Expert advice - OEM Disk Cloning
Hello Everyone!
I have a Dell Inspiron 3583 laptop, it came with a 1Tb HDD. I bought a Crucial 500Gb SSD, OEM instructions say it's just a one click step, I recently read the "important points before Cloning". I want some expert advice because both the drives are installed in the computer, I do not want to remove the hdd after Cloning because I have to install it again for more data storage.
How do I proceed with Cloning, or choose backup and restore? I also have a 1Tb external hdd for backup. Do I need to do it using acronis recovery media or from windows. After Cloning how do I format the hdd for not corrupting both windows installation.
As this is my first time literally having 2 drives in my computer so I would be very thankful if someone gives me proper advice to have the least chance of full corruption and data loss
Thanks everyone in advance

- Log in to post comments

Bunny, welcome to these public User Forums.
My first and most important recommendation is to make a full Disks & Partitions backup image of the working 1TB HDD to your external disk drive.
Next, if you haven't already done so, create the OEM Acronis bootable rescue media - ideally this should be using the 'Simple' media creation option (assuming that this is available) as this will create Windows PE media including necessary device drivers taken from the Dell Windows Recovery Environment, which offers the best compatibility with modern hardware.
Note: as you say that the new SSD is installed in the laptop, then assuming that you have booted it into Windows then any new device drivers should have been installed.
Once you have created the rescue media, then test booting the laptop from that media ensuring that you use the correct BIOS boot mode to match the one used by Windows. This should normally be in UEFI BIOS mode if you have a new laptop or are running Windows 11. Run the command msinfo32 from within Windows and check the value shown for BIOS Mode in the right side column of the report the command produces.
The next step is to look at the BIOS settings and make yourself aware of what the current settings show, i.e. again if using UEFI for the boot mode, then the setting should show 'Windows Boot Manager' from the 1TB HDD drive. If you are intending to have both the HDD and SSD installed in the laptop, then this setting needs to reflect the correct drive to boot from, i.e. Windows Boot Manager from the SSD after you have either cloned or recovered the OS to that new drive.
See KB 65539: Acronis True Image 2021: How to restore your computer with WinPE-based or WinRE-based media
or KB 61665: Acronis True Image 2019, 2020 and 2021: Active Cloning in Windows
Note: the above KB documents were written with the full retail version of Acronis in mind so some displays / options may be different when using an OEM version of Acronis due to limitations in those versions.
- Log in to post comments

Steve Smith wrote:Bunny, welcome to these public User Forums.
My first and most important recommendation is to make a full Disks & Partitions backup image of the working 1TB HDD to your external disk drive.
Next, if you haven't already done so, create the OEM Acronis bootable rescue media - ideally this should be using the 'Simple' media creation option (assuming that this is available) as this will create Windows PE media including necessary device drivers taken from the Dell Windows Recovery Environment, which offers the best compatibility with modern hardware.
Note: as you say that the new SSD is installed in the laptop, then assuming that you have booted it into Windows then any new device drivers should have been installed.
Once you have created the rescue media, then test booting the laptop from that media ensuring that you use the correct BIOS boot mode to match the one used by Windows. This should normally be in UEFI BIOS mode if you have a new laptop or are running Windows 11. Run the command msinfo32 from within Windows and check the value shown for BIOS Mode in the right side column of the report the command produces.
The next step is to look at the BIOS settings and make yourself aware of what the current settings show, i.e. again if using UEFI for the boot mode, then the setting should show 'Windows Boot Manager' from the 1TB HDD drive. If you are intending to have both the HDD and SSD installed in the laptop, then this setting needs to reflect the correct drive to boot from, i.e. Windows Boot Manager from the SSD after you have either cloned or recovered the OS to that new drive.
See KB 65539: Acronis True Image 2021: How to restore your computer with WinPE-based or WinRE-based media
or KB 61665: Acronis True Image 2019, 2020 and 2021: Active Cloning in Windows
Note: the above KB documents were written with the full retail version of Acronis in mind so some displays / options may be different when using an OEM version of Acronis due to limitations in those versions.
One question, do I need to remove the hdd after recovery to ssd? Can I confidentaly format it because I am unable the remove the hdd physically as one of the screw of the hard drive has lost its head indents, also can I safely boot with both drives installed?
Thanks again!
- Log in to post comments

One question, do I need to remove the hdd after recovery to ssd? Can I confidentaly format it because I am unable the remove the hdd physically as one of the screw of the hard drive has lost its head indents, also can I safely boot with both drives installed?
See webpage How to replace the Hard Drive in your Dell INSPIRON 3583 from the Dell Support site.
You could just detach the drive cable to avoid having the two drives active when booting from the SSD - you will need to remove the laptop battery to get to the connector as shown in the video above. I have never known any issues with removing the drive retention screws in any laptop but I guess a bad screw could be drilled out using a Dremel type mini drill.
Formatting the HDD could be done from the Acronis rescue media by using the Tools option to 'Add new disk' and selecting that HDD.
Booting with both drives installed can be done but you run the risk of a disk signature clash which could corrupt Windows.
- Log in to post comments

Steve Smith wrote:One question, do I need to remove the hdd after recovery to ssd? Can I confidentaly format it because I am unable the remove the hdd physically as one of the screw of the hard drive has lost its head indents, also can I safely boot with both drives installed?
See webpage How to replace the Hard Drive in your Dell INSPIRON 3583 from the Dell Support site.
You could just detach the drive cable to avoid having the two drives active when booting from the SSD - you will need to remove the laptop battery to get to the connector as shown in the video above. I have never known any issues with removing the drive retention screws in any laptop but I guess a bad screw could be drilled out using a Dremel type mini drill.
Formatting the HDD could be done from the Acronis rescue media by using the Tools option to 'Add new disk' and selecting that HDD.
Booting with both drives installed can be done but you run the risk of a disk signature clash which could corrupt Windows.
Sorry for the mistake, I could not remove the battery screw, also this is my first time opening a laptop so I do not have the confidence to use a drill or any other stuff, I contemplated for 15 mins just the open it up again as I don't know where do I have the risk of destruction.
Another note, using the recover list menu to checkout the disk partition list, the letters of the recovered SSD are not same, eg os drive has j, this may be because I have both drives installed, as I don't have another copy other than the backup 1 file tibx image, I feel it may not be safe to format the hdd, I can't disconnect it either.
Does the drive signature remain same even after backup and restore. According to other posts advice I have chose backup and restore and not clone, I would not like to destroy data in hdd without 100 percent guarantee that the restore to ssd will not fail and I can boot from the recovered drive
Thanks for you continuous and immediate replys and help
- Log in to post comments

Another note, using the recover list menu to checkout the disk partition list, the letters of the recovered SSD are not same, eg os drive has j, this may be because I have both drives installed, as I don't have another copy other than the backup 1 file tibx image, I feel it may not be safe to format the hdd, I can't disconnect it either.
That is normal that drive letters are different when viewed from Acronis rescue media - this is documented in the Acronis manual to warn users of this fact. The drive letters are often different than shown within Windows due to the way that boot media works and whether it is Windows PE or Linux media.
Sorry for the mistake, I could not remove the battery screw
It should still be possible to remove the 4 HDD retaining screws without removing the battery which would allow you to disconnect the drive from the cable at the drive end (taking care not to damage the cable or pull it too hard).
Does the drive signature remain same even after backup and restore. According to other posts advice I have chose backup and restore and not clone, I would not like to destroy data in hdd without 100 percent guarantee that the restore to ssd will not fail and I can boot from the recovered drive
The drive signature should remain the same as that is the nature of making a backup image or cloning. Backup & Recovery is recommended because it is safer than using Cloning by virtue of being able to do the Recovery with the original drive removed and stored safely away in a cupboard etc, so avoiding any chance of selecting the wrong drive etc.
If you are not confident with opening the laptop and removing components such as the battery and drive, then you may be best to try to find a friend or neighbour who has more experience else go to a local PC store or service.
Any recovery to the new SSD would perform an initial wipe of the new drive in order to setup the SSD as needed to created the partitions to be recovered - the same would apply to recovering the backup to the original HDD too.
- Log in to post comments

Another question, I cannot see the ssd in boot menu after recovery, I can see windows boot manager, the acronis pendrive and the hdd, but the partition list shows that all boot partitions are in ssd too?
- Log in to post comments

Can I trust the recovered SSD will be bootable, because currently with both drives installed I can see in the bios
Windows boot manager
HP pendrive (acronis media)
1Tb internal Hard drive
It is not showing the internal ssd as an option to boot from with it recovered from my external backup. The windows boot manager also does not show which drive it is using. What should I do now to make ssd bootable
- Log in to post comments

The boot device for your system needs to be the Windows Boot Manager from the new SSD and with having both drives installed, then you should also have a second Windows Boot Manager from the original HDD too.
When booting it is best to remove all the external drives, i.e. the HP pendrive.
You should not attempt to boot directly from the SSD as this would assume a Legacy BIOS boot whereas having the Windows Boot Manager tells us that you have a UEFI BIOS boot system.
- Log in to post comments