I've never cloned a disk before and I'm looking for a bit of guidance. I have an Intel 80GB SSD that I would like to move the Windows install over to a PNY 240GB SSD. Is this possible or am I better off with a reinstall? I used a program but the 240GB SSD was acting very slowly and I'm unsure if it's the drive or the program. I'll be testing the SSD tomorrow by installing Linux onto it and I'll see if it picks up.
Cheers
Is there an OS on the 80gb currently?
Yes, Windows 7 Pro.
Generally people recommend re-installing. So anyway:
For file by file based copiers there's software like Symantec ghost and MS's imageX software. Totally overkill.
For more of an open source linux feel there's bit-by-bit based copiers like clonezilla and .vhd format (created when using the windows complete pc restore feature).
Clonezilla and all bit-by-bit based copiers (including .vhd from complete pc restore) will always be destructive operations. The imagex tool can image a drive without deleting the contents already on the destination drive (since it's really just extracts a big zip file basically and writes those files to w/e you tell it to). Then ghost can do partition to partition operations which is awesome. I'd not reccomend imageX or .vhd since they require creating hard drive images (usually used for imaging multiple hard drives/computers not just one).
The laziest thing to do is to plug both hard drives into a computer and boot either clonezilla or ghost and then image one drive to another. The clonezilla documentation should guide you through this. Maybe they even updated to work with partitions only. That would be neat.
There's also the regular consumer user-friendly imaging software like norton ghost or acronis true image or macrium reflect but that software is more for backup oriented tasks than overt drive-to-drive imaging.
Have you used any of these personally? If so what do you recommend? I looked at Clonezilla which I may try, it might be I should re-install and get it over with.
I've used all of them, except for acronis, and they all work slightly differently. For what you're trying to do, clonezilla or ghost are the most appropriate and minimalistic. Clonezilla has the added benefit of being open source and actually free to use.
But Cloning it in this way damages the bcd store that windows uses to boot. So be sure to create a recovery disk to fix the bcd store automatically after the cloning operation. start -> maintence -> backup and restore center -> create system repair disk.
Then Download the amd64.iso version and follow the menu. CD booting is the laziest way to go and it's all pretty strait forward. Just select "local disk to local disk clone". Then the source, then the destination then yes->yes->yes-> stop asking already-> yes -> yes.
http://clonezilla.org/downloads/download.php?branch=stable
Adjust the bios boot order and (preferably) physically unplug the smaller ssd hard disk. then boot the recovery disk. select english -> do not fix automatically -> startup repair -> repair -> reboot (this has the same effect as running bcdboot c:\windows while in winPE)
Then once you're sure the new 240 ssd boots properly plug the smaller 80gb one back in.
Remember that because it's a byte-per-byte copier, you will have to extend your windows partition (or create a second one) after the computer boots from the second ss disk . Right-click computer -> manage -> disk management -> right-click your 240 ssd -> extend partition
And make sure you're actually booting from the correct ssd. The drive windows booted will have the boot/system properties on one of the volumes/partitions. If either of those 2 values are on the smaller ssd, then you might want to adjust the boot order in the bios/uefi until it's correct
Technically you can skip the entire recovery disk process and only use clonezilla and it will work to boot off the new drive but then it creates a dependency between them and I don't like dependencies.
Hiren's boot CD has a very easy utility for this, I think it's called Partition Magic, but I'm not sure. It lets you clone the smaller drive directly to the larger drive, then once you boot up you can use windows disk manager to expand the system partition to fill the rest of the drive. I've done this several times to move my install to another drive. Windows may flag it and require you to re-authenticate your key though; it'll notice the hardware change.
Imaging an SSD shouldn't be an issue. I used to use Ghost because of the speed of backups and restores, but Ghost can get pretty wonky with its images at times and image corruption was pretty common for me. I use Nova Backup these days. While it does have some set backs, the images have been pretty solid. The only thing I would recommend is that your older SSD may not support Trim. When upgrading the SSD make sure you go through and optimized Win 7 to recognize the new SSD and ensure that it sees the Trim support. This is extremely important as Trim does a lot for the garbage collection for the writes of the newer SSD using SandForce controllers. Another nifty tool I use a lot as well is AOMEI Partition Assistant. I do not remember if the free version offers Copy drive functions, but you can use it in place of imaging if it does.
Performance wise you should have noticed a speed increase from your old SSD. I upgraded my brother-in-law's Toshiba 60GB SSD to a OCZ 120GB SSD with very noticeable speed gains. The Toshiba SSD was a first Gen SSD.
After imaging the system to the new SSD check the following:
-Ensure the SATA controller is set to AHCI mode in the bios
-Windows sees the new SSD in Device Manager
-Maximized the partition on the new SSD using Disk Manager
-Complete a drive cleanup
-Complete an optimization of the disk to ensure that Windows sees the drive as an SSD (It should trim SSD using SandForce controllers. Status will show Trimming drive during optimization.)
give this a look
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/personal/pc-backup/?adpos=1t1&device=c&network=g&matchtype=e&creative=44836518617&gclid=CjwKEAjw4PCfBRCz966N9pvJ4GASJAAEdM_KD2x63lZKm7sf9yRhGztVkahnVFKF3l_bqaEFWQEiyxoCdFvw_wcB
I recommend both Hiren's and Clonezilla.
Both are pretty easy to use, and Hiren's will do quite a bit more than just clone a drive. I use it on client's computers for all sorts of drive-related issues.
Either should work, but you should create a vhd image backup and place it on a different drive before you proceed with anything, no matter what.
same with Acronis True Image
One difference. Acronis is not free, only a free trial.
yep ... true