easiest tool to upgrade to SSD from HDD

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amd7674

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I recently setup 2 new ACER desktop machines (windows 8.1) for my in-laws. Nice a zippy i7 with 16gb or RAM (they don't game)... The only bottleneck on these systems are slow 1TB 5400rpm HDDs. I already have 2 SSDs for them one 120gb m500 and 256gb Sammy 840 Evo (hopefully it will last LOL). I believe Acer has put a hidden recovery partition on the 1TB HDD.

Its been a while for me, hence please do not flame me for asking.

What would be easiest/best software tool to clone this HDDs to SSD drives? I assume the hidden partition would be cloned as well? I would like to still keep 1TB HDD drive for storage and data...

Please advise.

Thanks in advance. ;)
 
My go-to solution for something like this is clonezilla. It's a modified linux distro strictly made for imaging and cloning drives and partitions. However, you'll run into limitations going from big disks to smaller ones. You can get around that by resizing the primary partitions (using something like gparted) so that they fit on the new target drives, and then using the partition to partition clone option. This will also allow you to clone the hidden recovery partitions.

Alternately, you just just use the Windows backup feature. You can back up the entire disk to a USB or other drive and make a bootable recovery disk. Then you swap the drives, reboot using the recovery disk, and restore the backups. This will also complain about the targets being smaller than the source, but you can over-ride that with the correct command.

Then there are retail apps that come with some SSDs for the purpose of migrating data to them. Acronis True Image is one. Usually these apps are limited to the brand of drive that they come pre-packaged with if you try the free versions, otherwise you have to pay.
 
Acronis costs money but its one of the best documented and user friendly softwares. I have it and like it...though I forget what I was trying to do and called them about it for support and they were equally lost if what I wanted was possible.

It was fairly complex and I don't know if anyone tried it before with the software. I wish I could remember what it was :/

Basically if you got 40 bucks and want to clone, backup, restore, and have it barney style acronis is a great options for a little cash. They also tend to have sales on it so you can even get like the 3 PC version for 40 or 50 bucks IIRC. If you forget to deactivate first you just need to call them or shoot them an email for them to unlock your key. I would recommend if you buy it to get 3 PC one. I didn't and regret it. The next sale I will purchase the 3 PC one.
 
For the one that is going to use the Sammy drive, just use the samsung utility that ships with it.

For the other one, I am guessing that it probably came with a migration utility as well.
 
What is stopping you from simply reinstalling the OS? I've always preferred reinstalling from scratch as opposed to cloning.

Windows ships with something called 'Easy Transfer' that'll generate a single file with all the settings/documents and files that you want transfered. Push this off to a external disk and install the OS from scratch on the new SSD.

While at it, might as well wait a few days and do it with Win10.
 
stalkerte said:
What is stopping you from simply reinstalling the OS? I've always preferred reinstalling from scratch as opposed to cloning.

Windows ships with something called 'Easy Transfer' that'll generate a single file with all the settings/documents and files that you want transfered. Push this off to a external disk and install the OS from scratch on the new SSD.

While at it, might as well wait a few days and do it with Win10.
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any retard video demo on that you would recommend? Not a tutorial but like a demo of what it can do? If not no worries don't hunt one done
 
This has been a major problem since XP.. Many programs are supposed to do it but they sort of work sometimes and depending on versions..

The latest aomei backupper free does work.. it does both MBR and UEFI boot drives.. I have used others but they sometimes work and sometimes not. Depending on if you get errors like NTLDR or bootmanager not found etc you might have to run boot recovery and then reactivate.... Since backupper is supposed to be a backup program I was surprised it worked better than most clone and copy programs and I only recently started using it as I wasted a lot of time using others and doing the cloning multiple times to get it working. Something else it does it allow you to clone a large hard drive to a small SSD.. As long as the partition data does not exceed the SSD's size.. Ofcourse moving from MBR to GPT boot is a little more difficult as GPT is UEFI and you need to do some stuff manually for it to work..
 
AlienTech said:
This has been a major problem since XP.. Many programs are supposed to do it but they sort of work sometimes and depending on versions..

The latest aomei backupper free does work.. it does both MBR and UEFI boot drives.. I have used others but they sometimes work and sometimes not. Depending on if you get errors like NTLDR or bootmanager not found etc you might have to run boot recovery and then reactivate.... Since backupper is supposed to be a backup program I was surprised it worked better than most clone and copy programs and I only recently started using it as I wasted a lot of time using others and doing the cloning multiple times to get it working. Something else it does it allow you to clone a large hard drive to a small SSD.. As long as the partition data does not exceed the SSD's size.. Ofcourse moving from MBR to GPT boot is a little more difficult as GPT is UEFI and you need to do some stuff manually for it to work..
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anronis does that too and offers the ability to clone RAID 0 to non raided drives and I think vice versa

Also works around the weird code on MB or SSDs that cna prevent you from going to one drive/system to another. I forget what that was.

I used it on an alienware laptop several times with no issues and those laptops are known to be riddled with issues because of so much proprietary stuff.
 
thank you for the all info ;-)

I will check on one of my systems that I did it some time ago but if I'm not mistaken I've used EaseUS ToDo Backup Free before and I might use it again.

Good idea about Windows 10... Problem is I'm busy with my kids and only see my in-laws every 2-3 weeks, which makes the whole process long, I might do one computer at the time.... Hopefully it won't take too long... :)
 
Macrium Reflect has served me well. I've used it several times in going from HDD to SSD to other SSD's. It's just a great tool in general.
 
SomeGuy133 said:
anronis does that too and offers the ability to clone RAID 0 to non raided drives and I think vice versa

Also works around the weird code on MB or SSDs that cna prevent you from going to one drive/system to another. I forget what that was.

I used it on an alienware laptop several times with no issues and those laptops are known to be riddled with issues because of so much proprietary stuff.
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It is only in the paid version.. You have to specifically ask them for the unpaid version and it is not available easily.. Paragon has their old program that does it available if you ask. I did try it and it did work by removing driver specific stuff from the image and reinstalling them but in such cases a full upgrade install would still be needed after you get it booted just to fix some of the problems. The upgrade install will fix some of the problems in the registry and missing driver files etc which happen when hardware changes. Anyway (sysprep) is a topic for an entire new thread...

I know many programs do it, I was saying it does not always work and depend on the version as well.. This is not rocket science as it is just a copy to another disk and it was really simple in the xp days.. But because of the way Microsoft does validation and stuff, it causes problems. If it does not then it is great.. WHY the problems happen is due to the way bootmanager works and it is simple to fix but you do need to know what to do.. Hence keep a copy of setup files on a usb or dvd around to fix the bootup problems.
 
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I use Paragon Migrate OS to SSD, but it only does the OS partition cloning.
The more expensive version will do complete drive clones with all partitions, as well as only the OS.

Migrate is $20 and I think the other version is $40. I have used the Migrate probably over 2 dozen times already with ZERO issues on various machines and SSD's, as well as doing OS clones from spinners to spinners, so you aren't locked into going to an SSD even though the name of the program is Migrate OS to SSD.
I like this tool since it is fast, allows you to deselect files and folders if the source has too much data than the destination, will allow you to work with other drives with OS's on them and clone them, which is what I normally, do. I'll attach the source and destination drive to my main machine and do the clone.

Reinstalling windows should be a last resort since it takes way too long to update windows.
My friend brought his moms machine over this past weekend (an E8400 setup I sold him a few years ago) to have a new drive installed and Win 7 put back on. Old drive was dead so no cloning or retrieving the files.
Windows took about 15-20 minutes to install, the updates took about 4 hours.

Also, here is a screenshot showing the install dates of Windows 7 on my 3770K and 4790K machines,
win-install-dates.jpg


I also use the Apricorn cable Cerulean posted, mine came with one of my Crucial drives.
 
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Cerulean and Zepher thank you very much for the idea... Having a cable can be very useful... Do you guys know if this cable would work?

Startech sata adapter

I would try to use it with Todo Backup Free 8.5.... Anyways this is the plan.
 
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amd7674 said:
Cerulean and Zepher thank you very much for the idea... Having a cable can be very useful... Do you guys know if this cable would work?

Startech sata adapter

I would try to use it with Todo Backup Free 8.5.... Anyways this is the plan.
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yea nay cable will work as long as it is recognized as a drive.

I own that cable too. I haven't tested it yet but i did buy it
 
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Got the el cheapo cable, just to find out Samsugn Magician do not support firmware updates via sata-to-usb cables... grrrrr... I guess I will have to install it internally to flash it to the latest firmware... disconnect it and use sata-to-usb cable to clone desire PC. Is this correct?
 
amd7674 said:
Got the el cheapo cable, just to find out Samsugn Magician do not support firmware updates via sata-to-usb cables... grrrrr... I guess I will have to install it internally to flash it to the latest firmware... disconnect it and use sata-to-usb cable to clone desire PC. Is this correct?
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I only use the cable since it is easier than opening up the PC and attaching it, if you have to open it up and attach it to flash it, keep it in there and clone it, it will be faster.
 
Zepher said:
I only use the cable since it is easier than opening up the PC and attaching it, if you have to open it up and attach it to flash it, keep it in there and clone it, it will be faster.
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I'm sorry I was not clear. I wanted to update Sammy EVO 840 firmware to the latest firmware (it is not the greatest SSD drive) before any attempts of cloning. Then I would clone the SSD drive using external usb 3.0 cable on any "other" PC. I did some RTFMing last night and the only way to upgrade firmware on Sammy drives is to hooked them up internally. Their software does not support SATAtoUSB connection. Not really a big deal....

Since my in-laws are using their two new PCs for media streaming (kodi) and browsing I think 250gb will be overkill. I think they should be fine with 64gb or even 40gb SSD. What I might do is to upgrade one of my PCs at home from 40gb older SSDs to 250gb EVO 840 and give my in-laws 40gb drive. They will still have 1TB HDD if they ever need it more space. I think 40gb should be enough for win 8.1 with Kodi and openoffice installed.
 
EaseUs backup Workstation. Great little software. Allows restoring to smaller drives.
 
I am just saying, if you can hook up the drive to a sata port, the cloning may be faster than using the USB3 adapter cable.
You will have to open up the machine to put the drive in anyways after you are done.
 
HammerSandwich said:
Huh?
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I can grab a drive with windows on it and plug it in to my machine as a drive, then plug in my destination drive, run the program, it scans all drives in the machine and displays any drives with an OS on it, I choose the OS I want to clone and then select the destination drive.

When I clone a spinning drive to an SSD, I plug the spinner into my front drive bay, plug the SSD into the transfer cable, run the program, select the OS that is on the drive in my front bay and tell it to clone it to the SSD drive.

HAF-XB-Dock-Bay-icydock.jpg
 
Zepher said:
I am just saying, if you can hook up the drive to a sata port, the cloning may be faster than using the USB3 adapter cable.
You will have to open up the machine to put the drive in anyways after you are done.
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Yes of course. I just want to have the drive up to the latest firmware before I hook it to anther PC I want to close. When I go to my in-laws house I would rather do it via usb cable.
 
I use Clonezilla for almost everything.

I also use the system image capabilities of Win 7 & 8.1 frequently and have not had much trouble with them either.

I agree with everyone else on the utilities that come with some SSD's. The Samsung utility has worked for me every time as well.
 
So, I couldn't do it with EaseUS free edition, it could be me too. I used EaseUS backup 2-3 times in the past, easey HDD->SSD and SSD->SSD clones all MBR related.

The in-laws new ACER desktop with 1TB drive is GTP drive with multiple partitions. At first I tried partition copying, which of course didn't work. Then when I tried to do disk to disk, it ask me to create WinPE emergency disk or something like this. It was late and I gave up... LOL

Do you guys know if I have to create WinPE disk and boot from it in order to perform successful cloning using Ease Todo Backup Free 8.5?

I might try Reflect next...

Or as others recommended perform clean install... Do you guys know how to retrieve win 8.1 license key for clean install?

Wow I didn't know GPT partition is such a pain to deal with...LOL

Thanks again...
Martin
 
I absolutely love Macrium Reflect but I use paid version (it handles my backups). It handles GPT partitions no problem. I'm not 100% sure if free version has limitations.
 
I would go ahead and purchase the Paragon Migrate OS to SSD for $20.
Just clone the OS to the SSD and use the stock drive as is and use it as storage, but don't format or anything, just leave it as is.
After you clone and boot from the SSD, I would remove the drive letters from the partitions that aren't being used on the 1TB drive, like the system partition and any other non-relevant partition.
 
Tup3x said:
I absolutely love Macrium Reflect but I use paid version (it handles my backups). It handles GPT partitions no problem. I'm not 100% sure if free version has limitations.
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Thanks I might try the free one before investing any money.


Zepher said:
I would go ahead and purchase the Paragon Migrate OS to SSD for $20.
Just clone the OS to the SSD and use the stock drive as is and use it as storage, but don't format or anything, just leave it as is.
After you clone and boot from the SSD, I would remove the drive letters from the partitions that aren't being used on the 1TB drive, like the system partition and any other non-relevant partition.
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How is the licensing on these? I have 6 different PCs (laptops/desktops) at home. Also I would like to help my in-laws. Is $20 only good for one PC?

Also what is the difference between Paragon's Hard Disk Manager 15 and their Migrate OS to SSD?

Thanks :)
 
amd7674 said:
Thanks I might try the free one before investing any money.




How is the licensing on these? I have 6 different PCs (laptops/desktops) at home. Also I would like to help my in-laws. Is $20 only good for one PC?

Also what is the difference between Paragon's Hard Disk Manager 15 and their Migrate OS to SSD?

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

Not sure on the licensing, but I believe it's one user, so you can install and then uninstall when you are done.
Hard Disk manager has more cloning tools and other features and I believe has the migrate tool as well.
Migrate doesn't clone the disk, only copies the OS to the destination, formats the drive, makes sure everything is aligned, trim is enabled, and makes it an active partition.
Real quick and easy tool for putting an OS on another drive.
Using the USB2 cable I have and having an 80GB OS (partition was 200GB but only 80GB was used) it took maybe 20 minutes to migrate it to my 128GB SSD, installed the SSD and was up and running in 30 minutes or so. I just removed the drive letter from my old C Drive partition since it was part of my 1TB black and didn't need it showing up in my computer.

this is right after I migrated and before I removed the old system drive letter (it was V when it booted up), and was a 200GB partition of D.
drives-samsung.jpg
 
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