD so those programs will continue to run? Likewise, will all the M$ weekly updates be migrated or should I expect a vanilla copy of my OS?

Also, since I'm running Vista I assume the LIMITATIONS noted in the Paragon description about WIN 7 or later do not apply, correct?

Thanks,
Dan

Another question for Paragon.
I am running a dual boot (win7 and win8) on a Raid 1 partitioned SSD pair that are labeled C:\ and D:\.

1. Will this program allow migration of ONLY the Win8 (drive D:) partition to a new Raid 1 SSD pair and still allow the dual boot capability? Obviouslly the intent is to keep the OS's physically separated on separate drives instead of only a logical separation on one physical drive pair.

If so, does the software need to be on the Win8 partition or can it be run from the Win7 partition?
This is a recent install so there are virtually no 3rd party apps/programs installed to create any run errors.

2. Secondarily, will (printer/graphics/any other kinds of) drivers need to be installed on both drives? The thought being if lets say Win7 drive(s) fail, printer drivers on that drive become unavailable. Win8 could not therefore access them. I realize this question is probably beyond the purview of tech support for this prog, but here's hoping...

Thanks in advance to GOTD and Paragon and our members for any help.

Paragon products in general are very good and I highly recommend them. That being said, this migration app is an excellent product, thank you GOTD and Paragon for this offer. Anybody that STILL doesn't understand why the WinPE is not included needs to Google WinPE licensing. WinPE is a Microsoft product, therefore Paragon cannot just give it away, duh.

Despite downloading and installing and registering three times, I still cannot find where to enter the product key and serial number. The setup exe file simply disappears after clicking on registration. Can anyone help please?

Installed this the last time it was offered, got a 98G SSD, migrated the slimmed down drive and put the 1T drive as secondary. Was easy and fast. I will be adding this to another system today for future use. Thanks for a great program and informative comments that explain it's capabilities. 10 thumbs up!

UEFI is a new secure boot option available on some newer computers. (It makes it hard for a hacker to install bad software onto your machine by only booting with software that it recognizes.)

If your computer doesn't have UEFI, then you don't need the special version. If you already have a computer and just need to upgrade to a SSD, there's a very good chance you don't need the UEFI version.

How can you tell if your computer requires the UEFI version? That most likely depends on the computer. But now that you know that UEFI is a feature on a lot of the newest computers, you can look for reference to it in your computer's documentation, or search online, or maybe watch as it boots and see if it mentions UEFI. You may have ignored references to it since it wasn't important, so now that you know what to look for, it may show up.

Can this application be loaded onto a portable card (like a USB stick) and use this application on several different computers?

my hard drive went on my netbook suddenly and i replaced it with a 120 GB SSD, but i can't seem to install XP back onto it, would this program recognize and install XP from an external DVD drive with the Win XP disc? thank you.

Same here: When I try to run the installation I get “not a valid Windows installation file” – I am Windows 7 – 64 bit – I have tried as administrator as well. Tried several times. Re-downloaded file, same size as before: 56.7 MB (59,500,910 bytes). Got registration codes OK, just can't install. Help?

To #11 (Nothingis Free) Vocabularity! Stupendity! Bravo!

@11: What kind of dribble is that? Did you stay up late because you thought we (I) really care how many votes show up for an app within the first 5 minutes or were you really that board? Most of us (at least I) come here to see what's offered and if it's something that may be of use, I download and give it go. If it's not what I want or I have alarms that go off when installing, I back out of the process. If it's something I can use a lot, I buy it. So here's a suggestion, instead of worrying about how many people give the product a thumbs down or up in the first 10 minutes of offering, why not do us all a favor. Just stick to core reasons this site is here, install the app at hand and provide the rest of the frequent flyers some insight on what's good and/or bad about the program. Trust me, you will sleep better at night if you don't go outside the box.

Thanks to Goto and Paragon for your apps. I use Windows easy transfer that works fine but slow.

There's a useful official Paragon thread on Paragon Migrate here, which should answer some questions:
http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?s=28a8f144daa2e57c1d382601fc94c2d0&t=313774

What I want to do is copy over the entire hard drive in my notebook and having done that install it instead of the existing internal drive.

I'm thinking that to copy an entire disk at the same time, including data partitions, what one needs is Paragon Drive Copy 12 (or of course another program that does this).

If one has to copy over all the data in a separate operation, I think choosing a program other than Paragon Migrate will be better.

This may seem unnecessary and redundant but I also had trouble finding the installation tab. It seemed to me to be the tab that actually ran the software because I thought that the software was already installed, but it was merely half way installed. So here is how you install it:

1) Download and run the program.

2) When program stops installing and ask for registration, go to registration site, get registration info in email, then return to program window and click on second tab which is registration.

3) Enter registration info. Now program will finish installation.

Actually the program is misnamed. It does much more. Basically you can copy to and from any kind of drive. It's great.

I have mentioned many times that Paragon products do not properly verify compressed images as they are being created. As Migration does not compress images, and you can readily verify whether the image is good or not (with any data comparison utility, or simply by booting & trying it out for a while), I do not have such reservations about this product.

For those who are interested, Laplink is giving away registration keys for Laplink Sync and a chance to win a laptop at: http://www.laplink.com/landingpages/laplink30/offers.html

Will someone PLEASE speak English.

What does this mean "This version doesn’t include WinPE bootable media required for migration of a 64-bit Windows 7 or later configured to the UEFI boot mode."?

What I'd like to know is:

(1) will this program transfer everything (including programs I have purchased and free ones from GOTD) on one laptop we'll call laptop A to another laptop we'll call laptop B?

(2)On which of the two laptops (A or B) must the program be installed inorder to accomplish the task?

(3)I'd also like to transfer everything from "all" my computers to an external hard drive. Will this accomplish that task?

(4)I have a laptop with Windows 7 64 bit operating system. Will this program work on my machine?

Thanks in advance for your help and understanding. I'm sorry I don't speak techi.

Marty

I really would have liked to have 64-bit WinPE to test this software. I wish Paragon would have included it in the giveaway.

The program installs in C:\Program Files (x86)\Paragon Software\Partition Manager 12 Home Special Edition

On my Win7-64 computer the size of this folder is 49.9 MB (uses 53.4 MB)

In sub-directory program\rmb2 there is help about how to build a Win-PE
(contrary to the opinion of Giovanni?)

- BUT how do I start the program? There is no automatically created icon on the desktop. Should I use migrateos.exe or plauncher.exe ?
When I click those nothing happens - except than they keeps running silently and blocks uninstallation.

Why does my installation not include any uninstall.exe ? Ismy installation really complete - containing all files. When I clicked Finish there was no nothing to be seen of any user interface. (No program window visible after that.) Also to e mensioned: When I afterwards shut down the computer it stated updating Windows7. Such updates often takes me by surprise and blocks Internet usage and other things that users are up to for the moment.

It states that:

Limitations: Note! This version doesn’t include WinPE bootable media required for migration of a 64-bit Windows 7 or later configured to the UEFI boot mode.

And yet it also states that the program is available for $19.95

If I were to purchase the software then it states that I get:

The option to prepare a 64-bit WinPE bootable media to do migration of a 64-bit Windows 7 or later configured to the uEFI boot mode.

So this 'special edition' is in fact not available for $19.95 and whilst it may well be a useful piece of software, it's description is therefore misleading and should either not be featured or come without any claim that the same thing can be purchased at this price.

#11 NothingIsFree.
I agree far too many comments of mine yesterday, however, I am real and believe that the comments on this page can help others. I always like those written by “mike,” usually very informative and never abusive. I have over 35 years computing experience and hope that I can aid others with a better understanding of their machines.
@20 Dan A Wilson’s was a sensible request and as it interested me I tried to oblige him with an answer.

So now for my request; what is the lifespan of an SDD drive in Windows, my particular concern is NT’s endless rights to disk, hard drive failure is a disaster, surely sooner or later and SSD drive will pass its reliable number of writes.

Related to #11 nothingisfree comments. I also worry about developers having no use for this site. I see a lot of complaints regarding the poor selection of software lately. Consider this hypothetical argument., I own a large car lot and am looking into locating to a new city. One of the few areas I found to move to unfortunately has an information booth at the entrance who's sole reason for being there is to inform people of OTHER car lots. This booth does not say that my cars are bad. They simply state where to buy better cars.
I decide NOT to open my lot in this city.
I hope that analogy is not to difficult for some.