I'll admit something. If there's one topic I typically stay away from because it seems like everyone has a consensus on the subject, it's cloning Windows installations from an HDD to an SSD. The consensus is it's always better to just reinstall the OS. While there are some practical reasons, the most common ones I've heard to avoid cloning is because you'll encounter a plethora of issues. I've found this puzzling considering:

• I've cloned multiple times with no ill effect
• I don't understand how there could be system software issues if the only thing that's changed is the hard drive. That's like saying if you upgrade your video card, reinstall Windows otherwise it'll freak out that it has a new video card.

And as far as I understand about modern computer architectures, storage drives are basically virtualized and abstracted to the point where a storage drive is a storage drive. Well, the software still has to know how to talk to it, but as far its concerned, from an operational point of view there is no difference between a Samsung SSD, a Hitachi HDD, or a CF card talking over a SATA converter.

So I'm going to do a cloning project with my secondary computer, my Dell Inspiron 15 7559. It has a Samsung EVO 850 M.2 SSD and a Seagate SSHD. The plan is going to be like so:

• Install Windows on the HDD
• Make note of storage related services that Windows enabled.
  • Notably check to see if Superfetch is enabled and if the drive is marked for defrag scheduling
• Install all of the drivers and programs I normally would've used on it.
• If I have importable settings from my primary computer, like from Firefox, then I'll import those.
• I'll install a few games on it. It won't be used much for gaming though when/if I do game on it.
• Give it a day or so to "settle" after running a few tests.
• Use Samsung's software to clone the HDD install over to the SSD
• Verify the SSD boot works, then wipe the HDD
• Check to see if the following has changed
  • Superfetch (should be disabled)
  • Defrag schedule (drive should not be available or is unchecked)
  • TRIM is enabled
  • If the above has not changed, continue on anyway, but make note of it
• Use the laptop for a few weeks
  • Will mostly be doing light loads and maybe the occasional gaming if it's not too hard on the poor 960M
  • Will also monitor any issues that come up
• After that, check to see if the following has been set
  • Superfetch (should be disabled)
  • Defrag schedule (drive should not be available or is unchecked)
  • TRIM is enabled
  • Note that even if these aren't enabled, that doesn't really affect anything since you can enable these settings.

I was thinking about working with the laptop with just the HDD for more time, like a few weeks, but I don't want to stretch this project out too much.