Need to duplicate contents of exisiting HD to new SSD - a little confused!
Hi there
Have spent a few hours reading all the help files re cloning and backing up and am a bit confused as to the best way forwards.
At present I have:
A 2TB HD with Windows 7 installed on it. Currently - 0.41TB are being used. It has 3 partitions.
A new internal 1TB Crucial SSD drive.
Both drives are installed in the computer.
I have also upgraded OEM version of Acronis backup to the full version
I have also backed up the contents of my HD to an external hard drive using Acronis.
What I want to do is this:
Clone or backup/restore the contents of the HD onto the SSD. Then upgrade Windows 7 to 10 to test if all the installed programmes work on Windows 10.
If all is OK - to use the SSD as the boot drive and the old HD for archive / storage.
Questions.
1) Should I restore the backup of my HD onto the SSD drive and make the drive bootable? If so how do I do this?
2)Or should I clone the HD onto the SSD? If so how do I make the SSD drive the bootable one?
Any help greatly appreciated
Andrew


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Hi Steve
Thanks for your in depth reply - you really got what I was asking and the additional info about the Microsoft media Creation tool re the free upgrade was first class!
Just one question / clarification.
Yesterday I tried cloning the HD to the SSD a couple of times. But doing it through windows itself.
It failed with an error ( can't remember exact details) but something like - not enough room for Windows system to function.
Following that I ran Chkdsk at your suggestion in a previous thread and that should sort any issues there.
Am I right in thinking that booting from the USB stick will ensure I don't get the same error?
As it is bypassing using Windows for the cloning.
Best
Andrew
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Andrew, cloning is always more sensitive to do any file system issues than doing backups & recovery, but provided CHKDSK has resolved any errors that caused free space to be mis-calculated, then cloning shouldn't be an issue any more.
Acronis clone started from within Windows may still ask to restart to continue the operation, so doing the clone directly from the rescue media is the safer option, plus there is no possibility of any interference from any installed security applications etc.
Note: I did a Win 7 to Win 10 upgrade using the media creation tool just yesterday for a friend which worked just fine. The key is to start the upgrade from within Windows 7 - do not attempt to boot from Windows 10 install media as that would be a clean install & require a license key for activation. Once your computer hardware signature has been activated for Windows 10, then you can reinstall at a later date without any activation issues to the same hardware.
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Steve, is there any advantage or disadvantage to doing the clone as opposed to a disk/partition backup and restore (under the rescue media), assuming there is a drive to put the .tib on.
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Bruno, cloning or backup then recovery should both achieve the same end result where there are some advantages / disadvantages to each method.
Backup then recovery takes longer because of the extra step to create the backup on a third drive then recover that from that drive to the new drive, but it is inherently safer because the source drive can be removed or disconnected to avoid any errors / mistakes etc.
Cloning is faster to action as is a direct 1:1 copy from source to target, but always recommended to have a backup before undertaking any clone.
There are more options available with Backup & Recovery than with Clone but I doubt that many users use these to modify the actions being performed, so a Clone can appear to be a simpler process provided care is taken.
Cloning tends to be more sensitive to any disk issues such as bad sectors so may not work in such circumstances.
Backup & Recover is the only option if the source drive fails completely, assuming that a backup exists prior to that failure. Recovery is possible in a bare-metal scenario, cloning is not unless a cloned drive already exists (but is likely to be outdated!).
Using the bootable rescue media for both the above is always recommended when the OS drive is involved.
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Thanks, Steve. The important thing is that the result should be the same.
The speed issue is interesting to note because with the clone you're copying the whole drive but with a backup and recovery you can exclude the unimportant stuff (pagefile.sys, etc.) and free space. Or, do you recommend not excluding anything in that scenario? Also, as you said, a full backup is recommended anyway before cloning.
Under what conditions would a clone be preferable to backup/recovery?
And wholeheartedly agree with the last statement about using recovery media for the system drive.
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Bruno, clone does offer an option to exclude items if needed but it is not one that I have tended to use, and space should not be an issue if everything is being planned properly, i.e. there would be no point in cloning to a drive with no free space or less than a minimum of 10% free space!
My main reason for using cloning is when swapping drives, sometimes just for testing, but otherwise when upgrading a drive.
As stated earlier, step 1 is to make a full backup as a safety net before going to step 2 and doing a clone.
I upgraded a laptop drive a few days ago from a 1TB SSHD to a 500GB SSD for a family member where the new SSD had failed to boot when the person had attempted this on several times earlier.
Having the backup, then doing the clone convinced me that there was nothing wrong with the new SSD but the real issue was that the SSD wasn't connecting into the internal SATA connector dock fully when inserted into the carrier tray and bezel fitted.
(The fix was to keep the SSD in the tray but leave off the bezel - I used a piece of 'duck tape' to make a pull tab so that the drive could be pulled back out again - the drive was able to be secured by the normal fixing screws but the bezel was pulling it out by a millimetre!).
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Hi Steve
Staying with the original information at the start of this thread.
I tried the following yesterday.
1) Successfully restored the back up of from my HD onto the SSD drive.
2) Can see the restored contents on the SSD drive.
3) Disconnected the HD and tried to boot from the SSD drive - but it wasn't recognised.
4) It tried to boot to floppy!
5) Reconnected HD and it booted successfully.
6) Reordered BIOS so HD auto boots
7) Inspected Bios settings and could see both the HD and SSD (HD ordered first in boot system)
Wondering why I am unable to boot using the restored backup using the SSD?
Any thoughts?
Best
Andrew
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Andrew, is your current HDD booting using Legacy BIOS mode or UEFI mode?
When you look in the BIOS settings with your working HDD present, what do you see for the primary boot device?
If you are seeing the HDD by make/model, then this is Legacy mode.
If you see 'Windows Boot Manager' then it is UEFI mode.
After you swap in the SSD drive, you need to check again in the BIOS boot settings, and ensure that you see the appropriate entry for how the SSD needs to boot into Windows, i.e. the SSD by make/model if Legacy, or else the Windows Boot Manager option from the SSD if UEFI mode.
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Hi Steve
Very grateful as always!
Took a while to work out how to answer your question. My computer is quite an old HP desktop.
HPE h8-1170uk Desktop PC to be exact.
In the bios settings it shows that UEFI Boot sources could be available but nothing is.
Then under Legacy Boot Sources it shows
For the current booted HD SATA5 (no details)
For the SSD Drive SATA4
Both are still connected but if I switch the boot order to the SSD then it looks for a floppy disk! (How old is that!)
MSBR Error 1
Tried yesterday disconnecting the HD (ie Sata5) but came up with same error when booting up to the SSD.
Just wondering something
If you look at the enclosed disk manager screenshot
N is the SSD drive C is the HD
It looks as though the SSD isn't partitioned even though it contains the restored backup from C.
Best
Andrew
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Andrew, your screen image does not show the other partitions that are needed to boot the SSD, you really should be seeing the same as your HDD with the exception that the HP_Recovery partition could probably be safely deleted.
When doing the restore of your backup, this needs to be done as a Disk & Partition restore and at the top Disk selection level.
Please see forum topic: [How to] recover an entire disk backup - and in particular the attached PDF document which shows a step-by-step tutorial for doing this type of recovery / restore.
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