Planning on cloning from a small SSD to a larger one. Backup advice needed

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kimura410

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Im planning on cloning with Macrium Free. Is it super necessary to back up what I already have on my existing SSD (Windows OS). Is it super rare for problems to occur following a disk clone?

If I do back it up, how does that work? Do they sell burnable DVDs that are 60gb? External hard drives are looking a little expensive.

Is there a way I can just back it up to my 1 TB HDD? I figure I cant clone to that because it would erase whatever is on it currently.
 
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USAFRet


Backups are always a good idea, no matter what you are doing.

Macrium can do a full drive image off to a different drive. Your 1TB, assuming there is enough free space. It will simply create a single file in a folder. Not consume the entire drive.
The file will be...
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Backups are always a good idea, no matter what you are doing.

Macrium can do a full drive image off to a different drive. Your 1TB, assuming there is enough free space. It will simply create a single file in a folder. Not consume the entire drive.
The file will be something.mrimage

For the actual clone from one drive to the other?
These steps, in order:
-----------------------------
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)
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
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new 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 as necessary.
Delete the original boot partitions, here:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/4f1b84ac-b193-40e3-943a-f45d52e23685/cant-delete-extra-healthy-recovery-partitions-and-healthy-efi-system-partition?forum=w8itproinstall
-----------------------------

 
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kimura410

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thanks for the quick response.

one more question. when you said move the SATA cables around. for a while now, the SSD has not been the primary boot drive. my hdd will boot up first, but ive been lazy i guess and didnt swap that with the SSD so the SSD would boot first (ive just been going into BIOS menu and selecting SSD)

anyways, in my case, is it ok if I take out the HDD, put the new SSD where the HDD was, clone from old SSD to new, then remove the old SSD and put the HDD there? that way the new SSD will be the one that boots automatically?
 
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kimura410

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Right now, the system boots up with the HDD. So I just go into the BIOS to select the SSD to boot. But I always leave my PC in sleep mode so I rarely have to go into the BIOS.

So I just wanted to make sure its fine to just put the new SSD where the HDD is now, then put the HDD where the old SSD was. It shouldnt matter if I swap where the drives are, right?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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Just as a test...
Power off
Disconnect the HDD
Power up
Does it boot properly with only the SSD?

This has impacts on a successful clone operation.
 
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kimura410

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Alrighty I went ahead and disconnected the hdd and my SSD booted up no problem. I also created an image of the SSD with windows on it and saved it to my HDD desktop.

Curious though, the image is a XML file thats only like 15KB. Why is it not 60GB like my SSD?

I also swapped my SSD to where the HDD was in the SATAs, so now my SSD boots up on power up (shouldve done this so long ago)

Everything looks good. Anything else you suggest?
 
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USAFRet

USAFRet

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An "image"? With what?
A Macrium image of your 60GB drive should be around 45GB or so. It leaves off temp files, page file, and does a little bit of compression.

That XML is probably only the definition, stating exactly what the backup image is.
 
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