Question Cloning Dell HDD to SSD Errors & Best Practices

FUNCTOR

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Dec 31, 2007
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Hello! I've had this happen to me a couple times now helping out various friends. This latest time, I have a Dell laptop with a 1TB 5400 RPM HDD that I cloned to a Samsung QVO 1TB SSD.

First, I installed both drives into my PC (Windows 10, asus P9x79 mobo). The old HDD with a USB3 to SATA adapter, and the SSD connected using an internal sata port.

I used EASEUS Todo Backup's Clone feature to copy the entire drive over to the SSD (5 partitions! - and I think this is the main issue), checking the option to optimize for SSD, but not using the sector by sector clone. It completed successfully.

I install the drive back into the laptop, and I get an error from windows 0xc000000e, your device needs to be repaired.

I then play around with diskpart, and bootrec, for a while trying to deal with all the errors that come up, but with no luck.

So I decided to try another program, AOMEI Backupper. I made the bootable USB thumb drive and ran the clone again, this time booting from the USB thumb drive connected directly to the laptop. Again, they have similar options for SSD optimization, so I select that. Clone completes, but I get the same result.

I think the issue is that the windows installation is on the 3rd partition of 5. These brand name laptops have other partitions for diagnostics, recovery media, boot options etc, and I think the cloning messes that up somehow.

Does anyone know of a reliable way to do this kind of cloning?
I want to leave all those extra partitions in place because they do have their purposes. If it were my system, I can live without them, but I usually do this for friends and they may need those capabilities.

I have had these issues before with Dell and HP laptops. I have had others that work flawlessly.

Anyone have any insights on what the best practices are for getting this to work the first time?

Thanks for the help!
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Does anyone know of a reliable way to do this kind of cloning?
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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)
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 all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
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