Dell E6400: How to migrate an WinXp installation to SSD on eSATA?

Install the latest Intel Matrix Drivers (http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2101) on your working machine and then try to clone your disk and start from SSD.
It should work OK.

And think about Windows 7... It's fisrt Windows OS aware of SSD and uses it much better disabling some useless parts, properly aligning data etc.

You can move it with Drive Backup 9.0: www.drive-backup.com
and then use Adaptive Restore to install drivers: http://www.paragon-software.com/business/db-server-adaptive-restore/index.html

Thanks for your promising answers.

First I downloaded the Intel Matrix Drivers as suggested by gtworek (to be specific: IATA89ENU.exe  Intel(R) Matrix Storage Manager (6935KB) 8.9.0.1023      7/17/2009). Unfortunately it soon said: "This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software. Setup will exit."... I guess it's a dead end for me.

Then I went for noxcho's suggestion. I the installed the trial version of Drive Backup 9.0 Server and cloned my system partition to a independent USB harddisk. But I can't figure out how to be able to use the Adaptive Restore add-on without buying the 299$ license?

In this link it is listed as free: http://www.paragon-software.com/downloads/free_downloads/business.html
You can use its P2P wizard or restore the image taken with trial version of Drive Backup and then use boot version of Adaptive Restore to inject all necessary drivers plus modify Windows registry to adopt new hardware.

I wish it was true, noxcho. But clicking the "Download for FREE" and then "Try it now for free" and so on, I never actually get to the promising "Adaptive Restore" add-on anywhere. The link http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-personal/comparison.html indicates that it should be included in the "Drive Backup 9.0 Personal edition" (but not the free one), so I decided to pay the 15$ but also that one don't seem to have "Adaptive Restore" anywhere. Strange.

Have you actually used the Adaptive Restore stuff (for WinXP)?

Yes, I did. I am a big fun of their software and as EE active member got latest tools for free. Contact their support and ask if you can get Adaptive Restore tools for free or just upgrade to DB9.0 Pro where the tools are included.
Normally you get it in two variants, one is installable version that could be installed and run from Windows to configure specific partitions. Useful for multiboot system.
The second and most important part is WinPE based solution that allows you to boot the PC from CD and inject necessary drivers for your new board plus adjust OS to it.
I have migrated Old IBM T21 OS and programs to new PackardBell BG46 EasyNote machine. Did like a charm.

Check out HYPER OS http://www.hyperossystems.co.uk/

BTW, did you simply use backup\restore with enabled Adjust OS feature in Recovery CD of Drive Backup 9.0?

Yes I tried that but it seemed not to be able to handle the AHCI BIOS mode which is needed to access the SSD. I asked Paragon support if I can get the Adaptive Restore tools, now I'm awaiting their answer.

In the mean time I have tried some manual workarounds to install the Intel Matrix Drivers (e.g. http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=444831) but with no success; I always get the Blue-Screen-of-Death when windows is loading in AHCI BIOS mode.

I'm kindof ready to give up the XP tweaking and await the windows7 release in October. Too bad I bought the OCZ SSD VERTEX without checking carefully first if it will work with my setup. Reinstalling XP is not an option for me because it's my work-laptop and our IT-helpdesk only supports a standard hardware config...

OK here is what I have done.
First thing is to enable AHCI in the BIOS (otherwise the SSD is not visible).

I boot from Recovery CD, select choose Simple Restore Wizard, select the image of my drive, select the destination and select "Restore to different hardware configuration".

Then I boot from the CD, and restore the image onto the SSD. The the Restore Wizard modifies some files on the new harddisk. I add as a text file my transcription of (some of) the scrolling text.

Unfortunately when I boot the new image I still get a "blue-screen-of-death" shortly after the WindowsXP splash screen. The technical information on the blue screen is: "*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524,0xc0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000)".

Maybe the problem is obvious to some, but certainly not me! Any help is very much apprciated!

sorry not luck but lack.

BTW, Intel AHCI driver is available as EXE file and you need it in unpacked version - .inf, .sys etc.

Here: http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2101

If you have Windows XP Working on your HDD already with all drivers then HYPER OS would clone to SDD in 5 mins, and you would have a dual boot with boot menu.
I left all theese crappy backup tools and boot drivers years ago, takes so long as I can see from coments

As lonh as you have latest drivers on Current XP HYPER OS can duplicate XP even though you are running in it

Also finding driers I use http://www.drivershq.com/

Auto searches all your hardware and gives a list of out of date drivers
then give you a floppy disk icon to down load the latest one
very easy
Also has a vista ready option to auto download all your hardware as vista drivers, so to  Windows 7 added

Answer to noxcho: The Paragon support told me to enable "Restore to different hardware configuration" in Simple Restore Wizard, like I wrote in the post above ( ID: 25180347).

A few minutes ago I was happy to realize I have a "My Downloads" page when I login on the Paragon website, with links to the programs I missed, in particular these two:

• Paragon Drive Backup 9.0 - Bart PE plugin (English)  (filename DB9x.zip) 

• Paragon Adaptive Restore - Windows Installation Package (x86 / X64) 32 Bit (English). This is the P2P/P2V I guess. 

Yes,
"-Paragon Adaptive Restore - Windows Installation Package (x86 / X64) 32 Bit (English). This is the P2P/P2V I guess" is the product you need. But, it comes with boot module as well. Or you can connect the drive as slave to working machine and install all you need to it.
When I have a machine with law RAM (512) then I use this method.
BTW, just upgraded single core based system to Quad machine. Both Intel.
Tomorrow will test with AMD.
Back to the topic, if you connect the SSD drive as slave and run Adaptive Restore P2P on it, then you will get a chance to install all necessary drivers correctly.
Forget about BartPE, there is no need in it for you.

Thank you, it will save me a lot of time if I skip the BartPE stuff.

Forgive me if this is a stupid question/comment: Recall that my system is a laptop with one build-in harddisk and now I'm trying to connect a second one via the eSATA port. Can this setup also be configured as master/slave? I don't know how to do that on a laptop.

Does it make a difference in practice somehow during the installations that my laptop has two processors or is it the same as if I had one one processor? The device manager (in controlPanel->system->hardware) shows two almost identical entries for the Intel controllers.

Finally, if all of this turns out to work, can I have a simple boot menu? I imagine it could be difficult because the BIOS settings is different for my two drives (ATA for the HDD and AHCI for the SSD).

I think your internal HDD will be master by default and the one connected via eSATA slave.
You could set maste\slave on ATA drives but SATA sets it up itself according to SATA connectors.
If you do it from Boot CD of Adaptive Restore without applying the operation from Windows then it must work and create a standard menu.

It works! Thank you very much, noxcho. I will assign the full honor and 500 points to you. It should be mentioned that Paragon support was excellent too. I like their stuff and it's not at all too expensive to buy.

The SSD is much faster - although not overwhelming. I had hoped booting windows would be much faster, but I think it's been reduced to about 75%... But inside windows things load really fast, I guess factor 3-4 faster than with the HDD.
Not bad! Next project is to "optimize alignment" of the SSD, I've read it's supposed to speed it more up.

To summarize how I managed to install the SSD in my Dell E6400 laptop:

• First download the appropriate Intel Matrix Storage Manager drivers from http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Product_Filter.aspx?ProductID=2101
  In my case the file is called IATA89ENU.exe.
  It will not execute on my system, so extract the contents using the command prompt: IATA89ENU.exe -a (this will put the .inf and .sys files in the directory C:\Program Files\Intel\Intel Matrix Storage Manager\winall\Driver\ ). Copy them to a CD.
   

• Using Paragon Drive Backup 9.0, create an image of the windows partition of the HDD. 

• Setting the BIOS mode to AHCI, boot from the Drive Backup recovery CD and copy the partition image to the SSD (resizing it to fill the whole SSD).
  
   
• Booting from the WinPE based Adaptive Restore CD (part of Paragon Drive Backup Professional Edition), choose the newly copied WinXP on the SDD, choose to install drivers automatically and point it to the CD drive where the .inf and .sys files are.
  
   
• The program will install the new drivers in the OS on the SDD.
  
   
• Restart the machine and boot from eSATA. Windows will say it found new hardware and installed it.
   

You're great. Thanks for your fast and accurate replies. As a nice spin-off I have gotten to know the nice Paragon products.