Drive Mirroring

[iamdarkbowser]

My school's computers are absolutely terrible, they take about 10min to boot up and are rather unresponsive close to "complete boot" and slow afterwards. I want them to get 60gb SSDs for all of the computers (at least in my class) but all of the everything in their current drives would need to be on the SSDs so that would include: windows, all the programs, all of the accounts that would log in to any of the computers, and all the modifications to windows. The data on the SSDs would have to be EXACTLY the same as the current drives. How would this mirroring be accomplished? 

[porina]

Look up Apricorn SATA Wire. This is a USB device that connects to a system USB socket and a SATA device. Run their software and it will clone and resize to the new disk. Once done, simply swap it over. I've used mine many times with Windows 7 and 8 without problem. Haven't needed it on 10 yet.

 

I would add, I run their Windows software, and I suspect it can't copy some in use files. The only difference I notice for example, is the Windows Update logs are not present on the cloned system. They do other versions of software that might do better outside of Windows if you want to be sure every last file is identical. At a practical level I've not had a problem with the Windows software.

 

I also can't say I've used the current USB 3 version, as I have the older USB 2 version which is more limited by USB speed.

[iamdarkbowser]

@porina So this would copy all of things that are special about their version of windows, including preferences and accounts? 

[porina]

Just now, iamdarkbowser said:

@porina So this would copy all of things that are special about their version of windows, including preferences? 

For practical purposes, the copied system behaves identically to the old one. Same software. Same settings. Same user files.

 

Windows might need a reboot to set up drivers when the new drive is first connected. Thinking more, there is a chance that hardware locked software might notice the different drive. I've not had to reactivate OEM versions of Windows 7 or 8 for example, but did for Vista. I don't know about 3rd party software. If anything needs activation, it may be worth researching further.

 

Since you copy the drive, you could try it out and if it doesn't work as intended you can keep the old drive in place. Of course, possible negative is you still need to buy it to try it. Does your school have an IT department that might be able to help? Or at least stick it on their budget as it can be a handy thing to have around regardless.

 

I'm sure there are software only solutions that could do similar, but would mean connecting the 2nd drive to the machine (or another machine setup to do the clone). This only eliminates the buying of hardware but you still run the risk something might not like a disk change.

[iamdarkbowser]

1 minute ago, porina said:

For practical purposes, the copied system behaves identically to the old one. Same software. Same settings. Same user files.

 

Windows might need a reboot to set up drivers when the new drive is first connected. Thinking more, there is a chance that hardware locked software might notice the different drive. I've not had to reactivate OEM versions of Windows 7 or 8 for example, but did for Vista. I don't know about 3rd party software. If anything needs activation, it may be worth researching further.

 

Since you copy the drive, you could try it out and if it doesn't work as intended you can keep the old drive in place. Of course, possible negative is you still need to buy it to try it. Does your school have an IT department that might be able to help? Or at least stick it on their budget as it can be a handy thing to have around regardless.

 

I'm sure there are software only solutions that could do similar, but would mean connecting the 2nd drive to the machine (or another machine setup to do the clone). This only eliminates the buying of hardware but you still run the risk something might not like a disk change.

I am sure that there is an IT department but the previously mentioned school is partnered with my main school which starts much earlier so the school with the slow computers likely does not have much if any at all of their IT staff. I probably would be responsible for doing the swap.  There are 20 to 25 computers that need the change. I don't even know if this school will let me do this but I intend to ask with all the knowledge necessary. I could test it on a crap drive I currently have that works to test it, I want to at least look at the hard drive model the computers are currently using to look at it's read/write speeds. The school might not allow me to change anything in the computers because they are pre-built name brand computers, but might as well try. Also I would prefer a software based cloner because I will have to pop open the computer anyway to replace the drive, and the usb device you mentioned earlier costs money units.