How To Clone Your SSD or Hard Drive

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USAFRet

USAFRet

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CloneZilla used to be good.
However, it does NOT work when changing from a larger drive to a small. Such as HDD to SSD.
In CZ, the target drive must be the same or larger than the source.

Current tools are much easier to work with.
They only take into account the actual data size, not the physical drive size.



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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 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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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Further, if you are wanting to do this with an M.2 drive, and you only have 1x M.2 port.

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1x m.2 slot with an Image

Assuming you have another drive (any type of drive) with sufficient free space to hold the entirety of your current m.2 drive:

  1. Download and install Macrium Reflect
  2. Run that, and create a Rescue CD or USB (you'll use this later). "Other Tasks". Create this on a small USB flash drive or DVD.
  3. In the Macrium client, create an Image to some other drive. External USB HDD, maybe. Select all partitions. This results in a file of xxxx.mrimage
  4. When done, power OFF.
  5. Swap the 2 drives
  6. Boot up from the Rescue USB you created earlier.
  7. Restore (on the toolbar), and tell it where the Image is that you created in step 3, and which drive to apply it to...the new m.2
  8. Go, and wait until it finishes.
  9. That's all...this should work.
 
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saunupe1911

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USAFRet said:
Yes.
The Samsung Data Migration tool is only for cloning TO a Samsung target SSD.

(and the SDM is mentioned in my steps above)
Click to expand...
Yeah but I'm sticking only with Samsung drives from now on!

Samsung Magician is super easy and all these other tools are charging to do a true clone.

Only hard drive to ever die on me within the past 10 years was a Sabrent Rocket...never again smh
 
newtechldtech

newtechldtech

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USAFRet said:
And that is a hole different thing than the thrust of this article.

But, given the right IT environment, it IS as easy as booting from a USB.
Click to expand...

no not much difference , lets say you have your own NAS connected to your home network and you want to use it for emergency network booting and rebuilding OS with an image via home network.
 
USAFRet

USAFRet

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newtechldtech said:
no not much difference , lets say you have your own NAS connected to your home network and you want to use it for emergency network booting and rebuilding OS with an image via home network.
Click to expand...
Easy.
I've done exactly this, with Macrium Reflect.

Boot from a Macrium Rescue USB.
This includes networking protocols, so you can access the NAS.

Tell it where the Image is on the NAS.
Tell it what local drive to apply this Image to.
Click the Go button.

Done.


That is the basis for my entire backup routine.
Each system has its own subfolder, and each drive individually under that.
For my main systems, I keep a rolling 30 days of Incrementals.
Can recover any physical drive, to any day in the last month.

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 forums.tomshardware.com
 
Skylinestar

Skylinestar

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I follow the guide today (expert mode, T1 option) to clone my HDD (2 partitions inside) to a new SSD. The new SSD is connected directly via SATA cable to the motherboard. After clone, power down the PC, replace my old HDD with the SSD, power up the PC, and I'm greeted with a blue windows screen that says "Recovery. Your PC/Device needs to be repaired. A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed. Error 0xc000000e". Bootrec.exe /scanos shows that my Windows is not at C. I go to diskpart and list volume to confirm that. After re-assigning the letter and do the bootrec stuff, still not booting (same bsod). Don't know why.
I go to Clonezilla again, clone with beginner mode. Now the SSD boots fine into Windows.
What's going on here? Why is expert mode messing up the bootloader and drive letters?
 
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Lafong

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Skylinestar said:
I follow the guide today (expert mode, T1 option) to clone my HDD (2 partitions inside) to a new SSD. The new SSD is connected directly via SATA cable to the motherboard. After clone, power down the PC, replace my old HDD with the SSD, power up the PC, and I'm greeted with a blue windows screen that says "Recovery. Your PC/Device needs to be repaired. A required device isn't connected or can't be accessed. Error 0xc000000e". Bootrec.exe /scanos shows that my Windows is not at C. I go to diskpart and list volume to confirm that. After re-assigning the letter and do the bootrec stuff, still not booting (same bsod). Don't know why.
I go to Clonezilla again, clone with beginner mode. Now the SSD boots fine into Windows.
What's going on here? Why is expert mode messing up the bootloader and drive letters?
Click to expand...

Are you trying to clone from an MBR disk to a GPT disk?

I don't think that is kosher.

https://www.macrium.com/mbr-and-gpt-158d95eb0ac5

https://www.tenforums.com/backup-re...drive-gpt-boot-drive-macrium-reflect-8-a.html

But there are tools to convert disks from MBR to GPT without data loss. I don't think I've ever used them.
 
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