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Should I format SSD hard drive before restoring?

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I have an SSD hard drive from my old laptop

I have backed up my new laptop and want to restore

Should I format? If I do this, does it remove the MBR??
(I've read that you should only quick format - and NOT do a full format??)

Or should I just restore and the whole drive will be re-imaged perfectly regardless?

Not sure if it matters, but I have my SSD split into 2 drives. Just thought I'd mention

+ Does anyone know why I can't see a link for live support? OK... it's 4.40am GMT. I should be asleep!

Thanks

Omar

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Hello Omar,

to contact our support team you need to fill in this contact form.

As for your question, formatting the disk prior to restore is not obligatory. Please find here general instructions.

Thank you.

I'd recommend it, but it's not required. During restore to a disk (even an unformatted one that has other data), you will be alerted that the disk is not empty and will be formatted if you continue. Continuing will format the disk and push your backup image. On some rare occassions, the push will fail soon after starting... if that happens, format the disk and try again and it should work fine.

Actually depending on the brand of SSD, those drives that have seen use before should be reset to original. Most SSD's that I am aware of use 1's to indicate that a solid state memory cell is empty and can be written to whereas HDD's use 0's. Some drive manufacturers such as OCZ provide utilities that will reset the cells on a drive to this state. That process renders the drive in as like new condition as is possible. In doing so an install or restore to such drive will be as good as it gets.

Here is an excellent article covering the basics of SSD resetting. Happy reading!

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2088341/how-to-restore-your-ssd-to-peak-…