How to clone HDD to SSD?

Hi guys,

I have a Transcend SSD320 128GB connected via USB caddy, i want to clone my HDD on it, but SSD Scope requires SSD to be in a SATA port.. I'm stuck! What else can i use to clone my drive to my SSD?

Thanks.

 

Apricorn - Data Transfer Cable and software. I would do a clean install on the SSD, then migrate your HDD after it is cloned to an USB external HDD.

 

You can clone using Clonezilla. It's free, easy to follow and will do pretty much everything that one can imagine when it comes to cloning.

With that said, why not just do a fresh install?

 

Clonezilla is Linux based. I'd like to do this in Windows environment..

A fresh install requires hours of updates, drivers, SW, configuration and preferences.. Why lose hours if I can clone it and move on?..

Thanks.

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This is something I've always pondered over: let's say someone has been running their laptop on an HDD for several years, and wanted to migrate everything over to an SSD. As you can imagine a fresh install is pretty much a no-go at this point, so what would be your recommendation for them in this case? If you prefer a less hypothetical scenario, replace "someone" with "my parents".

 

Clonezilla it is the best, linux, but you can use Acronis too(windows), my advice, go with fresh install...

 

I would suggest Norton Ghost 15 bootable CD to take an image and clone it to another drive afterwards.

 

I'm trying to boot clonezilla and I can't. I created a USB drive with tuxboot, but when I restart and select usb it boots my hdd instead.

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Because the original install was optimized for the HDD environment, not the SSD one.

You can tweak it all you want, it will never be the same.

 

I'm curious, which installation parameters change exactly when going from HDD to SSD? Because it sounds like these parameters are hard-coded somewhere and not something that could be fixed with a registry hack.

 

For starters, geometry between the two is fundamentally different.

The only time I could see someone cloning a HDD to SSD is if they have proprietary and/or obsolete software that the installation media is no longer available for.

In any other set of circumstances, a fresh install is the way to go.

 

Macrium reflect which is free would allow you to do this from Windows. Personally, though, if I am going to clone an operating system, I'd rather not do it from the OS I am trying to clone.

 

Clean install is all I can say, otherwise don't bother. The benefit of the SSD will be lost. I have a general idea, but can't say exactly how or why, but cloning HDD to SSD several times on users' computers the result is less than stellar.

It's worth a few hours of your time, and use it for another year or so and enjoy the end result.

To tijo's point, don't do it from the Windows install you are cloning. Macrium Reflect Free can make a recovery USB drive which will launch it in a WinPE type environment, which is what I use to clone.

 

Since newer advanced format HDDs also use 4K sectors, I'm going to guess partition alignment is not likely the main culprit here. Maybe something to do with how data is stored in SSDs, and them not being able to simply overwrite an existing sector like an HDD, but going through multiple cache-erase-write cycles?

 

A lot of past concerns were due to alignment, but other things like superfetch, pre-fetch, TRIM, scheduled defragmentation, AHCI should be enabled, management of page file, power saving features, ... and a whole host of other under the hood tweaks when set up during install that are "SSD aware" that the OS only really manages when it's installed on an SSD. Don't get me wrong, an HDD cloned to SSD will still result in an improved system performance, but it can negatively affect the life of the SSD as well as performance. I have seen systems who cloned that had frequent hangs or system stutters.

 

But see, partitions can be re-aligned, superfetch and prefetch are registry settings, TRIM can be enabled via console command, scheduled defrag can be turned on or off, AHCI is a BIOS switch, pagefile and power saving could be done through the control panel.

I'm really sorry if I'm coming across as rude, that's definitely not my intention. But thank you for bringing all that up, because your post perfectly illustrates why I'm mystified that an HDD to SSD clone inevitably ends up creating issues, because the obvious things can be fixed or tweaked. I'm really just looking for a technical explanation that's all.

 

You're only looking at the top of the iceberg.

Once you understand/experience how a modern operating system such as Windows 7 or 8 "glues" itself to the drive, and what expectations - for a lack of better word - an install on the spinning drive creates from the drive itself, you'll likely begin to appreciate the underlying difference between the two.

No one around here is saying that a clone won't work. Just that it's far from an optimal solution.

Tweaks that you're referring to will make the experience less painful, no doubt about it.

I'd suggest that you designate a machine as a lab animal, install an OS fresh onto the spinner, then clone it to a SSD. Play with it for a week, after tweaking it any which way you want.

Now take that drive out, install the same OS fresh on the same type of SSD, perform the basic tweaks and run that one for a week.

I'll be very interested to find out what your impressions will be once it's all said and done.

 

Thank you, at least I have a start. I'm not arguing with anything being said in this thread, I'm merely trying to figure out, as you said, what exactly gets "glued" how, and if or why it's unfixable. I'm probably asking too much and being a pest here, but this is question I've always been fascinated with, precisely because it's a widely accepted fact yet I can't seem to find any satisfactory explanation as to why exactly this is.

 

Have fun with that.

 

Actually a more relevant question would be whether other operating systems also have this issue with cloning, or whether this is something unique to Windows.

 

If I were you, I'd ask those questions in the appropriate Linux and OSX sections.

Personally, I'm not a Mac user and my Linux box is too old to use a proper, modern SSD so I honestly can't offer any insight in those respects.

 

Not unique to Windows, if anything Windows is ahead of the game compared with OSX and Linux with regards to SSD support.

And all the time you've spent discussing and pondering, and time to clone and futzing with settings, you could have had a clean install. A clean, fresh, install of Windows 8 takes all of 15 minutes. Updates another 30-60 depending on your internet connection and hardware, but it can be left unattended for the most part, and then another 30-60 minutes to load all your other apps, etc. It really is not worth the wonder or bother unless it's just out of curiosity.

 

Indeed, installing Windows from USB to a SSD is ridiculously fast, it basically takes ma a whopping 2 hours to do a clean install and be back up and running again, that includes all updates and reinstalling all of my programs by the way.

 

For me it's just out of curiosity, but I since I wanted to upgrade both of my parents' laptops to SSDs, this became a very relevant question. I know a clean install is always the preferred option, but they have been using their system for about 4 years now, plus they're on Windows 7 so updates alone would probably take a day, and it would be a week-long affair at the very leat to start all over again.

 

Well, a 4-year-old install of *any* OS is long overdue for being nuked in my book, SSD or not. As for W7, all can be done overnight with little or no interaction on your end, and that includes any reasonably common software that might be needed apart from the OS itself.

If you have a day to spare, that's all the time that you'll need.

 

Right. Most of that "day" is unattended updates. Just a little babysitting.

 

Guys, if i wanted to do fresh install from hdd to ssd, and i'm using Windows 8.1, how about my key? Is it going to notify "this key is invalid" etc?

 

Your key should be integrated in your BIOS.

Beamed from my G2 Tricorder

 

AlienRespawn is free to download. I'm not sure if it requires you own an Alienware or not. If not, it works great. Other than that, I can personally recommend the Samsung software that comes with their SSD's (or used to). It worked great. Norton Ghost 15 works about 90% of the time without problems, but I've had to go in and change parameters and stuff for that other 10%...it wasn't "plug and play," so to speak.

 

So it's okay if i installed it on my SSD then wipe the other one?

 

Well, I would wait to wipe the other one until you confirm your Windows 8 has been activated, which it should do automatically. From the desktop, just right click in the lower left corner (around the "start" button) and choose "System" and it should say at the bottom of that window if it's activated. And with Windows 8, trust me they will let you know if it's not activated from the get go.