Clone from HDD to SSD

justintime2001 · 13 May 2011 at 10:24

I need to clone the HDD in my wifes laptop to a new SSD drive. Cany anyone recommend suitable software to clone the drive making the new SSD a bootable drive please? Pref free software but willing to buy if necessary. Thanks

masterluke · 13 May 2011 at 10:38

http://clonezilla.org/

jbloggs · 13 May 2011 at 10:51

If you don't fancy Clonezilla, then try EASEUS Disk Copy...

justintime2001 · 13 May 2011 at 10:53

Thanks for the link, unfortunately My SSD is smaller than the original HDD and clonezilla has this limitation, any idea's how to get around this?

clonezilla quote: The destination partition must be equal or larger than the source one.

lurkio · 13 May 2011 at 11:16

Acronis will do it

Be aware though , SSD partition alignment might bite you in the ass.

this post details my tested and working method
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=17665861&postcount=6

Raumarik · 13 May 2011 at 11:29

If it's not already on an SSD i'd recommend doing a clean install, as it's your wife's laptop you'll get both brownie points for this and less hassle in the long term with a fresh install.

Acronis or Norton Ghost will image to smaller partitions as long as there's adequate space for the data.

But I'd still go with a fresh install

justintime2001 · 13 May 2011 at 11:38

Halfmad said:
If it's not already on an SSD i'd recommend doing a clean install, as it's your wife's laptop you'll get both brownie points for this and less hassle in the long term with a fresh install.

Acronis or Norton Ghost will image to smaller partitions as long as there's adequate space for the data.

But I'd still go with a fresh install

Looks like I might be buying new OS then. HP Laptop didnt come with any software disks

Thanks for all the help chaps.

masterluke · 13 May 2011 at 11:44

if you wanted to use clonezilla you could resize the source partition to be smaller than the target drive... but the other options could be better.

Six6siX · 13 May 2011 at 11:47

justintime2001 said:
Looks like I might be buying new OS then. HP Laptop didnt come with any software disks

Thanks for all the help chaps.

Should be able to create a set of disks within the existing OS. Most HPs are like this

Dano · 13 May 2011 at 11:47

justintime2001 said:
Looks like I might be buying new OS then. HP Laptop didnt come with any software disks

Thanks for all the help chaps.

No, so long as the key on the COA is available (on the bottom or possibly under the battery) all you need is an installation disc.

What OS is it?

justintime2001 · 13 May 2011 at 11:50

Dano said:
No, so long as the key on the COA is available (on the bottom or possibly under the battery) all you need is an installation disc.

What OS is it?

Great idea, its XP and I have an install disk

pduk · 13 May 2011 at 12:12

I did this earlier this week, and I used Macrium Reflect along with their Windows PE boot disk and roborestore.exe. Worked very well, though I think the PE boot disk is only available to the paid-for version of Macrium, not the free one.

Paul.

bledd · 13 May 2011 at 12:18

XP doesn't have TRIM, SSD's use this to optimise their performance, only W7 has it

Philtor · 13 May 2011 at 12:27

Paragon Migrate OS to SSD is what you need. Takes care of the partition alignment too.

/thread.

justintime2001 · 13 May 2011 at 20:23

EASEUS Todo Backup Home 2.5 did the job without any problems at all thanks.

ste-sim2x9 · 13 May 2011 at 20:25

No need to go through all that cloning. Just google LEGAL Windows 7 Download and download a legal windows 7 and use your key. Then you have a clean install with no bloatware.

Draeger · 13 May 2011 at 21:24

I wouldn't go from a SATA IDE HDD to an SSD with a cloned image. You would be much better off doing a fresh install m8, avoiding alignment issues. Lot's of info on doing so here on the forums.

justintime2001 · 13 May 2011 at 21:54

Draeger said:
I wouldn't go from a SATA IDE HDD to an SSD with a cloned image. You would be much better off doing a fresh install m8, avoiding alignment issues. Lot's of info on doing so here on the forums.

I agree and have now installed Windows 7 as a fresh install. Its running great now too, so a good upgrade for a 5yr old laptop