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SSD Upgrade - Clone Drive

Aereldor
By Aereldor
in Operating Systems
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So I've always just done a fresh windows install every time I've upgraded a boot drive, but my sister wants her current 250gb SSD cloned onto her new 500GB and I'm just now realising I've never done this before.

 

What software do most people use for this? Do I have to re-enter the windows activation key once I'm done? 

i5 12600KF | Zotac RTX 4080 Gaming trinity | Team Vulcan 2x16GB DDR4 3600 | ASRock Z690M-ITX/ac | WD Black SN850x 2TB

Cooler Master NR200P v2 | ID Cooling Zoomflow 280 XT | SeaSonic Focus SGX-750 | Thermalright 2x140mm + 2x120mm aRGB

LG C2 OLED 48" 120hz | Epomaker TH80 (Gateron Yellow) | Logitech MX Master 3 | Koss Porta Pro Comm

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20 minutes ago, HQuan said:

Cloning OS drive is really risky. Missing literally a single byte can destroy the entire system.

No, it's not risky; don't spread FUD. I've cloned a computer twice in the space of a couple weeks (256GB > 512GB > 1TB, as I was figuring out what I wanted) and it worked fine. I've also gone from larger HDD to smaller SSD; you just need to have the right tools.

Main System (Byarlant): Ryzen 7 5800X | Asus B550-Creator ProArt | EK 240mm Basic AIO | 16GB G.Skill DDR4 3200MT/s CAS-14 | XFX Speedster SWFT 210 RX 6600 | Samsung 990 PRO 2TB / Samsung 960 PRO 512GB / 4× Crucial MX500 2TB (RAID-0) | Corsair RM750X | a 10G NIC (pending) | Inateck USB 3.0 Card | Hyte Y60 Case | Dell U3415W Monitor | Keychron K4 Brown (white backlight)

 

Laptop (Narrative): Lenovo Flex 5 81X20005US | Ryzen 5 4500U | 16GB RAM (soldered) | Vega 6 Graphics | SKHynix P31 1TB NVMe SSD | Intel AX200 Wifi (all-around awesome machine)

 

Proxmox Server (Veda): Ryzen 7 3800XT | AsRock Rack X470D4U | Corsair H80i v2 | 64GB Micron DDR4 ECC 3200MT/s | 4x 10TB WD Whites / 4x 14TB Seagate Exos / 2× Samsung PM963a 960GB SSD | Seasonic Prime Fanless 500W | Intel X540-T2 10G NIC | LSI 9207-8i HBA | Fractal Design Node 804 Case (side panels swapped to show off drives) | VMs: TrueNAS Scale; Ubuntu Server (PiHole/PiVPN/NGINX?); Windows 10 Pro; Ubuntu Server (Apache/MySQL)


Media Center/Video Capture (Jesta Cannon): Ryzen 5 1600X | ASRock B450M Pro4 R2.0 | Noctua NH-L12S | 16GB Crucial DDR4 3200MT/s CAS-22 | EVGA GTX750Ti SC | UMIS NVMe SSD 256GB / TEAMGROUP MS30 1TB | Corsair CX450M | Viewcast Osprey 260e Video Capture | Mellanox ConnectX-2 10G NIC | LG UH12NS30 BD-ROM | Silverstone Sugo SG-11 Case | Sony XR65A80K

 

Camera: Sony ɑ7II w/ Meike Grip | Sony SEL24240 | Samyang 35mm ƒ/2.8 | Sony SEL50F18F | Sony SEL2870 (kit lens) | PNY Elite Perfomance 512GB SDXC card

 

Network:

Spoiler 
                           ┌─────────────── Office/Rack ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
Google Fiber Webpass ────── UniFi Security Gateway ─── UniFi Switch 8-60W ─┬─ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╦═ Veda (Proxmox Virtual Switch)
(500Mbps↑/500Mbps↓)                             UniFi CloudKey Gen2 (PoE) ─┴─ Veda (IPMI)           ╠═ Veda-NAS (HW Passthrough NIC)
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╩═ Narrative (Asus USB 2.5G NIC)
║ ┌────── Closet ──────┐   ┌─────────────── Bedroom ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
╚═ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╤═ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╦═ Byarlant
   (PoE)                 │                        ╠═ Narrative (Cable Matters USB-PD 2.5G Ethernet Dongle)
                         │                        ╚═ Jesta Cannon*
                         │ ┌─────────────── Media Center ──────────────────────────────────┐
Notes:                   └─ UniFi Switch 8 ─────────┬─ UniFi Access Point nanoHD (PoE)
═══ is Multi-Gigabit                                ├─ Sony Playstation 4 
─── is Gigabit                                      ├─ Pioneer VSX-S520
* = cable passed to Bedroom from Media Center       ├─ Sony XR65A80K (Google TV)
** = cable passed from Media Center to Bedroom      └─ Work Laptop** (Startech USB-PD Dock)

Retired/Other:

Spoiler

Laptop (Rozen-Zulu): Sony VAIO VPCF13WFX | Core i7-740QM | 8GB Patriot DDR3 | GT 425M | Samsung 850EVO 250GB SSD | Blu-ray Drive | Intel 7260 Wifi (lived a good life, retired with honor)

Testbed/Old Desktop (Kshatriya): Xeon X5470 @ 4.0GHz | ZALMAN CNPS9500 | Gigabyte EP45-UD3L | 8GB Nanya DDR2 400MHz | XFX HD6870 DD | OCZ Vertex 3 Max-IOPS 120GB | Corsair CX430M | HooToo USB 3.0 PCIe Card | Osprey 230 Video Capture | NZXT H230 Case

TrueNAS Server (La Vie en Rose): Xeon E3-1241v3 | Supermicro X10SLL-F | Corsair H60 | 32GB Micron DDR3L ECC 1600MHz | 1x Kingston 16GB SSD / Crucial MX500 500GB

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  • Author
59 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

No, it's not risky; don't spread FUD. I've cloned a computer twice in the space of a couple weeks (256GB > 512GB > 1TB, as I was figuring out what I wanted) and it worked fine. I've also gone from larger HDD to smaller SSD; you just need to have the right tools.

What are the right tools? I figured Macrium Reflect

i5 12600KF | Zotac RTX 4080 Gaming trinity | Team Vulcan 2x16GB DDR4 3600 | ASRock Z690M-ITX/ac | WD Black SN850x 2TB

Cooler Master NR200P v2 | ID Cooling Zoomflow 280 XT | SeaSonic Focus SGX-750 | Thermalright 2x140mm + 2x120mm aRGB

LG C2 OLED 48" 120hz | Epomaker TH80 (Gateron Yellow) | Logitech MX Master 3 | Koss Porta Pro Comm

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11 minutes ago, soundlogic said:

What are the right tools? I figured Macrium Reflect

That's where my answer gets a little weird: I have an old version (11.x, newest is 12.x) of Minitool Partition Wizard in which cloning is free; newer versions have paywalled it, but they can't stop you from installing the old version if you can find the EXE (available at old version archive sites). It seems a lot of the partitioning/cloning tools became paywalled recently (when I was working on the laptop, I probably went through about two or three before I remembered my old PW11 installer).

Main System (Byarlant): Ryzen 7 5800X | Asus B550-Creator ProArt | EK 240mm Basic AIO | 16GB G.Skill DDR4 3200MT/s CAS-14 | XFX Speedster SWFT 210 RX 6600 | Samsung 990 PRO 2TB / Samsung 960 PRO 512GB / 4× Crucial MX500 2TB (RAID-0) | Corsair RM750X | a 10G NIC (pending) | Inateck USB 3.0 Card | Hyte Y60 Case | Dell U3415W Monitor | Keychron K4 Brown (white backlight)

 

Laptop (Narrative): Lenovo Flex 5 81X20005US | Ryzen 5 4500U | 16GB RAM (soldered) | Vega 6 Graphics | SKHynix P31 1TB NVMe SSD | Intel AX200 Wifi (all-around awesome machine)

 

Proxmox Server (Veda): Ryzen 7 3800XT | AsRock Rack X470D4U | Corsair H80i v2 | 64GB Micron DDR4 ECC 3200MT/s | 4x 10TB WD Whites / 4x 14TB Seagate Exos / 2× Samsung PM963a 960GB SSD | Seasonic Prime Fanless 500W | Intel X540-T2 10G NIC | LSI 9207-8i HBA | Fractal Design Node 804 Case (side panels swapped to show off drives) | VMs: TrueNAS Scale; Ubuntu Server (PiHole/PiVPN/NGINX?); Windows 10 Pro; Ubuntu Server (Apache/MySQL)


Media Center/Video Capture (Jesta Cannon): Ryzen 5 1600X | ASRock B450M Pro4 R2.0 | Noctua NH-L12S | 16GB Crucial DDR4 3200MT/s CAS-22 | EVGA GTX750Ti SC | UMIS NVMe SSD 256GB / TEAMGROUP MS30 1TB | Corsair CX450M | Viewcast Osprey 260e Video Capture | Mellanox ConnectX-2 10G NIC | LG UH12NS30 BD-ROM | Silverstone Sugo SG-11 Case | Sony XR65A80K

 

Camera: Sony ɑ7II w/ Meike Grip | Sony SEL24240 | Samyang 35mm ƒ/2.8 | Sony SEL50F18F | Sony SEL2870 (kit lens) | PNY Elite Perfomance 512GB SDXC card

 

Network:

Spoiler 
                           ┌─────────────── Office/Rack ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
Google Fiber Webpass ────── UniFi Security Gateway ─── UniFi Switch 8-60W ─┬─ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╦═ Veda (Proxmox Virtual Switch)
(500Mbps↑/500Mbps↓)                             UniFi CloudKey Gen2 (PoE) ─┴─ Veda (IPMI)           ╠═ Veda-NAS (HW Passthrough NIC)
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╩═ Narrative (Asus USB 2.5G NIC)
║ ┌────── Closet ──────┐   ┌─────────────── Bedroom ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
╚═ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╤═ UniFi Switch Flex XG ═╦═ Byarlant
   (PoE)                 │                        ╠═ Narrative (Cable Matters USB-PD 2.5G Ethernet Dongle)
                         │                        ╚═ Jesta Cannon*
                         │ ┌─────────────── Media Center ──────────────────────────────────┐
Notes:                   └─ UniFi Switch 8 ─────────┬─ UniFi Access Point nanoHD (PoE)
═══ is Multi-Gigabit                                ├─ Sony Playstation 4 
─── is Gigabit                                      ├─ Pioneer VSX-S520
* = cable passed to Bedroom from Media Center       ├─ Sony XR65A80K (Google TV)
** = cable passed from Media Center to Bedroom      └─ Work Laptop** (Startech USB-PD Dock)

Retired/Other:

Spoiler

Laptop (Rozen-Zulu): Sony VAIO VPCF13WFX | Core i7-740QM | 8GB Patriot DDR3 | GT 425M | Samsung 850EVO 250GB SSD | Blu-ray Drive | Intel 7260 Wifi (lived a good life, retired with honor)

Testbed/Old Desktop (Kshatriya): Xeon X5470 @ 4.0GHz | ZALMAN CNPS9500 | Gigabyte EP45-UD3L | 8GB Nanya DDR2 400MHz | XFX HD6870 DD | OCZ Vertex 3 Max-IOPS 120GB | Corsair CX430M | HooToo USB 3.0 PCIe Card | Osprey 230 Video Capture | NZXT H230 Case

TrueNAS Server (La Vie en Rose): Xeon E3-1241v3 | Supermicro X10SLL-F | Corsair H60 | 32GB Micron DDR3L ECC 1600MHz | 1x Kingston 16GB SSD / Crucial MX500 500GB

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Use Macrium Reflect Free. Its, uh, free and its a high profile product with a good rep.

 

If its windows you can literally clone to the new drive online from Windows after the new drive is installed. 

 

Soundlogic is totally correct about FUD. Ive cloned thousands of systems and migrated countless servers from disc to SSD. All cloning tools for Windows use the same volume shadow copy service and its incredibly reliable.

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I've used AOMEI Backupper, without any problems, to clone the primary (OS) drive.

Acer Predator Helios 300 – Model #PH315-53-764Q — CPU-Z

  • Keyboard — Corsair K57 RGB Wireless Gaming Keyboard – Model #RGP0085
  • Memory (RAM) — 64GB Kingston FURY Impact – Part #KF432S20IBK2/64
  • Mouse — Corsair Ironclaw RGB Wireless Gaming Mouse – Model #RGP0052
  • Operating System — Windows 11 Professional (64-bit)
  • Stand — TopMate C11 Gaming Cooler
  • Storage (HDD, SSD)
    • 1× 4TB Samsung 870 EVO – Model #MZ-77E4T0B/AM
    • 2× 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus – Model #MZ-V7S2T0/AM

Anda Seat Kaiser Series Premium Gaming Chair – Kaiser II – Model #AD12XL-02-AB-PV/C-A02

HP OfficeJet Pro 8025e

Samsung 7.1.2 Soundbar – Model #HW-Q900A/ZC

Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite – Model #SM-T227U

Samsung Galaxy Watch5 Pro – Model #SM-R925F

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip4 – Model #SM-F721W

TP-Link Archer AX11000 MU-MIMO Tri-Band Gaming Router

  • 3× TP-Link 16-Port Gigabit Easy Smart Switch with 8-Port PoE+ – Model #TL-SG1016PE
    Noctua 40x20mm Premium Fan – Model #NF-A4x20 FLX
    • Guest
      • TP-Link AX3000 Mesh WiFi 6 Extender – Model #RE705X
    • IoT
      • TP-Link AC1200 Wi-Fi Range Extender – Model #RE305
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