Need Help Migrating To New SSDs...

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Tyson2Field

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Hi all, I'm in need of a little help. I have four or so questions which I'll list at the end. Firstly though, some background. I have an Alienware M14x R2 Laptop (2012, ancient, I know...) and although I'm saving to build a desktop and have done hours upon hours if research on that, I am also wanting to (just to get some extra usage out of it, it'd be faster for my grandmother to handwrite the code out) upgrade the drives (a HDD and an mSATA SSD for the OS [Windows 10]) and RAM (8Gb) inside the laptop. Coincidentally, I'm also inheriting a macbook pro and would like to do the same for that (although I'll give that my laptop's old RAM, as it only supports up to 8Gb) So, I'll be buying two SSDs and an mSATA SSD, as well as 2 8Gb SODIMM RAM sticks. My questions are these:

1. Can I clone (don't want to do a clean install because I keep mine pretty clean anyway) my mSATA drive (which is my OSD) to the new SSD, then boot from the SSD, and clone the new SSD to the new mSATA drive, and boot from that, while using it as an OSD. (Then I'll wipe the SSD, and clone my HDD to the SSD)

2. If not, how can I clone my current mSATA drive to my new one without an adapter?

3. Does it matter that my new mSATA drive will be bigger than the old one, and will I be able to use the leftover 100-200Gb?

4. Can I clone my current HDD to an old backup USB drive, and then clone from the backup to the new SSD to avoid buying a SATA to USB adapter?
 
Solution
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When you undertake your research (a most wise approach to take at the outset when you're considering various approaches to comprehensively copying/transferring the complete data contents of one disk drive to another disk drive) do consider employing a disk-cloning program rather than a disk-imaging program.

The basic point of a disk-cloning program is that by "cloning" the contents of one's day-to-day working HDD/SSD to another HDD/SSD (internal or external), the user creates a precise copy of his or her "source" HDD/SSD. Thus, a comprehensive backup of one's system has been accomplished in one fell swoop, i.e., the user has backed up or completely transferred his/her system including the operating system, all programs & applications...
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bobmanuk

bobmanuk

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Jan 18, 2014
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you can use something like acronis or easeus to take a disk image first, put it on an external drive then use the recovery disk (usb or CD) to re-image each of the new drives. that should save you having to swap drives around. though for the msata drive you will still need to swap them over. It wont matter about the extra space as you can tell easeus to use expand the drive (not sure about acronis) or, if it doesnt work properly, you can always clone size for size and expand the main partition through disk manager later on once windows has booted.
 
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Tyson2Field

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Thanks for the response, but I've not done as much research on partitions and things, and I'm still confused as to how disk imaging works, so if you (or someone else) could give me a brief explanation, that would help lots :) Also, will it work if I decide to swap drives around or will I need to create images and recovery disks? Thanks in advance :)
 
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bobmanuk

bobmanuk

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I refer to easeus a lot as i highly recommend it (and its free :) ) you can take a full disk image whilst windows is running, it will put all the contents of your drive, disk partitions and all into a single file that can be restored to any disk, so long as there is enough space, or it can clone directly, again, even whilst windows is running. If you do some googling, Easeus has some good guides on how to clone drives Like this for example

Once easeus backup free is installed you can create a bootable USB or CD with which you can use to restore the disk image. just boot off the usb/cd with the USB drive and blank drive connected, select restore, chose the image you want to restore and where it will be restoring to, click next and it should do it all for you, it should also make it bootable so you dont have to mess about with booting into a windows DVD to get your system running again.
 
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Tyson2Field

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Aah okay, I'll do some more research when I get a chance, Cheers for your help :)
 
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ArtPog

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When you undertake your research (a most wise approach to take at the outset when you're considering various approaches to comprehensively copying/transferring the complete data contents of one disk drive to another disk drive) do consider employing a disk-cloning program rather than a disk-imaging program.

The basic point of a disk-cloning program is that by "cloning" the contents of one's day-to-day working HDD/SSD to another HDD/SSD (internal or external), the user creates a precise copy of his or her "source" HDD/SSD. Thus, a comprehensive backup of one's system has been accomplished in one fell swoop, i.e., the user has backed up or completely transferred his/her system including the operating system, all programs & applications, and of course, all user-created data. In short - *everything* that's on the "source" HDD/SSD. So that the recipient of the cloned contents - the "destination" HDD/SSD - will be, for all practical purposes, a precise copy of the source HDD/SSD with all data immediately accessible. It's hard to imagine a better backup system.

I believe that for the vast majority of PC users a disk-cloning rather than a disk-imaging approach is a more practical approach for the user to take. Bear in mind that since the clone is for all practical purposes a bit-for-bit copy of the "source" disk, no recovery/restore operation is necessary as it will be for the disk-imaging file(s). Unlike the disk-imaging file(s) the "destination" disk (the recipient of the cloned disk) will have all its contained data immediately accessible to the user.

As a general proposition disk-imaging is a better tool when it's important for the user to maintain generational copies of his/her source disk(s). For example, let's say for one reason or another the user desires to maintain a copy of his/her system every x number of days over some indefinite period. Under those circumstances consideration should be given to a disk-imaging approach since there will be some savings in disk-space utilization as compared with disk-cloning.
 
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Tyson2Field

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Thanks ArtPog, just one question... Can I clone to the SSD, then from the SSD to the new mSATA drive (after booting from the SSD), as I have only one mSATA port? (Assuming that I can still run the cloning program off an external drive)
 
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ArtPog

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I'm not entirely sure I understand your last query so my response may not directly address your question...

If you're asking whether you can clone a drive (a HDD that contains the OS?) to a SSD, then install the SSD as the PC's bootable drive, of course the answer is "yes". And then clone the contents of the SSD to an mSATA installed drive? Again, the answer is "yes".

I'm not clear on why you would want to undertake what appears to be a rather awkward series of operations. If your objective is to have the mSATA SSD as the PC's bootable drive why wouldn't the original drive (the HDD?) be the source drive and clone its contents directly to the mSATA SSD? But perhaps I misunderstand your precise objectives here.

And I don't understand your question as to whether you "can still run the cloning program off an external drive". The cloning program is ordinarily integrated with the source drive you're planning to clone, although most disk-cloning programs do provide a standalone program on a bootable CD that can be utilized when needed. If you're asking whether a drive that contains the OS installed as a USB external drive can be utilized as the "source" drive to clone the contents of the USB external drive to an internally-connected drive, again the answer is "yes".
 
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ArtPog

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Sep 17, 2014
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I'm not entirely sure I understand your last query so my response may not directly address your question...

If you're asking whether you can clone a drive (a HDD that contains the OS?) to a SSD, then install the SSD as the PC's bootable drive, of course the answer is "yes". And then clone the contents of the SSD to an mSATA installed drive? Again, the answer is "yes".

I'm not clear on why you would want to undertake what appears to be a rather awkward series of operations. If your objective is to have the mSATA SSD as the PC's bootable drive why wouldn't the original drive (the HDD?) be the source drive and clone its contents directly to the mSATA SSD? But perhaps I misunderstand your precise objectives here.

And I don't understand your question as to whether you "can still run the cloning program off an external drive". The cloning program is ordinarily integrated with the source drive you're planning to clone, although most disk-cloning programs do provide a standalone program on a bootable CD that can be utilized when needed. If you're asking whether a drive that contains the OS installed as a USB external drive can be utilized as the "source" drive to clone the contents of the USB external drive to an internally-connected drive, again the answer is "yes".
 
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A

ArtPog

Admirable
Sep 17, 2014
2,951
3
8,965
I'm not entirely sure I understand your last query so my response may not directly address your question...

If you're asking whether you can clone a drive (a HDD that contains the OS?) to a SSD, then install the SSD as the PC's bootable drive, of course the answer is "yes". And then clone the contents of the SSD to an mSATA installed drive? Again, the answer is "yes".

I'm not clear on why you would want to undertake what appears to be a rather awkward series of operations. If your objective is to have the mSATA SSD as the PC's bootable drive why wouldn't the original drive (the HDD?) be the source drive and clone its contents directly to the mSATA SSD? But perhaps I misunderstand your precise objectives here.

And I don't understand your question as to whether you "can still run the cloning program off an external drive". The cloning program is ordinarily integrated with the source drive you're planning to clone, although most disk-cloning programs do provide a standalone program on a bootable CD that can be utilized when needed. If you're asking whether a drive that contains the OS installed as a USB external drive can be utilized as the "source" drive to clone the contents of the USB external drive to an internally-connected drive, again the answer is "yes".
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
A

ArtPog

Admirable
Sep 17, 2014
2,951
3
8,965
I'm not entirely sure I understand your last query so my response may not directly address your question...

If you're asking whether you can clone a drive (a HDD that contains the OS?) to a SSD, then install the SSD as the PC's bootable drive, of course the answer is "yes". And then clone the contents of the SSD to an mSATA installed drive? Again, the answer is "yes".

I'm not clear on why you would want to undertake what appears to be a rather awkward series of operations. If your objective is to have the mSATA SSD as the PC's bootable drive why wouldn't the original drive (the HDD?) be the source drive and clone its contents directly to the mSATA SSD? But perhaps I misunderstand your precise objectives here.

And I don't understand your question as to whether you "can still run the cloning program off an external drive". The cloning program is ordinarily integrated with the source drive you're planning to clone, although most disk-cloning programs do provide a standalone program on a bootable CD that can be utilized when needed. If you're asking whether a drive that contains the OS installed as a USB external drive can be utilized as the "source" drive to clone the contents of the USB external drive to an internally-connected drive, again the answer is "yes".
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
A

ArtPog

Admirable
Sep 17, 2014
2,951
3
8,965
I'm not entirely sure I understand your last query so my response may not directly address your question...

If you're asking whether you can clone a drive (a HDD that contains the OS?) to a SSD, then install the SSD as the PC's bootable drive, of course the answer is "yes". And then clone the contents of the SSD to an mSATA installed drive? Again, the answer is "yes".

I'm not clear on why you would want to undertake what appears to be a rather awkward series of operations. If your objective is to have the mSATA SSD as the PC's bootable drive why wouldn't the original drive (the HDD?) be the source drive and clone its contents directly to the mSATA SSD? But perhaps I misunderstand your precise objectives here.

And I don't understand your question as to whether you "can still run the cloning program off an external drive". The cloning program is ordinarily integrated with the source drive you're planning to clone, although most disk-cloning programs do provide a standalone program on a bootable CD that can be utilized when needed. If you're asking whether a drive that contains the OS installed as a USB external drive can be utilized as the "source" drive to clone the contents of the USB external drive to an internally-connected drive, again the answer is "yes".
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
A

ArtPog

Admirable
Sep 17, 2014
2,951
3
8,965
I'm not entirely sure I understand your last query so my response may not directly address your question...

If you're asking whether you can clone a drive (a HDD that contains the OS?) to a SSD, then install the SSD as the PC's bootable drive, of course the answer is "yes". And then clone the contents of the SSD to an mSATA installed drive? Again, the answer is "yes".

I'm not clear on why you would want to undertake what appears to be a rather awkward series of operations. If your objective is to have the mSATA SSD as the PC's bootable drive why wouldn't the original drive (the HDD?) be the source drive and clone its contents directly to the mSATA SSD? But perhaps I misunderstand your precise objectives here.

And I don't understand your question as to whether you "can still run the cloning program off an external drive". The cloning program is ordinarily integrated with the source drive you're planning to clone, although most disk-cloning programs do provide a standalone program on a bootable CD that can be utilized when needed. If you're asking whether a drive that contains the OS installed as a USB external drive can be utilized as the "source" drive to clone the contents of the USB external drive to an internally-connected drive, again the answer is "yes".
 
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Tyson2Field

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May 6, 2016
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Aah, thanks, you understood well enough, the first target is an old mSATA drive, and I want to upgrade it to a new one via cloning to another drive. The old one has no space left (it was designed to fit basically just the OS, so i need to run the cloning program from an external USB once the new drive's installed. Thanks for your help, I should be ordering drives and collecting them within the next few days :) I'll let you know how it goes :)
 
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