Cloning / Installing Pre-Installation Windows 10 on New Samsung SSD, then performing Win10 install.

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john410c

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I have a brand new Lenovo P70 (512 HDD) with the OEM Win10 software, not yet installed. The machine has not even been powered up yet. I also have brand new Samsung pro 512 SSD on the way.

I want to remove the HDD , install it in another laptop (W540), install the SSD in this laptop (W540) and clone them. (HDD to SSD)

I then want to put the New Samsung SSD (with the cloned pre-installation software on it) into the P70 and then want to perform the initial install on the P70.

The original HDD will just be put away as a backup if required.

Does anyone see any caveats or issues with this. suggestions welcome.

Thanks john
 
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The information provided you by "hang-the-9" is absolutely correct.

Your objective, while basically valid & desirable as it relates to creating a cloned copy of the OS initially provided by the OEM (something that virtually every new owner of an OEM PC should emulate) is simply achieved in a more straightforward manner using the process described by hang-the-9.

It's merely a matter of connecting your Samsung SSD as a USB external drive to the Lenovo laptop either using a USB external enclosure or docking station (either type of device a most desirable piece of equipment any PC owner should have) or using a USB-to-SATA cable for the disk-cloning operation.

While it is true you can achieve your objective using the method you describe...
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

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I have no idea what you will gain by doing all this. Why not just boot up the P70, set it up, then clone that setup to the SSD if that is what you want to run in the system. Why go through the hassle of installing it in a totally different laptop. The OEM license is only valid for the system it comes with, if you end up running it on the W540, it likely will tell you to enter a different key when you move it to the P70.

All I see that you are doing here is an extra step of moving the drive to another laptop for no reason.
 
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john410c

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john410c

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Thank you for the quick response. My rationale for cloning the native (uninstalled) Win 10 HDD to the Samsung SSD is so that I have the uninstalled software on the SSD which I will put into the P70 and have a the initial win10 installation performed on the P70 with the samsung SSD. Basically it will be as if I had ordered the P70 from Lenovo with an SSD rather than the HDD.

Also I will have the HDD with a "factory" initialized drive as a backup should I ever need it.

in the past I would power on a new laptop, run the install, load Office/Visio, etc, then clone the HDD to an SSD, remove the HDD and put it away as a "clean" backup, should I ever need it, really just for piece of mind.

I keep hearing of people cloning a HDD to an SSD, having problems , then end up doing a new native Windows install.

I don't care about win 10 pro licenses, I have many unused spares.

Thanks
 
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ArtPog

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The information provided you by "hang-the-9" is absolutely correct.

Your objective, while basically valid & desirable as it relates to creating a cloned copy of the OS initially provided by the OEM (something that virtually every new owner of an OEM PC should emulate) is simply achieved in a more straightforward manner using the process described by hang-the-9.

It's merely a matter of connecting your Samsung SSD as a USB external drive to the Lenovo laptop either using a USB external enclosure or docking station (either type of device a most desirable piece of equipment any PC owner should have) or using a USB-to-SATA cable for the disk-cloning operation.

While it is true you can achieve your objective using the method you describe, i.e., utilizing a different PC to undertake the disk-cloning operation, it doesn't seem to serve a useful (practical) purpose unless you just didn't want to employ a USB approach. (I'm assuming the Lenovo W540 laptop you would be using has provision for mounting two internal drives so you would not need USB capability to undertake the disk-cloning operation with that machine).

The SDM program you presumably would be using to undertake the disk-cloning operation is a fine program. We've used it probably more than 100x with virtually no difficulty. What you're "hearing of people cloning a HDD to an SSD having problems" is more mere noise than actual fact. More times than not when you examine these "problems", you find they've arisen because of user error in using the program or the source drive was corrupt or defective ("if you clone garbage, garbage is what you get") or the destination drive was defective or the user was attempting to clone a volume of data from the source disk greater than what the destination disk could accommodate.

In any event, whatever methodology you use, I trust you will clone your system drive on a reasonably frequent basis so as to maintain a reasonably up-to-date comprehensive backup of your system at any given time. No doubt you will be doing this (if you do it at all) via the USB route with a laptop. And that's just fine.
 
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

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You should be able to clone the disks without moving them to the second laptop though, just attach the SSD with a USB enclosure (if you have a W540 laptop I'm sure you have one), and boot off the cloning software. You could do it the other way but it's just an extra step of moving the drives to the other system.
 
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ArtPog

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John:
One add'l note to my previous post...

If you go ahead with your original plan re using your other Lenovo laptop to undertake the disk-cloning operation, AFAIK you will NOT be able to utilize the SDM program to do so. I would assume your plan is (was?) to install the SDM program on the Lenovo's W540 boot drive and carry out the d-c operation with the Lenovo P70 boot drive designated as the source drive and the Samsung SSD as the destination drive, both of which would be connected in the Lenovo W540 as secondary drives.

If that's your plan, AFAIK, you will not be able to utilize the SDM program. The program has a limitation in that it will recognize only the boot drive in the current system as the source drive for purposes of carrying out the d-c operation. In this case, the Lenovo W540's boot disk. Even if you would install the SDM program on the Lenovo P70 boot disk (connected as a secondary drive) the limitation would still exist.

Most other d-c programs do not have this limitation.
 
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john410c

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Thank you both for your sage advice. USPS just delivered the Samsung SSD and I have decided to follow the kiss method.

I have additional memory from Lenovo to install, which I will do first. Then boot up the P70, do a basic local install. Attach the SSD via USB. Insert the samsung DVD into the P70 caddy and clone the HDD.

My intent is to swap out the HDD for the cloned SSD and put the HDD away for the next year or two (A just in case scenario).

In the interim, while waiting for the SSD to arrive, I had downloaded factory Recovery media for the P70 from Lenovo onto a USB.

I have Macrium Reflect and will then backup the P70 and proceed to finish installing my software (AutoCAD, Sketchup, Visio, etc).

Thanks for being my sounding board and for your input.

john
 
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