Question Formatting and/or Macrium Stuff ?

[Dylan Beckett]

Hello

This is regarding two sometimes separate, and sometimes combined topics…
Formatting drives in general, and using Macrium to do stuff.


When I format either:

- a new System drive, or
- a new Storage/General Use drive, or
- a new external drive


Do I need to choose a specific type of Formatting, and/or Partitioning option - to ensure that I will be able to either:

- Clone/Restore an entire System drive, and/or an entire Storage/General Use drive, and/or an entire External Drive ?
- or only Backup/Clone/Restore specific Files/Folders (again, via Macrium) ?
- or to Add/Change Partitions later on ?


I generally don’t bother with Partitions, and yet, it would be nice to know that I’ve formatted things, so that it’s still an option.


I know it’s always NTFS for internal drives, but does it need to be Basic, Dynamic, or (I swear one type started with V?)…

I never quite know what the differences are for all the types, and I can’t quite find the full lists of types, and info that I’m looking for? Can you point me to a good website guide/video?

I assume Disk Management is best?



For reference, I use:

- PCI-E 3/4,
- old school HDD,
- External SSD (the usual WD stuff)
- and maybe 2.5” Internal SSD.


Please let me know if I have to do anything differently for any of the specific drive types listed above? I’m wondering most about the External SSD’s ?



Also, a more specific question…


I want to format a new 2.5” Internal SSD, install Win 11, set it up how I like it etc, and then Clone the entire System drive - to be able to Restore it on a totally different physical drive later, in a totally new PC.

Can you go from 2.5” Internal SSD, to PCI-E etc - without any issues?



BTW, please also see my other thread regarding the last example
Question Cloning a Windows System Drive… Plus some Complications ?




Thank you for your help

 

[USAFRet]

1. Basic. Not Dynamic.

2. Within the same system, yes, you can clone from SATA to NVMe. The last half of your prev question speaks to cloning to a new system. Don't do that.

 

[USAFRet]

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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
Both drives must be the same partitioning scheme, either MBR or GPT
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Magician (which includes Data Migration), if a Samsung target SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, you may need to install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up

Verify the system boots with ONLY the current "C drive" connected.
If not, we have to fix that first.

Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

[Ignore this section if using the SDM. It does this automatically]
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
[/end ignore]

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
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

(swapping cables is irrelevant with NVMe drives, but DO disconnect the old drive for this next part)
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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