To clone an HDD to a SSD?

Hey everyone, happy thanksgiving 1st of all.

I was thinking about getting this Corsair P256 for my brand new exchange system And in the previous times, I always just use Acronis to clone the whole disk to the new disk, or just simply put in the old drive when exchanging the system. Now, I'm not sure about the SSD that I'll be using, because I imagine there would be certain part of the SSD being used for hardware driver or utility. And I have very poor knowledge about the SSD, as this is my first time considering getting a SSD and upgrade by myself. Can I simply transfer every sector on the old HDD to the new SSD? Or do I have to rebuild a system (which sucks because i kinda wanted the customized OS sent from Alienware, and I don't have that Respawn premium), and manually transfer all the data in non-OS partition?

Any input will be appreciated

 

I use Acronis and found it did work when I cloned my Intel 160 X25 SSD using the image on my WD 320 but since the HDD and SSD were not the same size I got a report the SSD was not synchronized.

The best approach would be to make a backup image of your system, clean install your OS on the SSD, ensure the drivers are loaded (see posts on the forum about the hierarchy of loading the drivers) then get all the updates needed, i.e. Windows and all the programs you loaded then do a restore backup using the image from the HDD. If you have the same size HDD you should be fine.

 

I used Acronis on a 128 SSd from a 500HD and the clone went smooth no problems. Did not get the warning either.

 

I use hdclone

Also its not good for the ssd to clone it over. It needs to be installed fresh on the ssd so it configures the registry and os for a ssd since it functions differently.

 

hmm my current drive is 320GB but the new SSD would be 256GB, even if I still have 130GB free space on my current drive. I think the SSD has enough space for my current data. I'm just not sure if they functions differently as Moo said. Is it gonna do harm to the SSD to load an HDD's image to it?

fish, if I understand correct, did you mean:
1,clean install on SSD; 2,restore from HDD image; 3,done.

My question is, what kind of software to use to restore from HDD? If using Acronis, wouldn't the software just wipe off the SSD and re-load the HDD image entirely onto the SSD? In this case, why should I do a clean install on the SSD first?

Thanks!!

 

Moo, so would it be OK if I clone the non-OS partition onto the SSD? The data are independent from OS and registry. Besides, I really want to keep the AlienRespawn recovery partition. I do have to clone this partition onto the SSD, right? And I saw a 39MB OEM partition, what would this partition be?

 

btw, I just realized if those hidden garbage in the "spare" sectors of my HDD is a concern, I could simply clean install on SSD and RAID the two drive to manually transfer the non-OS data and some essential data under users/AppData folder to the new SSD. Would this be the best solution?

Besides, if you guys don't mind, would you make some suggestion on other good SSDs? I saw Corsair P256 had a very good review, but it's really pricey. I saw another Crucial Tech 256GB with decent reviews and it's $200+ cheaper! Is this a "you get what you pay for" comparison?

Much thanks as always

 

I have cloned two SSD's on the two systems in my sig and have not had a single problem. As long as the image is smaller than the SSD I was fine. As far as how SSD's and HD's work Iam sure Moo is right, they are different. But all I can say is one system I have had since June and the other 6 weeks and both run fine. I also use MyDfrag..I know people say dont defrag a SSD but this is for SSD's and there are people that believe you should once a month. Just my thoughts.

 

thanks for your input alienwolf!

Now I'm having a hard time deciding what to get (yes, this is how it developed in the past 10 hours during which I've been struggling with the disk check looping issue rofl)

What are you running on? 10 hrs ago i was pretty determined to get the corsair p256, and now the more i look into the SSDs and compare them, the more i found it difficult to decide. SSD market is like a big mess right now, and everyone seems to want a piece of market! I was also attracted to newer crucial C300 which seems to have a great overall performance except for poorer I/O performance

What's your call?

 

I went for price and name. I bought and it is my third one, one being a gift. Kingston 128 V series,
Not because its the best far from it. But because its middle of the road price wise and spec wise. I could not see spending top dollar for something that is going to drop even more in price. I did want a SSD now it really cut my load times down a lot. I then put a hybird xl 500g in the second bay with all my steam and wow on it. Believe me if I had the coin to drop it would be a 256 intel all the way, but I have to spread it out between my toys, and they are toys..
Good luck in what you decide.

 

Definitely, i had a 128 SSD in my sony and its blazingly fast.

I wanted to put steam into SSD as well to reduce some load time, cuz i want to play more pre-game in black ops lol