Best Cloning utility?

[Uwillparish]

Hi guys,

 

I had to RMA my ssd as from what sandisk tells me its failing, and i just got the replacement, But ofcorse i need to clone the ssd. Does anyone know of a reliable cloning utility that will make sure i dont lose data?

[dalekphalm]

Hi guys,

 

I had to RMA my ssd as from what sandisk tells me its failing, and i just got the replacement, But ofcorse i need to clone the ssd. Does anyone know of a reliable cloning utility that will make sure i dont lose data?

I have several recommendations, depending on your technical skill level and what exactly you'd like to do.

 

Do you want to:

 

1. Clone the SSD to another drive, OR

2. Create an image file from the SSD?

 

The Data will essentially be the same, but the difference is that one will be expanded onto another HDD, and the other will be contained as a file, that you can store on a HDD as just another file.

 

Some good recommendations:

Clonezilla (Requires a bit higher technical ability). You can close disk to disk (eg: SSD to another SSD or to a HDD), or you can create an image file.

GUI is basically non-existant, it's mostly text based, but it DOES walk you through the steps. It's easy to use as long as you're careful with what you press.

http://clonezilla.org/show-live-doc-content.php?topic=clonezilla-live/doc/01_Save_disk_image

 

Good things about CloneZilla:

- It's free!

- It shows you the HDD SN! (This is really important if you're using the same Model Number of HDD/SSD)

- It can Clone or Save to Image

 

Bad things:

- It can't shrink a drive (Eg: If you clone a bigger drive to a smaller drive, it will fail)

- Text based GUI

 

Alternatives that are great:

EaseUS Free Backup tool

- Great and easy to use!

- Does not show SN though, just HDD/SSD model number.

 

Acronis True Home:

- Probably one of the single best cloning software to date, BUT, it's not free.

- However, does come free with certain HDD/SSD manufacturers.

 

There are other alternatives as well.

[Uwillparish]

I have several recommendations, depending on your technical skill level and what exactly you'd like to do.

 

Do you want to:

 

1. Clone the SSD to another drive, OR

2. Create an image file from the SSD?

 

The Data will essentially be the same, but the difference is that one will be expanded onto another HDD, and the other will be contained as a file, that you can store on a HDD as just another file.

 

Some good recommendations:

Clonezilla (Requires a bit higher technical ability). You can close disk to disk (eg: SSD to another SSD or to a HDD), or you can create an image file.

GUI is basically non-existant, it's mostly text based, but it DOES walk you through the steps. It's easy to use as long as you're careful with what you press.

http://clonezilla.org/show-live-doc-content.php?topic=clonezilla-live/doc/01_Save_disk_image

 

Good things about CloneZilla:

- It's free!

- It shows you the HDD SN! (This is really important if you're using the same Model Number of HDD/SSD)

- It can Clone or Save to Image

 

Bad things:

- It can't shrink a drive (Eg: If you clone a bigger drive to a smaller drive, it will fail)

- Text based GUI

 

Alternatives that are great:

EaseUS Free Backup tool

- Great and easy to use!

- Does not show SN though, just HDD/SSD model number.

 

Acronis True Home:

- Probably one of the single best cloning software to date, BUT, it's not free.

- However, does come free with certain HDD/SSD manufacturers.

 

There are other alternatives as well.

which one of these do you recommend for ssd-ssd, same size, with almost no risk of losing files, it looks like clonezilla would work, but if one of the others will work better, ill go with one of those

[dalekphalm]

which one of these do you recommend for ssd-ssd, same size, with almost no risk of losing files, it looks like clonezilla would work, but if one of the others will work better, ill go with one of those

I'd probably use Clonezilla, if they are both the same size of SSD, and you're doing a straight clone.

 

Are they the same model number of SSD?

[Uwillparish]

I'd probably use Clonezilla, if they are both the same size of SSD, and you're doing a straight clone.

 

Are they the same model number of SSD?

i dont think its the same model number, 

its these 2

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171701

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171741&ignorebbr=1&cm_re=sandisk%2b256gb%2bultra%2bplus-_-20-171-741-_-Product

[dalekphalm]

i dont think its the same model number, 

its these 2

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171701

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171741&ignorebbr=1&cm_re=sandisk%2b256gb%2bultra%2bplus-_-20-171-741-_-Product

Definitely two different model's of SSD.

 

Anyway, I would personally use Clonezilla. You can follow this guide here:

http://clonezilla.org/show-live-doc-content.php?topic=clonezilla-live/doc/03_Disk_to_disk_clone

 

You'll have to either burn Clonezilla onto a CD or DVD, or create a bootable USB stick with a spare USB stick.

If you don't know how to create a bootable USB Drive, then install this program here:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/tuxboot/files/0.8/Windows/

Tuxboot will download Clonezilla for you, and then create a bootable USB drive all at once.

Some screen shots to help you along:

http://tuxboot.org/screenshots/

 

If you have any specific questions about the process, please let me know.

[Captain_WD]

Hi guys,

 

I had to RMA my ssd as from what sandisk tells me its failing, and i just got the replacement, But ofcorse i need to clone the ssd. Does anyone know of a reliable cloning utility that will make sure i dont lose data?

 

 

Hey Uwillparish,

 

Acronis should have a version for each manufacturer that is free to use. It is reliable and works good. The only condition is that one of the drives is of the brand for which you are downloading it. 

 

Captain_WD.

[Uwillparish]

 

Hey Uwillparish,

 

Acronis should have a version for each manufacturer that is free to use. It is reliable and works good. The only condition is that one of the drives is of the brand for which you are downloading it. 

 

Captain_WD.

 

Already did the transfer last night Thanks for the suggestion though, and thanks to @dalekphalm for the help with it, everything went perfect. Now to find my shipping labels

[WastedEmu]

I usually use Aomei Partition Assistant, its free to use, and very easy to clone with like 3 mouse clicks.

 

Hopefully you Don't have to do it again, but just for future reference. its very simple, and great to use for formatting or partitioning, and resizing. its pretty much the same as Easeus' solution

 

http://www.disk-partition.com/download-home.html

[dalekphalm]

 

Hey Uwillparish,

 

Acronis should have a version for each manufacturer that is free to use. It is reliable and works good. The only condition is that one of the drives is of the brand for which you are downloading it. 

 

Captain_WD.

 

As far as I'm aware, WD is the only manufacturer to offer a free version of Acronis True Image. It is a fantastic piece of software though.

 

Already did the transfer last night Thanks for the suggestion though, and thanks to @dalekphalm for the help with it, everything went perfect. Now to find my shipping labels

Great! Glad I could be of help! If you found my instructions particularly useful, please mark that post as "answered".

[WastedEmu]

As far as I'm aware, WD is the only manufacturer to offer a free version of Acronis True Image. It is a fantastic piece of software though.

 

I have gotten Acronis for free from ADATA and OCZ as well. getting it for free from buying the drives makes it cheaper to upgrade to the fullversion usually for under $20. I use the full True Image on all my PC's to do backups pretty often