Old drive after cloning?

[Jtlie]

I'm planning to upgrade my HDD to a SSD using some cloning software. I was wondering if I can still use my old HDD as a second drive. Also, will the OS and onter data on my HDD will be erased or do I have to delete it afterwards?

 

[Paperdoc]

After you clone your HDD to your SSD, I recommend that you disconnect that HDD and just leave it in your desktop case for a while. It is a complete backup of your system up to the point of cloning. So, if you think for any reason that something was missed in the cloning, that's a place you could go look for it.

After a while (your judgment how long to wait) you can decide you are completely satisfied that the SSD is doing everything you need and you don't need ANY of the old data on the HDD. At that point you should reconnect the HDD (this time it will probably be on a different SATA port, but that does not matter). The best options are both aimed at completely wiping out the old data and yielding a new empty HDD to use.

1. Best option, I think: download a utility able to Zero-Fill your old HDD. If your HDD is by Seagate, get their Seatools; if by WD, get their Data Guardian. Or I believe DBAN is a free third-part shareware tool that can do this. This process writes all zeros to EVERY sector of your HDD, completely wiping out old data. MAKE SURE you do this on the old HDD, and NOT on your new SSD!! But it has an important side benefit. In modern HDD's, the HDD unit itself has a background routine it runs every time a write is done. It then re-reads the sector and analyzes the signal strength it gets. If there is any weakness, it treats that sector as bad. (Now, in "normal" use, what it would do then is a series of re-reads to try hard to recover that data completely from that sector, but for a zero-fill it may not bother.) When it detects a "bad" sector it marks that in its own tables so the sector is never used again, then it allocates in its place a known-good sector from a stock of spares it has from when it was first manufactured. It keeps track of these actions and, if too many such substitutions occur, it sends out a warning message through the SMART system because its stock of spare good sectors is getting used up. That's when you buy a replacement unit and clone the data from your old drive while it is still working OK. NOTE that this process is entirely within the HDD. Windows never knows about this, and it has NOTHING to do with the CHKDSK way of checking a hard drive for "bad sectors".

Anyway, by doing Zero Fill on your old HDD, you trigger this self-diagnosis and fixing process for EVERY sector of the unit, since every sector has zeroes written. It takes hours to do this on a big drive! When it's done (assuming no disasters), the HDD has ONLY good sectors available to the outside world. To Windows, for example, it should have no "bad sectors" to find. It is also completely empty just like a brand new HDD. So when it's done, you will have to use Disk Management to Initialize that unit (Create a Partition and Format it). Remember that it is for data only, so you do NOT need to make the Partition Bootable. When that's done, back out of Disk Management and reboot, and your "new" old HDD will show up in My Computer ready to use.

2. You can skip the Zero-Fill process if you want. You can just go directly to Disk Management and RIGHT-click on the existing Partition(s) and Delete it (them) until there are none. Then do the Initialization, etc. This will still yield an empty "new" drive ready to use, but you MAY not have found and replaced all the "bad sectors". However, during the Full Format process (not Quick Format), Windows does its own testing like CHKDSK and keeps its own records of any "bad sectors" it finds and marks them in its own files "for never use".

 

[Jtlie]

After you clone your HDD to your SSD, I recommend that you disconnect that HDD and just leave it in your desktop case for a while. It is a complete backup of your system up to the point of cloning. So, if you think for any reason that something was missed in the cloning, that's a place you could go look for it.

After a while (your judgment how long to wait) you can decide you are completely satisfied that the SSD is doing everything you need and you don't need ANY of the old data on the HDD. At that point you should reconnect the HDD (this time it will probably be on a different SATA port, but that does not matter). The best options are both aimed at completely wiping out the old data and yielding a new empty HDD to use.

1. Best option, I think: download a utility able to Zero-Fill your old HDD. If your HDD is by Seagate, get their Seatools; if by WD, get their Data Guardian. Or I believe DBAN is a free third-part shareware tool that can do this. This process writes all zeros to EVERY sector of your HDD, completely wiping out old data. MAKE SURE you do this on the old HDD, and NOT on your new SSD!! But it has an important side benefit. In modern HDD's, the HDD unit itself has a background routine it runs every time a write is done. It then re-reads the sector and analyzes the signal strength it gets. If there is any weakness, it treats that sector as bad. (Now, in "normal" use, what it would do then is a series of re-reads to try hard to recover that data completely from that sector, but for a zero-fill it may not bother.) When it detects a "bad" sector it marks that in its own tables so the sector is never used again, then it allocates in its place a known-good sector from a stock of spares it has from when it was first manufactured. It keeps track of these actions and, if too many such substitutions occur, it sends out a warning message through the SMART system because its stock of spare good sectors is getting used up. That's when you buy a replacement unit and clone the data from your old drive while it is still working OK. NOTE that this process is entirely within the HDD. Windows never knows about this, and it has NOTHING to do with the CHKDSK way of checking a hard drive for "bad sectors".

Anyway, by doing Zero Fill on your old HDD, you trigger this self-diagnosis and fixing process for EVERY sector of the unit, since every sector has zeroes written. It takes hours to do this on a big drive! When it's done (assuming no disasters), the HDD has ONLY good sectors available to the outside world. To Windows, for example, it should have no "bad sectors" to find. It is also completely empty just like a brand new HDD. So when it's done, you will have to use Disk Management to Initialize that unit (Create a Partition and Format it). Remember that it is for data only, so you do NOT need to make the Partition Bootable. When that's done, back out of Disk Management and reboot, and your "new" old HDD will show up in My Computer ready to use.

2. You can skip the Zero-Fill process if you want. You can just go directly to Disk Management and RIGHT-click on the existing Partition(s) and Delete it (them) until there are none. Then do the Initialization, etc. This will still yield an empty "new" drive ready to use, but you MAY not have found and replaced all the "bad sectors". However, during the Full Format process (not Quick Format), Windows does its own testing like CHKDSK and keeps its own records of any "bad sectors" it finds and marks them in its own files "for never use".

Thank for the advice. Ive got one more question. After I cloned the HDD, can I still use it on another PC after I make it compatible with other components? I would think I couln't because it will be like using 1 Windows License on 2 PC's.

 

[Paperdoc]

I think what you are asking is: after you've cloned the old HDD to the new SSD, can you move the HDD to another machine and use it there as the boot drive? The answer comes in two parts, both of which you've anticipated.

1. In practical terms, it might work and might not, because the Windows OS installed on that old HDD has drivers customized for the particular machine it was installed in originally. A "Repair Install" of Windows while in the new machine might solve the mismatched device drivers problem, or maybe not.

2. Legally, the license you have for that Windows OS is for ONE machine. So if you clone it to the SSD and continue to use it there, you cannot use it on another machine, too. However, if you bought a new Windows Install disk with a new license, you most certainly could then wipe the old HDD clean and Install the new Windows on it in the second machine. It's not a problem to re-use the HDD unit. The legal problem is with the right to use a copy of the Windows OS under license.

 

[harvito87]

After you clone your HDD to your SSD, I recommend that you disconnect that HDD and just leave it in your desktop case for a while. It is a complete backup of your system up to the point of cloning. So, if you think for any reason that something was missed in the cloning, that's a place you could go look for it.

After a while (your judgment how long to wait) you can decide you are completely satisfied that the SSD is doing everything you need and you don't need ANY of the old data on the HDD. At that point you should reconnect the HDD (this time it will probably be on a different SATA port, but that does not matter). The best options are both aimed at completely wiping out the old data and yielding a new empty HDD to use.

1. Best option, I think: download a utility able to Zero-Fill your old HDD. If your HDD is by Seagate, get their Seatools; if by WD, get their Data Guardian. Or I believe DBAN is a free third-part shareware tool that can do this. This process writes all zeros to EVERY sector of your HDD, completely wiping out old data. MAKE SURE you do this on the old HDD, and NOT on your new SSD!! But it has an important side benefit. In modern HDD's, the HDD unit itself has a background routine it runs every time a write is done. It then re-reads the sector and analyzes the signal strength it gets. If there is any weakness, it treats that sector as bad. (Now, in "normal" use, what it would do then is a series of re-reads to try hard to recover that data completely from that sector, but for a zero-fill it may not bother.) When it detects a "bad" sector it marks that in its own tables so the sector is never used again, then it allocates in its place a known-good sector from a stock of spares it has from when it was first manufactured. It keeps track of these actions and, if too many such substitutions occur, it sends out a warning message through the SMART system because its stock of spare good sectors is getting used up. That's when you buy a replacement unit and clone the data from your old drive while it is still working OK. NOTE that this process is entirely within the HDD. Windows never knows about this, and it has NOTHING to do with the CHKDSK way of checking a hard drive for "bad sectors".

Anyway, by doing Zero Fill on your old HDD, you trigger this self-diagnosis and fixing process for EVERY sector of the unit, since every sector has zeroes written. It takes hours to do this on a big drive! When it's done (assuming no disasters), the HDD has ONLY good sectors available to the outside world. To Windows, for example, it should have no "bad sectors" to find. It is also completely empty just like a brand new HDD. So when it's done, you will have to use Disk Management to Initialize that unit (Create a Partition and Format it). Remember that it is for data only, so you do NOT need to make the Partition Bootable. When that's done, back out of Disk Management and reboot, and your "new" old HDD will show up in My Computer ready to use.

2. You can skip the Zero-Fill process if you want. You can just go directly to Disk Management and RIGHT-click on the existing Partition(s) and Delete it (them) until there are none. Then do the Initialization, etc. This will still yield an empty "new" drive ready to use, but you MAY not have found and replaced all the "bad sectors". However, during the Full Format process (not Quick Format), Windows does its own testing like CHKDSK and keeps its own records of any "bad sectors" it finds and marks them in its own files "for never use".

After ssd is working can i reatach the hhd without formating and use it as storage but also as backup in case ssd show any failure in future? i want to be protected in any case it fail, i dont want to lose the partitions that laptop brings.?

 

[Paperdoc]

Yes, you certainly can re-attach it and use it. The real decision to be made is how to use?

Merely re-attaching and using for storage can work, although that does mean that you have a lot of its space taken up with stuff you do not need because it is already on the SSD. For that you could go through the drive manually and delete whatever you don't need there, then be sure to empty the Recycle Bin. This would not make any changes to any Partitions on the HDD unit. Once you've freed up space, you could also run a Defragmentation utility on that drive. This process moves all the useful stuff that you have left on it to new locations just so that it leaves all the Free Space together in one large block for easy future use. From then on you could use all that space for backup copies. Look around for a convenient backup software utility, with good instructions on how to use.

You probably cannot format that drive with Windows. That is because Windows usually protects itself from people who Format by mistake by refusing to do that job on any drive that contains a copy of Windows.

NOTE the distinction between a HDD unit and what Windows calls a "drive" with a letter name like D:. A HDD can have one or more Partitions on it. To Windows, each Partition is called a "drive" with its own name. A Format operation can only be conducted on ONE Partition or "drive" at a time. So a Format of any Partition does NOT do anything to other partitions on the same HDD unit. However, if you INITIALIZE a drive, that is a combination of creating one or more Partitions and then Formatting them. That process certainly can destroy existing Partitions.

You might decide you want to wipe clean the entire Partition on that HDD that used to serve as your C: drive, so it can all be used for data storage. As I said, Windows usually won't help you do that by formatting the "drive" (Partition). But other third-party utility packages may do that job. Alternatively, you can actually Delete that Partition and NOT delete any other Partition, then Create a New Simple Volume in the Unallocated Space that used to hold that C: drive's Partition. This process is a combination of the old two-step process of Creating a Partition in available Unallocated Space and then Formatting it. That way you get to use ALL of that space for data, but it does destroy all old data on the former "drive". However, it does NOT damage any other Partitions (or their data) on the HDD unit.

 

[harvito87]

Yes, you certainly can re-attach it and use it. The real decision to be made is how to use?

Merely re-attaching and using for storage can work, although that does mean that you have a lot of its space taken up with stuff you do not need because it is already on the SSD. For that you could go through the drive manually and delete whatever you don't need there, then be sure to empty the Recycle Bin. This would not make any changes to any Partitions on the HDD unit. Once you've freed up space, you could also run a Defragmentation utility on that drive. This process moves all the useful stuff that you have left on it to new locations just so that it leaves all the Free Space together in one large block for easy future use. From then on you could use all that space for backup copies. Look around for a convenient backup software utility, with good instructions on how to use.

You probably cannot format that drive with Windows. That is because Windows usually protects itself from people who Format by mistake by refusing to do that job on any drive that contains a copy of Windows.

NOTE the distinction between a HDD unit and what Windows calls a "drive" with a letter name like D:. A HDD can have one or more Partitions on it. To Windows, each Partition is called a "drive" with its own name. A Format operation can only be conducted on ONE Partition or "drive" at a time. So a Format of any Partition does NOT do anything to other partitions on the same HDD unit. However, if you INITIALIZE a drive, that is a combination of creating one or more Partitions and then Formatting them. That process certainly can destroy existing Partitions.

You might decide you want to wipe clean the entire Partition on that HDD that used to serve as your C: drive, so it can all be used for data storage. As I said, Windows usually won't help you do that by formatting the "drive" (Partition). But other third-party utility packages may do that job. Alternatively, you can actually Delete that Partition and NOT delete any other Partition, then Create a New Simple Volume in the Unallocated Space that used to hold that C: drive's Partition. This process is a combination of the old two-step process of Creating a Partition in available Unallocated Space and then Formatting it. That way you get to use ALL of that space for data, but it does destroy all old data on the former "drive". However, it does NOT damage any other Partitions (or their data) on the HDD unit.

Men you are awesome, thanks.