Cloning laptop HDD to SSD – concerns.

[Ubrales]

I am planning to clone my laptop HDD on to a SSD. The tech guys at a local computer store alerted me about potential problems doing this because they said that the block sizes are different between HDDs and SSDs, thereby reducing the life of the SSD drastically.

It's not the read/write wear (negligible) during the cloning process that the tech guys were referring to. They said that the block sizes between HDDs and SSDs are different and this would create a shortened life phenomenon on the SSD.

I agree that a clean install of Windows would be the ideal approach; however, all I have is a Dell re-installation disk and that will not work for a clean install.

BTW, I did search the forums and did not find this issue addressed.

Any opinions?

 

[stickg1]

This might seem silly but can't you just put both drives in your desktop and do a good ole' copy and paste? The block sizes shouldn't matter at that point. Also when you clone a drive I think block sizes are irrelevant anyway but I'm not 100% certain so don't quote me on that.

 

[Ubrales]

This might seem silly but can't you just put both drives in your desktop and do a good ole' copy and paste? The block sizes shouldn't matter at that point. Also when you clone a drive I think block sizes are irrelevant anyway but I'm not 100% certain so don't quote me on that.

'Copy and Paste' will only handle data. This is one concern:

"SSDs align their partitions differently than regular hard drives. A regular hard drive usually starts the first partition after 63 blocks, while SSDs require 64 blocks of data for optimal performance. This means when you copy your disk block-for-block from a regular drive, you can lose a lot of performance on your SSD." (quote)

 

[COLGeek]

I did one clone with one of my 840 Pros and one clean install. Zero difference in performance.

The only difference? The cloning process took significantly less time to set up vice the clean install and all the installation stuff.

The controller will account for the SSD vs. HDD differences. Not a problem. Clone away my good friends, clone away!!!

 

[Onus]

I've done it several times without issues. I'm with the Colonel.

 

[Ubrales]

I did one clone with one of my 840 Pros and one clean install. Zero difference in performance.

The only difference? The cloning process took significantly less time to set up vice the clean install and all the installation stuff.

The controller will account for the SSD vs. HDD differences. Not a problem. Clone away my good friends, clone away!!!

Thanks! This reassures me and I will do this after watching the championship games.

(I have successfully cloned HDD to HDD on a few computers using Apricorn's Drivewire)

 

[Ubrales]

Best answer selected by Ubrales.

 

[Ubrales]

I've done it several times without issues. I'm with the Colonel.

Yes, scheduled for after the games! Thank you!