Clone HDD to SSD

Adrian, welcome to these user forums.

Yes, it should be possible to do what you are asking providing that all the data held on the HDD can fit comfortably on the new SSD drive.

Please see KB document: 56634: Acronis True Image 2016: Cloning Disks which will take you through all the steps needed to do this, plus has a video tutorial showing the process.

Some warnings here:  Please do not attempt to do this from within Windows (even though ATIH will allow you!)

Always perform cloning using the bootable Acronis Rescue Media on DVD or USB stick - this will also be a good exercise to prove that you can use this media to recover your system should you ever need to do so in the future.

It is strongly recommended that you remove the source HDD from your computer and replace it with the target SSD drive before you start the clone.  Connect the HDD externally via USB or in a second disk position.

The SSD needs to be connected where the HDD was in order to enable it to boot correctly into Windows after the clone has completed.  If it is connected anywhere else it will not boot.

Do not boot Windows with both the SSD and HDD connected after cloning - they will now both be identical and have the same disk signature.  You can reconnect the HDD later after the SSD boots OK.

Hi,

but wasn´t there an issue cloning (S-ATA)-drives to SSD-drives ?

I have Acronis TrueImage 2017/2016/2014premium/2013HomePlus/2010-B6029.

Would they all "Clone-2-SSD" or only version 2017 / latest ?

thanks

Ralf, I am not aware of any specific problem with cloning from SATA to SSD - this is a common process that many users are doing regularly.

Where there may be problems is if you are cloning between different drive controller types, i.e. from IDE to SATA SSD, or from SATA HDD or SSD to PCIe SSD, or to NVMe / M.2 SSD drives.

There are also documented limitations if you have any dynamic drives involved.

As to your list of Acronis True Image versions, then I would recommend going with the latest ones unless you are dealing with very old computer hardware.  Support for the latest PCIe NVMe M.2 drives was only introduced in the later 2016 builds and in 2017, so would not expect the older versions to be able to handle these types of drive outside of Windows, where all cloning should be performed.

One further comment: many modern computers use RAID even for single SSD drives so again, there may be issues if cloning between different disk controller modes, i.e. from AHCI to RAID or reverse.

Please also see post: 128231: [IMPORTANT] CLONING - How NOT to do this!!! from the ATIH 2017 forum.

ah OK, so thanks a lot ! :)

I need to clone a Raid 1 (main drive) sata HHD to a SSD (a 2nd computer), Acronis 2015 is installed on my computer, I have in the past (Raid 0) installed both HDD & SSD in my computer along with my main drive (which has Acronis) and cloned from HHD to SSD and it worked A-OK. My question is can I do the same with a Raid 1 main drive or do I have to move Acronis to the Raid 1 computer and do it?

Joseph, welcome to these user forums.

You cannot clone a RAID drive with ATIH 2015 as this is a dynamic drive and not supported, however you should be able to achieve the same result as cloning by doing a full disk & partitions Backup and Recovery - all of this should only be done by using the Acronis bootable Rescue Media, not done from starting inside of Windows.

If you are attempting to migrate the RAID drive to a different computer, then this becomes more complicated because you will be restoring the Backup to different hardware and this would normally require the use of the Acronis Universal Restore tool to prepare the restored OS to work with the different hardware in that second computer.

Please see post: 128231: [IMPORTANT] CLONING - How NOT to do this!!! as a starting point - these actions shown in the referenced documents need to be performed before attempting to use Acronis Universal Restore.

You will need to create and test both types of bootable media, i.e. the Acronis bootable Rescue Media needed for Backup & Restore, and the Acronis bootable Universal Restore Media needed to prepare the restored OS.  The testing is required to ensure that both of these bootable media can correctly recognise and allow access to your RAID drive(s) and that the RAID array is seen by Acronis as if it is a single drive.

If the standard, Linux based, Rescue Media / AUR media does not see / recognise your RAID drive array, then you will need to create the alternative Windows PE versions of the media.

Thank you Steve, this is very useful advice, especially It is strongly recommended that you remove the source HDD from your computer and replace it with the target SSD drive before you start the clone.  Connect the HDD externally via USB or in a second disk position.

Because of your advice, the cloning of my boot hard disk drive to SSD happened flawlessly.

Steve, glad to hear that all went flawlessly for your clone, thanks for the feedback.

Two other important points here worth mentioning:

1.  Software that needs to be de-authorized should be taken care of  before the cloning process.  This includes iTunes and Adobe products such as Audition.   Simply de-authorize before the cloning and then re-authorize once you use the software after the cloning. 
2.  Your old HDD boot disk can be placed in a hard disk enclosure case and attached via USB to your computer.   In my case it was a 500 GB 3.5 inch SATA Drive and the enclosure case (which can handle 2.5 inch or 3.5 inch SATA) looks neat and tidy and cost me a grand total of $26 Canadian.   This configuration can now be used as another backup drive to my system.   Just to be safe however, it's good to run a full backup of your system with the new SSD drive before reformatting your old HDD boot disk. 

Steve, all good points to make - better to do it right and be safe than sorry later.

Steve,  This is be-lated to your response last month. I have a new WD 250GB SSD drive. A Dell computer with a 500Gb HD ... I want to make the SSD the boot drive. NOTHING was included with the WD drive - nada - zip - zilch on how to do this. I USE to be familiar with computers but that was years ago. So you say don't use Windows - but do I still need to go in the bios and set up (whatever that is) the SSD before doing any of this? When you say remove the HDD - I've no way to make it nor no (long term) desire to use it on USB .... so do you mean physically unplug it from the current SATA data cable - connecting that to the SSD (then doing its bios stuff?) and then connecting a second loose SATA cable to the HDD? I assume I need to create an Acronis rescue disk for this computer ahead of time - is the 'free' version of Acronis from WD for cloning capable of this? (I have Acronis on 2 other computers but its only licensed on those - not the computer this is being done to)  I WISH that WD supplied info on how to do this. Its FRUSTRATING and unfair that I have to go to Acronis' site to get this info (their Community and Support is non-existent and unhelpful).     Gary 

Gary, first some notes:  

How much data is on your 500GB HDD drive?  
This will need to be less than say 200GB to fit on your new WD 250GB SSD drive and leave sufficient free space to allow the SSD to operate efficiently.

This type of migration is best done outside of using Windows, by which I mean booting from the Acronis bootable Rescue Media (on CD/DVD or USB stick).  If you have Acronis installed on 2 other of your computers, then you could make the Rescue Media on one of those and use it on this computer for this purpose.

The safest method of migrating from the HDD to the new SSD is by way of making a full disk & partitions backup of the HDD on an external backup disk drive, then remove & replace the HDD with the SSD - connecting to the same internal cables.  This completely protects the HDD from any mistakes that you could make by having it disconnected outside the computer while you restore the HDD backup from the backup disk drive to the new SSD drive.

There is no need to have both drives connected at the same time.

Note: you can create the full disk backup of the HDD using the Acronis Rescue Media as well as using this to restore the backup to the new SSD (after swapping over the drives).

Hi, I´m Using Acronis True Image 2015, i need to clone my laptops HDD to a new SSD, which way is the most appropiate to do it?   Also is there a way to do it removing both drives and placing them on a PC using both Drives (laptops HDD and new SSD) as slave drives? is there a way to clone using a USB box for the new SSD??

Thanks....

Pc Master, you may want to read this article [IMPORTANT] CLONING - How NOT to do this!!! | Acronis Forum . Most folks here prefer to make a backup of the drive and then restore it to the new one instead of cloning.

Thanks Tom, looking into it asap....  :)