[SOLVED] is it possible to copy literally everything on an ssd and put it on another one?

Apr 27, 2021
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0
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my main drive has been showing some signs of failure lately, and i have another one that i use as a secondary drive which i want to copy everything from my current one on to. i've done some googling and i don't think i've found anything quite like what i'm looking for, i want everything to be pretty much the same (all drivers, system files, programs installed etc) but with another larger less crappy ssd as the main drive. is there any way to do that? thanks in advance
 
Solution
Yes you can clone the entire drive with another drive (with same or larger capacity) and use it to replace the old drive when it fails.

Please elaborate what do you have as computer, OS... and what you want to do exactly so we can tell you what software to use.

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
my main drive has been showing some signs of failure lately, and i have another one that i use as a secondary drive which i want to copy everything from my current one on to. i've done some googling and i don't think i've found anything quite like what i'm looking for, i want everything to be pretty much the same (all drivers, system files, programs installed etc) but with another larger less crappy ssd as the main drive. is there any way to do that? thanks in advance
You can clone everything from the old drive to the new.

Assuming certain conditions.

Size/make/model of all drives involved.
What motherboard?

Does the system actually work properly with the old drive?
How have you determined that drive is "failing"?
 
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Yes you can clone the entire drive with another drive (with same or larger capacity) and use it to replace the old drive when it fails.

Please elaborate what do you have as computer, OS... and what you want to do exactly so we can tell you what software to use.
 
Solution

sonofjesse

Distinguished
yeap you can google it/youtube it. Just basically you can use any cloning software you want. To cloned drive. Now if your drive is going bad with a lot of bad sectors, then the clone might fail.

Then your left with different options if it won't clone.

Good luck!
 

GoofyOne

Commendable
Apr 4, 2021
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To clone an SSD or HDD, I normally use 'AOMEI Backupper'. You can get the free version, and it will do what you want. There are plenty of other utility programs that will do drive cloning.
ie: CloneZilla, Macrium Reflect

I have had problems using CloneZilla, so maybe try Macrium Reflect or AOMEI Backupper.

There is also another way to do it, by creating a disk image. This copies all the data onto a image file, then you can 'restore' it onto your new drive using the same program you used to create it. Just need to be careful when you telling these programs what to do. Do select the correct device to clone from, and the correct drive to clone to.


{GoofyOne's 2c worth}
 
Apr 27, 2021
7
0
10
You can clone everything from the old drive to the new.

Assuming certain conditions.

Size/make/model of all drives involved.
What motherboard?

Does the system actually work properly with the old drive?
How have you determined that drive is "failing"?
the current main drive is a 120 gb ssd from a brand i've never heard of before called goodram, the backup drive is a 240 gb ssd from kingston i got from a friend, idk the exact model of either of them
the motherboard is some really obscure lenovo model, cpu-z says it's called mahobay at least though i'm pretty sure it had another model name that i can't find for the life of me
the system works relatively fine though yesterday i got a few bsods with the unexpected store error message and whenever i boot up my system the disk checking thing pops up
the signs of failure are, again, multiple bsods with the UNEXPECTED_STORE_ERROR message and also a few other things like some programs throwing errors and sometimes even resetting their own settings on shutdown
 
Apr 27, 2021
7
0
10
Yes you can clone the entire drive with another drive (with same or larger capacity) and use it to replace the old drive when it fails.

Please elaborate what do you have as computer, OS... and what you want to do exactly so we can tell you what software to use.
the computer is just a regular desktop i got prebuilt a few months ago and it runs on windows 10
i'm just trying to essentially clone the system onto another larger ssd
 
Apr 27, 2021
7
0
10
To clone an SSD or HDD, I normally use 'AOMEI Backupper'. You can get the free version, and it will do what you want. There are plenty of other utility programs that will do drive cloning.
ie: CloneZilla, Macrium Reflect

I have had problems using CloneZilla, so maybe try Macrium Reflect or AOMEI Backupper.

There is also another way to do it, by creating a disk image. This copies all the data onto a image file, then you can 'restore' it onto your new drive using the same program you used to create it. Just need to be careful when you telling these programs what to do. Do select the correct device to clone from, and the correct drive to clone to.


{GoofyOne's 2c worth}
thanks, i'll try those programs and let you know if one of them does the job
 
Apr 27, 2021
7
0
10
IMG_20210428_120002.jpg

unknown.png

the cloning worked, but now i can't boot off the drive despite having windows installed on it. can someone help me with this?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
i just tried it, it seemed to work at first but then when i try to boot windows from the backup drive it doesn't seem to detect the fact that windows is installed
Then you did something not quite right.

Please show us a screencap of the Disk Management window.


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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
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, 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
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 specifiy 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.
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