Clone SSD from two drives

[benjaminllim]

Thinking of buying a 1TB SSD, but is it possible to clone data from an SSD and HDD into the new 1TB SSD?

[Dedayog]

Just now, benjaminllim said:

Thinking of buying a 1TB SSD, but is it possible to clone data from an SSD and HDD into the new 1TB SSD?

Cloning is primarily for the boot drive, as you can't just drop and drag registry entries easily.

 

Clone the boot drive, then just copy over the info from the HDD I assume.

[benjaminllim]

1 minute ago, jstudrawa said:

Cloning is primarily for the boot drive, as you can't just drop and drag registry entries easily.

 

Clone the boot drive, then just copy over the info from the HDD I assume.

Will there be problems if I just copy the program files from my HDD to the new SSD?

[Dedayog]

Just now, benjaminllim said:

Will there be problems if I just copy the program files from my HDD to the new SSD?

You have program files on both drives?

 

Then not sure how to go about this.  Never tried to merge two drives into one.  

[benjaminllim]

1 minute ago, jstudrawa said:

You have program files on both drives?

 

Then not sure how to go about this.  Never tried to merge two drives into one.  

Yeah I do

[Lenovo1984]

7 minutes ago, benjaminllim said:

Will there be problems if I just copy the program files from my HDD to the new SSD?

Yes. That won't work. It will be easiest to do a fresh install of Windows onto your new SSD. 

[benjaminllim]

1 minute ago, Lenovo1984 said:

Yes. That won't work. It will be easiest to do a fresh install of Windows onto your new SSD. 

Thanks a lot

[Mnky313]

11 minutes ago, benjaminllim said:

Will there be problems if I just copy the program files from my HDD to the new SSD?

My recommendation is:

Clone the drive that has the OS on it to the new 1TB SSD, using a utility like Partition Wizard you can set the size of the partitions to have 2 partitions (+ what other partitions windows has), allowing windows to see the SSD as 2 drives, then copy the data from the second drive (or clone the partition, not the whole drive)

That was confusing, here:

Use Partition Wizard, select 'Clone Disk'
Select the source as the drive you have windows installed on and target as the 1TB SSD
leave extra space on the 1TB SSD (for example if you have a 256gb ssd with windows and a 500gb hdd with programs and games, clone the 256gb ssd to the 1tb one but keep partition size so you have 750gb of unused space on the 1tb ssd.)
Then use the 'Clone Partition' Tool to clone just the partition from the 500gb hdd to the extra space on the 1TB SSD.

This will leave you with a 1TB SSD that has 3 partitions:
a small windows reserved partition (usually like 500mb)
a C parition (windows install from the drive that had the install before)
another partition for the utilities from the hdd (if you assign this the same letter that the old drive was windows should see it just like the old drive and everything should work fine)

Please contact me if you need any clarification, It's a complicated process to type out but actually performing it isn't that difficult at all.

Edit: After all the cloning is done you can expand the partition you want to add more space.

[benjaminllim]

3 minutes ago, Mnky313 said:

My recommendation is:

Clone the drive that has the OS on it to the new 1TB SSD, using a utility like Partition Wizard you can set the size of the partitions to have 2 partitions (+ what other partitions windows has), allowing windows to see the SSD as 2 drives, then copy the data from the second drive (or clone the partition, not the whole drive)

That was confusing, here:

Use Partition Wizard, select 'Clone Disk'
Select the source as the drive you have windows installed on and target as the 1TB SSD
leave extra space on the 1TB SSD (for example if you have a 256gb ssd with windows and a 500gb hdd with programs and games, clone the 256gb ssd to the 1tb one but keep partition size so you have 750gb of unused space on the 1tb ssd.)
Then use the 'Clone Partition' Tool to clone just the partition from the 500gb hdd to the extra space on the 1TB SSD.

This will leave you with a 1TB SSD that has 3 partitions:
a small windows reserved partition (usually like 500mb)
a C parition (windows install from the drive that had the install before)
another partition for the utilities from the hdd (if you assign this the same letter that the old drive was windows should see it just like the old drive and everything should work fine)

Please contact me if you need any clarification, It's a complicated process to type out but actually performing it isn't that difficult at all.

I have program files in both drives, won't have any issues?

[dizmo]

I'd just recommend doing a fresh install. Usually the most painless way.

[Mnky313]

6 minutes ago, benjaminllim said:

I have program files in both drives, won't have any issues?

as long as it works now, it should work fine. Windows will still see it as 2 'drives'
For example if you have this setup now:

|             256 GB SSD             | |              500 GB HDD              |
| Shows up as 'C' in windows,| | Shows up as 'D' in windows,   |
| has windows installed on it   | | has your other programs on it |

it we turn into this:

|                                         1 TB SSD                                         |
|          256 GB Partition          | |            500 GB Partition           |
| Shows up as 'C' in windows,| | Shows up as 'D' in windows,   |
| has windows installed on it   | | has your other programs on it |

Edit: You can also expand the 256gb or 500gb paritions to take up the extra space on the SSD.

[benjaminllim]

2 minutes ago, Mnky313 said:

as long as it works now, it should work fine. Windows will still see it as 2 'drives'
For example if you have this setup now:

|             256 GB SSD             | |              500 GB HDD              |
| Shows up as 'C' in windows,| | Shows up as 'D' in windows,   |
| has windows installed on it   | | has your other programs on it |

it we turn into this:

|                                         1 TB SSD                                         |
|          256 GB Partition          | |            500 GB Partition           |
| Shows up as 'C' in windows,| | Shows up as 'D' in windows,   |
| has windows installed on it   | | has your other programs on it |

Edit: You can also expand the 256gb or 500gb paritions to take up the extra space on the SSD.

I understand, thanks for the info just have to think about it now

[benjaminllim]

On 9/30/2019 at 6:39 PM, Mnky313 said:

as long as it works now, it should work fine. Windows will still see it as 2 'drives'
For example if you have this setup now:

|             256 GB SSD             | |              500 GB HDD              |
| Shows up as 'C' in windows,| | Shows up as 'D' in windows,   |
| has windows installed on it   | | has your other programs on it |

it we turn into this:

|                                         1 TB SSD                                         |
|          256 GB Partition          | |            500 GB Partition           |
| Shows up as 'C' in windows,| | Shows up as 'D' in windows,   |
| has windows installed on it   | | has your other programs on it |

Edit: You can also expand the 256gb or 500gb paritions to take up the extra space on the SSD.

I've messaged you