The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Received my new M17x R4 and love it! For those that want to CLONE your HD to SSD

    Discussion in 'Alienware 17 and M17x' started by nizmoz, Mar 22, 2013.

  1. nizmoz

    nizmoz Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    79
    Messages:
    512
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Get Acronis 2012 at least! I put the HD in and memory before I turned it on the first time. Adjusted the bios for them, and booted from the Acronis recovery DVD.

    Went into TOOLS and had it CLONE the OEM 500gb HD to my M4 SSD 256GB and allowed it to adjust the size as it saw fit. It cloned, and I booted to the new SSD (once I switched the bios to boot from 2nd HD) without an issue! It's so fast now on that SSD! Made my Alienware Respawn USB stick.

    So it can be done, just need the right software! :) I recall reading on here people had issues doing this and it just didn't work.
     
  2. shoe3k

    shoe3k Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    19
    Messages:
    140
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Just use SYSPREP and reseal the OS. Plug drive into the laptop and boot it up.
     
  3. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

    Reputations:
    3,658
    Messages:
    6,874
    Likes Received:
    969
    Trophy Points:
    281
    Thanks for sharing :) Acronis is a very good software. Can't complain about it :p
     
  4. ratchetnclank

    ratchetnclank Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    1,084
    Messages:
    1,506
    Likes Received:
    900
    Trophy Points:
    131
    I just booted the HDD and backed up with alienrespawn and respawned onto the ssd. Simples.

    Sent from my HTC Sensation using Tapatalk 2
     
  5. KurtH

    KurtH Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    230
    Messages:
    329
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    31
    Why not just make a recovery USB insert the ssd and let it do its thing. That's what I did when installing my mSata.
     
  6. nizmoz

    nizmoz Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    79
    Messages:
    512
    Likes Received:
    13
    Trophy Points:
    31
    That wasn't the point of cloning the drive. Saves time instead of reinstalling all the OS again.
     
  7. vs3074

    vs3074 Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    349
    Messages:
    588
    Likes Received:
    159
    Trophy Points:
    56
    I have done both cloning and using alienware respawn. I feel both take about the same time, but added benefit of making a backup USB/DVD/bluray is that one has the freedom to do clean install or install diff OS if desired and obviously older hdd/ssd is now free to be used a second hdd or in external enclosure :)
     
  8. Super-Spy

    Super-Spy Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    74
    Messages:
    74
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    15
    Hi there, What do you meant it takes the same time. For the respawn, did you have to first install Windows onto the SSD ?