(GPT) SSD to SSD cloning & Confused about alignment etc..

Hi, so I've recieved a shipment of several SSD's for different uses, one of which was to upgrade 2 Laptops (and changing out my desktops 250GB to a 500GB SSD)

The first laptop was getting a 250GB SSD, I used a cloning kit that I've used before with success, (EZ GIG IV from Apricorn)
This laptop is pretty old, and i suspect that it's BIOS only (not UEFI), and therefore i believe that the original HDD is running MBR, and this cloning worked perfectly and the computer started right up, but it felt very slow but i took it as a "cpu bottleneck" since it is running a dual core 1.3ghz pentium cpu..
But now after researching a lot since my desktop cloning isn't working at all, I have seen that one should "align" the disk for better performance and durability.. What? Do I have to do this and how can i do this in a hassle free way?

And now for the most annoying problem! My desktop which i really can't have any hiccups in, and I litterarly have to be able to access 24/7 is having huge problems with cloning the entire 250GB SSD (including all the partitions that windows added..) to the newly installed 500GB SSD, when i used the EZ GIG IV thing, windows told me that the system needed repair and a (?startup.efi? thing was missing?) Both theese drives are GPT btw.
Which program could i use to clone this? (reinstalling is not an option) I have made a bootable USB with CloneZilla on it, but I've read that it doesent work well with GPT-UEFI drives? This also worries me since the "old" 250GB SSD will later be Transferred to my laptop, and everything there is also GPT-UEFI.... This is frustrating too since my Laptop is what i use for my schoolwork and downtime there is not an option either, and the harddrive is looking more and more like its giving up on life...

If anything need claryfying then please let me know

You could try using Macrium Reflect free version, to clone and also to make complete image backups. It can handle your UEFI just fine.
I would 1st make a Complete Image Backup of your OS 1st, before doing anything else. Keep the image on a 2nd drive. Also if you do install Macrium, make the rescue USB/DVD disk. and keep that incase of any future problems with booting into your Windows.
My Computer is also UEFI and I only have 4 partitions. Windows made them in my case, as I did a clean install.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

First step follow the instructions to see if you are misaligned or not:
Speed Up Your SSD By Correctly Aligning Your Partitions
Jim

otisdog said:

First step follow the instructions to see if you are misaligned or not:
Speed Up Your SSD By Correctly Aligning Your Partitions
Jim

I checked into CMD (diskpart) to see if the disk was misaligned, after writing list partitions it said "Partition 1, Primary, 221GB, Offset: 11GB
I downloaded the MiniTool Partition Wizard. (the only one i found that didnt make my brain crumble) and when i chose align all partitions it told me that everything was perfectly aligned! (this disk is using the MBR system too). So should i trust it? I dont know?

Edit: Ah! The EZ GIG IV software does 4K alignment automatically

SSD - Fix Misalignment - Windows 7 Help Forums

Sisrace said:

2nd Edit: After running the clone with the standard settings, i still have a huge 255GB partition of unallocated space..

That's what a sector by sector clone would give you. You only had 250GB of sectors on the old SSD to copy. I would suggest you now use MiniTool Partition Wizard to add the 255GB of free space to the C: drive partition.

NavyLCDR said:

That's what a sector by sector clone would give you. You only had 250GB of sectors on the old SSD to copy. I would suggest you now use MiniTool Partition Wizard to add the 255GB of free space to the C: drive partition.

I did this :), I'm writing this from my computer running the SSD now and everything works perfectly! Thanks for the help! I will come back if my Laptop starts to refuse to work, but for now, this thread is solved