Cloning both the OS and Recovery Partition to an SSD

[florenio38]

I cloned the OS only from my HDD to SSD using Data Migration by Samsung, but wanted the recovery partition (RP) as well. The RP has the windows 7 pro I need to factory reset the SSD. What free software out there do I need so I can clone both the OS and RP from my HDD to my Samsung 850 EVO SSD?

 

[RARRAF]

this should sort you out https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

 

[USAFRet]

I cloned the OS only from my HDD to SSD using Data Migration by Samsung, but wanted the recovery partition (RP) as well. The RP has the windows 7 pro I need to factory reset the SSD. What free software out there do I need so I can clone both the OS and RP from my HDD to my Samsung 850 EVO SSD?

Redo the clone operation, exactly like this:
-----------------------------
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
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 original boot partitions, 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
-----------------------------

 

[geofelt]

The Samsung ssd migration aid is a windows C drive mover, not strictly a clone.
It should have moved both windows and the recovery partition.

 

[florenio38]

My laptop HDD is 500GB and my new SSD is 1TB. I tried again using the same cloning software Samsung Data Migration to clone the OS and Recovery Partition to my Samsung 850 EVO SSD and this time it worked. It copied both the OS and recovery partition and I was able to boot-up the SSD once I swapped out the HDD out of my laptop. The only problem is I couldn't factory reset the cloned SSD. Does anyone know what software I could use to fully clone my laptop HDD to my Samsung 850 EVO SSD and be able to factory reset the cloned SSD? If there's not software out there that I could use, the only solution I could think of is factory reset the original HDD then clone it to the SSD. This would be a pain as I would have to keep the HDD if anything should happen to the cloned SSD.

 

[USAFRet]

My laptop HDD is 500GB and my new SSD is 1TB. I tried again using the same cloning software Samsung Data Migration to clone the OS and Recovery Partition to my Samsung 850 EVO SSD and this time it worked. It copied both the OS and recovery partition and I was able to boot-up the SSD once I swapped out the HDD out of my laptop. The only problem is I couldn't factory reset the cloned SSD. Does anyone know what software I could use to fully clone my laptop HDD to my Samsung 850 EVO SSD and be able to factory reset the cloned SSD? If there's not software out there that I could use, the only solution I could think of is factory reset the original HDD then clone it to the SSD. This would be a pain as I would have to keep the HDD if anything should happen to the cloned SSD.

Specifically, what do you mean by "Factory Reset"?
You wish to bring back the original Win 7?

 

[geofelt]

Laptop vendors may put a recovery partition on the drive that can be read by a proprietary bios to reset to initial specs.
That varies by vendor and would not be part of the Samsung migration.
You should be able to order a repair disk that could do the reset.
That capability is a necessity for recovery if the initial hard drive fails.

When I convert to a ssd, I usually have little use for the original drive, they are slooow.
I do keep it for backup, but I have yet to need it.

 

[ArtPog]

geofelt has inferred an important point; one you should be more concerned with than your concern with cloning the so-called Recovery Partition.

As long as your present boot drive functions without problems in that it boots to the OS without incident and thereafter performs problem-free, your concern should be cloning the contents of that boot drive to another drive - either one connected internally assuming you're working with a desktop PC or a USB externally-connected drive should you prefer. You do that in order to maintain comprehensive backups up your system and carry out the disk-cloning operation from time-to-time so that you always have at hand a reasonably up-to-date copy of your day-to-day boot drive that you can utilize in the event of disaster striking in one form or another, e.g., the boot drive becomes defective or the OS becomes hopelessly corrupted. That is your goal.

We ordinarily delete the Recovery partition under the above circumstances. But if you're dead set about retaining that partition the Samsung Data Migration program is not the one to employ for reasons I won't go into here. You would best be served by using the Macrium program USARef has recommended or some other disk-cloning program such as the one we use.

The important thing - nay, the crucial thing - is to clone the contents on your boot drive on some reasonable basis from time-to-time.

(To ensure absolute safety that deletion of the Recovery Partition won't result in any adverse effects re the boot drive, the FIRST TIME you clone the ENTIRE contents of your present boot drive to another drive (for backup purposes), you can go ahead and delete the RP on the clone (should you desire to do so), and then test the clone to ensure it boots & properly functions. I can't recall if we've ever run into any problems but in the PC world, as I'm sure you're aware, s#%* happens!, so keep that in mind.)

 

[geofelt]

geofelt has inferred an important point; one you should be more concerned with than your concern with cloning the so-called Recovery Partition.

As long as your present boot drive functions without problems in that it boots to the OS without incident and thereafter performs problem-free, your concern should be cloning the contents of that boot drive to another drive - either one connected internally assuming you're working with a desktop PC or a USB externally-connected drive should you prefer. You do that in order to maintain comprehensive backups up your system and carry out the disk-cloning operation from time-to-time so that you always have at hand a reasonably up-to-date copy of your day-to-day boot drive that you can utilize in the event of disaster striking in one form or another, e.g., the boot drive becomes defective or the OS becomes hopelessly corrupted. That is your goal.

We ordinarily delete the Recovery partition under the above circumstances. But if you're dead set about retaining that partition the Samsung Data Migration program is not the one to employ for reasons I won't go into here. You would best be served by using the Macrium program USARef has recommended or some other disk-cloning program such as the one we use.

The important thing - nay, the crucial thing - is to clone the contents on your boot drive on some reasonable basis from time-to-time.

What is the potential problem with the Samsung ssd migration aid regarding the recovery partition?
When I first changed from a sata ssd to a nvme m.2 device, I used the aid to migrate.
I removed the original sata ssd and kept it as a more current starting point in case of needing full recovery.
My plan was to occasionally, re copy the working C drive to this device as a external backup.

 

[ArtPog]

geofelt has inferred an important point; one you should be more concerned with than your concern with cloning the so-called Recovery Partition.

As long as your present boot drive functions without problems in that it boots to the OS without incident and thereafter performs problem-free, your concern should be cloning the contents of that boot drive to another drive - either one connected internally assuming you're working with a desktop PC or a USB externally-connected drive should you prefer. You do that in order to maintain comprehensive backups up your system and carry out the disk-cloning operation from time-to-time so that you always have at hand a reasonably up-to-date copy of your day-to-day boot drive that you can utilize in the event of disaster striking in one form or another, e.g., the boot drive becomes defective or the OS becomes hopelessly corrupted. That is your goal.

We ordinarily delete the Recovery partition under the above circumstances. But if you're dead set about retaining that partition the Samsung Data Migration program is not the one to employ for reasons I won't go into here. You would best be served by using the Macrium program USARef has recommended or some other disk-cloning program such as the one we use.

The important thing - nay, the crucial thing - is to clone the contents on your boot drive on some reasonable basis from time-to-time.

What is the potential problem with the Samsung ssd migration aid regarding the recovery partition?
When I first changed from a sata ssd to a nvme m.2 device, I used the aid to migrate.
I removed the original sata ssd and kept it as a more current starting point in case of needing full recovery.
My plan was to occasionally, re copy the working C drive to this device as a external backup.

We have run into a problem with the SDM program from time-to-time in that when the user chooses to clone the entire source drive to the Samsung destination drive - including the Recovery Partition (which could be as small as 500 MB or so) - which is situated as the final partition, the resulting clone creates that final partition containing the RP of many GBs. We've been unable in a number of cases to utilize the program (the slider/double-headed arrow) to create a partition either the actual disk-space size of the partition or something close to it.

So this, of course, prevents the user from extending the boot partition to encompass disk-space on the clone that obviously would be useful. Shrinking the cloned RP doesn't help as I'm sure you know since that unallocated disk-space would be FOLLOWING the RP and thus is unavailable to the user for extension purposes.

Admittedly one could get around this by using a third-party partition managment program to "move" the cloned RP so as to free up unallocated disk-space that the user could use for extension purposes. But this should be an unnecessary workaround.

Other disk-cloning programs, e.g., Macrium, Casper (which we use), and I'm sure others, easily resolve this problem.

 

[geofelt]

Thank you for your explanation.
I think I am OK.
The RP on my system comes first so moving to a larger ssd should allow main partition expansion.
Possibly on pre built pc's the location of the reserved windows RP and the laptop RP are not so nicely placed.

 

[ArtPog]

Thank you for your explanation.
I think I am OK.
The RP on my system comes first so moving to a larger ssd should allow main partition expansion.
Possibly on pre built pc's the location of the reserved windows RP and the laptop RP are not so nicely placed.

Just one other comment that I failed to include in my previous response. The problem that I indicated which we ran into with the Samsung DM program was NOT universal with respect to that program. It did occur with at least two different systems where we employed that d-c program. In similar drive configurations with other systems we encountered NO such problems with respect to that specific problem. So I'm at a loss to explain why it happened. C'est la vie I suppose.

 

[geofelt]

Thank you for your explanation.
I think I am OK.
The RP on my system comes first so moving to a larger ssd should allow main partition expansion.
Possibly on pre built pc's the location of the reserved windows RP and the laptop RP are not so nicely placed.

Just one other comment that I failed to include in my previous response. The problem that I indicated which we ran into with the Samsung DM program was NOT universal with respect to that program. It did occur with at least two different systems where we employed that d-c program. In similar drive configurations with other systems we encountered NO such problems with respect to that specific problem. So I'm at a loss to explain why it happened. C'est la vie I suppose.

FWIW
I have seen some such issues resolved by reattaching the newly cloned ssd to the sata connection of the original drive.

 

[USAFRet]

FWIW
I have seen some such issues resolved by reattaching the newly cloned ssd to the sata connection of the original drive.

Yes.
That's why I included that specific step in my standard list of cloning steps.

 

[wilson.wang.1974]

My laptop HDD is 500GB and my new SSD is 1TB. I tried again using the same cloning software Samsung Data Migration to clone the OS and Recovery Partition to my Samsung 850 EVO SSD and this time it worked. It copied both the OS and recovery partition and I was able to boot-up the SSD once I swapped out the HDD out of my laptop. The only problem is I couldn't factory reset the cloned SSD. Does anyone know what software I could use to fully clone my laptop HDD to my Samsung 850 EVO SSD and be able to factory reset the cloned SSD? If there's not software out there that I could use, the only solution I could think of is factory reset the original HDD then clone it to the SSD. This would be a pain as I would have to keep the HDD if anything should happen to the cloned SSD.

I got the same situation as yours. I used EaseUS Partition Master Free version to clone the whole source disk to the destination disk which is smaller than the source one. No problem to boot from the destination disk, but failed to recover it to factory image. I am trying to use another destination disk to clone the source one again to see the result.