Drive Cloning Software recommendations?

[Puffnstuf]

Hay guys I am upgrading from a sata drive to an m.2. I want to completely clone the sata to the m.2 then format the sata drive and use it on another PC. What is a safe and prefereable free software I can use to clone the drive before I format it? and will the PC have any issues booting into windows from the M.2 once I clone everything over?

[xAcid9]

I use Macrium Reflect. No problem booting if you clone the whole drive and use the same boot setting (UEFI/Legacy). 

 

https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

[PineyCreek]

I hear lots of people talk about Macrium.  I've had good luck with Acronis but it has been some time since I've used it (always time for a developer or owner to screw up a good thing).

[ImorallySourcedElectrons]

Is the M.2 a Samsung drive? If it is you might be able to use their software to do it: https://semiconductor.samsung.com/consumer-storage/support/tools/  Used it a couple of times so far, seemed to do the job reasonably well. It doesn't ask too many questions and it's pretty straight-forward for novice use. Sadly it only works if it detects a Samsung drive as the target.

 

And as @xAcid9 mentioned, UEFI/Legacy is an important factor here. If you're still stuck on Legacy and want to move to UEFI it ain't a bad time to convert the drive. You can clone to the M.2, run the conversion ( https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/convert-an-existing-windows-10-installation-from/aa8c2de3-460b-4a8c-b30b-641405f800d7 ) and keep the old SATA drive around as a backup until you know the conversion worked. 

[Puffnstuf]

Thanks for the help guys. I ended up using Macrium. Was pretty straight forward and worked well.

[wseaton]

Macrium Reflect is top of the food chain for this stuff. You can actually clone live from your existing windows installation to the SSD. Always aggravates Linux heads when I explain how this works.:-)