Best Program to Clone my hard drive

[jeremy0906]

I been thinking of upgrading my 120GB SSD to a 500GB SSD. I never really knew what was the best program to use to clone my files and programs from the old to the new. Any advice helps thank you.

Note: This SSD also has my OS installed, can i have it transferred over without having to do a fresh install?

 

[mdd1963]

If you have a Western Digital drive of any type attached, you can use WD's version of Acronis...

If you have a Samsung SSD, it comes with migration software.

Likewise, Macrium Reflect works about as well as Acronis...

And, although the next candidate has no pretty/fancy/Metro-styled GUI, (and please make absolutely sure you specify the correct source/destination drives!!!!) there is always old faithful Clonezilla, a 3-4 color text based system that has never failed me.

 

[USAFRet]

I been thinking of upgrading my 120GB SSD to a 500GB SSD. I never really knew what was the best program to use to clone my files and programs from the old to the new. Any advice helps thank you.

Note: This SSD also has my OS installed, can i have it transferred over without having to do a fresh install?

Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
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Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe as necessary.
Delete the 450MB Recovery Partition, here:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/4f1b84ac-b193-40e3-943a-f45d52e23685/cant-delete-extra-healthy-recovery-partitions-and-healthy-efi-system-partition?forum=w8itproinstall
-----------------------------


Whatever tool you end up using, the main thing you need to do is power off at the end of the cloning process.
Disconnect ALL other drive
Power up, and allow the system to try to boot from the new drive all by itself.