Can I clone 2 SSDs from different brands?

[chrisdukes]

Basically, I want to periodically clone my system drive (Samsung SSD 850 Pro 256GB) onto another hard drive with a different brand (Crucial SSD MX300 275GB). So, when the primary drive craps out, I want to just plug the backup drive in and keep working.

I know that space will be limited to which ever drive is smallest (the Samsung@256GB) but are there any other issues I should be concerned about? For example, how big should the partitions be on the new 275 GB Crucial drive?

I should add that I don't keep personal, work, or project files on my system drive. The only time it changes is when I install software and updates or when I change my application settings. So, I'd be updating the clone every few days, probably once a week.

Here are the drives:
http://www.samsung.com/us/computing/memory-storage/solid-state-drives/ssd-850-pro-2-5-sata-iii-256gb-mz-7ke256bw/
http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/ct275mx300ssd1

😀 Thanks! 😀

 

[SkyNetRising]

Yes you can do that. No problems there.
Just have bootable windows install media, if you need fixing BCD store after cloning.
And test your system, if it can boot from cloned drive.

Cloning each week sounds excessive though. It will wear the SSD, you're writing to, significantly.
Once a month would be more sensible.

 

[Sohaib]

Brand has nothing to do with cloning, all it matters is the disc you are cloning to must be of equal or bigger size then the one you are cloning. Or at least it have equal space to the used space of the disk you are cloning if you use the smart method.

 

[USAFRet]

Yes you can.
But there are other ways, rather than taking up a whole second SSD.

I do an Image of my C drive (500GB Samsung SSD) to a 3TB WD Green HDD on a nightly basis.
Every night at 2AM, keep for 2 weeks.
Every Sunday at 3AM, to another system on the house LAN. Keep for 4 weeks.

If I ever need, just slot in a new SSD and port the desired image to this new drive.
Takes maybe 15-20 minutes.


But what you want to do will work as well. Just make 100% sure the system will not try to boot from that second drive, the Crucial. Much confusion will result.
With my method, there is no possibility of the system trying to boot from some drive other than the original C (500GB Samsung). But the image is readily accessible.

 

[chrisdukes]

Thanks for the prompt reply SkyNet. What do you mean by: "Just have bootable windows install media, if you need fixing BCD store after cloning."?

And thanks for the tip about not wearing down my new SSID. Once a month it is. Is that when I should test if the clone is bootable?

 

[chrisdukes]

Good to know, USAFRet. When you said that you do an image "...to another system on the house LAN", do you do that over ethernet or wifi? Also, what do you mean by "If I ever need, just slot in a new SSD and port the desired image to this new drive." Can I do that if I can't start Windows?

Also, "Just make 100% sure the system will not try to boot from that second drive, the Crucial. Much confusion will result." sounds like some important advice. I assume that if I get them confused I'll lose track of which is the primary and which is the clone.

 

[SkyNetRising]

What do you mean by: "Just have bootable windows install media, if you need fixing BCD store after cloning."?
Once a month it is. Is that when I should test if the clone is bootable?

Depending on software you use for cloning, your cloned drive might not be able to boot into windows right away.
You may need to boot from windows install media and perform some additional steps.
The sooner you try it, the faster you'll know, if your SSD clone is capable of booting or not.

 

[chrisdukes]

Oh, I see. Basically, I have to use it before it will work.

 

[USAFRet]

Good to know, USAFRet. When you said that you do an image "...to another system on the house LAN", do you do that over ethernet or wifi? Also, what do you mean by "If I ever need, just slot in a new SSD and port the desired image to this new drive." Can I do that if I can't start Windows?

Also, "Just make 100% sure the system will not try to boot from that second drive, the Crucial. Much confusion will result." sounds like some important advice. I assume that if I get them confused I'll lose track of which is the primary and which is the clone.

So...
I use Macrium Reflect.
Various systems in the house are imaged to a couple of drives on other PC's.
Wired or WiFi makes no difference.

With Macrium Reflect, it gives you the option to create a Rescue CD or USB.
In case of a totally dead C drive:
Put in the replacement drive
Boot from that Rescue CD (or USB)
Tell it which image to recover from, and which drive to recover to (the new SSD)
Go
Takes about 15 minutes.
Fully running system, on the replacement SSD, from the system state as it was when that image was created. Last night, last week, whenever.


Confusing boot drives? Happens more often than you might think.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a member here puzzled over why his wife's PC reverted back to as it was 6 months ago.
Maybe a virus, some odd Windows Update burp, A Windows version update that wentt horribly wrong...

No.
It was a bad SATA cable.
He had cloned the original drive over to a new SSD.
And left the original drive in there, with the functional OS.
Power on
The bad SATA cable did not allow the system to boot from the normal SSD, so it dropped down to the next option, the old OS on the HDD.
6 months out of date.

Poor guy was panicking, thinking that 6 months of family pics and other work had gone down the tubes.

Confusion.
Unless you are purposely dualbooting, only have one and only one functioning bootable OS in the system.
Far too easy to not know which one you are booting into.