Cloning multi-partition (several formats) HDD to SSD?

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I'm sick of my audio tracks skipping whenever my NAS needs to read anything else from its drives, so I decided to add a second NAS.

I'm forced to put it in my desk, so I want it to be quiet. I pulled my old Lacie d2 Network 2 (passive cooling) out of the box and decided to replace its noisy and slow 3.5" HDD with an SSD.

The hard disk is a 1TB Samsung HD103SI, the SSD a 1TB Samsung 840 EVO (I'm upgrading the PC to 850 PRO SSDs thanks to the persistent problems with the 840 EVO, so I might as well use the old EVO for something where its diminished speed isn't an issue).

Size-wise I don't expect any problems, but the HDD has the firmware on it and uses more than half a dozen partitions in various formats. Fat32, NTFS, EXT2, EXT3, some other stuff that even Gparted can't quite figure out. If those aren't copied over exactly as they were, the NAS won't boot. the fact that I am not familiar with cloning doesn't help either.

What tool do you recommend for cloning the HDD to the SSD? I have room and connections to put them both in the PC at the same time (2 hotswap bays), so no need to make an iso first. I have Win7 and Mint in dualboot, so Linux options are very much an option. Would dd work? How long would it take to clone a full GB?

[Captain_WD]

I'm sick of my audio tracks skipping whenever my NAS needs to read anything else from its drives, so I decided to add a second NAS.

I'm forced to put it in my desk, so I want it to be quiet. I pulled my old Lacie d2 Network 2 (passive cooling) out of the box and decided to replace its noisy and slow 3.5" HDD with an SSD.

The hard disk is a 1TB Samsung HD103SI, the SSD a 1TB Samsung 840 EVO (I'm upgrading the PC to 850 PRO SSDs thanks to the persistent problems with the 840 EVO, so I might as well use the old EVO for something where its diminished speed isn't an issue).

Size-wise I don't expect any problems, but the HDD has the firmware on it and uses more than half a dozen partitions in various formats. Fat32, NTFS, EXT2, EXT3, some other stuff that even Gparted can't quite figure out. If those aren't copied over exactly as they were, the NAS won't boot. the fact that I am not familiar with cloning doesn't help either.

What tool do you recommend for cloning the HDD to the SSD? I have room and connections to put them both in the PC at the same time (2 hotswap bays), so no need to make an iso first. I have Win7 and Mint in dualboot, so Linux options are very much an option. Would dd work? How long would it take to clone a full GB?

 

 

Hey Captain Chaos,

 

Acronis True Image usually has a free version for all major manufacturers and it works very good. The only requirement is that one of the drives should be of the brand which version of Acronis you are using. E.g. if you have a SSD and a WD drive, the only condition in order to use Acronis True Image WD Edition is to actually have a WD drive during the process. 

 

Captain_WD.