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cloning question

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I bought the 3 license pack last year - but was lazy and only got it installed on one of my pc's. My second pc just ran out of disk space - and try as I might to free up space - I can't recover enough - seems Windows updates is to blame - and using the cleaning tool isn't helping. 

So - my question is - can I take the ssd drive out of this computer - put it into my main computer that I already have Acronis True Image installed on - and use the cloning tool to clone the 2nd PC's drive onto a new SSD I purchased?   

What is the best way to do this? - Plug the 2nd PC into the inside of my computer - and then hook the new SSD up via USB and clone it that way? My concern is messing something up on either my existing PC or the Second PC's original drive. 

Thanks so much for helping - I'm wanting to get this done this weekend - but don't want to create bigger problems than I already have. 

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James, the quick answer is yes, provided you are connecting the SSD from your other computer as a second / slave drive in the other computer with Acronis installed (and not trying to use it as a boot drive).

If you can connect the SSD as an internal SATA drive and do the same with the new SSD you want to clone to, then that would be one of the fastest ways of doing so.  Otherwise, you can connect via USB with a suitable adapter but the clone will take longer depending on the USB type (3.0 is fastest, 2.0 slower and 1.0 the slowest).

If you have sufficient drive space on your system with Acronis, then you could make a full backup image of the SSD to be cloned before starting that clone operation - the image could be put to an external or network drive.

I have used this method many times when replacing drives - I keep a spare system mainly for this type of purpose, including delousing drives with virus infections etc, where I can set these operations going and have nothing else running.

James,

Another option is to use your main computer to create Acronis rescue media on DVD or USB...you may have already done this.

Then you can install your new SSD into your other computer.  Then attach the old HDD drive to the other computer via USB.  Then boot from rescue media and perform the clone.  Once the clone is complete, remove the USB connected HDD, remove the rescue media, and boot from your new SDD.

Regards,

FtrPilot

Thanks - that actually sounds safer. I'll give it a try.  Am more worried about putting a second sdd in my main computer - and have my computer boot from the wrong one - or mess one of them up.  

James,

If you are looking for the safest way (often the best way) would be NOT to use the clone method but use the method where you

make a disk image backup of your source disk

Install the blank disk into the host computer.

Restore the backup file (located in an attached external or lan) and restore the backup  onto the source disk.

The original source disk is not even attached and not subject to any risk of a user mistake.

YOu do not indicate which version of Windows, nor whether your system is partitioned as GPT or MBR.

Thanks Grover, I just finished this a couple hours ago - the cloning method worked great using FtrPilots recommendation of making and booting from the rescue media.   Thanks guys! Good to know there is a great community here to help.  Have a great weekend.