[SOLVED] Cloning a HDD "C" Drive to a M.2 "970 EVO" NVMe SSD | What happens to Desktop Shortcuts

[Daniel Phantomhive]

What happens to my Desktop Icons/Shortcuts
When i clone my System Drive over to the SSD and boot from it while the original System Drive is still plugged in.

-I have Game Launchers/Internet Browsers and misc. like ShareX on the C Drive.

Also i have a 1TB Toshiba DT01ACA100 , however its partitioned into C and D drives, so i cant format it after im done with the cloning


So...will my Desktop icons go poof?
Will the shortcuts "conflict" with the ones thats on the SSD and the HDD?

 

[USAFRet]

A "clone" is a full 100% functional copy.
The new drive will operate exactly as the old drive.

Of course, if the process is successful.

What drives are in this system?
Old and new?
What motherboard?

A secondary drive is no problem, IF the clone process works.

 

[USAFRet]

Also....the main thing you need to do at the end of the clone process is to:
Power OFF
Disconnect the old drive.
Power up with ONLY the new drive connected.

 

[Daniel Phantomhive]

Also....the main thing you need to do at the end of the clone process is to:
Power OFF
Disconnect the old drive.
Power up with ONLY the new drive connected.

Current system drive is a 5 year old Toshiba DT01ACA100 (1TB) (Crystal Diskinfo "Power On Hours-33480" - "Power On Count-1325)
I also have a 1 year old 2TB Seagate Barracuda as a Game Drive (Which has over 18k Reallocated Sectors on it..)

And the new SSD is a Samsung 970 EVO (1TB)

And the MB is a Z170A PC MATE (With a 6600K)
-----

And
"Disconnect the old drive.
Power up with ONLY the new drive connected."

Does that include every drive? Including the game one?

 

[USAFRet]

Current system drive is a 5 year old Toshiba DT01ACA100 (1TB) (Crystal Diskinfo "Power On Hours-33480" - "Power On Count-1325)
I also have a 1 year old 2TB Seagate Barracuda as a Game Drive (Which has over 18k Reallocated Sectors on it..)

And the new SSD is a Samsung 970 EVO (1TB)

And the MB is a Z170A PC MATE (With a 6600K)
-----

And
"Disconnect the old drive.
Power up with ONLY the new drive connected."

Does that include every drive? Including the game one?

During the clone process, you should have had ONLY the old and new drive connected.
ALL others should have been disconnected.

What tool did you use for this clone operation?
For a target Samsung drive, it should have been the Samsung Data Migration.

 

[Daniel Phantomhive]

During the clone process, you should have had ONLY the old and new drive connected.
ALL others should have been disconnected.

What tool did you use for this clone operation?
For a target Samsung drive, it should have been the Samsung Data Migration.

I didnt do it yet.
If i had already done it, id have my answer.

I just wanna know, what happens to my C drive, once its cloned. Like to the Desktop Shortcuts
And the current C Drive which is a HDD, once i cloned it.

Would the apps that are on it (The HDD), interfere with the SSD?

Like my Chrome Browser desktop shortcut, would it be activated thru the SSD or the HDD (After i select the SSD as my boot drive and have it as a C drive)
Or would the shortcut read the path to the SSD because the HDD is no longer the C drive

 

[USAFRet]

A proper clone will take the entire contents of the source drive over to the new drive.
Remove the old drive, and there will be ZERO difference, except that the C is now a different physical drive.


See this:

-----------------------------
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)
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.
-----------------------------

 

[Daniel Phantomhive]

A proper clone will take the entire contents of the source drive over to the new drive.
Remove the old drive, and there will be ZERO difference, except that the C is now a different physical drive.
-----------------------------

Okay but my current HDD, which has my C drive.. Is ALSO My D Drive.
Its partitioned.

Does that change anything

 

[USAFRet]

Okay but my current HDD, which has my C drive.. Is ALSO My D Drive.
Its partitioned.

Does that change anything

Please show us a screen cap of your Disk Management window.

 

[Daniel Phantomhive]

Please show us a screen cap of your Disk Management window.

This?

https://imgur.com/a/1lq4BHH

View: https://imgur.com/a/1lq4BHH

 

[geofelt]

First, install the new m.2 drive and also the samsung nvme driver.
You can download the driver and the ssd migration app here:

Tool & Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Download various software related to your product, including Samsung Magician, designed for use with Samsung's memory products, and find related information.

www.samsung.com

Run the app which will move everything from the HDD to equivalent spaces on the ssd.
The original hdd will not be changed.
When all is done, power down and disconnect the old HDD .
Boot from the new ssd to verify that all has gone well.
You can later connect the original hdd and what you will with it, or keep it offline as a backup.

 

[USAFRet]

This?

https://imgur.com/a/1lq4BHH

View: https://imgur.com/a/1lq4BHH

From Disk 0, do you wish to clone over both the C and D partitions?

 

[Daniel Phantomhive]

From Disk 0, do you wish to clone over both the C and D partitions?

Just the C

 

[USAFRet]

Just the C

OK then, the Samsung tool won't work. I don't believe you can split off partitions like that.
Macrium Reflect will, though.


-----------------------------
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)
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 Disk 0, Except the D partition.

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.
-----------------------------

 

[SkyNetRising]

One small note - target drive needs to be partitioned in GPT.
Also - I'm not sure, if Macrium will copy EFI System partition properly. It might not. It may convert it to primary data partition.
Then result will not be bootable.

 

[USAFRet]

One small note - target drive needs to be partitioned in GPT.
Also - I'm not sure, if Macrium will copy EFI System partition properly. It might not. It may convert it to primary data partition.
Then result will not be bootable.

RE: the EFI...yes it does. I've done it personally.