Upgrading Drive, need help with Cloning

marcbrophy

Hi folks,

I have a situation where I want to Clone and Upgrade the drive in my PC, but I need some help on the basics.

I have a 120gb SSD, being used as the OS drive.
I have a 1tb HDD, being used as a secondary drive.
I have a 480gb SSD, that I want to clone the OS drive to and replace it.

Where do I start? :P

First thing is some free cloning software. A search has pointed to a few of these, with good and bad points on each, but does anyone have a recommendation?

Assuming the software has been picked, where does it get installed to? I'm assuming the OS drive?

Do the cloning process.
Remove 120gb drive.
Insert 480gb drive.
????
Profit

Thanks

V-man

Download Clonezilla
Create bootable DVD with Clonezilla, turn of PC, connect both drives, boot from DVD and clone the drive.
It is easy.

Next it us up to you what to do with the additional free space, create additional partitions or enlarge the main one.
Very nice free tool to make backups is AOMEI Backupper,

marcbrophy

V-man wrote: »

Download Clonezilla
Create bootable DVD with Clonezilla, turn of PC, connect both drives, boot from DVD and clone the drive.
It is easy.

Next it us up to you what to do with the additional free space, create additional partitions or enlarge the main one.
Very nice free tool to make backups is AOMEI Backupper,

Ah I see, it's the method that you do it outside of Windows.
I had remembered doing this on old XP drives, but it was back in like 2001 and I forgotten how to do it.

Does Clonezilla allow for a bootable USB, rather than a DVD?

V-man

marcbrophy wrote: »

Does Clonezilla allow for a bootable USB, rather than a DVD?

Yes,
Quick google search

How to Install Clonezilla on a USB Flash Drive from Windows

Download the Official Clonezilla Live Zip file for USB
Extract the contents of the Clonezilla Live Zip to your USB Flash Drive
From the USB Flash Drive, navigate to utils\win32 and run makeboot.bat
Restart your computer setting your BIOS or Boot menu to Boot from USB and then boot from your Clonezilla USB

marcbrophy

V-man wrote: »

Yes,
Quick google search

How to Install Clonezilla on a USB Flash Drive from Windows

Download the Official Clonezilla Live Zip file for USB
Extract the contents of the Clonezilla Live Zip to your USB Flash Drive
From the USB Flash Drive, navigate to utils\win32 and run makeboot.bat
Restart your computer setting your BIOS or Boot menu to Boot from USB and then boot from your Clonezilla USB

Good stuff, thanks very much.
I know this stuff is just a search away, but I just don't want to mess it up, you know?:)

Thanks again

ItHurtsWhenIP

If your SSDs are Samsung, they have cloning software that can be used through windows. I got my OH a Samsung SSD to replace the spinner in her laptop.

I installed the Samsung cloning software.
I inserted the SSD into a USB-SATA caddy and connected to the laptop.
Cloned the spinner to the SSD.
Shut down.
Swapped drives.
Happy OH. :rolleyes:

I also upped her RAM from 4 to 8GB so that probably helped too.:)

marcbrophy

ItHurtsWhenIP wrote: »

If your SSDs are Samsung, they have cloning software that can be used through windows. I got my OH a Samsung SSD to replace the spinner in her laptop.

I installed the Samsung cloning software.
I inserted the SSD into a USB-SATA caddy and connected to the laptop.
Cloned the spinner to the SSD.
Shut down.
Swapped drives.
Happy OH. :rolleyes:

I also upped her RAM from 4 to 8GB so that probably helped too.:)

No, the smaller drive is Kingston and the larger Transcend.

I actually have a usb 3 sata caddy lying around. If I could clone it over usb, it might be way easier

It's a self built machine, but I bought everthing but storage as I thought 120GB would be enough for the OS drive. I have Win 10 pro and GTA V on it, and it's full

Xenoronin

You don't actually need to move the OS to the bigger drive. Just google how to make a new Steam library location, and when installing any programs, install them into a Programs folder on your bigger SSD.
99% of programs have no issue with being installed on a different drive to the OS. The 1% have plenty of room on the OS drive.

marcbrophy

Xenoronin wrote: »

You don't actually need to move the OS to the bigger drive. Just google how to make a new Steam library location, and when installing any programs, install them into a Programs folder on your bigger SSD.
99% of programs have no issue with being installed on a different drive to the OS. The 1% have plenty of room on the OS drive.

Thanks dude.
This post really highlights to me how I overcomplicate things all the time

I already have Steam, Uplay and Origin installing stuff to the spinny drive, as I literally can only hold GTA on the SSD.

I can just install the 480 as a third drive or take out the 1tb spinny and have 2 SSD's. Move GTA or re-install it. Keep the small drive for OS and Geforce drivers.

I way overthink things sometimes, sorry lads :pac: