Successful Clone of Windows OS hard drive to SSD (GPT UEFI)

[Beauvyne]

Struggled for days trying to clone my notebook hard drive to a new Kingston SSDNOW V300 drive so that it would boot, but I finally found success. After searching forums and seeing hundreds of stories about what worked and what did not, I thought I'd add my solution in case it might help someone else.

My desktop hard drive is dying. I decided to replace it with the Momentus XT 750 from my notebook and replace the Momentus with an SSD 240gb. I am using an OEM Windows 8 Asus notebook.

When I originally cloned the factory notebook drive to the Momentus, I had no issues and I did not expect any when I went to the SSD. Boy, was I wrong.

First, the Acronis True Image software licensed by Kingston did not work. It would not even start the clone process citing that the Momentus configuration was not compatible.

Second, I tried the Seagate version of the Acronis True Image from their site. It allowed me to clone the disk, but it would not boot. Windows said that winload.efi was missing---it was not and I am sure that this was a symptomatic error.

I will admit to being new to GPT and UEFI/EFI and I was really not interested in complicated (to me) backup and restore procedures--and there are tons posted here and on other sites. I wanted to connect the drives, press "go" and have the software work. I also did not want to invest in expensive cloning software that I'd probably only use one time.

So, I began my search for another option. I tried trial/free versions of Acronis True Image, EasUS Disk Copy, Clonezilla, DriveClone, Paramount Reflect, and Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite. For all of these, I tried with the drives installed in the notebook and/or in an external enclosure when the software supported it. None of these worked; all failing to begin to boot (booted straight to bios) or failing with windows saying there were missing files. I have no doubt that I could have found a way to get the cloning done with one of these programs if I knew all of the right settings and was prepared for a multi-part procedure. However, in their various menu driven or default modes, I could not get the drive to successfully clone and boot.

The fact that I was going from 750gb to 240gb appears may have been part of the problem, but everywhere I read said it was not a big deal. After all of these failures and after installing and removing the SSD from the notebook literally dozens of times, I began to believe that possibly the hybrid Momentus drive was the problem (i.e. the hybrid nature of the Momentus was the issue).

In the end, I paid for Paragon's "Migrate OS to SSD 3.0" ($19.95 with discounts available). With the SSD in the external enclosure, the software successfully cloned the drive in about 20 minutes (fastest of any of the programs tried). I removed the Momentus, installed the SSD, and for the first time, the notebook booted. Migrate also came with software to draw the recover image from my original factory hard drive and copy it to a USB drive so that if I ever needed to go back to day 1, I still can.

I am not trying to plug the Paragon software, but just wanted to relate my experience and hopefully save someone else the hours of frustration I experienced. Good luck.

 

[Roger Moore]

THANKS FOR YOUR REVIEW.

After hours with the same scenario and not able to clone the OS to my new SSD with Acronis true image that came into the box of the Hyperx, I were stunned with the simplicity of using Paragon's OS migration tool.

It solve my issue in just 10 minutes, indeed it's valuable to share our expereinces over the internet.

Bests

 

[Aaron Conaway]

I've had the same issue, just bought the software, installing in a sec, will post result, also, found a coupon for 20% off the software COUPONPASTE20 saved me 20%, total was $15 and change.

Struggled for days trying to clone my notebook hard drive to a new Kingston SSDNOW V300 drive so that it would boot, but I finally found success. After searching forums and seeing hundreds of stories about what worked and what did not, I thought I'd add my solution in case it might help someone else.

My desktop hard drive is dying. I decided to replace it with the Momentus XT 750 from my notebook and replace the Momentus with an SSD 240gb. I am using an OEM Windows 8 Asus notebook.

When I originally cloned the factory notebook drive to the Momentus, I had no issues and I did not expect any when I went to the SSD. Boy, was I wrong.

First, the Acronis True Image software licensed by Kingston did not work. It would not even start the clone process citing that the Momentus configuration was not compatible.

Second, I tried the Seagate version of the Acronis True Image from their site. It allowed me to clone the disk, but it would not boot. Windows said that winload.efi was missing---it was not and I am sure that this was a symptomatic error.

I will admit to being new to GPT and UEFI/EFI and I was really not interested in complicated (to me) backup and restore procedures--and there are tons posted here and on other sites. I wanted to connect the drives, press "go" and have the software work. I also did not want to invest in expensive cloning software that I'd probably only use one time.

So, I began my search for another option. I tried trial/free versions of Acronis True Image, EasUS Disk Copy, Clonezilla, DriveClone, Paramount Reflect, and Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite. For all of these, I tried with the drives installed in the notebook and/or in an external enclosure when the software supported it. None of these worked; all failing to begin to boot (booted straight to bios) or failing with windows saying there were missing files. I have no doubt that I could have found a way to get the cloning done with one of these programs if I knew all of the right settings and was prepared for a multi-part procedure. However, in their various menu driven or default modes, I could not get the drive to successfully clone and boot.

The fact that I was going from 750gb to 240gb appears may have been part of the problem, but everywhere I read said it was not a big deal. After all of these failures and after installing and removing the SSD from the notebook literally dozens of times, I began to believe that possibly the hybrid Momentus drive was the problem (i.e. the hybrid nature of the Momentus was the issue).

In the end, I paid for Paragon's "Migrate OS to SSD 3.0" ($19.95 with discounts available). With the SSD in the external enclosure, the software successfully cloned the drive in about 20 minutes (fastest of any of the programs tried). I removed the Momentus, installed the SSD, and for the first time, the notebook booted. Migrate also came with software to draw the recover image from my original factory hard drive and copy it to a USB drive so that if I ever needed to go back to day 1, I still can.

I am not trying to plug the Paragon software, but just wanted to relate my experience and hopefully save someone else the hours of frustration I experienced. Good luck.

 

[Aaron Conaway]

Beauvyne! IT FREAKIN WORKED FIRST TRY! Thank you for this post I have spent weeks trying to get this to work! My disk, was 105 GB, cloned to a 250 Kingston SSD, Took 10 minutes with this software!!! Anyone else, here's the link to get Paragon http://www.paragon-software.com/technologies/components/migrate-OS-to-SSD
Coupon code: COUPONPASTE20
Saved me 20%, total was $15 and change.
3:33 AM now to get some sleep before working in 4 hours lol.

 

[parkeri]

Struggled for days trying to clone my notebook hard drive to a new Kingston SSDNOW V300 drive so that it would boot, but I finally found success. After searching forums and seeing hundreds of stories about what worked and what did not, I thought I'd add my solution in case it might help someone else.

My desktop hard drive is dying. I decided to replace it with the Momentus XT 750 from my notebook and replace the Momentus with an SSD 240gb. I am using an OEM Windows 8 Asus notebook.

When I originally cloned the factory notebook drive to the Momentus, I had no issues and I did not expect any when I went to the SSD. Boy, was I wrong.

First, the Acronis True Image software licensed by Kingston did not work. It would not even start the clone process citing that the Momentus configuration was not compatible.

Second, I tried the Seagate version of the Acronis True Image from their site. It allowed me to clone the disk, but it would not boot. Windows said that winload.efi was missing---it was not and I am sure that this was a symptomatic error.

I will admit to being new to GPT and UEFI/EFI and I was really not interested in complicated (to me) backup and restore procedures--and there are tons posted here and on other sites. I wanted to connect the drives, press "go" and have the software work. I also did not want to invest in expensive cloning software that I'd probably only use one time.

So, I began my search for another option. I tried trial/free versions of Acronis True Image, EasUS Disk Copy, Clonezilla, DriveClone, Paramount Reflect, and Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite. For all of these, I tried with the drives installed in the notebook and/or in an external enclosure when the software supported it. None of these worked; all failing to begin to boot (booted straight to bios) or failing with windows saying there were missing files. I have no doubt that I could have found a way to get the cloning done with one of these programs if I knew all of the right settings and was prepared for a multi-part procedure. However, in their various menu driven or default modes, I could not get the drive to successfully clone and boot.

The fact that I was going from 750gb to 240gb appears may have been part of the problem, but everywhere I read said it was not a big deal. After all of these failures and after installing and removing the SSD from the notebook literally dozens of times, I began to believe that possibly the hybrid Momentus drive was the problem (i.e. the hybrid nature of the Momentus was the issue).

In the end, I paid for Paragon's "Migrate OS to SSD 3.0" ($19.95 with discounts available). With the SSD in the external enclosure, the software successfully cloned the drive in about 20 minutes (fastest of any of the programs tried). I removed the Momentus, installed the SSD, and for the first time, the notebook booted. Migrate also came with software to draw the recover image from my original factory hard drive and copy it to a USB drive so that if I ever needed to go back to day 1, I still can.

I am not trying to plug the Paragon software, but just wanted to relate my experience and hopefully save someone else the hours of frustration I experienced. Good luck.

Hi Beauvyne,

After I saw your post, I went and bought the Paragon software and tried to migrate Windows Vista Business from Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid 500 GB drive to Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB drive. Although the cloning wnt fine but the error I am facing (missing Windows Mail Database - please see my other thread in this forum for full details). Looks like you have been very lucky to have ths success.
Parkeri

 

[lmitche]

Hi Beauvyne,

I just took the same journey during the installation of a new Samsung 840 drive into a 1 year old Ivy Bridge laptop with GPT and UEFI/EFI. After trying a similar list of 4 free and SSD vendor supported software solutions, I found your post about Paragon's product and I am done. While USB 3.0 support was not specifically called out on the Paragon site, my transfer was done with an Apricot Sata to USB 3.0 adapter. The transfer was at least twice the speed of these other solutions and it was the only one to render a bootable SSD.

Thanks for sharing,

Larry

 

[algotr]

Struggled for days trying to clone my notebook hard drive to a new Kingston SSDNOW V300 drive so that it would boot, but I finally found success. After searching forums and seeing hundreds of stories about what worked and what did not, I thought I'd add my solution in case it might help someone else.

My desktop hard drive is dying. I decided to replace it with the Momentus XT 750 from my notebook and replace the Momentus with an SSD 240gb. I am using an OEM Windows 8 Asus notebook.

When I originally cloned the factory notebook drive to the Momentus, I had no issues and I did not expect any when I went to the SSD. Boy, was I wrong.

First, the Acronis True Image software licensed by Kingston did not work. It would not even start the clone process citing that the Momentus configuration was not compatible.

Second, I tried the Seagate version of the Acronis True Image from their site. It allowed me to clone the disk, but it would not boot. Windows said that winload.efi was missing---it was not and I am sure that this was a symptomatic error.

I will admit to being new to GPT and UEFI/EFI and I was really not interested in complicated (to me) backup and restore procedures--and there are tons posted here and on other sites. I wanted to connect the drives, press "go" and have the software work. I also did not want to invest in expensive cloning software that I'd probably only use one time.

So, I began my search for another option. I tried trial/free versions of Acronis True Image, EasUS Disk Copy, Clonezilla, DriveClone, Paramount Reflect, and Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite. For all of these, I tried with the drives installed in the notebook and/or in an external enclosure when the software supported it. None of these worked; all failing to begin to boot (booted straight to bios) or failing with windows saying there were missing files. I have no doubt that I could have found a way to get the cloning done with one of these programs if I knew all of the right settings and was prepared for a multi-part procedure. However, in their various menu driven or default modes, I could not get the drive to successfully clone and boot.

The fact that I was going from 750gb to 240gb appears may have been part of the problem, but everywhere I read said it was not a big deal. After all of these failures and after installing and removing the SSD from the notebook literally dozens of times, I began to believe that possibly the hybrid Momentus drive was the problem (i.e. the hybrid nature of the Momentus was the issue).

In the end, I paid for Paragon's "Migrate OS to SSD 3.0" ($19.95 with discounts available). With the SSD in the external enclosure, the software successfully cloned the drive in about 20 minutes (fastest of any of the programs tried). I removed the Momentus, installed the SSD, and for the first time, the notebook booted. Migrate also came with software to draw the recover image from my original factory hard drive and copy it to a USB drive so that if I ever needed to go back to day 1, I still can.

I am not trying to plug the Paragon software, but just wanted to relate my experience and hopefully save someone else the hours of frustration I experienced. Good luck.

It doesn't work on Windows 8 64-bit on a Lenovo Essentials b575e:

"Stub1.dll"
"(X) Unknown windowsversion"

"Migrate OS to SSD(tm)"
"(X) Det gick inte att utföra åtgärden"
"DPMI error"

"Error source: Hard Disk Manager"
"Error code: 0x10094

"Fewer options"
"Collect and send logs to support"

 

[algotr]

Struggled for days trying to clone my notebook hard drive to a new Kingston SSDNOW V300 drive so that it would boot, but I finally found success. After searching forums and seeing hundreds of stories about what worked and what did not, I thought I'd add my solution in case it might help someone else.

My desktop hard drive is dying. I decided to replace it with the Momentus XT 750 from my notebook and replace the Momentus with an SSD 240gb. I am using an OEM Windows 8 Asus notebook.

When I originally cloned the factory notebook drive to the Momentus, I had no issues and I did not expect any when I went to the SSD. Boy, was I wrong.

First, the Acronis True Image software licensed by Kingston did not work. It would not even start the clone process citing that the Momentus configuration was not compatible.

Second, I tried the Seagate version of the Acronis True Image from their site. It allowed me to clone the disk, but it would not boot. Windows said that winload.efi was missing---it was not and I am sure that this was a symptomatic error.

I will admit to being new to GPT and UEFI/EFI and I was really not interested in complicated (to me) backup and restore procedures--and there are tons posted here and on other sites. I wanted to connect the drives, press "go" and have the software work. I also did not want to invest in expensive cloning software that I'd probably only use one time.

So, I began my search for another option. I tried trial/free versions of Acronis True Image, EasUS Disk Copy, Clonezilla, DriveClone, Paramount Reflect, and Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite. For all of these, I tried with the drives installed in the notebook and/or in an external enclosure when the software supported it. None of these worked; all failing to begin to boot (booted straight to bios) or failing with windows saying there were missing files. I have no doubt that I could have found a way to get the cloning done with one of these programs if I knew all of the right settings and was prepared for a multi-part procedure. However, in their various menu driven or default modes, I could not get the drive to successfully clone and boot.

The fact that I was going from 750gb to 240gb appears may have been part of the problem, but everywhere I read said it was not a big deal. After all of these failures and after installing and removing the SSD from the notebook literally dozens of times, I began to believe that possibly the hybrid Momentus drive was the problem (i.e. the hybrid nature of the Momentus was the issue).

In the end, I paid for Paragon's "Migrate OS to SSD 3.0" ($19.95 with discounts available). With the SSD in the external enclosure, the software successfully cloned the drive in about 20 minutes (fastest of any of the programs tried). I removed the Momentus, installed the SSD, and for the first time, the notebook booted. Migrate also came with software to draw the recover image from my original factory hard drive and copy it to a USB drive so that if I ever needed to go back to day 1, I still can.

I am not trying to plug the Paragon software, but just wanted to relate my experience and hopefully save someone else the hours of frustration I experienced. Good luck.

It doesn't work on Windows 8 64-bit on a Lenovo Essentials b575e:

"Stub1.dll"
"(X) Unknown windowsversion"

"Migrate OS to SSD(tm)"
"(X) Det gick inte att utföra åtgärden"
"DPMI error"

"Error source: Hard Disk Manager"
"Error code: 0x10094

"Fewer options"
"Collect and send logs to support"

It DOES work!
You only have to stay clear of the Swedish version!
It doesn't say it when it asks you what language you want to use, but obviously only the English version works with Windows 8.
It was just a pity I had to struggle with it before I got the working version.

 

[popatim]

Well thanks for the update of your earlier post.

 

[Bugsen]

Hi Guys,
The Paragon migrate OS 4.0 worked for me as well. Thanks for the tip.
Shell out $16 install and transfer all W8.1 to smaller external SSD.
Then install SSD and boot. Probably 1 hour total taking it easy with all the small screws of the ASUS machine.

The Acronis solution did not work for me.
Wasted quite a bit of time there. Perhaps for others it is ok.
Jim J

 

[MDSdude]

Struggled for days trying to clone my notebook hard drive to a new Kingston SSDNOW V300 drive so that it would boot, but I finally found success. After searching forums and seeing hundreds of stories about what worked and what did not, I thought I'd add my solution in case it might help someone else.

My desktop hard drive ....blah blah yada yada. Good luck.

ONE SHOT AND IT'S DONE....BAM!!!!

Thank you for this solution. I, too, had spent days of searching and trying "solutions" for imaging my existing Win7Pro installation on a 60gb ssd to a larger 128gb ssd. I just found and read your post this morning, went to the Paragon site, paid $15 (thanks for the coupon code, Aaron Conaway) for the Migrate OS to SSD software, ran it once, and it worked.

Thank you all for the solution.

 

[wifighost]

Struggled for days trying to clone my notebook hard drive to a new Kingston SSDNOW V300 drive so that it would boot, but I finally found success. After searching forums and seeing hundreds of stories about what worked and what did not, I thought I'd add my solution in case it might help someone else.

My desktop hard drive ....blah blah yada yada. Good luck.

ONE SHOT AND IT'S DONE....BAM!!!!

Thank you for this solution. I, too, had spent days of searching and trying "solutions" for imaging my existing Win7Pro installation on a 60gb ssd to a larger 128gb ssd. I just found and read your post this morning, went to the Paragon site, paid $15 (thanks for the coupon code, Aaron Conaway) for the Migrate OS to SSD software, ran it once, and it worked.

Thank you all for the solution.

I found the same coupon to get it for 15 and change, i was migrating from a 750GB HDD to a 500GB SSD, i spent a lot of time using other cloning and imaging tools to get my data migrated and after using this tool which was just clicking the OS i wanted to migrate, next next and finish and the tool was done, i was skeptical that it would work, i popped in my SSD and BAM it booted without issue, I can confirm Win7 works along with WinXP, havent tried 8.

 

[Happymacer]

I popped in my SSD and BAM it booted without issue, I can confirm Win7 works along with WinXP, havent tried 8.

I can! I have successfully cloned my new 750GB ASUS F550CC to a 240GB SSD, Windows 8.1. Success! Thanks for the hint!

 

[Diego Delgado]

Hi,
I bought Paragon software to migrate my Notebook HDD (Asus q550lf-bbi7t07 with Windows 8.1 OEM) to my new SSD drive (SSD Intel 530 Series 240Gb).
I installed Paragon software successfully and the drive Migration ends correctly. Then I proceeded to exchange the drives in my notebook and start Windows again.
Windows worked properly for 2 or 3 minutes and then its throws me a “blue screen of death” and redirect me to the BIOS (The BIOS does not recognize the drive until I turn off and turn back the PC, then everything repeats...)
Any of you went through the same situation as me? What should I do?
Thanks!
Diego

 

[popatim]

Sounds like a problem with either your motherbd or your SSD and not an issue with Paragon. I suspect its the 530 as I've seen a few others behave similarly. Have you checked for firmware & bios updates for both the motherbd and the ssd? Also, please start your own thread for trubloeshooting this problem.

 

[Diego Delgado]

Sounds like a problem with either your motherbd or your SSD and not an issue with Paragon. I suspect its the 530 as I've seen a few others behave similarly. Have you checked for firmware & bios updates for both the motherbd and the ssd? Also, please start your own thread for trubloeshooting this problem.

Yes, I updated the firmware of both :/

I opened my own thread, http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1998007/error-hdd-ssd-migration.html

Thks

 

[roseman]

Yeah, i had similar problem with Win-7 x64 with UEFI... the EasUS partition program was easy to use, but "upgrade system disk" option was greyed out
A couple of other options had looked promising but never panned out.
When i went to see if Paragon had a free program to do this (on Download.com) they did not, but the under-20-bux proce i could live with *IF* it worked, so off to their site. Looked up their "Migrate OS to SSD 3.0" program with their built-in search.. *Whoa* like 600 results, but almost all were "news" tidbits. OK, finally narrowed it down to looking at the "Products" tab on their site, then it was easier to find there. Read many of the details and found the section of the product description page called: "Challenge 2. 64-bit Windows migration configured to the uEFI boot mode" most helpful. Seemed to explain he issues i was having, so i decided i could risk a few bux if it gets me out of this 7-hour marathon of almost-but-fail.
It was pretty easy to use, fairly self-explanatory, and some of the little status messages as it ran were kinda cute
Ok, that went kinda fast.. faster than a system-image creation even over usb 3.0; maybe 10 minutes (forgot to look at clock) with plenty of progress indicators. After it said it was done, turned off power.. unplugged old HDD, booted back up, and.. OK it worked.
THANK YOU!!

 

[Black Cat 77]

Struggled for days trying to clone my notebook hard drive to a new Kingston SSDNOW V300 drive so that it would boot, but I finally found success.

Huge thanks for posting this Beauvyne! Last night, I made a complete disaster of trying to clone my laptop HDD to an SSD. Partition problems, wouldn't boot, etc, etc. So today I Googled my problem and this thread came up. After all the glowing comments, I purchased the software, ran it on the laptop with the new SSD connected via USB to SATA cable and ten minutes later, the clone was done. Installed the SSD and WHAMMO, booted perfectly, ran perfectly. Best money I've spent in a long time and now I'm going to swap over all the other old HDDs to SSDs.

 

[Black Cat 77]

This thread came up on a Google search when I made a complete clusterbleep of trying to move my OS from an HDD to an SSD last night. Great info, visited the Paragon site and after the glowing comments here, purchased the software. Installed on the laptop, plugged in the SSD via USB to SATA, ran the program, installed the SSD and it worked perfectly! Thank you Beauvine and thank you thank you thank you Paragon. I was at my wits end before I found this.

 

[Orbitec]

Struggled for days trying to clone my notebook hard drive ...

I suffered from the same problem and then I found this thread. Thanks! The migration tool did everything very quickly without any hassle.

OK, but an important question haunts me since then: What does this tool right? What did I wrong?

Does anyone know which specific steps are necessary for a successful migration of a GPT disk?

John

 

[ClarenceL]

Had the same problem, my free copy of Acronis True Suite 2013 - WD Edition didn't work so I found this thread. Almost tried EasUS Disk Copy but I'm glad I found this thread and you went through the trouble of trying those all out!

Paragon Migrate OS to SSD 4.0 worked like a charm, took an amazing 3 minutes compared to Acronis's 16 mins.

 

[Seahund]

I think that there is more to this cloning business than what meets the eye. This is not an attempt to talk up Acronis (or talk down the Paragon solution), simply a different experience along the lines of cloning a HD.
In my case I started out with a brand new Asus UX302L ultrabook which comes from the factory with a 500GB 5400 rpm Hitachi hard drive (and a small SanDisk SSD, as a secondary drive, for caching). The Hitachi drive was of GPT flavor.
I had a brand new Crucial M500 240GB SSD on hand so my first reaction was: why not improve the response time by replacing the slower traditional HD with the SSD.
Long story short, I made several attempts at cloning the 500GB HD to the 240GB SSD using Acronis TrueImage 2014 to no avail. The strange thing of it was that while the cloning process completed successfully, when I installed the Crucial M500 in the Asus, the ultrabook's BIOS didn't even see it as installed device, it only saw the SanDisk caching drive.
After reading the above comments I also took the plunge and purchased the Paragon software, installed it, ran it only to find that the Crucial M500 still wouldn't boot.
Meantime I found other articles on the web suggesting that the Asus BIOS and the Crucial M500 might not always play nicely together. I was really pissed at this point because of all the time I wasted, because of the fact that something as simply as disk cloning (which I've done many times before) can be THIS painful, and the fact that practical solutions to the GPT/UEFI issues by most industry sources is so poorly documented. In shear desperation I grabbed a 240GB Seagate 600 Pro SSD which I initially set aside for another project, and figured that I'll give a different drive in this system one last shot.
At this point I want to emphasize that I kept using the same external enclosure, the same Acronis TrueImage 2014 boot disk, etc. during the entire cloning effort. Low and behold, after cloning the 500GB Hitachi drive to the 240GB Seagate 600 Pro SSD and installing the Seagate in the Asus, the ultrabook booted up without a hitch.
My conclusion, after having spent well over a dozen hours over the course of a week on this cloning project, is that cloning a larger drive with GPT partitions onto a smaller SSD using off-the-shelf software, like the Acronis, is not impossible. I also concluded that there must be apparent compatibility issues between certain notebook/ultrabook BIOS and certain SSD when it comes to GPT which is unfortunate since most folks don't have either the time, or the patience, or the variety of spare SSDs to conduct seemingly endless experiments.
For the record: the Crucial M500 SSD had the latest firmware available on the Crucial web site at the time of this writing. Also, after the cloning to the Crucial M500 while it didn't boot (and wasn't even recognized by the Asus BIOS) the same drive was readable when I connected it via an external enclosure to my home made desktop PC (based on genuine Intel DQ77MK mobo and Intel i7 3770 CPU, the best combo I have ever had!). In other words, I was able to verify that there were valid (readable) partitions and data on the Crucial M500 after the cloning finished.

 

[grazuncle]

When I originally cloned the factory notebook drive to the Momentus, I had no issues and I did not expect any when I went to the SSD. Boy, was I wrong.



In the end, I paid for Paragon's "Migrate OS to SSD 3.0" ($19.95 with discounts available). With the SSD in the external enclosure, the software successfully cloned the drive in about 20 minutes (fastest of any of the programs tried). I removed the Momentus, installed the SSD, and for the first time, the notebook booted. Migrate also came with software to draw the recover image from my original factory hard drive and copy it to a USB drive so that if I ever needed to go back to day 1, I still can.

I am not trying to plug the Paragon software, but just wanted to relate my experience and hopefully save someone else the hours of frustration I experienced. Good luck.[/quotemsg]


Thanks for posting this.. I wasted most of yesterday trying ot get my 'usual' cloning Sw (Active Disk) to do this 'simple' job..

Your post and suggestion got me Start to Finish in about an hour including the download of the SW! I got Vs 4 and a discount using the code!

Very Happy now.. it was worth the $19 for the one off installation just to get the job off my hands

Thanks

 

[asmodee]

Just to throw in my 2 cents, I am a computer technician and needed to get software to copy a GPT partition and I came across this thread. On the advice of the OP, I purchased the software and installed it on my Windows 7 computer to copy a disk. One problem, it copied only the OS partition, not the manufacturer's restore partition. However, it gets more interesting than that. My Windows 7 computer is down right now and I needed to copy a GPT disk. All I had was my Windows XP machine, which can't even read GPT partitions. I gave it a try anyway and it STILL WORKED! The customer needed this back ASAP and I would have had to send them to another shop if it hadn't because I only have 1 Windows XP machine and 1 Windows 7 machine and didn't have time to fix the Windows 7 machine and get their copy done. Awesome software.

 

[paul pitiful]

Hi Guys,
The Paragon migrate OS 4.0 worked for me as well. Thanks for the tip.
Shell out $16 install and transfer all W8.1 to smaller external SSD.
Then install SSD and boot. Probably 1 hour total taking it easy with all the small screws of the ASUS machine.

The Acronis solution did not work for me.
Wasted quite a bit of time there. Perhaps for others it is ok.
Jim J