[SOLVED] Cloning 1TB HDD to 1TB Samsung 860 EVO SSD. Some questions on process.

hunter1801a

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I've read some threads where instructions are posted on how to clone an HDD, but still have some questions. Since I have a Samsung, I've seen the Samsung software recommended for cloning, so I'll be using their Data Migration Software.

  1. Is it also necessary/recommended to download the separate Samsung "Magician" software? If so, would I do that on the actual SSD after cloning, or before? What's the purpose?
  2. Do I need to initialize the SSD or anything before cloning? Any other "to-do's" to prep the drive before cloning (other than backing up data)?
  3. At what point do I go into the BIOS to change the SATA configuration to AHCI? Before I connect the SSD to clone, or after it's cloned and I attempt to boot from the SSD?
  4. I've seen on other posts that I should use the "Intel Controller" as opposed to the "Marvel Controller". Couldn't find anything in the manual that specified either one, so what does that even mean? I'm thinking all I need to know from this is to plug the SATA cable into the blue ports, not the white ones.
  5. Any specific driver updates I need to install on my mobo before making the switch to an SSD?
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-EX58-UD5-rev-10/support#support-manual

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5
Current HDD: 1TB WD Black
New SSD: 1TB Samsung 860 EVO
Current drive has only 727GB used, out of 931GB.
 
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Solution
Disk Management screenshot:


How/why would it merge that info? Does that mean there's no way for me to get it to run on it's own, which means I'm not going to be able to clone to the SSD?
During the install, it saw that there was already a boot partition in the system.
It assumed you wanted a dualboot, and acted accordingly.

The way to have prevented that would be to have ONLY the desired drive connected when you did the Win 10 install.


Also, the boot partition being on a different drive would have happened anyway, if there were more than one drive connected. Even without the WIn 7 being present.
Sucks that it does that, but that is why we stress so strongly to have only ONE...

USAFRet

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  1. Samsung Magician happens after the thing is running on the new drive. It has nothing to do with the migration process. The Samsung Data Migration tool is what is used to migrate to a Samsung drive.
  2. No
  3. What is it now? Migrating to another SATA drive (860 EVO) should not need ANY change there.
  4. Yes, the blue ports
  5. No.
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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.
-----------------------------
 

hunter1801a

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So after the below steps in the above instructions...
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up

I would add this step?
- Go into BIOS and change to AHCI

Then continue to boot and clone?
 

USAFRet

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So after the below steps in the above instructions...
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up

I would add this step?
- Go into BIOS and change to AHCI

Then continue to boot and clone?
No need to change the AHCI status.
The clone is a direct copy of the system as it is now. If it is working, no need to change.

If desired, you can do that later. But don't introduce another bit of change in the process.
 

hunter1801a

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Something's wrong now.... Disconnected all drives except main hdd and new sdd. Now it doesn't boot up. Disconnected new sdd so only my main hdd remains... Same thing. Message reads:

"Verifying DMI pool data...
Boot from cd/dvd:
Boot from cd/dvd:
Disk boot failure, insert system disk and press start"

Boot priority is set to my hdd
First boot device is Hard Disk
Second/third disabled

Update: it boots back up after I plug in my old 500gb hdd (with win 7). This was the first drive I ever had on this computer. I later got the 1TB WD Black and did a fresh install of Windows 10 on that and I've been using it ever since. Since I never unplugged the 500gb, when it boots it has always asked which OS I want to boot from and I always select the win10 OS (1TB WD Black).

How they are plugged in:
SATA2_0: 1TB HDD (My main one with Win10)
SATA2_1: Nothing plugged in (another old hd that I unplugged)
SATA2_2: 500GB HDD (The old one with Win7)

So basically it only boots if I have the old 500gb drive plugged in as well. I can swap the sata cables/ports between them and it still boots fine. Just not if the 500gb is unplugged. Why?
 
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USAFRet

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Something's wrong now.... Disconnected all drives except main hdd and new sdd. Now it doesn't boot up. Disconnected new sdd so only my main hdd remains... Same thing. Message reads:

"Verifying DMI pool data...
Boot from cd/dvd:
Boot from cd/dvd:
Disk boot failure, insert system disk and press start"

Boot priority is set to my hdd
First boot device is Hard Disk
Second/third disabled

Update: it boots back up after I plug in my old 500gb hdd (with win 7). This was the first drive I ever had on this computer. I later got the 1TB WD Black and did a fresh install of Windows 10 on that and I've been using it ever since. Since I never unplugged the 500gb, when it boots it has always asked which OS I want to boot from and I always select the win10 OS (1TB WD Black).

How they are plugged in:
SATA2_0: 1TB HDD (My main one with Win10)
SATA2_1: Nothing plugged in (another old hd that I unplugged)
SATA2_2: 500GB HDD (The old one with Win7)

So basically it only boots if I have the old 500gb drive plugged in as well. I can swap the sata cables/ports between them and it still boots fine. Just not if the 500gb is unplugged. Why?
The boot partition resides on the 500GB Win 7 disk.
When you installed Win 10, it merged the Win 10 info with the Win 7 info.
Remove that drive, and no boot for you.
 

USAFRet

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Disk Management screenshot:


How/why would it merge that info? Does that mean there's no way for me to get it to run on it's own, which means I'm not going to be able to clone to the SSD?
During the install, it saw that there was already a boot partition in the system.
It assumed you wanted a dualboot, and acted accordingly.

The way to have prevented that would be to have ONLY the desired drive connected when you did the Win 10 install.


Also, the boot partition being on a different drive would have happened anyway, if there were more than one drive connected. Even without the WIn 7 being present.
Sucks that it does that, but that is why we stress so strongly to have only ONE drive connected when you install a Windows OS.
 
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hunter1801a

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So to be clear, there is no way to get this cloned successfully at this point? In terms of being able to get the cloned SSD to boot by itself only. Is fresh install my only option now?
 

USAFRet

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How much of a pain would it be for a full OS and application install?
There is a procedure, but I am unsure of the exact steps. And don't want to lead you down the road to total fail.

Cloning is great, when conditions are perfect. Here, it is not perfect.
 

hunter1801a

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Well for one I'll probably have to buy Win10 again. Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. Fresh install might be best since I've had this drive for a while and done a lot of things on it.
 
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hunter1801a

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Is there a "best" recommended way to do a fresh install onto a new SSD? Does anything change in terms of BIOS setup or other things to know now that I'm doing a fresh install as opposed to cloning? I'll of course be installing with ONLY the SSD hooked up and no other drives.

For creating the bootable USB, I'll be following this:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-windows-99a58364-8c02-206f-aa6f-40c3b507420d
 

USAFRet

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Is there a "best" recommended way to do a fresh install onto a new SSD? Does anything change in terms of BIOS setup or other things to know now that I'm doing a fresh install as opposed to cloning? I'll of course be installing with ONLY the SSD hooked up and no other drives.

For creating the bootable USB, I'll be following this:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...-windows-99a58364-8c02-206f-aa6f-40c3b507420d

If this install is in the same system (apart from the drive) you do NOT need a new OS license.
 

hunter1801a

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Install successful and I'm up and running. I'm assuming I have to redownload things like chipset and audio drivers. Other than those two, are there any others from I need from here?:

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-EX58-UD5-rev-10/support#support-dl-driver-sataraidahci

Also, when I downloaded the chipset and audio drivers, it downloads a single .exe file, which when opened, begins extracting files (I chose to extract to the current location of the Downloads folder). Of those extracted files is a Setup.exe that appears to actually go through the driver installation process. After I run Setup, can I then delete all the other files that got extracted? Or should I be extracting these drivers to a specific location?

Screenshot is of the extracted files, which shows the Setup.exe that installs the driver: https://ibb.co/0J6yS6h




Another question... You advised me earlier to NOT change to AHCI. This was when I was cloning. Everywhere I'm reading (including threads on this site) say that AHCI is the preferred setup for SSDs. Now that I am doing a fresh install, does your recommendation still stand, or should I change to AHCI?
 
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USAFRet

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Install successful and I'm up and running. I'm assuming I have to redownload things like chipset and audio drivers. Other than those two, are there any others from I need from here?:

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-EX58-UD5-rev-10/support#support-dl-driver-sataraidahci

Also, when I downloaded the chipset and audio drivers, it downloads a single .exe file, which when opened, begins extracting files (I chose to extract to the current location of the Downloads folder). Of those extracted files is a Setup.exe that appears to actually go through the driver installation process. After I run Setup, can I then delete all the other files that got extracted? Or should I be extracting these drivers to a specific location?

Screenshot is of the extracted files, which shows the Setup.exe that installs the driver: https://ibb.co/0J6yS6h




Another question... You advised me earlier to NOT change to AHCI. This was when I was cloning. Everywhere I'm reading (including threads on this site) say that AHCI is the preferred setup for SSDs. Now that I am doing a fresh install, does your recommendation still stand, or should I change to AHCI?
Yes. Change it to AHCI in this process.
 

USAFRet

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Am I able to do that now that I have already installed Windows on the new drive?
What about the driver question above?
AHCI after, yes. Done carefully.
https://www.partitionwizard.com/partitionmagic/enable-ahci-after-win-10-installation.html
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/switch-from-ide-to-ahci-windows-10.2429812/
https://support.thinkcritical.com/kb/articles/switch-windows-10-from-raid-ide-to-ahci


For those drivers, it depends what they are.
If you're not going to use them, delete.
 

hunter1801a

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Not sure if I explained the driver thing clear enough above. I'll use the chipset drivers as an example. I download the .exe from the website. The .exe, when launched, extracts files to a location of my choosing. One of the files that extracts is a Setup.exe. When that's launched, it goes through what appears to be an installation process.

So my question is what do I do with the files that were originally extracted? If the Setup.exe actually installed everything, do I need the other files that were originally extracted? Would deleting them be undoing the installation that happened after they were extracted? I just don't see the point of the extracted files AFTER the Setup.exe runs.
 

USAFRet

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Not sure if I explained the driver thing clear enough above. I'll use the chipset drivers as an example. I download the .exe from the website. The .exe, when launched, extracts files to a location of my choosing. One of the files that extracts is a Setup.exe. When that's launched, it goes through what appears to be an installation process.

So my question is what do I do with the files that were originally extracted? If the Setup.exe actually installed everything, do I need the other files that were originally extracted? Would deleting them be undoing the installation that happened after they were extracted? I just don't see the point of the extracted files AFTER the Setup.exe runs.
The setup extracts.
That extracted stuff is installed in its proper place.
You can almost certainly delete the original setup.exe, and what was extracted.

The drivers would only be removed if you go through there uninstall process.

It is this was with any application. Drivers are no different.
 

hunter1801a

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Sorry, more questions. In BIOS, there are two places that I can change to AHCI. Should I change both or just one? Screenshot: https://ibb.co/8sFRMqH


The SATA RAID/AHCI option at the top allows me to select: Disabled (current), RAID, or AHCI
The Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode at the bottom allows me to select: IDE (current), or AHCI
 

USAFRet

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Sorry, more questions. In BIOS, there are two places that I can change to AHCI. Should I change both or just one? Screenshot: https://ibb.co/8sFRMqH


The SATA RAID/AHCI option at the top allows me to select: Disabled (current), RAID, or AHCI
The Onboard SATA/IDE Ctrl Mode at the bottom allows me to select: IDE (current), or AHCI
Not sure about your particular motherboard.
Does it say anything in the user manual?