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Clone an HDD with Linux (in dual boot with Windows 10 installed in a different drive on the same pc) to a Crucial MX500 SSD.

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On my laptop I have a 128GB SSD with Windows 10 and a 1TB HDD partitioned into a NTFS partition for data and an ext2 partition with Ubuntu installed. On startup it boots into GRUB which let me choose what OS I want to boot in.

I bought a Crucial MX500 to replace the HDD and downloaded Acronis True Image for Crucial (2019).

I'm planning to clone completely the HDD onto the SSD. I created and tested the Acronis Rescue Media and it boots fine. 

Should I clone the HDD to the SSD through the Windows application or should I use the bootable media?

Do I have to replace the HDD first and clone using it as an external drive onto the new internal SSD or I can clone and then swap drives afterwards??

I don't want to damage my data or my drives. Are there any other tips I should follow (apart from, of course, make a backup of the data on the source drive)?

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Arnaldo, welcome to these public User Forums.

See KB 2201: Support for OEM Versions of Acronis Products which applies to all OEM versions of ATI supplied with hardware purchases.

I have never used cloning with any Linux filesystem such as your EXT2 and would advice caution in doing so!

Before making any change to your system, I would strongly recommend making a full Disks & Partitions backup of both of your disk drives, and to do this separately, storing the backup images on an external drive.

You have not mentioned what size the new Crucial MX500 to replace the 1TB HDD drive is?  Is this the same size as the HDD or is it smaller?

My personal recommendation would be to do as follows:

  1. Identify what partition scheme is used by your Windows 10 OS
  2. Identify what partition scheme is used for your 1TB HDD drive?
    Are these both the same, i.e. are both UEFI / GPT or both Legacy / MBR?
  3. Make a backup of the HDD including both the NTFS and EXT2 partitions.
  4. Remove the HDD and replace this with the MX500 SSD.
  5. If both drives use the same partition scheme, as per steps 1 & 2, then use the ATI application running from Windows 10 to recover the backup of the HDD to the MX500 SSD.
  6. If Windows 10 uses a different partition scheme than is on the HDD, then you need to boot from your Acronis Rescue Media in the mode that matches the HDD, then recover the HDD backup to the MX500 SSD from that media.