Image My Thinkpad P51 SSD and Write It To The HDD Platter?

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  1. phaedruspress
    Posts : 617
    windows 10 pro
       New #1

    Image My Thinkpad P51 SSD and Write It To The HDD Platter?


    x-posted to r/thinkpad

    When I first got the P51 last Dec. one of the first things I did was DL the media creation tool and make the empty 500GB included HD platter bootable and write the latest OS (Win 10 Pro) to it and while I should have I did not remove the SSD that currently had the OS installed before writing but it worked out perfectly ever since and at boot up I can choose which internal drive I want to boot from, the HDD or the SSD. Problem now is while I have the SSD which I boot from 90% of the time set up just how I want I have been extremely lax in keeping up the HDD. I do not want to install a fresh MS DL of the OS but rather I want to duplicate the SSD onto the HDD so this time I am going to remove the SSD after imaging it and then write the image back to the HDD, put the SSD back in and the expectation is that I can then just go my merry way having both the SSD AND the HDD set up the way that I want them. I have no programs on either drive that rely on one another. I used to do this ALL the time with my win 7 machine though truth be told I only had one internal HDD platter and I made two partitions and dual booted that way. Any one see a problem with this : ) TIA.
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  3. Samuria
    Posts : 8,103
    windows 10
       New #2

    Just create a bootable disk from the cloning tool boot from it and simple clone one drive to the other job done
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  4. phaedruspress
    Posts : 617
    windows 10 pro
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    Samuria said:
    Just create a bootable disk from the cloning tool boot from it and simple clone one drive to the other job done
    Right. Well, I am comfortable with using Acronis TI so I am going to do it that way since it has always worked out well for me in the past. My concern has nothing to do with the imaging (or cloning process) but rather with duplicating the current OS on the SSD and writing it to the HDD platter and wondering if that could potentially cause the notebook to become well confused I guess is the best way to put it when I put the SSD image onto an HDD platter. True Image does have the capability of cloning one drive to the other so I guess instead of first imaging I could also attempt to clone the 250GB SSD to the 500GB HDD. The notebook was "not" confused when I first did it but that was with a fresh install using the media creation tool. Thanks.
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  6. NavyLCDR
    Posts : 18,432
    Windows 11 Pro
       New #4

    Clone the Windows (C: drive) partition to the HDD and make sure it gets a drive letter like F:. Then use the bcdboot command to add the second Windows installation to the boot menu.
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  7. bro67
    Posts : 9,788
    Mac OS Catalina
       New #5

    You want both the SSD and hard drive to have the same image of Windows 10 and use at the same time. It will not work properly and unless you plan on booting into two different images for some reason, there is no need other than if you want to set up a RAID, for what you want to do.
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  8. NavyLCDR
    Posts : 18,432
    Windows 11 Pro
       New #6

    bro67 said:
    there is no need other than if you want to set up a RAID, for what you want to do.
    Not true at all. If a Windows update or something else trashes on installation of Windows, then the other is still available to boot from. It's like having a backup image that is readily available without having the added step of restoring it.
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  9. phaedruspress
    Posts : 617
    windows 10 pro
    Thread Starter
       New #7

    NavyLCDR said:
    Clone the Windows (C: drive) partition to the HDD and make sure it gets a drive letter like F:. Then use the bcdboot command to add the second Windows installation to the boot menu.
    >Clone the Windows (C: drive) partition to the HDD and make sure it gets a drive letter like F

    When I first used the media creation tool to create a fresh install of windows on to the HDD so that I could dual boot I did not change the drive letter. When I turn my machine on Lenovo Thinkpad P51 I just hit F12 and that brings up the boot manager where it gives me the opportunity to boot from either the HDD or the SSD. Is the boot manager that I am using different from what you are referring to as the "boot menu."? If it is not absolutely necessary to fiddle with the "bcdboot command" something which I have never done before I would much rather do it the same way that I did before only this time instead of using the media tool to install a fresh copy of the OS on to the HDD I will just be imaging/cloning a copy of the SSD and then upon boot up hit F12 and hopefully I will see the same options I am seeing now that is to boot either from the HDD or the SSD. Thanks.
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  10. phaedruspress
    Posts : 617
    windows 10 pro
    Thread Starter
       New #8

    bro67 said:
    You want both the SSD and hard drive to have the same image of Windows 10 and use at the same time. It will not work properly...
    SNIP

    Why do you believe that it will not work properly? TIA.
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  12. phaedruspress
    Posts : 617
    windows 10 pro
    Thread Starter
       New #9

    NavyLCDR said:
    Not true at all. If a Windows update or something else trashes on installation of Windows, then the other is still available to boot from. It's like having a backup image that is readily available without having the added step of restoring it.
    Copy that. That is the exact reason why I have always had a dual boot system only before it was always with one internal hard drive that was partitioned into two bootable partitions and I had the choice of choosing which partition (exact same OS, win7) to boot from to either troubleshoot or in case I screwed the pooch on one of them. Now I have the luxury of two internal drives to boot from : ) TIA.
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  13. bro67
    Posts : 9,788
    Mac OS Catalina
       New #10

    A dual boot only works when you are not trying to do the same thing on both partitions with the same OS and same files. If you want to make sure that your install is recoverable, keep a backup of the drive and keep all important files off of the main hard drive.
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