Correct procedure for cloning HDD to SSD.

See this guide:

- Use Windows disk management to verify that the active partition is on the system disk (right click on the computer icon on your desktop, choose manage, storage, disk management)

- Print a screen shot of the disk management console for future reference

- Uninstall any program you don't want on the SSD (eg: games, ). Move any content you don't want on the SSD.

- Do a full backup of your current disk. Include all partitions, even the hidden ones (no need to use the sector by sector setting)

- Put your SSD at the same spot at your current disk. Remove your current disk from the computer for the time being.

- Boot your computer on the Acronis recovery CD

- Restore each partition at a time in the same order they were laid out (use your screen shot). This will allow to control resizing and offset to align the disk

- Leave a 1MB space before the first partition (maybe system reserved?)

- Mark the correct partition active (maybe system reserved?)

- Leave the drive letter change option alone

- Do not resize any partition except the C:\system partition or any partition you created and want on the SSD

- Make sure that each partition has a size that is a whole number of MB (doesn't matter for the last partition)

- No need to reboot inbetween partition restores

- After the last partition, restore the MBR+track0 and the disk signature

That's it.

Reboot on your new SSD. Then, if you want to use your old disk, put it back in the computer, reboot. Delete whatever you want, etc.
You have some tweaks to optimize your SSD:
- disable automatic defragmentation of that disk
- optionally, disable indexing on the disk (not a big deal)
- disable the superfetch service,
- leave the page file on the SSD
- verify that TRIM is activated http://www.ghacks.net/2010/09/14/verify-that-trim-is-enabled-in-windows…
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Thanks for the information.

Couple of questions though.

How do I restore the MBR+track0 and the disk signature? Are they options on the restore CD?

My current layout is C:\ and D:\ on the drive I wish to clone, and E:\ on another drive. When you say 'verify the active partition is on the system disc' what do you mean?

Will alignment for the SSD occur automatically or will I have to do it?

When you say may the correct partition active, what do you mean?

Finally, some people have told me that there is just a clone option on this program, where you just plug both discs in and it will clone from one to another, and then disconnect the old disc. Is this correct, and why should I use your method as opposed to this clone method?

Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

Alex Barton wrote:

How do I restore the MBR+track0 and the disk signature? Are they options on the restore CD?

Yes, there will be checkboxes to choose to restore them.

Alex Barton wrote:

When you say 'verify the active partition is on the system disc' what do you mean?

Pat said what to do, and you have not yet indicated if you have done it. Use Windows disk management to verify that the active partition is on the system disk (right click on the computer icon on your desktop, choose manage, storage, disk management) Take a screenshot of that window, print it for reference and post it in this thread.

Alex Barton wrote:

Finally, some people have told me that there is just a clone option on this program, where you just plug both discs in and it will clone from one to another, and then disconnect the old disc. Is this correct, and why should I use your method as opposed to this clone method?

Pat has given you the safer method. You can choose to listen to MVPs or to "some people".

tuttle wrote:

Alex Barton wrote:

How do I restore the MBR+track0 and the disk signature? Are they options on the restore CD?

Yes, there will be checkboxes to choose to restore them.

Alex Barton wrote:

When you say 'verify the active partition is on the system disc' what do you mean?

Pat said what to do, and you have not yet indicated if you have done it. Use Windows disk management to verify that the active partition is on the system disk (right click on the computer icon on your desktop, choose manage, storage, disk management) Take a screenshot of that window, print it for reference and post it in this thread.

Alex Barton wrote:

Finally, some people have told me that there is just a clone option on this program, where you just plug both discs in and it will clone from one to another, and then disconnect the old disc. Is this correct, and why should I use your method as opposed to this clone method?

Pat has given you the safer method. You can choose to listen to MVPs or to "some people".

Thanks for the info.

Regarding the 'active partition' bit, I was confused by what he meant by 'active partition' does he mean the partition that Windows is installed on?

I'll take the screenshot and post here asap. (It's a different computer than the one I'm using)

Alex Barton wrote:

Regarding the 'active partition' bit, I was confused by what he meant by 'active partition' does he mean the partition that Windows is installed on?

Please, take the screenshot.

I've attached the image. I now see what you mean by the active partition. Although it appears I have two, one on each disc.

I am wanting to clone Disk 1, which only contains one partition (C:\). The other active partition (D:\) is on the other disc.

If possible, I would like to also extend partition E:\ to use the free space on Disk 0. I currently assume I can't because partition D:\ is stopping that.

One method to determine the active partition is to open Windows Disk Management Console and review the graphical view. The word "active" will be part of the description inside the partition whichever partition is the active partition. Each computer does not have the same active settings. Here are a few samples:

Hi Grover.

If you look above, I have attached the image, and have described what I would like to do.

"I've attached the image. I now see what you mean by the active partition. Although it appears I have two, one on each disk.

I am wanting to clone Disk 1, which only contains one active partition (C:\). The other active partition (D:\) is on the other disk (Disk 0).

If possible, I would like to also extend partition E:\ to use the free space on Disk 0. I currently assume I can't because partition D:\ is stopping that."

First, lets make sure we are both understanding what the other is saying.
In Acronis terminology, cloning means to take one disk and copy it onto another disk so that BOTH disks have the same content. All data and partitions on the target disk will be replaced by the content of the source disk. Basically two identical disks.

Perhaps I am mis-understanding but it sounds like you want to have a dual boot system?

TrueImage provides two methods of creating a replacement disk. One method is the clone but the primary method for many of us is the method of creating a backup and then restoring the backup onto the target disk. A replacement disk created by restoring a backup is equally bootable plus offers the user more options on what needs to be done.

The links inside this reference may be helpful. The information provided by Pat in post #1 should have been equally helpful.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29618

Is the disk labelled Seagate external truly an external disk?

Regarding the unused space or unallocated space, this can be modified by moving the System Reserved partition to the right boundary and them expanding the partition labelled "seagate external" right boundary into the space made available by the moving of System Reserved--but I am not sure this is really what you want to do. I can provide instructions on how to move but clarification is needed.

Perhaps it is just me, but I am having trouble understanding what you are wanting to do and what you expect the end result to be.

Hi,

My apologies, I'll make it clear.

I currently have 2 disks in my system. Disk 1 contains C:\ drive, and my operating system. Disk 0 contains my files and folders, and two system reserved partitions (I'm not sure what these are for?) Even though Disk 0 is called an External Drive, it's actually internal, it's called that because I ripped it out of an External USB enclosure.

What I want to do, is replace Disk 1 with an SSD, but in doing so I want to clone my whole Windows install so that I don't have to re-install Windows and all of my programs.

The part this is confusing me is you're saying 'Make sure the active partition is on the disk you want to clone' however I have 2 active partitions. The first active partition is the C:\ drive on disk 1 (the disk that I WANT to clone) and the other active partition is a system reserved partition on disk 0 (the disk that I DON'T want to clone). Do I need to make sure both 'active' partitions are on the disc that I am cloning?

I appreciate your help and apologies for not making it clear what I wanted to do :)

Ok. If I am understanding correctly, you want to remove the current 232.88GB disk and replace it with a different disk (ssd) and the new SSD will be the same capacity or larger. What size is the new replacement disk to be?

The contents of the new (to be installed) disk will be the same contents of the current 232.88 disk. As you have only one partition on your smaller drive, it will automatically become the active partition.

You can achieve your goal either by cloning the current 232 onto a new replacement;
or you can perform a backup and store the backup onto the external
Shutdown and then remove and replace the 232
and then boot from the TI Recovery CD and perform a disk option restore.
The disk would be restored with the same starting partition offset which exists on your current 232 which you can confirm with System Information report.

or, if wish to do the actual cloning procedure.
You would need to install the new replacement. If you have no open slots, you would need to remove the 232 and place it in a external enclosure; or remove the larger disk and put the 232 in its place temporarily.

Before we go any further, which of the above is your plans and am I understanding correctly?

We need also do some confirmation about your equipment just to make sure. Diisconnect the cable on the larger prior external disk and boot your computer. I want to make absolutely certain that your computer will boot with only the 232 attached. Those system reserve partitions appear to be not used and I want to confirm. Perhaps that partition could be deleted from the prior extenal but lets see what happens next.

If removing the cable is an issue, go into the Device Manager under Disks and disable the large seagate before booting to see if booting works.

Brilliant, thanks for your help.

You are correct, I want to replace the 232GB drive, with a new SSD. The new SSD size is 120GB. Even though that is smaller than the 232GB drive, I am currently only using 40GB, so there is enough space on the SSD to handle what is currently on the 232GB drive.

Which method do you recommend using to copy the contents of the disk? I have available slots in the machine, so can copy with both plugged in if you think that is better.

I will try reboot now with the old External drive disconnected, to see if the computer still boots. If the computer does boot, does this mean I can delete the 'System Reserved' partition and the 'GPT Protective Partition'? If the system doesn't boot, I assume I have to leave the 'System Reserved' partition and 'GPT Protective Partition' alone?

*EDIT*

I have just tested my computer with the old External drive removed, and it booted into Windows correctly

1. As for the "external" and the deletion of System Reserved and the GPT partition, lets get some assistance from some of the others with tech experience. The space consumed is only 300mb so there is very little space to be gained. Deleting (if allowed) would make it easier for the unallocated space to be utilized. Lets see what others have to say on the deletion issue.
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Disk replacement:
2. Within Windows Explorer, right click on Drive C and choose properties.
In the open Window, add a volume name such as Win-7_C

3. My preference by far is to use the backup and restore backup method. It is much much safer. You can always try the cloning procedure later if the backup and restore does not work. If you were to clone first and have issues, it may be impossible then to do a backup.

4. Boot from the TI Recovery CD and perform a full backup of your 232 storing the backup on the Seagate External. Why not try editing the seagate disk properties and see if it will allow you to change "Seagate external" to something else.

The #6 at this link below illustrates how to make the backup. Old version but still applicable.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29618

5. After the backup, remove the 232 and attach the 120 using the same MB connectors.
6. Do the restore as per item #2 at link above.

7. Upon completion of the restore, Shutdown.
8. Remove the cable from the Seagate External
9. ReBoot with only the 120 attached.
Note: The computer should boot but if it does not, then use the Windows Recovery Disk and use the Repair option.

When doing item #7, if it refuses to restore due to disk being smaller, then try method item #2 at the above link.

Thanks, I will give that a go when I get home. Your help is greatly appreciated.

One question. Must I use the same MB connectors? Currently the 232GB drive is on a SATA II port and I wish to use the SSD on one of my SATA III ports.

You can certainly try using the Sata III port. If it does not work, try doing the Windows Recovery Repair option.
just be sure that the external is not connected at first bootup.

Okay. Thanks a lot, I will try and report back later!

Alex,

It looks like you are in good hands. I am glad to have brought up this active partition question...
Your disk 1 can be backed up and restored to the SSD without any problem. The system reserved partition on disk 0 is useless if the computer boots without disk 0.
To do the restore, I suggest you disconnect the disk0 to avoid any confusion.
Then boot on the recovery CD.
Since you have only one partition, do the restore in 2 passes:
- first restore the C:\ partition
- the new destination is the SSD,
- leave a 1MB offset before the partition,
- mark it primary active,
- upon completion, without rebooting, restore the MBR+track0 and the disk signature.

Complete the optimizations described in my first post.
- finally, put disk0 back in the computer and rearrange the partitions the way you want. You can delete the system reserved partition, and repartition your disk as you wish.

Thanks Pat. Will I be able to get rid of the GPT Protection partition too?

Really appreciate all the help.

To delete that partition, you would have to convert your disk from GPT to MBR (which you could do since you disk is a 2TB), but this will erase everything on the disk. To do this conversion, check out diskpart, or your favorite partitioning tool.
If I were you, I would leave the disk as GPT.

Hi,

I forgot to ask, how do I go about doing the 1MB offset and why? Will the alignment be okay without it?

You absolutely need the 1MB space before the partition to align the disk. This is essential for SSD performance. Normally, Acronis does this automatically, but there are cases where it won't. Hence the preference towards a disk and partition backup and a partition by partition restore so that you can control what happens.

You will be able to add the offset if you select only one *partition* to restore, nothing else (the C:\ one in your case). Then you select the parameters of the restore (destination, primary active) then ATI will show you the propose layout. Make sure that the left marker is at 1MB.

Thanks Pat. Acronis did add this by itself.

One question, I have just done my first boot into Windows, and everything looks okay. However, I forgot to restore the MBR+Track0.

Should I turn off and restore the MBR+Track0, or am I okay to forget about it?

If your computer boots normally, you are all set. You have probably initialized your SSD, or it was already initialized. I hope you have restored the disk signature, otherwise some apps registration might complain

Yes, I remembered to restore the disk signature, just forgot about doing the MBR+Track0 (as I followed your instructions and just did the partition first). However yes, I am booting okay.

I appreciate all of the help from you guys :)

One last thing, I have read I should change the page file to 1024. Should I do this, or just leave it the default size?

You can leave the page file to the default settings. Windows 7 does a very good job at managing it.