Have a Samsung 850 Pro 256gb on the way and when it gets here I will be cloning from a Vertex 3 120gb with Windows 7 on it. I will be using Macrium Reflect. I have cloned a few drives but never a C drive. After searching around I read that it is best to unhide all of the hidden files in Windows before cloning an operating system drive. I always keep mine unhidden so that is not an issue. Any other nuances I should know about? Any other cloning program suggestions? Have had good luck with Reflect. And does Windows 7 have any kind of hissy fit when you unplug one drive and plug in a new one with windows on it. Oh.....on a C drive when you clone will it write the C drive letter to the drive so it will just boot up once the original is disconnected? Any info would be good.
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Cloning a C drive SSD to a new SSD
- Thread starter Sneak
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Sp33dFr33k
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I've used Acronis simply because I can use the boot disc and clone outside of Windows. If Macrium or ToDo Backup have that option that's what I would go with. Just simpler when you don't have to clone while Windows is running but it should be fine either way.
Zepher
[H]ipster Replacement
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I use Paragon's Migrate OS to SSD program. It is a paid program though, $20. I've used it dozens of times with no issues.
The app is pretty nifty since I can attach 2 drives, one with an OS I want to clone from and a destination drive and do the clone on the machine I am on.
App reads all the drives and shows what drives have OS's on them and you choose which one you want to use and then choose the destination.
The app is pretty nifty since I can attach 2 drives, one with an OS I want to clone from and a destination drive and do the clone on the machine I am on.
App reads all the drives and shows what drives have OS's on them and you choose which one you want to use and then choose the destination.
No need to mess with hidden files. Macrium Reflect should handle the clone easily. Clone, unplug old drive, plug in new drive. Windows should come up normally, it MAY require you to re-authenticate with Microsoft servers, but usually an HDD change isn't enough to trigger it.
If something happens, you can always switch back the old drive. But after cloning, do not connect both drives together -- they will have the same ID and that will confuse Windows.
Flogger23m
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Macrium Reflect free worked very nicely for my SSD/HDD cloning needs. I tried Acronis, which came with my Crucial SSD and that had issues. I moved my Windows install from an HDD to an SSD with it. Very simple to use.
When I got my Samsung 850 PRO, I used Samsung Data Migration Software. You install it on your C drive, run it and it will do live cloning to your new SSD, all your partitions on the old drive will be cloned to the new drive. Then you shut down your computer, switch cables and whola, everything works. I was sceptical it would be that easy, but it really is that easy.
Thanks for the replies. Looks like cloning a C drive is really no different than any other drive then. Sounds good. I will probably still use Macrium Reflect since I have used it before. But I will search around and take a look at the Samsung Software too. My SSD is not here yet so if there are other comments I am all ears.
Phrik
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CloneZilla can clone at per used block level. An exact 1:1 copy, and since the source is only 120GB, after a clone you get an unused space as an unused partition which you can then extend within Windows.
I use that because most of the free clone or partition utilities have problems if the source is a windows server install. But that shouldn't matter in your case anyway, just saying it's completely free and doesn't care what you use it with.
I use that because most of the free clone or partition utilities have problems if the source is a windows server install. But that shouldn't matter in your case anyway, just saying it's completely free and doesn't care what you use it with.
For this purpose I personally consider EaseUS todo backup and Acronis True Image. EaseUS is $29, but there is also a trial version available that works for 30 days. Acronis is $49. you can use the trial version too.
OK my SSD came in and I have cloned it. I Actually did not use Macrium. I took a look at the Samsung Data Migration software that came with it and decided to give it a try. I figured if it was no good I would just go back to Macrium Reflect. But it worked fine. It is obviously made for simplicity. The only prompt I got was to make sure all folders were closed or they would not clone. I had nothing opened. Once the clone was done it prompted me to shut down, swap out the drives, and reboot. I did and when the comp came up I went into the Bios and all was well. It had even set the new drive as the primary boot drive. So I booted up and got the only error I received during this. Windows was loading and as I hit the desktop I got a nice BSOD which said it was writing a Crash Dump. I decided to let it go around and boot again to see what happened. The second time Windows came right up and I got the box that it was installing the driver for the Samsung 850 Pro. And then all was well. I have had this drive running for about three days with many reboots yet no other issues. I have not pulled out the debugger to check the Memory Dump but I assume that when windows came up the first time the drive it was on was not what it thought it should be. So it had a minor hissy! I was not prompted for a re-authorization so if Windows phoned home it did it on the sly. The only odd thing I noticed after all this was that the Hiberfil file was back in the root of C drive. I had removed it and have Hibernation turned off. But windows brought it back with the new drive though Hibernation was still set to never. That was curious. I have 32 gig of ram so it was a big file.
So for the record from my experience, cloning a C drive really isn't any different from cloning anything else. Even with the BSOD hiccup. Thanks for all the responses guys.
So for the record from my experience, cloning a C drive really isn't any different from cloning anything else. Even with the BSOD hiccup. Thanks for all the responses guys.
dpoverlord
[H]ard|Gawd
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Never use Samsung magician beware
Care to provide a reason?
dpoverlord
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Myself and lots of others here, on anandtech, OCN have had way too many issues.
I myself just a few weeks ago tried the newest update and It didn't properly set the c drive to c (instead D) and it took hours just to fix the problem.
Better to go to a DOS or boot environment and use acronis, ghost or something tried and true.
michalrz
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I wouldn't worry about the first BSOD. Windows probably used the specific driver and settings, failed and possibly fell back to a generic driver. Just guessing though.
You can check the event manager to see the STOP code. I'm betting it was 0x0000007B (where are my boots?)
As far as completely disabling hibernation, try running an elevated command prompt and type: powercfg -h off
Are you talking about the Data Migration software or the Magician software? I've used the Data Migration software half a dozen times without issue, which is why I asked for more info. I never use Magician.
That's exactly how I took the Hiberfil file out of there. A whole lot of instant disc space. Couldn't find a stop code. Wondering if Windows didn't get far enough up to write it before the BSOD.
On the Samsung Data Migration program I am not going to endorse it as I have only used it once. But it worked just fine on this clone. No complaints. I will give Kudos to Macrium Reflect as I have used it though last time was last year.. Seems other people around here like Acronis just as much. I have not used that yet. I too would be curious to hear of any issues with the Data Migration Tool or Magician. I loaded Magician to check it out but all I did with it was verify the drive(s) as genuine and do a performance test. I haven't used it to change anything/ May not leave it installed.
michalrz
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It should still be in the 'system events' category (applications, system, security - you should see those). Anyway, if you want to do a 'memtest' kind of thing on the SSD, there's a fun tool 'barts stuff test'.
It continously writes to free space on the medium and then verifies integrity of the data. IIRC it uses various patterns, shows errors etc.
Also you might have missed it but one of the Windows updates last year beefed up the built-in crap cleaner. The system tool for recovering free space. If you select 'system files', it will let you delete stuff like the Windows Update cache, etc. If you haven't done it yet, there's gigabytes to be had
acquacow
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I either use dd or a little .exe I grabbed online that does the same thing, you can google it: HDDRawCopy1.10Portable.exe
-- Dave
-- Dave
michalrz
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This couldn't have happened in a better moment. I literally was just trying to figure out how to 'dd' under Windows because I have two ancient PATA drives to copy one onto another. I'll try it out. Thanks.
acquacow
Limp Gawd
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I have cygwin installed in my windows environment, so every time I moved it from drive to drive, I actually just did a live dd from disk A to raid group A, and then raid group A to ssd A, etc...
YeuEmMaiMai
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when I migrated my widows install, I just used windows backup/restore. no issues other than having to resize partition