Cloning my hdd to a ssd

Hector's House · 09-09-2020, 09:15

I have a lenovo ideapad510 with a 1TB hdd which i want to swap for a ssd of the same size. I have crucial ssd for which Acronis do a version of trTue image. The user guide for acronis say to install the ssd in the laptop before cloning and put the hdd in an external enclosure, am I right in thinking that win10 won't run and i need to create a bootable rescue dvd which is also mentioned in the guide in order to clone the drive? Thanks in advance

tweetiepooh · 09-09-2020, 09:48

Are there not tools with minimal O/S to install to USB/DVD then with both disks available simply dump the data from source to target?

Taf · 09-09-2020, 11:18

You have to make the SSD bootable, or at least make a bootable DVD or USB stick to instal the OS to the SSD. Just copying the files won't work.

That's why I'm stuck. As tweetiepooh said there are loads of free apps that will clone disks, but the option to transfer the OS is always only available in the paid versions (and most are not cheap).

heero_yuy · 09-09-2020, 11:33

I did this a while ago on this system without any special software.

IIRC I put the SSD on the PC's C drive and moved the old HDD to another position. Then installed a copy of the basic OS to the SSD (Booted from the CD). That gets the SSD bootable and assigned the C drive letter in the OS

Remember that the PC's letter assignment and the OS's letter assignments are not always the same.

Then copy everything (recursively, including hidden) from the old HDD to the new SSD. You might need to use an extended command processor like TCC LE (Free) as I'm not sure if CMD handles hidden file copy.

That updates the registry and config files so you don't have to re-install eveything.

HTH

nomadking · 09-09-2020, 11:44

Plenty of articles about how to "migrate to ssd", including using free apps.
Best to do it with an app running on a bootable DVD or USB stick. The system disk is then not being actively used or changed.

Hector's House · 09-09-2020, 11:55

The user guide for Acronis says you can make an Acronis bootable rescue disk but I'm not sure it you get the option on the rescue disk to clone the drives, i was hoping someone on here would know

nomadking · 09-09-2020, 12:40

Acronis True Image has Clone Disk and Rescue Media Builder options. Acronis True Image is capable of making copies and backups of drives whilst using those drives. Eg My System disk is copied as a backup a few times a day, without me having to do anything special.

EG AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard(Free) has "Make Bootable media" and "Migrate OS to SSD" wizards. Other free apps do the same sort of thing.

They usually have an option to make a rescue media drive(DVD or USB stick), so that you can try to recover a partition if you lose access to the system drive. Good idea to have one in case something goes amiss.

pip08456 · 09-09-2020, 12:47

Macrium reflect free edition will clone your HDD.

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

tweetiepooh · 09-09-2020, 15:33

For the masochist - can you use a live Linux and dd?

Taf · 09-09-2020, 16:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by nomadking

AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard(Free) has "Make Bootable media" and "Migrate OS to SSD" wizards.

Cheers for that. The last time I looked at it, the "migrate" option was only in the paid pro version.

Itshim · 09-09-2020, 17:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Taf

You have to make the SSD bootable, or at least make a bootable DVD or USB stick to instal the OS to the SSD. Just copying the files won't work.

That's why I'm stuck. As tweetiepooh said there are loads of free apps that will clone disks, but the option to transfer the OS is always only available in the paid versions (and most are not cheap).

We fix any pc by the tax office did it for me just charged for the ssd. Before anyone gets confused we both live in north cardiff.

**Hugh** · 09-09-2020, 17:52

Last year, I did the same thing to my old laptop - cloned the existing C: drive to a new 480GB SSD, swapped them over using an adaptor, and everything worked fine; didn’t have to set up anything.

Used this - https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
And this- https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Can’t remember the software,but it was freeware.

Improvements
Boot time - 5 minutes to 20 seconds
Log on time - 2-3 minutes to 5-7 seconds
Chrome web page - 30 seconds to 2 seconds
Word document - 1 minute to 3 seconds

MikeyB · 11-09-2020, 13:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hector's House

I have a lenovo ideapad510 with a 1TB hdd which i want to swap for a ssd of the same size. I have crucial ssd for which Acronis do a version of trTue image. The user guide for acronis say to install the ssd in the laptop before cloning and put the hdd in an external enclosure, am I right in thinking that win10 won't run and i need to create a bootable rescue dvd which is also mentioned in the guide in order to clone the drive? Thanks in advance

Are you sure it tells you to put the new SSD in before cloning?
I did this in January with a Crucial SSD & the Acronis software, and it was to connect the SSD using the SATA to USB cable.
https://uk.crucial.com/support/ssd/s...ps/part-2-copy

It was very simple and straight forward to do, just took some time, and mins was only 256GB

As you say, if you put the SSD in your laptop it wont be able to boot.

Itshim · 11-09-2020, 19:14

[QUOTE=MikeyB;36049548]Are you sure it tells you to put the new SSD in before cloning?
I did this in January with a Crucial SSD & the Acronis software, and it was to connect the SSD using the SATA to USB cable.
https://uk.crucial.com/support/ssd/ssd-install/ssd-install-steps/part-2-copy
So that why l have Acronis on my PC .Had no idea?!