Cloning a System Drive for an Upgrade

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PMcG
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Cloning a System Drive for an Upgrade

Post by PMcG » Sun Oct 27, 2013 11:27 am

Hello All,

I know this isn't really a silent PC issue but I trust this forum more then anywhere else on the web for general system advice and troubleshooting.

I am upgrading from a Crucial M4 128Gb SSD to a Samsung 840 Evo 250Gb SSD (finding the 128 A bit limiting). I reformatted a couple of months ago and want to avoid having to do an entire new install. Can I just clone the M4 to the 840 using a program like Drive Image XML (http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm) if the rest of the system is identical and run it like normal?

Thanks for any advice,

lodestar
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Re: Cloning a System Drive for an Upgrade

Post by lodestar » Sun Oct 27, 2013 12:22 pm

As you will cloning a partition something like EaseUS Partition Master Free might be worth considering.

CA_Steve
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Re: Cloning a System Drive for an Upgrade

Post by CA_Steve » Sun Oct 27, 2013 12:28 pm

In general, yep.

Never used that particular program. Since you have a WD drive in the system...it should give you access to WD's utility to clone a drive. Samsung should have a transfer utility as well - might try that first.

Pappnaas
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Re: Cloning a System Drive for an Upgrade

Post by Pappnaas » Sun Oct 27, 2013 2:11 pm

DriveImage XMl works nicely. You could also try Samsungs tool, or look for UltimateBootDisk, as it is WinPe based. Even of cloning is successful you might still need a Win-DVD to repair Win start up once the drives are changed.

PMcG
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Re: Cloning a System Drive for an Upgrade

Post by PMcG » Sun Oct 27, 2013 4:05 pm

Thanks guys,

Will probably try the samsung or WD utility. Here's hoping it works.

HFat
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Re: Cloning a System Drive for an Upgrade

Post by HFat » Mon Oct 28, 2013 4:35 am

I use Clonezilla.
Pappnaas wrote:Even of cloning is successful you might still need a Win-DVD to repair Win start up once the drives are changed.
It used to be you didn't need any repairs if you did it right.
You only ended up with a problem if you connected your new drive to your PC while the system you were trying to clone was running. And it was possible to plan for the problem and/or correct it manually (messy, not recommended).

quest_for_silence
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Re: Cloning a System Drive for an Upgrade

Post by quest_for_silence » Mon Oct 28, 2013 8:10 am

HFat wrote:It used to be you didn't need any repairs if you did it right.


+1

HFat wrote:You only ended up with a problem if you connected your new drive to your PC while the system you were trying to clone was running. And it was possible to plan for the problem and/or correct it manually (messy, not recommended).


I use Acronis (retail, but used also as OEM product by many SSD suppliers, like Intel): up to now I never run into problem even cloning a working system (under Windows 7).

NeilBlanchard
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Re: Cloning a System Drive for an Upgrade

Post by NeilBlanchard » Tue Oct 29, 2013 8:46 am

I believe the WD utility is a version of Acronis. The thing to realize is that you need to use the utility from the company who makes the *new* hard drive you are using. It will only recognize the new drive of the same brand.

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