How to Clone SSD which is C drive on my Computer?

[azarsyed]

Hi,
1st of all thanks to all you contributed their help.
My questions is as follows;
I have C drive with windows 8 which is SSD 128GB. and 3 other hard drives with several partitions onto the same computer. 3 other hard drives are 1 x 2 TB , 1 x 190GB and 1 x 500GB.
my 1st question is, I want to clone my C SSD drive which has windows 8 to an external drive ONLY can I do that? if yes, then what software does that? what I want is if something goes wrong with my windows all I do is run clone to my SSD and reinstall it. Also, do I require another 128GB SSD to clone my c drive SSD? or can I use any SATA 3 HDD?
my 2nd question is: Can I Clone full everything? I mean all my 4 drives including C drive? which in total is 2.8TB. Can I use 2TB external hard drive to clone it? as I think the used size on all the drives is less then 2TB though.
I will greatly appreciate the quick response.

I really want to clone my 128GB SSD Onl it will be great if some one advise me if I can clone only C drive and then if something happens I can format my SSD and just copy the cloned image to my SSD.
Thanks in Advance.

 

[USAFRet]

Are you looking to just make an image of the current SSD? If so, any of the current imaging applications can do that.
CloneZilla, DriveImageXML, etc.

You can generally put that image on whatever drive you choose.

 

[azarsyed]

Are you looking to just make an image of the current SSD? If so, any of the current imaging applications can do that.
CloneZilla, DriveImageXML, etc.

You can generally put that image on whatever drive you choose.

Thanks. So can I use acronis? I heard that if I make only C drive which my 128gb ssd image then it may caus issues when reloading it?
Lest say what I want is . Format my ssd clean install windows 8 with ms office and antivirus and few softwares. Them make an image of C drive only and ignoring my other 3 hard drives. Is it possible? And once I make an image if next time want to format my hard drive I just reinstall this image which will save time etc. Please advise. Also can mak this image bootable?e

 

[USAFRet]

The 'image' can't be bootable. You can, if needed, restore that image to a drive which you can boot from.

Last night, I upgraded to Win8.1. Right now, I'm making an image of that to another drive. If I ever need it, restore this image to another drive, exactly as it is today.

 

[azarsyed]

Thanks a million, Please can you tell me what software you using?
Also, If I want to reimage all 4 hard drives will it work? 1 x SSD 128GB, 1 x 2TB SATA3 and 1 x 256GB and 1 x 500GB. Do I need about 3TB to image them all in one HD? or can I use just 2TB for all of them to be imaged as the used size is about 1.9TB. please advise.

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks a million, Please can you tell me what software you using?
Also, If I want to reimage all 4 hard drives will it work? 1 x SSD 128GB, 1 x 2TB SATA3 and 1 x 256GB and 1 x 500GB. Do I need about 3TB to image them all in one HD? or can I use just 2TB for all of them to be imaged as the used size is about 1.9TB. please advise.

I used DriveImageXML.
It images only the used space. For instance, my 128GB boot drive. Only 44GB used. That's the size of the resulting target folder, 44GB.
So you'd do one drive at a time, saving each in its own folder on the target drive.
The only drawback to this application is that it needs a running instance of Windows.

CloneZilla also works, and that boots directly from CD. No existing Windows needed.

 

[azarsyed]

Hi thanks,
So running instance mean I need to have windows running?
lets say for example; I have imaged my C drive now if I want to reinstall it do I have to have windows installed 1st?
I was looking for something like when you put windows 8 dvd on the dvd drive you can get option to choose image?
is it possible?
Does clonezilla does the same? or what about acronis?

thanks in advance

 

[USAFRet]

Hi thanks,
So running instance mean I need to have windows running?
lets say for example; I have imaged my C drive now if I want to reinstall it do I have to have windows installed 1st?
I was looking for something like when you put windows 8 dvd on the dvd drive you can get option to choose image?
is it possible?
Does clonezilla does the same? or what about acronis?

thanks in advance

CloneZilla is it's own boot CD. Boot from it, point it at the two relevant drives, and clone or migrate as needed.
Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4Win - a good collection of tols) has DriveImageXML included. Boot from that CD, and again, point it at the two relevant locations.

Either will work.
DriveImageXML can create an image from a currently running Windows. To restore that image, boot from the above linked CD.

 

[montwel]

Some software can do this, for example, aomei backupper, support system backup, you can backup first and restore later. It also support partition clone, clone C: only;disk clone: clone the whole drive.
You can also use some software with "migrate os to ssd".
Cheers.

 

[azarsyed]

Hi thanks,
So running instance mean I need to have windows running?
lets say for example; I have imaged my C drive now if I want to reinstall it do I have to have windows installed 1st?
I was looking for something like when you put windows 8 dvd on the dvd drive you can get option to choose image?
is it possible?
Does clonezilla does the same? or what about acronis?

thanks in advance

CloneZilla is it's own boot CD. Boot from it, point it at the two relevant drives, and clone or migrate as needed.
Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4Win - a good collection of tols) has DriveImageXML included. Boot from that CD, and again, point it at the two relevant locations.

Either will work.
DriveImageXML can create an image from a currently running Windows. To restore that image, boot from the above linked CD.

Ok wait, yo mean download - UBCD4Win - and install it and load the image? or crate boot cd from clonezilla?
Can't I just use my windows 8 dvd and after that point it to the img which I think I wanna create from DriveImageXML?
thanks

 

[USAFRet]

Hi thanks,
So running instance mean I need to have windows running?
lets say for example; I have imaged my C drive now if I want to reinstall it do I have to have windows installed 1st?
I was looking for something like when you put windows 8 dvd on the dvd drive you can get option to choose image?
is it possible?
Does clonezilla does the same? or what about acronis?

thanks in advance

CloneZilla is it's own boot CD. Boot from it, point it at the two relevant drives, and clone or migrate as needed.
Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4Win - a good collection of tols) has DriveImageXML included. Boot from that CD, and again, point it at the two relevant locations.

Either will work.
DriveImageXML can create an image from a currently running Windows. To restore that image, boot from the above linked CD.

Ok wait, yo mean download - UBCD4Win - and install it and load the image? or crate boot cd from clonezilla?
Can't I just use my windows 8 dvd and after that point it to the img which I think I wanna create from DriveImageXML?
thanks

No, you can't do it with the windows 8 install DVD.

Sequence of events:

Install Windows
Run any updates
Install applications
Using either CloneZilla or DriveImageXML (or any other), create an image of that C drive and save elsewhere
Use the PC as normal, until...
Drive meltdown !
Buy and install new drive
Using the same application you created the image with, boot from that CD
Restore the previously saved image to the new drive
Carry on as normal (hopefully)

 

[azarsyed]

Hi thanks,
So running instance mean I need to have windows running?
lets say for example; I have imaged my C drive now if I want to reinstall it do I have to have windows installed 1st?
I was looking for something like when you put windows 8 dvd on the dvd drive you can get option to choose image?
is it possible?
Does clonezilla does the same? or what about acronis?

thanks in advance

CloneZilla is it's own boot CD. Boot from it, point it at the two relevant drives, and clone or migrate as needed.
Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4Win - a good collection of tols) has DriveImageXML included. Boot from that CD, and again, point it at the two relevant locations.

Either will work.
DriveImageXML can create an image from a currently running Windows. To restore that image, boot from the above linked CD.

Ok wait, yo mean download - UBCD4Win - and install it and load the image? or crate boot cd from clonezilla?
Can't I just use my windows 8 dvd and after that point it to the img which I think I wanna create from DriveImageXML?
thanks

No, you can't do it with the windows 8 install DVD.

Sequence of events:

Install Windows
Run any updates
Install applications
Using either CloneZilla or DriveImageXML (or any other), create an image of that C drive and save elsewhere
Use the PC as normal, until...
Drive meltdown !
Buy and install new drive
Using the same application you created the image with, boot from that CD
Restore the previously saved image to the new drive
Carry on as normal (hopefully)

Thankyou again really....
So oh let say;
I reinstalled windows 8 with all updated and app I want.
Then I imaged it to external HDD using clone or DriveImage
Now few years i want the image to be restored on new HDD.
I attached external drive and copy image? so how do you boot from those applications on empty disk? wil it boot?
i am sorry to asking you too many question.

 

[USAFRet]

Hi thanks,
So running instance mean I need to have windows running?
lets say for example; I have imaged my C drive now if I want to reinstall it do I have to have windows installed 1st?
I was looking for something like when you put windows 8 dvd on the dvd drive you can get option to choose image?
is it possible?
Does clonezilla does the same? or what about acronis?

thanks in advance

CloneZilla is it's own boot CD. Boot from it, point it at the two relevant drives, and clone or migrate as needed.
Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4Win - a good collection of tols) has DriveImageXML included. Boot from that CD, and again, point it at the two relevant locations.

Either will work.
DriveImageXML can create an image from a currently running Windows. To restore that image, boot from the above linked CD.

Ok wait, yo mean download - UBCD4Win - and install it and load the image? or crate boot cd from clonezilla?
Can't I just use my windows 8 dvd and after that point it to the img which I think I wanna create from DriveImageXML?
thanks

No, you can't do it with the windows 8 install DVD.

Sequence of events:

Install Windows
Run any updates
Install applications
Using either CloneZilla or DriveImageXML (or any other), create an image of that C drive and save elsewhere
Use the PC as normal, until...
Drive meltdown !
Buy and install new drive
Using the same application you created the image with, boot from that CD
Restore the previously saved image to the new drive
Carry on as normal (hopefully)

Thankyou again really....
So oh let say;
I reinstalled windows 8 with all updated and app I want.
Then I imaged it to external HDD using clone or DriveImage
Now few years i want the image to be restored on new HDD.
I attached external drive and copy image? so how do you boot from those applications on empty disk? wil it boot?
i am sorry to asking you too many question.

You boot from the CD. It is its own OS.