Cloning a system disk?

Capodecina
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Can anyone suggest some (free) software that would allow me to create an exact copy of a bootable 250GB SSD (containing Windows 7) onto a 500 GB SSD?

I would anticipate that there is a Linux tool to do this? Acronis appears not to work in this way, it seems to assume a bootable target disk.

Anyone tried either Paragon, EaseUS or AEOMI?
 
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Pretty sure i've done similar in the past with Macrium Reflect. Allows you to clone a disk and expand an existing partition to reclaim the space on the new drive.

Not sure if there is a linux tool, but it does allow you to create a bootable WINPE USB that has all the tools on there.
 
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AOMEI Backupper or/and AOMEI Partition Assistant (Free and Pro versions)

https://www.ubackup.com/


I had issues in past getting some free and paid for software to copy exactly, either there would be a missing partition or if it was a bigger SSD migration it would not add the extra space.

The above works for me and in case you are unaware a proper UEFI install had 4 partitions not 3 partitions like you can you see in Windows Disk Management and a few days ago it helped someone here back up an Encrypted drive he could not get some others to work with.


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R3X

R3X

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Always verify the image before and after installing the image, had a right nightmare with reflect recently on a PC which cloned fine and when I went to reload the image it all worked fine but once booting back into windows it was slow as a snail. Clearly the image was not done successfully but I skipped the verify of image and its important to do a verify upon image creation and then cloning afterwards.

You could probably get away with it most of the times but for the extra few minutes, safer to be sorry had to reload windows and all software from scratch which is always time consuming and a chore as we know, not worth wasting half a day again.

Reflect is still my fav since its worked 9/10 for me even with out verification, it also has a boot repair option to repair the boot configuration corrupt data and also a resizing ability and its free and a USB boot option.

I don't bother with Windows imaging and Windows restore or ability to repair itself it does not always work and imo never has fully, shame Microsoft don't just buy Acronis or Reflect and import it part of Windows tech.
 
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I've used acronis, aomei, easeus, macrium and veeam for daily image backups of my os over the years.

All of them will do what you ask. Wouldn't recommend Aomei or easeus as they had a few bugs, the former also removed features in an update. Acronis required paying for features I wanted but will be fine for cloning, macrium was good for cloning, fiddly for daily backups.

I currently use veeam which I am very pleased with though it does like to use enterprise language but I found it easier than macrium.

Windows backup and restore is the reason I started on this quest; on restoring it labelled the boot, recovery and reserve partitions as volumes c through e and left the c drive unlabelled causing no boot and a very annoying recovery process of relabling them in CMD.
 
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Probably not worth buying Acronis if it is a one off but otherwise I'd recommend buying it - after that I tend to use Macrium if I don't have my Acronis media with me.

I don't bother with Windows imaging and Windows restore or ability to repair itself it does not always work and imo never has fully, shame Microsoft don't just buy Acronis or Reflect and import it part of Windows tech.

I've never got the built in Windows 10 one to work - no matter what I do it gets to around 75% then complains about something - often a generic error code that means nothing - despite multiple attempts to clean up things like DISM, etc. which it usually suggests as a solution.
 
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Not sure if still valid or latest build but if you have a WD disk in your system you can install a version of Acronis for free.


"Acronis True Image WD Edition

Installation notes:
You need at least one Western Digital hard drive attached in your system to be able to install and run the product."
 

R3X

R3X

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Probably not worth buying Acronis if it is a one off but otherwise I'd recommend buying it - after that I tend to use Macrium if I don't have my Acronis media with me.



I've never got the built in Windows 10 one to work - no matter what I do it gets to around 75% then complains about something - often a generic error code that means nothing - despite multiple attempts to clean up things like DISM, etc. which it usually suggests as a solution.


Yeah had similar errors towards the end also and Its not just me I had it on 2 different systems one brand new with an a brand new external hdd. I just stopped wasting time with Windows recovery options, its good when it works but its never been reliable or trust worthy. Wish MS would just buy norton ghost, reflect or acronis but don't see it happening.
 
Capodecina
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I have used various versions of Acronis True Image Backup on either CDs or on a memory stick. Personally I have never had a problem using them although I have never used the "incremental" backup feature which is reported as being unreliable.

Acronis 2017 works with M.2 NVME SSDs, I don't know whether earlier versions will?
 

mrk

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Windows has disk cloning built in. You use backup & restore to create a system image, the image is saved as a .VHD image which can then be restored to another disk if you boot using a Windows bootable recovery stick/disc. Have used it before, works well.
 
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