"Cloning" a non-boot drive, what's best?

GoogalyMoogaly · 4 Jan 2025 at 20:32

So I've got a HDD in my PC that's mostly used for data storage (Downloads and "My Documents" type stuff) although in my wisdom I did install things like Steam on those drive (although any game I feel would benefit from it goes on an SSD).
I'm thinking it might be nice to swap to an SSD and give myself a bit more (physical) space in the case and maybe lighten it a little (will actually be removing 2 3.5" HDDs and the HDD rack).

So as per my title, the question is what's the best way to copy the data over from the HDD to the SSD, considering that it's not a boot drive?
Do I just ctrl+c and ctrl+v it?
Should I use Acronis or something similar (any suggestion on a free tool?) to clone the drive?
Is there a tool that sorta does ctrl+c and ctrl+v but better?

There's about 600GB to move so it's not gonna be quick, but I'm looking for the easiest and fastest way.

Thanks.

Nemiyen · 4 Jan 2025 at 20:50

Clonezilla is one of the best free tools to clone a drive but it sounds like just a simple copy and paste will suffice. Just set it up, get it going and come back in about 6 to 8 hours or so.

Woolly_ · 4 Jan 2025 at 20:54

I have just done copy and paste in the past. There were some important files so I checked these had copied correctly and kept the old drive just in case.

I guess the speed is hardware limited anyway and using a specific program wouldn't make it quicker

Snapshot · 5 Jan 2025 at 08:40

You could use Robocopy which can multi-thread but I'm not sure that's really an advantage with HDDs as it causes a lot of head movement. Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V is probably easiest.

chrislip · 11 Jan 2025 at 00:36

robocopy <source> <destination> /r:3 /w:3 /e /z is my goto. copies the whole structure (provided you have rights to it) and in restartable mode so if something interrupts the copy it will resume. the GUI can't do this as far as I know so if it gets to 99% and drops off then the robocopy can pick up again wheras the GUI will need to restart

Mercutio · 11 Jan 2025 at 08:53

As another suggestion, most drives have a brand name version of whatever "popular" windows UI based cloning/disk tool. Will generally be the easiest way forward

Martin Smith · 11 Jan 2025 at 11:13

The trial version of Macrium Reflect has always worked well for me when doing this

GoogalyMoogaly · 11 Jan 2025 at 16:12

Mercutio said:
As another suggestion, most drives have a brand name version of whatever "popular" windows UI based cloning/disk tool. Will generally be the easiest way forward

I did try the free version of Acronis that was available for my drive, but it was taking ages. I think because I told it to change the boot table from MBR to GPT at the same time.
Apparently when I originally formatted the drive I decided to make the cluster size 0.5KB instead of the default 4KB, this prevents you from easily converting to GPT which requires a minimum cluster size of 4KB.

I ended up just copying the files over in Windows. It seemed faster and I could do it in stages. Another benefit was that there was an additional 100MB partition on the drive that I think came from an old Windows install or something, that then didn't get copied over.

I would not recommend Acronis as it was slow doing everything, I'm sure it didn't use to be so bad when I've used it in the past. Maybe some of this is my fault because I'm copying from an old HDD with a small cluster size.

Didn't try Macrium Reflect this time, although I have in the past and quite liked it (back before you had to pay for it).

Capitano · 14 Jan 2025 at 09:05

Free version of macrium is what ive used in the past and its been great

SpellowHouse · 24 Jan 2025 at 13:03

GoogalyMoogaly said:
So I've got a HDD in my PC that's mostly used for data storage (Downloads and "My Documents" type stuff) although in my wisdom I did install things like Steam on those drive (although any game I feel would benefit from it goes on an SSD).
I'm thinking it might be nice to swap to an SSD and give myself a bit more (physical) space in the case and maybe lighten it a little (will actually be removing 2 3.5" HDDs and the HDD rack).

So as per my title, the question is what's the best way to copy the data over from the HDD to the SSD, considering that it's not a boot drive?
Do I just ctrl+c and ctrl+v it?
Should I use Acronis or something similar (any suggestion on a free tool?) to clone the drive?
Is there a tool that sorta does ctrl+c and ctrl+v but better?

There's about 600GB to move so it's not gonna be quick, but I'm looking for the easiest and fastest way.

Thanks.

Yes, just copy or move it.

You can use software but there really is no point.

hornetstinger · 24 Jan 2025 at 13:09

If the drives are the same, I use a dual slot caddy. One button press and that's it.

d_brennen · 24 Jan 2025 at 13:19

SpellowHouse said:
Yes, just copy or move it.

You can use software but there really is no point.

Well there is a point, if you have masses of files. Software options will often tell you what failed when, rather than Windows saying it successfully failed with <Unknown Error> :cry:

megatron · 25 Jan 2025 at 18:48

FreeFileSync is an excellent tool to keep a sync or mirror of data. Its can be run once and then next time it compares the files in both drives/directories and syncs or mirrors just what changed. I also use Macrium reflect free but this is for backing up an operating system. Also FreeFileSync can be configured to ignore things like thumbs.db