Cloning Old SSD to a New One

[Sturmgewehr_44]

I just ordered a new SSD from Newegg. It's a Samsung 850 Evo (250 GB). I've been in the market for a new one, because my nearly three year old Crucial M4 is just to restricted by its capacity. It is only 128 GB and when certain demanding programmes and games begin to emerge, more SSD space will definitely be needed, and 250GB is flexible enough. When it arrives, I plan on cloning the M4 SSD to the new one, and after removing the old SSD and fully leaving the new 859 Evo in it's steading. I'm a bit concerned, because I tend to refrain from anything related to Windows operation (it's really the only hardware related thing I am at this point terrified of), and I've never cloned a drive before, especially a system drive. Is cloning a system drive dangerous or risky? Will the cloned data be identical to it? Most of all, I am nervous that the cloned drive will, for whatever reason, not be considered a system drive, and I won't be able to boot from it. Is this possible? I also notice that the System Reserved Partition also should be cloned. Is this important? For the Cloning software, I am leaning towards using the Samsung Data Migration software. It looks good, simple, and it comes on the disk of the 850 Evo. I believe it also automatically clones the Reserved Partition, so that puts one of my many paranoids to rest. Anyway, to sum this whole block up: Will a clone of a system drive C: be identical and act as a system drive like the drive that it was cloned onto? Will I need to format the new SSD before cloning it? (i.e give it a partition letter, etc).

 

[i7Baby]

From what I see here, the Samsung software works quite well. The back up is that if it fails, just do a Windows install on the new SSD and copy across what you want from the old one.

 

[DougLYX]

i got the samsung 850 pro..dirt cheap black friday special

 

[Sturmgewehr_44]

What do you mean by "Backup". Is the System Reserve thing a backup? Will I need to worry about that, or should Samsung Data Migration take care of it for me? How exactly could the cloning process fail? Is it recoverable? If the process succeeds, will the cloned drive act the same as the original boot SSD, without modifying anything? Edit: Damn. I was not paying bloody attention and I prematurely gave you Best Answer. Oh well. Do you mind answering my questions regardless?

 

[DougLYX]

well...he could refuse the best answer

 

[DougLYX]

actually his was the best so far

 

[DougLYX]

u install os on the new ssd, then install the samsung software, then use that to migrate to the new samsung, and maybe make a clone of the fresh install to use in an emergency. or u can just toss it to a different port and use it for something else..like browser cache, temp folders, and even swap file..to make the samsung last longer but it will wear out the other ssd cause it will have the most usage(normally i shove those on a real hdd)

 

[i7Baby]

What do you mean by "Backup". Is the System Reserve thing a backup? Will I need to worry about that, or should Samsung Data Migration take care of it for me? How exactly could the cloning process fail? Is it recoverable? If the process succeeds, will the cloned drive act the same as the original boot SSD, without modifying anything? Edit: Damn. I was not paying bloody attention and I prematurely gave you Best Answer. Oh well. Do you mind answering my questions regardless?

Sometimes, for various reasons, the Samsung migration software doesn't work. mainly with noobs.

As a back up, if you can't get it working then you can always just install Windows straight onto the Samsung SSD then later copy across any data and re-install apps.

 

[Sturmgewehr_44]

What do you mean by "Backup". Is the System Reserve thing a backup? Will I need to worry about that, or should Samsung Data Migration take care of it for me? How exactly could the cloning process fail? Is it recoverable? If the process succeeds, will the cloned drive act the same as the original boot SSD, without modifying anything? Edit: Damn. I was not paying bloody attention and I prematurely gave you Best Answer. Oh well. Do you mind answering my questions regardless?

Sometimes, for various reasons, the Samsung migration software doesn't work. mainly with noobs.

As a back up, if you can't get it working then you can always just install Windows straight onto the Samsung SSD then later copy across any data and re-install apps.

Ok. That makes sense. I guess I'm a Noob, at least in this case. Hope I don't screw this up, lol. If I were to install Windows 7 to the new SSD manually, wouldn't that cause a lot of problems because my System SSD already has it installed and because of that I wouldn't be able to boot from it? I would probably then have to disconnect the old SSD to alleviate this when installing, correct? Let's hope it doesn't get to that, and all goes well. I know I asked this at least twice, but is the Cloned drive a identical "mirror" to that of the System SSD? Like, it will be classified as a main boot drive and I will be able to boot to Windows from it by default? Will my programmes, games, and drivers be okay? In other words, will the cloned drive be a C: drive?

 

[i7Baby]

Fatal Noob mistake is to not read the instructions or ask questions.

Yes the Clone will be identical and you will be able to boot from it. Everything will work the same.

 

[Sturmgewehr_44]

This is a bit late, but I successfully cloned my new SSD!!!

I was scared to death initially because the cloned drive had I: as a disk letter. And then, the Crucial M4 got wiped. This scared me because I was unable to boot at first. My mind was so clouded with fear that I forgot I needed to put the new 850 Evo boot into the BBS Drive Priorities. I nearly broke my hand on a wall meanwhile.

Thanks guys for the help!

 

[i7Baby]

Cheers. Happily ever after.