[SOLVED] Cloning my SSD as backup for transfer.

[chancemitchell]

I just bought a 1TB WD_Black SN750 NVMe SSD to take on my primary drive for my current 500gb SATA Samsung PRO. The SATA drive was almost full and I wanted to jump up to a larger drive and use the SATA for like COD or something. I am going to use Macrium reflect and a list of instructions I found from this forum but before I do that I would like to verify I have my OS and files backed up correctly. Is it appropriate to use Macrium Reflect and just clone my drive over to my 8TB HDD as a backup for future need or will that mess with me later when booting from my new drive? My 8TB HDD is literally just empty space that I don't use for much so I figured having a cloned version of my OS and whatnot would be useful if I ever have an issue.

 

[jay32267]

Don't clone to the 8TB drive
Make an image file on the 8TB drive.
An image file has everything in it to make a clone....but it's just a file.
This way it can't "mess with me later when booting from my new drive? " because it won't be bootable.

 

[chancemitchell]

Don't clone to the 8TB drive
Make an image file on the 8TB drive.
An image file has everything in it to make a clone....but it's just a file.
This way it can't "mess with me later when booting from my new drive? " because it won't be bootable.

OK thanks, I saw the option to Image file which prompted me to ask.

 

[USAFRet]

As above...not clone, but rather Image.
That encapsulates the whole current drive in a single file. xxxxx.mrimage.

Later, if you need it, you boot from a Macrium Rescue USB that you've already created (hint hint) and tell it where that image is, and what drive to apply it to.
That concept is the whole basis for my backup routine.

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

My 'Images" get updated every night. One series per physical drive.

 

[jay32267]

"That concept is the whole basis for my backup routine. "
Same here.

 

[chancemitchell]

As above...not clone, but rather Image.
That encapsulates the whole current drive in a single file. xxxxx.mrimage.

Later, if you need it, you boot from a Macrium Rescue USB that you've already created (hint hint) and tell it where that image is, and what drive to apply it to.
That concept is the whole basis for my backup routine.

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

My 'Images" get updated every night. One series per physical drive.

I am following your post from someone else's thread. The only difference in my scenario is that I'm transferring from SATA to m.2. So essentially the last point about swapping the SATA cables position at the end is null?

 

[USAFRet]

I am following your post from someone else's thread. The only difference in my scenario is that I'm transferring from SATA to m.2. So essentially the last point about swapping the SATA cables position at the end is null?

Correct, but you still physically disconnect the old drive, before you boot up the first time.

 

[chancemitchell]

Correct, but you still physically disconnect the old drive, before you boot up the first time.

And if all works plug the old SATA back in and wipe its partitions?

 

[USAFRet]

And if all works plug the old SATA back in and wipe its partitions?

Yes.

 

[chancemitchell]

Yes.

I unplugged my SATA SSD alongside the already unplugged HDD and booted. My OS came up quickly and I logged in. Everything was as normal aside from a Wallpaper App now prompting that I never use anymore. I went to (C Properties and it says 125 GB Free of 465... The Hardware says WD now yet it isn't showing the 1TB capacity that it did when I chose it in Macrium?

 

[USAFRet]

Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.

You were probably using an older version of my steps.
I've recently revised, and you can manipulate the size of the resulting partition on the target drive, directly in Macrium.

If OK, redo it the clone. Pay attention to the middle part here:
-----------------------------
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

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 specify 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.
-----------------------------

 

[chancemitchell]

So plug my SSD back in and clone again from the SATA SSD? Do I need to delete anything?

 

[USAFRet]

So plug my SSD back in and clone again from the SATA SSD? Do I need to delete anything?

Ahh...for that config, you should be able to Extend the C partition into the 465.75GB space to the right.
Right click on the C partition. What options does it give you?

 

[chancemitchell]

Ahh...for that config, you should be able to Extend the C partition into the 465.75GB space to the right.
Right click on the C partition. What options does it give you?

 

[USAFRet]

Yes.
Click Next.

 

[chancemitchell]

Yes.
Click Next.

It worked you continue to lead me from the dark. I appreciate it. Now to follow the last steps and wipe that SATA SSD