Cloning a Hard Drive With Another Computer

[AfghanwarVet]

Hi all,

I was thinking of cloning my laptop hard drive and upgrading to an SSD. Rather than having to buy an SSD to USB cable, I was thinking of using my desktop by unplugging the laptop hard drive and the SSD into the desktop to clone it. I was not planning on unplugging my desktop hard drive to do this. Will there be an issue if I try this? Do i need to disconnect the desktop hard drive and try and boot my desktop from the laptop hard drive to do this? Any suggestions will be appreciated. I already have 3 sata cables to accomplish this, so it would preferable to do things this way. Thank you all!

 

[nobspls]

Your biggest risk in doing all this is human error. Don't confuse your laptop drive with the desktop drive and wipe out the contents of one or the other. Be absolutely sure in the software, whichever one you are using, that the source and destinations are specified correctly.

As a precaution, and to limit human error, I always disconnect SATA cable to the drive I do not want wiped out. I do this at the drive end. I just let hang sitting next to where it was plugged in. Those SATA cable are usually pretty stiff and good at keeping more or less around where they should be, so it is not a big deal or a lot of work to unplug and replug.

 

[jaslion]

Hi all,

I was thinking of cloning my laptop hard drive and upgrading to an SSD. Rather than having to buy an SSD to USB cable, I was thinking of using my desktop by unplugging the laptop hard drive and the SSD into the desktop to clone it. I was not planning on unplugging my desktop hard drive to do this. Will there be an issue if I try this? Do i need to disconnect the desktop hard drive and try and boot my desktop from the laptop hard drive to do this? Any suggestions will be appreciated. I already have 3 sata cables to accomplish this, so it would preferable to do things this way. Thank you all!

I use easeus todo backup and use it's clone feature.

What you need to watch out for is to clearly know which drive is which. The to clone, the destination and the desktops drive.

You need to boot from your desktops drive to make this work. Then select the laptops old drive as the source (and all it' partitions) and then select the source which is the new ssd.

 

[USAFRet]

1. Do NOT try to boot up the desktop with the laptop drive. Tears will result.

2. Can you do it the way you desire? Yes, probably.
However...a cable to do this is only a few $, a dedicated dock is maybe $20.
And you'll have that for next time.

But...if you really want to proceed.
Disconnect ALL drives in the desktop except your OS drive.
Connect the old laptop drive and the new SSD
Per the below steps, clone it.
Put the SSD in the laptop and see if it power up.

(adjust for your laptop concept)
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
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
-----------------------------

 

[AfghanwarVet]

I appreciate all 3 of your help. I will be sure to update you all as to how this goes.

 

[AfghanwarVet]

I appreciate all 3 of your help. I will be sure to update you all as to how this goes.