Question Can't clone to SSD

Oct 29, 2020
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I have a new Crucial 2TB SSB, and I'm having trouble cloning it. The HD I'm replacing is 1 GB, with 7 partitions - D, I, J, K. L, M and C (which is the order they appear on screen). The C drive has my current Windows 10 OS, and the D drive has an older version of Windows. If it’s relevant, currently I have a total of 3 HDs, with drive letters going up to T.

When I tried to clone that HD to the SSD using the Crucial Clone Disk Wizard, the only partitions it is willing to copy over are the D and I partitions. I’ve used both the Crucial and WD versions of the Acronis software, and I get the same result.

Why won't it clone the whole disk?
 
Oct 29, 2020
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Macrium Reflect should do that easily.

Well, that was interesting. I ran Reflect, and it did clone the disk--sort of. The new disk booted up fine, but two partitions are completely empty, and it added a new empty partition. Some of the partitions got resized (I think), some didn't, and there's some unallocated space. Also, it didn't resize the boot partition, which was one of the things I was hoping to accomplish with this process. It's like the software just phoned it in...

I can probably copy over the missing partitions from the old drive. I'm a little nervous about hooking it back up and booting with two C drives connected, but I can set the boot order in BIOS and it shouldn't be a problem. I hope. But I'm wondering if I did something wrong, and should try to do it right.

Any idea why it might have behaved that way?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Oct 29, 2020
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The new drive is the first one shown in each shot. The old one isn't listed--it's still disconnected. I can hook it back up, but I'm not going to have time to do that until this weekend. I'll report back.
 
Oct 29, 2020
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When you say "odd," do you mean there was something unusual about the old partitions? I was just trying to copy all the old partitions to the new drive, and have it resize them. Do I have to create the partitions on the new drive first, then copy them one by one?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
What do you mean by the EFI partition?
The boot partition. System Reserved.
In a normal config and install, that is the first partition to the left.
And it is either 100MB or 500MB. This is what tells the system how to boot up.
Yours seems to be 146GB?

For instance, the one outlined in red:
x8ylO6E.png


I can't see the rest of the partitions on that Disk 0.

Cloning is great, when conditions are perfect.
This config is far from perfect.
 
Oct 29, 2020
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Huh. I've never seen that before, as often as I've gone into Disk Management, and I'm sure it wasn't on the old disk. I'll have to go back and take some screen shots.
 
Oct 29, 2020
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I did an HD to SSD upgrade on my work computer a while ago (and it went smoothly), and I just logged in to check it. It does have an EFI partition. Is that an SSD thing?
 
Oct 29, 2020
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Macrium Reflect should do that easily.

Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.

Here's why I asked you whether the EFI partition was an SSD thing. This is a screen shot of my current set-up, with the SSD disconnected. https://imgbox.com/PHtNrvXJ

I clicked on "Create an image of the partitions required to backup and restore Windows," which resulted in the overlay inset. My boot drive is the bottom drive in the underlying image. As you can see, there is no reserved partition. It may be because the D drive is an old Windows installation (maybe Win 98).

I'm still planning on trying to clone partitions one at a time, but that's going to take me a while to work through. Do you think I'll be able to do that without creating a separate reserved partition?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
That partition is NOT an SSD thing. Would be the same with an HDD.
It is a Windows thing.


Can't see your image, but whatever tool you used...either you did it wrong or it did it wrong.

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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)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
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

If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

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 all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
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