Is this the appropriate project for cloning my drive?
I'm not sure if what I want to do is even possible, but figured if it was Acronis (and this forum) would likely have the answer.
I have an 8 yo PC running Windows 10, and it's getting very close to dying. I want to keep all my programs still usable because some of them are either no longer made or I've lost my install keys long ago. What I'm hoping to do is clone my HDD in my old computer to a new and larger SSD. Then buy a new computer and replace its boot drive with the cloned SSD drive. New computer boots up just like my old computer except now in a completely different tower. At least that's how it plays out in my head. :)
I've researched this and have seen so many different answers I don't know what to believe. Some say they've done such things themselves and it works perfectly. Others say it may work, sort of, but some programs may still not run properly. Even others say it won't work at all and the cloned drive will not boot or be recognized in the new computer.
Can Acronis handle this project for me?
Thank you. So you are saying using the clone tool is not the procedure I want to use? This process is what I see described the most when searching for what I'm trying to do.
Nick Swinhart wrote:Thank you. So you are saying using the clone tool is not the procedure I want to use? This process is what I see described the most when searching for what I'm trying to do.
Hello!
I would advise the backup and restore instead. In my point of view it's more appropriate for the operation you want to execute.
But you can also clone following the instructions of this KB: https://kb.acronis.com/content/2931
Thanks in advance!
Nick,
You say your 8 year PC is about to die, how so? What exactly do you mean by that, is your hard disk giving errors, your Windows installation not working properly, etc.?
Keep in mind that if you are experiencing errors from Windows this can be the sign of corrupted Windows files. There are tools within Windows itself that can help with issues like this.
Keep in mind as well that a clone operation is basically a bit for bit copy of one disk to another disk. If the source (original) disk has corruption or physical errors they will be transferred to the target (new) disk thus your new disk may exhibit the same behavior that currently exists with your PC.
Please provide more details on your situation here so that our understanding of your situation is better. That will allow us to comment better.
I'm not getting Windows errors or evidence of bad sectors or anything like that. It's just peripheral stuff. The tower fan has died, the CPU fan has died, it takes about 20 minutes to boot up to a usable state, the keyboard is failing, and so on. I figured it was time to get new hardware before something really bad happens but I also want to keep access to all my old programs if possible. If I have to go out and replace all the software it will be really expensive and as I said, some of it is no longer even available.
Nick, given what you say above, then please do make a Full Disk backup of your PC as soon as possible to an external disk drive.
Things like the tower and CPU fan can be replaced fairly easily and at low cost and would help give you a little more time by preventing overheating of components.
The boot time can depend on a number of different factors including hardware issues, accumulation of dross over years, too many startup programs, too little memory and old disk drive technology etc.
Having a full backup of the working Windows 10 system would also allow you the option of restoring that system to a virtual machine rather than trying to migrate the old OS to new physical hardware directly. I use this approach on my Windows 11 main system where I have ported older systems into separate VM's using either VMware or Hyper-V.
The advantage of using VM's is that the main OS can be running Windows 11 with all the latest updates etc, while the VM's can be running Windows 10, 7, XP etc. I have VM's with all those OS versions along with earlier Win 95, 98, ME, 2000 plus various Linux flavours.
See my YouTube video 'ATI2021 Restore to VM' for a demo of restoring a backup of Win 10 to a VMware VM.
Nick,
Steve offers sage advice. I would also add that given the age of your PC I would recommend that you do some OS and disk maintenance prior to creating a Full disk backup of the hard drive. I am outlining below the steps to follow.
OS clean up:
- Open File Explorer and right-click on your C: or OS system drive, then select Properties from the menu that appears. Properties should open to the General tab, if not navigate there. On the General tab you will see a button "Disk Cleanup". Clicking that button will produce a new window from which to choose non-critical files on your disk and remove them from your disk. After making your selections click OK and Windows will remove these files. Next, click on the Clean up system files button seen on the Disk Cleanup screen. Another window will open after a few seconds which will display other non-critical Windows files including older OS installations that you may choose for removal. Again, make your selections then click OK and Windows will remove those files.
- If your current hard disk is a standard hard drive (non-SSD), back on the Properties screen click the Tools tab click on the Optimize button and Windows will scan the disk for fragmentation. After the scan you will be advised if de-fragmentation is necessary or not but you can still run the tool even if Windows says it is not necessary. I would recommend that you do.
Filesystem check:
- From and admin or elevated command prompt or PowerShell prompt run the following command, SFC /scannow This scan will find and correct any corruption found in any Windows System files. In some cases a new file may be downloaded from MS update to replace a corrupted file. If errors are found and after the tool reports those errors to be fixed it is advised that you run the command again and yet again if additional errors are found until the tool reports no errors found.
Disk check:
- To be frank a backup image performs a compressed backup copy of all data on an OS disk when the Full Disk backup is selected. Because not physical disk information is copied a disk check is unnecessary here.
- In contrast if you Clone a disk disk information such as sector, MBR, etc. are copied from the source disk to the target disk and therefore disk checks are recommended prior to performing the clone operation so as to avoid disk corruption being copied to the target disk as a result of the clone operation
Hope this helps in your situation.
Thank you for all the advice, everyone! I'm a little concerned after visiting with a local computer repair shop. The guy there said what I'm trying to do is impossible. He said trying to move and maintain an old system on a new computer just isn't going to work. The best option is to copy over all the files and plan on having to re-install everything.
I think I'll try your suggestions first. If it doesn't work for some reason I can just re-install the OEM drive and start from scratch.