File cloning software

[Xiauj]

Hey everyone,

In My current PC, I have My OS and EVERYTHING ELSE on a Seagate(?) Hard-Drive that I've had a while and as of recently, I decided to purchase a ADATA M.2 SSD for that little extra boost but there's a problem.

 

I just tried Macrium Reflect to clone everything from the HDD to the M.2 SSD but that didn't work, I don't think so at least.

So um........., does anybody know of a good reliable free software that can clone everything including the Operating-System files?

 

I just want to clone absolutely everything, the OS and personal files etc.. onto the ADATA M.2 SSD, make that the boot-drive and reset the HDD to device defaults and remove it from the PC entirely.

 

Please gimme some suggestions and thanks in advance! 

-Xiauj

[Mira Yurizaki]

Out of curiosity, did Macrium Reflect copy only the OS partition, or did it copy everything?

 

The boot drive typically has another, hidden partition that the computer uses to actually boot into Windows. If this didn't get copied, then you don't have a bootable disk.

[Kilrah]

8 minutes ago, Xiauj said:

I don't think so at least.

What makes you think so?

It's the main recommended tool for that task and works just fine.

[Xiauj]

2 minutes ago, Mira Yurizaki said:

Out of curiosity, did Macrium Reflect copy only the OS partition, or did it copy everything?

11 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

What makes you think so?

It's the main recommended tool for that task and works just fine.

 

After installing the M.2 SSD on the motherboard near My GPU, I dragged everything over that was in the HDD (..in the Macrium Reflect interface) to the M.2 SSD then it took about 50-60 mins to finish cloning, so I would have assumed it copied everything.

 

 

What did I was this: I went into the BIOS after the cloning via Macrium Reflect was finished, restarted the PC, went into the BIOS, tried setting boot-option-1 to the M.2 SSD, saved and exited and it told Me to "reboot / select proper boot device / insert boot media" and so, I went back into the BIOS and set boot-option-1 back to the HDD so I could get back to the desktop.

 

When I got to the desktop, I did notice that both drives were the same as shown below:

 

Whilst writing/posting this comment, about 10 or so minutes ago, I have just restored device defaults on the M.2 SSD so it should be completely free/empty currently.

My assumption is that it was a failed clone?

 

I dunno what to do next D= any advice @Mira Yurizaki @Kilrah ?

[Vishera]

I use AOMEI Partition Assistant ,It's pretty good,

I prefer the sector by sector cloning option because it's the most reliable cloning option.

[Xiauj]

2 minutes ago, Vishera said:

I use AOMEI Partition Assistant ,It's pretty good,

I prefer the sector by sector cloning option because it's the most reliable cloning option.

I've never heard of that o.o

So, is Macrium Reflect not able to transfer the OS, all system-files and everything else?

[Xiauj]

@Mira Yurizaki Soo, does this mean Macrium Reflect is not able to transfer the OS, all system-files and everything else? Because of this "hidden partition that the computer uses to actually boot into Windows." ...?

 

If not, any other suggestions on what to do next?

Edited January 15, 2020 by Xiauj

[Vishera]

1 minute ago, Xiauj said:

I've never heard of that o.o

So, is Macrium Reflect not able to transfer the OS, all system-files and everything else?

You should give it a go,cloning OS drives is easy and reliable especially with the sector by sector clone option.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

The problem may be you are trying to clone from SATA to NVMe. M.2 drives can be either SATA or NVMe.

[Xiauj]

5 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

The problem may be you are trying to clone from SATA to NVMe. M.2 drives can be either SATA or NVMe.

Really? Hmm.. interesting. Soo what would You recommend that I do next / can use to clone absolutely everything, the OS, OS-Files, personal files etc..with no issues?

[Lady Fitzgerald]

4 minutes ago, Xiauj said:

Really? Hmm.. interesting. Soo what would You recommend that I do next / can use to clone absolutely everything, the OS, OS-Files, personal files etc..with no issues?

If your SSD is an NVMe drive (ADATA makes both), then you will not be able to clone to it from a SATA drive. You will have to do a fresh install of the OS and programs, then copy over the data. I suggest putting the OS and programs (System Reserved and C:\ ) onto their own partitions and the data on its own partition). It will simply making backups and migrating to other drives in the future.

[Xiauj]

2 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

If your SSD is an NVMe drive (ADATA makes both), then you will not be able to clone to it from a SATA drive. You will have to do a fresh install of the OS and programs, then copy over the data. I suggest putting the OS and programs (System Reserved and C:\ ) onto their own partitions and the data on its own partition). It will simply making backups and migrating to other drives in the future.

It's a ADATA SX8200 Pro 2TB M.2 SSD (https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/kQZzK8/adata-xpg-sx8200-pro-2-tb-m2-2280-nvme-solid-state-drive-asx8200pnp-2tt-c)

Edited January 15, 2020 by Xiauj

[Lady Fitzgerald]

2 hours ago, Xiauj said:

It's a ADATA SX8200 Pro 2TB M.2 SSD (https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/product/kQZzK8/adata-xpg-sx8200-pro-2-tb-m2-2280-nvme-solid-state-drive-asx8200pnp-2tt-c)

Then you won't be able to clone from the SATA SSD to it.

[Kilrah]

8 hours ago, Xiauj said:

I dragged everything over that was in the HDD (..in the Macrium Reflect interface)

Why? This won't work, it will copy the partitions but not the boot sector.

You need to use the "Clone this disk" feature.

 

 

SATA/NVMe should not be a problem, people regularly clone HDDs (obviously SATA) to NVMe without issue.

[Xiauj]

11 hours ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

Then you won't be able to clone from the SATA SSD to it.

8 hours ago, Kilrah said:

Why? This won't work, it will copy the partitions but not the boot sector.

You need to use the "Clone this disk" feature.

 

SATA/NVMe should not be a problem, people regularly clone HDDs (obviously SATA) to NVMe without issue.

 

Am I actually able to transfer from SATA to NVMe, Yes or No?  Because I'm really confused right now and both of You are 50/50+saying Yes AND No, lol.

And btw @Kilrah that option highlighted in Red in the image in the above comment, I did select that exact option, dragged everything over and let it start the cloning process.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

18 minutes ago, Xiauj said:

 

Am I actually able to transfer from SATA to NVMe, Yes or No?  Because I'm really confused right now and both of You are 50/50+saying Yes AND No, lol.

And btw @Kilrah that option highlighted in Red in the image in the above comment, I did select that exact option, dragged everything over and let it start the cloning process.

While I never actually tried to clone from SATA to NVMe, I've read many threads where clones failed and the consensus was the clones failed due to being from SATA to NVMe.

 

I just did some more research and found the issue is actually due to a driver difference, going from MBR to GPT, or both. Most SATA drives under 2.2TB will be formatted MBR. NVMe drives have to be formatted GPT, no matter their size. You cannot clone directly from MBR to GPT without having to deal with boot loader differences. Also, native Windows NVMe drivers (Win 8,x and 10; Win 7 needed to have a driver installed anyway) aren't always compatible and Samsung's driver needs to be in stalled.

 

See this thread for more on this. I appolgize for the wrong answer.

[Xiauj]

4 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

While I never actually tried to clone from SATA to NVMe, I've read many threads where clones failed and the consensus was the clones failed due to being from SATA to NVMe.

 

I just did some more research and found the issue is actually due to a driver difference, going from MBR to GPT, or both. Most SATA drives under 2.2TB will be formatted MBR. NVMe drives have to be formatted GPT, no matter their size. You cannot clone directly from MBR to GPT without having to deal with boot loader differences. Also, native Windows NVMe drivers (Win 8,x and 10; Win 7 needed to have a driver installed anyway) aren't always compatible and Samsung's driver needs to be in stalled.

 

See this thread for more on this. I appolgize for the wrong answer.

Hmm, interesting

So do You think it is possible, but only if I change the ADATA M.2 Drive's settings to make it so that it's set to GPT and not MBR?

 

Btw...

Spoiler

.........because I'm a big noob when it comes to this kinda thing (as shown), knowledge wise and I'm scared in case I fuck it up  (Which is likely lmao), are You around for the next few hours? Do You have Discord / a mic? I could do with some extra help/guidance lol :3

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

1 minute ago, Xiauj said:

Hmm, interesting

So do You think it is possible, but only if I change the ADATA M.2 Drive's settings to make it so that it's set to GPT and not MBR?

 

Btw...

  Reveal hidden contents

.........because I'm a big noob when it comes to this kinda thing (as shown), knowledge wise and I'm scared in case I fuck it up  (Which is likely lmao), are You around for the next few hours? Do You have Discord / a mic? I could do with some extra help/guidance lol :3

 

Since I've already screwed up the answer once, I'm not about to tackle it again (in my experience, trying to clone from SATA MBR to SATA GPT will result in the destination being changed to MBR; I can't speak for NVMe). Try doing some research on the "interwebz" and YouTube or join Ten Forums and ask there.

[Xiauj]

Hey everyone ( @Mira Yurizaki , @Kilrah , @Vishera & @Lady Fitzgerald ),

Just thought I'd give an update I decided to go with a fresh install of Windows after all. Had no luck try to find another piece of software that is capable of transferring the OS (Windows 10), OS-Files and Personal Files to the NVMe-SSD.

 

Bit of a shame that I've gotta reinstall some programs buuuuuuuut..... meh, whatever .

Have noticed a couple of odd things since last night so I gotta contact MS about that. Or ask here, but yeah, just thought I'd give an update as mentioned.

[Celsiuss]

If you're still in need, try Clonezilla. It's a live OS that is installed on a USB, use tuxboot to download and install it. It will clone everything and all partitions you have.

If your new SSD is larger than the old one, the cloned disk will show up as the same size as the old one. To fix that, use gparted live (can also be downloaded and installed with tuxboot), it will prompt you to fix it, and then click fix. You can even move partitions around if you need to in order to expand the C partition.