Cloning a non-removable SSD in a laptop

Mel_P · 10 Aug 2020 at 14:41

Not strictly non-removable but a major strip down to get it out - never attempted on one Lenovo laptop and only attempted once on an Asus Eee to change original hard drive for an SSD.

I have 2 PCs, and 2 portables.

The PCs are easy - every now and then I clone the OS SSD using an SSD of identical size. This means if I have a disaster and the OS drive fails or is messed up in and upgrade I can just swap the SSD and away I go - only need to do updates etc since the last clone. me programmes are all intact (office/ photoshop etc) So I keep 2 SSD clones (laste 2 in date order) just in case one doesn't work.

With the laptop and Asus Eee the situation is different. I can make a clone of the OS disc / apps etc. BUT i cannot swap this with the built in disc in the potential situation the OS on the built in drive gets corrupted in say a windows update? I know it is possible to use the media creation tool but the question is - can I use the clone (external) to re-clone the built in SSD / drive?

Thanks, Mel

IAmATeaf · 13 Aug 2020 at 10:42

Just get something like Macrium Reflect free edition, install it, this will allow you to clone the hard disk whilst you are using it to say an external USB drive. Then use the built in tools to create a bootable USB stick, test this to make sure it boots.

Then when you want to restore, boot up off the boot stick, with the external USB also plugged in and use the restore option to restore your last backed up image.

I use this for testing on physical devices all the time, so may want to save the current state, so take a backup, do some testing and then restore to the previous state so that I can start the testing again.

Mel_P · 13 Aug 2020 at 11:23

Hadn't thought of that. Will have a go at creating a bootable USB stick s first step. Thanks, Mel

Mel_P · 14 Aug 2020 at 11:26

Being a bit thick at the moment - "create a bootable USB stick".

Could I do this with Rufus? What do I need to put on this please?

How do I

IAmATeaf said:
use the restore option

Do I need to install any software?

Thanks, Mel

SimonC · 14 Aug 2020 at 12:02

All you need to do is plug in an external drive, use macrium and make an image.

If the drive inside fails you have a backup, so youd replace the drive then make a bootable usb stick, have the external hdd plugged in with the image on it and then boot off the thumb drive, it would then restore windows onto the new drive.

Watch this he explains how to create a bootable drive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaavGMjTfgM

Mel_P · 15 Aug 2020 at 11:13

SimonC said:
All you need to do is plug in an external drive, use macrium and make an image.
Watch this he explains how to create a bootable drive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaavGMjTfgM

Thanks - followed the video and used Macrium Free and AOMEI partition tool Free and all seems the work!

The Windows 7 image tool doesn't seem to work on latest windows 10 - lots of people (including me) report it hanging at 97%.

I have Acronis 2016 but when I try to make a clone in my latest Windows 10 on the Lenovo, when it reboots to make the clone it doesn't reboot into Acronis loader (Windows PE?) but into normal Windows. Perhaps Windows has "broken" this version of Acronis?

Mel