Macrium Reflect - Clone HDD to SSD

Good afternoon,

I have just purchased a 240 GB SSD for my every day general use Laptop which will hopefully be arriving tomorrow.

I want to Clone the HDD to the SSD for FREE.

[1] I do have a powered USB IDE/SATA Docking Station.
[2] Can I use an external Non-Powered External HDD for the Cloning and Restore ?
[3] Would getting a 'USB 3.0 To SATA 22 Pin 2.5 Inch Hard Disk Drive SSD Adapter Connector Lead Cable' be wise ?

Which software [ FREE ] would be the easiest > AOMEI Backupper Standard, Macrium Reflect, Disk Genius, O&O DiskImage ?

I will disconnect from the Internet, run my computer cleanup Script, and then obviously back up EVERYTHING before performing the Clone.

I already use AOMEI Backupper Standard as my imaging program [ Imaging to External Drive and Backups to Internal AND External Drive ].

I am NOT worried about converting from MBR to GPT for this particular Laptop.

Here is my setup:



Thanks.

EDIT:

I just found this [ Has anyone used this and would it work using the powered USB IDE/SATA Docking Station please ? ]:

> Software Giveaway – O&O DiskImage 17 Professional: Free Lifetime License Key – Full Version for Windows

UPDATE:

I have found an old External HDD enclosure. I have taken it apart so that I can use the USB powered SATA to USB adapter connector tomorrow. It will obviously be slower than a new one but there again I haven't got a lot to Clone. I will be using Macrium Reflect FREE if I can find a link for the STILL FREE version !

I think I found it ? > Macrium Reflect Free 8.0.7279

I will let you know how I get on.

The second hand 256 GB SSD has just turned up.

I tried running chkdsk f: on two computers and they BOTH gave me the following error although Disk Management reports it as Healthy (Primary Partition) !:







> Is it worth running diskpart clean ?
> Should I just carry on and Clone the HDD and see if the cloning process deals with it ?
> Should I run chkdsk f: /f or chkdsk f: /r or diskpart clean and then run chkdsk f: again ?

I did find this by @hsehestedt: > What causes "index entry xxx in index $I30 of file xxx is incorrect ?

I think it might be OK to continue and see what happens !

Thanks.

What make is ssd most makers offer free clone tool specific to their drive samsung is very fast if one drive is theirs

Hello @Samuria,

Samuria said:

What make is ssd most makers offer free clone tool specific to their drive samsung is very fast if one drive is theirs

The HDD is a TOSHIBA MK6034GSX and the SSD is a Kingston. This is a 12+ year old Laptop.

OK.

I Cloned the HDD to the SSD using Macrium Reflect [ 27 Minutes & 12 Seconds ], changed the Boot order in the BIOS and booted the SSD while still attached using the 'USB powered SATA to USB adapter connector'.

It gave be an 'Inaccessible Boot Device' error.

This is what it looks like in This PC. I made the Data and Images_Backup Partitions bigger. I will sort the un-allocated space out at a later date.

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<clone_definition>
    <properties>
        <!-- optional. search for same file on different drives -->
        <!-- Y/N or blank -->
        <search/>
        <intelligent_copy>Y</intelligent_copy>
        <!-- optional. match image id -->
        <image_id/>
        <verify_file>Y</verify_file>
        <delta_copy>Y</delta_copy>
        <ssd_trim>Y</ssd_trim>
        <restore_track0>Y</restore_track0>
        <!-- disk is the 1 based index of the disk -->
        <!-- id is the disk signature and is used in place of the disk index if specified -->
        <source_disk id="30CF9D4A">1</source_disk>
        <target_disk id="9877E129">2</target_disk>
        <!-- Y/N or blank, use the chs values from the source disk. -->
        <use_source_geometry>N</use_source_geometry>
        <power level="0" force="N">N</power>
        <email>
            <success>
                <enabled>N</enabled>
                <attach_log>N</attach_log>
                <attach_vss_log>N</attach_vss_log>
                <recipients/>
                <subject/>
                <body/>
            </success>
            <warning>
                <enabled>N</enabled>
                <attach_log>N</attach_log>
                <attach_vss_log>N</attach_vss_log>
                <recipients/>
                <subject/>
                <body/>
            </warning>
            <failure>
                <enabled>N</enabled>
                <attach_log>N</attach_log>
                <attach_vss_log>N</attach_vss_log>
                <include_cancelled>N</include_cancelled>
                <recipients/>
                <subject/>
                <body/>
            </failure>
        </email>
    </properties>
    <operation id="1">
        <!-- operation type is 'copy' or 'delete' -->
        <type>copy</type>
        <!-- Delete partition -->
        <!-- Copy partition -->
        <copy>
            <source>
                <!-- partition is the 1 based index of the partition on the disk -->
                <!-- or the Volume GUID name with the format '\\?\Volume{GUID}' -->
                <partition start_sector="2048" end_sector="1187839">1</partition>
            </source>
            <destination>
                <!-- partition is the 1 based index of the partition on the disk -->
                <partition/>
                <start_sector>2048</start_sector>
                <end_sector>1187839</end_sector>
                <!-- 1 = Primary, 2 = Active, 3 = Logical -->
                <partition_type>2</partition_type>
                <drive_letter type="set">F</drive_letter>
            </destination>
        </copy>
    </operation>
    <operation id="2">
        <type>copy</type>
        <copy>
            <source>
                <partition start_sector="1187840" end_sector="64163839">2</partition>
            </source>
            <destination>
                <partition/>
                <start_sector>1187840</start_sector>
                <end_sector>64163839</end_sector>
                <partition_type>1</partition_type>
                <drive_letter type="auto"/>
            </destination>
        </copy>
    </operation>
    <operation id="3">
        <type>copy</type>
        <copy>
            <source>
                <partition start_sector="64163840" end_sector="78843903">3</partition>
            </source>
            <destination>
                <partition/>
                <start_sector>64163840</start_sector>
                <end_sector>169123839</end_sector>
                <partition_type>1</partition_type>
                <drive_letter type="auto"/>
            </destination>
        </copy>
    </operation>
    <operation id="4">
        <type>copy</type>
        <copy>
            <source>
                <partition start_sector="78843904" end_sector="117207039">4</partition>
            </source>
            <destination>
                <partition/>
                <start_sector>169123840</start_sector>
                <end_sector>274083839</end_sector>
                <partition_type>1</partition_type>
                <drive_letter type="auto"/>
            </destination>
        </copy>
    </operation>
</clone_definition>

I did create a Macrium Rescue Media DVD. Would I need to use this somehow to correct the 'Boot' error ?

I should be able to Boot directly without taking the existing HDD out, or am I missing something ???

I am quite happy to redo the Clone process if needed.

EDIT:

Should I clean the SSD in diskpart and then create a Partition and try again !!!

UPDATE:

The SSD is OK. I plugged it into my Desktop via a dock and all the drives opened. I went through the data partition and opened some files which loaded without any problems, so all the data is on the SSD.

I connected it to my Laptop again via the 'USB powered SATA to USB adapter connector' and restarted my computer. This is the screen that appeared:



I disconnected the SSD and booted normally and everything is OK !

I have to go out so what I will do later is to replace the existing HDD with the SSD in the Laptop and try that.

I might even retry performing the cloning process again to see if that makes a difference.

Any thoughts please ?

Have a look at this thread Why would a cloned to an ext usb OS only boot in safemode? where the OP states he was able to boot into the cloned USB device in safe mode.

(Not a cloning expert, I had only cloned my failing 1TB Toshiba HDD ( bad sectors had been remapped into reserved sectors. System operating normally) into a Crucial 1TB SSD placed in a dock and using Macrium Reflect. I made extensive tests on the cloned SSD checking all the partition start and end sectors are correctly replicated, the volume boot records and their backups are correctly copied and the like. I never attempted to boot from the cloned drive. When the time came to replace the Toshiba HDD in the Dell Inspiron 3280 AIO, ( the number of bad sectors had increased to 2000+ but still the HDD will not die ). I changed the unique ID of the SSD to the same Unique id of the Toshiba HDD and replaced the HDD. On the first boot itself the system booted fine. Is my HDD failing?)