Question Cloning and replacing SSD

[senzo25]

I recently cloned my laptop's smaller SSD with a larger Samsung EVO 860 SSD and would now like to swap out the smaller SSD to improve performance.

After reading some of the similar threads, I cloned all the partitions using Macrium and my understanding is the next step would be :

When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD

Would that involve going into Windows Disk Management and disabling the C drive and then restarting?
If there's an error after the restart, would I simply reenable the C drive again?

 

[lvt]

No need to disable anything, the bootable device will be assigned the letter C by the system automatically.

 

[Darkbreeze]

No, it would not involve that. It is EXACTLY what it says it is.

Finish clone operation.
Power off.
Disconnect all drives except the one you want to boot from.
Power on and see if it will POST and boot.

IF it won't, then you may have missed a step or required partition in the clone process.

 

[senzo25]

No, it would not involve that. It is EXACTLY what it says it is.

Finish clone operation.
Power off.
Disconnect all drives except the one you want to boot from.
Power on and see if it will POST and boot.

IF it won't, then you may have missed a step or required partition in the clone process.

Would I be disconnecting the C drive physically and leaving the external one connected via the SATA cable? My goal is to replace that with the external cloned drive, but I assumed I needed to test it first before swapping them out in case of any issues.

 

[Richj444]

Would I be disconnecting the C drive physically and leaving the external one connected via the SATA cable? My goal is to replace that with the external cloned drive, but I assumed I needed to test it first before swapping them out in case of any issues.

That's how I would do it, but you'll (probably) need to go in to BIOS and make sure it is set to boot from the external drive. If it works then you can swap them. And yes, that means physically disconnecting the internal drive by either removing the data or the power cable, or both.

 

[USAFRet]

...but I assumed I needed to test it first before swapping them out in case of any issues.

No, you do NOT "test" the clone target.
And do NOT attempt to boot from it as an external. At all.

At the end of the clone process, the FIRST thing you do it power off, swap the drives, and allow the system to power up with ONLY the new drive.
Do NOT sniff around in the clone target to see if everything is there. Absent any error messages, it is.

And even if it were not, could YOU tell which of the 150,000 files are missing? No.

Clone.
Swap the drives.
Power up with only the new drive.

 

[USAFRet]

I recently cloned my laptop's smaller SSD with a larger Samsung EVO 860 SSD and would now like to swap out the smaller SSD to improve performance.

After reading some of the similar threads, I cloned all the partitions using Macrium and my understanding is the next step would be :

When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD

Would that involve going into Windows Disk Management and disabling the C drive and then restarting?
If there's an error after the restart, would I simply reenable the C drive again?

That section related to a desktop, with capability for multiple drives.

In your laptop, you physically swap the drives instead.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Exactly.

 

[Richj444]

And do NOT attempt to boot from it as an external. At all.

I have to ask, why not? Is that something unique to Macrium?

Edit: found the answer to my own question. I use Acronis, and they state that Acronis will set up the target disk to only boot from USB if that's where you clone it, and they recommend installing the new disk in the laptop first and making the source drive the external one. Good to know!