Why so much hate for OS cloning?

[Paul_VB]

I've recently seen several threads asking how to transfer windows to a new drive (most of the time it's an SSD). Cloning gets mentioned, but almost instantly gets shot down and the idea of a fresh install is recommended.

 

I personally have cloned sevral drives, both HDD-->SSD and SSD-->HDD and all of them have been fine. my personal rig has been running strong on its cloned SSD for probably nearly 2 years now. same with both my parent's laptops and one of my old laptops. all have experienced 0 issues with the hard drive and the cloning.

 

Why do so many people shun cloning an OS? i think its the easiest and quickest way of getting a new boot drive up and running

 

 

 

 

 

Also, unrelated, but i'm running low on applesauce. anyone mind sharing some?

[Gofspar]

Because a fresh install on a SSD is 

[Hangfire]

There is the chance of cloning over viruses and malware and driver issues

[CoolaxGaming]

Because a fess installation a ssd/hdd performs a lot faster

Idk why but that's what happened with my samsung evo.

[Paul_VB]

There is the chance of cloning over viruses and malware and driver issues

well yes in the case of non-power users, but if you know a thing or two about computers, you shouldn't have any viruses and shit.

[Paul_VB]

Because a fess installation a ssd/hdd performs a lot faster

Idk why but that's what happened with my samsung evo.

What software did you use? the shit that comes with te samsung drives is just that... shit. i reccomend EaseUS. Yeah, i know it might not seem like a well known brand, but i've had fantastic success with their software

[flibberdipper]

Fresh installs are more orgasmic and nice.

[theloveablemoose]

Because a fresh install on a SSD is 

I've seen that twice now. I assume the source is NSFW lol.

[Paul_VB]

Fresh installs are more orgasmic and nice.

Thats where i disagree. i love my 2+ year old install of Winders 7. All the settings and programs installed exactly how i like them.

[TheSLSAMG]

Dependent on the software used to transfer the OS over, it can be buggy or slow. I don't mind OS cloning though, it's no big deal to me.

[theloveablemoose]

Thats where i disagree. i love my 2+ year old install of Winders 7. All the settings and programs installed exactly how i like them.

I agree got my SSD and did a clone, thinking about it i'm just lazy.

[flibberdipper]

Thats where i disagree. i love my 2+ year old install of Winders 7. All the settings and programs installed exactly how i like them.

But... Fresh is still orgasmic. Not like this mess.

 

[General_Pox]

snip

[Cheddle]

neglecting to fresh install is like moving house and deciding its not a good time to throw out that stuff you haven't unpacked since last time you moved.

 

cloning results in non-unique GUID's - for a home user this is no big deal, put two cloned machines in a corporate network and try and use active directory... GG

 

main issues are installed drivers and device ID's for devices that don't exist, eg: you change your mobo and the 40+ devices that require drivers are suddenly missing... run this through a few boards / pc's and you have 200+ installed, but missing, devices.

 

minor issues are missing paths if secondary drive letters change, broken shortcuts, general clutter from temp files and old crap you wont miss.

 

my friend had 2tb of movies, I found 200gb of samples in there...

 

I found 30gb of crap on my 128gb ssd that I didn't need... like temp files from old games, downloaded installers for applications I already have installed or didn't need, old video card drivers... etc...

 

Your registry will be obese

[Paul_VB]

neglecting to fresh install is like moving house and deciding its not a good time to throw out that stuff you haven't unpacked since last time you moved.

 

cloning results in non-unique GUID's - for a home user this is no big deal, put two cloned machines in a corporate network and try and use active directory... GG

 

main issues are installed drivers and device ID's for devices that don't exist, eg: you change your mobo and the 40+ devices that require drivers are suddenly missing... run this through a few boards / pc's and you have 200+ installed, but missing, devices.

 

minor issues are missing paths if secondary drive letters change, broken shortcuts, general clutter from temp files and old crap you wont miss.

 

my friend had 2tb of movies, I found 200gb of samples in there...

 

I found 30gb of crap on my 128gb ssd that I didn't need... like temp files from old games, downloaded installers for applications I already have installed or didn't need, old video card drivers... etc...

 

Your registry will be obese

Well when upgrading the mobo, yes you should re-install. I'm just talking about when all your'e chaining is the boot drive and nothing else.

 

Also, who gives a damn how big a registry gets? they're like in the hundreds of KILOBYTES at most.

[TheProfosist]

Cloning from a larger drive to smaller drive is a pain.

also having a fresh start is nice. Besides that im guessing some things could do with improving. One that would get corrected would be installing via UEFI to GPT, rather than bios compatible and MBR.

[Paul_VB]

Cloning from a larger drive to smaller driver is a pain.

very true. Hence why i always keep my OS partition at 120GB, regardless of actual drive size

[TheProfosist]

very true. Hence why i always keep my OS partition at 120GB, regardless of actual drive size

I added more, my bad. Also that seems pointless to me.

[Paul_VB]

I added more, my bad. Also that seems pointless to me.

In case i wanna upgrade the OS to an SSD further down the road?

[IdeaStormer]

What I don't understand is how people are re-installing from day zero of the OS release! :wacko:

 

I slipstream patches, my custom settings, license codes, computer name(s), network settings, apps to a custom install image and after I install I'm at the date of the image not day zero of the OS release. Best of all minimal updates to go and all my settings and default apps are ready to go so its do some minimal work post install instead of start from scratch.

 

I clone only when what I have is not worth the hassle of a re-install due to a few factors, customer who has apps and no install codes on hand, customer has data/settings they need intact, and time to get out the door is minimal. I've yet to have anyone ask for a smaller drive even going to SSD maybe same size but always larger due to disks filling up and data always increases, never decreases. 

 

Hate? No, its not understanding the end game or time one has to spend on the install, a clone with a nice registry clean up is equal to a re-install speed up, just need to know what to remove and what to leave in the registry.

[Cheddle]

Well when upgrading the mobo, yes you should re-install. I'm just talking about when all your'e chaining is the boot drive and nothing else.

 

Also, who gives a damn how big a registry gets? they're like in the hundreds of KILOBYTES at most.

 

ummm.... my registry on a 2 month old install is 300mb... you might want to try exporting your registry :-)

 

Cloning from a larger drive to smaller drive is a pain. also having a fresh start is nice. Besides that im guessing some things could do with improving. One that would get corrected would be installing via UEFI to GPT, rather than bios compatible and MBR.

 

you can use Windows PE, diskpart and imagex to image the install - this disregards the partition and only backs up the data. Its not exactly click and go but its simple enough

 

going from GPT to MBR or vise versa and retaining your install... uggh GG

[flibberdipper]

lulz

Benchmarking and overclocking install on my old hard drive.

[Paul_VB]

ummm.... my registry on a 2 month old install is 300mb... you might want to try exporting your registry :-)

I just did that last night lol. it's 7kB.. no idea how in the hell yours is 300mB though

[yimello]

But... Fresh is still orgasmic. Not like this mess.

 

uninstALL

[TheProfosist]

-snip-

Hate? No, its not understanding the end game or time one has to spend on the install, a clone with a nice registry clean up is equal to a re-install speed up, just need to know what to remove and what to leave in the registry.

Unless the original install was done 100% correct and up to date with current methods (highly unlikely) you'll see a speed up and better compatibility with the latest stuff.