Cloning windows to ssd

MR_MU53NDO · 12 Oct 2012 at 06:27

i'm planning to get a new ssd, but ive set up windows just how i like it, and i don't want to go through the process of re-installing 100s of windows updates, so is there any way i can clone windows from my old hdd to the new ssd?

unleashed · 12 Oct 2012 at 07:25

MR_MU53NDO said:
i'm planning to get a new ssd, but ive set up windows just how i like it, and i don't want to go through the process of re-installing 100s of windows updates, so is there any way i can clone windows from my old hdd to the new ssd?

You need to clone the drive. Macrium Reflex is very easy to use and does a great job.

Vogon · 12 Oct 2012 at 14:52

http://www.howtogeek.com/97242/how-to-migrate-windows-7-to-a-solid-state-drive/

Although be warned .... I think its flawed as, for me at least, EaseUS wouldn't copy onto an active partition, only an unallocated one ... the drive alignment procedure makes it active !

Pity as its what I hoped to do, but I didnt want to have the SSD incorrectly aligned, which will likely happen if you just clone it.

I ended up fresh installing, but maybe that page will be of use for you

Kaapstad · 12 Oct 2012 at 15:47

Do a fresh install, it gets rid of a lot of rubbish and problems that build up over time.

While windows is installing updates you don't have to constantly monitor it.

MR_MU53NDO · 13 Oct 2012 at 21:51

if i were to clone my hdd, would i need to remove it, or could i just edit the bios to boot from the new ssd, and then format the old windows hdd when i enter windows?

wazza300 · 13 Oct 2012 at 22:16

Yh you can,should work fine

unleashed · 14 Oct 2012 at 08:55

Vogon said:
Pity as its what I hoped to do, but I didnt want to have the SSD incorrectly aligned, which will likely happen if you just clone it.

I ended up fresh installing, but maybe that page will be of use for you

I would use Macrium Reflect to clone the drive.....it's a 3 or 4 click process that just works. If you want to check / verify for correct alignment run Paragon Alignment Tool. Job done

I did the exact same process only last week and it worked perfectly.

JonoB · 15 Oct 2012 at 08:44

I'd strongly suggest a fresh install, if at all possible. Gets rid of all the cruft that builds up over time.

unleashed · 15 Oct 2012 at 15:53

JonoB said:
I'd strongly suggest a fresh install, if at all possible. Gets rid of all the cruft that builds up over time.

Whilst I accept there may be some merit in doing a complete reinstall some folk don’t always have the time. It would probably take me at least a full day to get everything installed patched-up and configured just how I like it.

If a machine is running perfectly well, then I can see no merit in a complete re-installation, after all a clone is an exact copy of what was already there.

frankmcg · 15 Nov 2012 at 11:45

I was trying to do a clone last night from my HDD to an SSD in my 2nd machine - SSD had been used for a couple of years in my main machine without fault and fully formatted.

Both Ghost and Acronis fail at the 99% or so with some weird error. Probably do with with partition tables and whatnot but I've tried full wipes, deleting partitions etc etc and nothing seems to work. In the time I've spent trying to do a clone I probably could have reinstalled windows by now, but I've put so many tweaks on this machine over the years (it's my media center PC) that I'm really reluctant to start again.

frankmcg · 15 Nov 2012 at 11:51

Kaapstad said:
Do a fresh install, it gets rid of a lot of rubbish and problems that build up over time.

While windows is installing updates you don't have to constantly monitor it.

Is there any way to automate installing updates? When I did this recently on a clean install there was 128 updates to do! And windows seemed to do them piecemeal and kept stopping asking for a restart which it wasn't doing itself (ie it was the yellow exclamation mark saying they will be installed next time you shut down).

Maybe if I apply SP1 off an image to start with to move things along?

unleashed · 15 Nov 2012 at 13:36

frankmcg said:
I was trying to do a clone last night from my HDD to an SSD in my 2nd machine - SSD had been used for a couple of years in my main machine without fault and fully formatted.

Both Ghost and Acronis fail at the 99% or so with some weird error. Probably do with with partition tables and whatnot but I've tried full wipes, deleting partitions etc etc and nothing seems to work. In the time I've spent trying to do a clone I probably could have reinstalled windows by now, but I've put so many tweaks on this machine over the years (it's my media center PC) that I'm really reluctant to start again.

You could try Macrium Reflect.

Run diskpart clean first from the cmd line then reinitialise and format the drive drive using Computer Manager, then clone.

frankmcg · 16 Nov 2012 at 08:56

Macrium succeeded where all others failed, thanks man!

unleashed · 16 Nov 2012 at 09:02

Glad you got it sorted