Clone SSD to bigger SSD

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  1. Posts : 30
    Win10 Pro 64 21H1 19043.1165
       #1

    Clone SSD to bigger SSD


    Been trying to get my new 480 gig Sandisk to take a direct clone from my old Sandisk 128 gig SSD and all the programs I've tried keep assigning separate drive letters to each partition and then the bigger SSD wont even boot right. It boots to a blank 10 blue screen with two icons in the taskbar then starts blinking from that screen to a completely blank screen. It even somehow messed up my 128 but I was able to restore it to a time just before it got upgraded and it is booting fine again to the old SSD. I've tried the free clone program that they let you download from WD and it does like all the other free versions I've tried, separate drive letters for each partition then of course it doesn't boot properly. I've got the Acronis WD edition, Easus, macroit, anything I can find free that has good reviews.
    I have always had no problem upgrading a normal boot hard drive to a bigger one but SSD to SSD must require some special settings or other steps I don't understand. I poked around here and even tried making a image but that didn't work either so I just need to know what to use that's free or cheap and how to set it up so it actually clone without adding extra drive letters and just acts like my old boot SSD only on the new bigger SSD
    Thanks, Terry
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #2

    I've always had good luck with Macrium Reflect Free:
    Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

    Create a rescue USB flash drive. Boot the computer from it into Macrium Reflect. Then do the clone and after the clone is done, then run the utility under the restore menu to fix Windows boot problems. Pick the Windows installation on the new SSD, and then the system partition on the new SSD to "repair". That should set up the new SSD for proper booting.

    The reason you need to do it from the bootable rescue USB flash drive is because the fix Windows boot problems utility only shows up when Macrium Reflect is booted into - not just run from within Windows. Alternatively within Macrium Reflect is an option to add it to the Windows boot menu, and you can also use that option if you don't want to make a USB flash drive.

    Finally, don't worry about the drive letters. Once you boot into Windows from the new SSD, it will get C: drive. You might have to adjust other drive letters if you have CD/DVD drives or data partitions/drives.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 30
    Win10 Pro 64 21H1 19043.1165
    Thread Starter
       #3

    OK, I'll give that a shot eventually here. I kinda gave up after the original boot drive got borked and I got it back and figured I'd research it better before I wasted time trying to do it again.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #4

    Also as an alternative, you can make a USB flash drive of Kyhi's Recovery Tools:
    Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk - Windows 10 Forums

    His recovery tools drive also contains Macrium Reflect Free, as well a bunch of other useful utilities.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 14,046
    Windows 11 Pro X64 22H2 22621.1848
       #5

    I just did this last week. Upgraded from a Samsung EVO 850 250GB SSD to a Samsung EVO 860 500GB SSD.
    I used Macrium from Kyhi's Recovery Tools as NavyLCDR mentioned above. I selected Clone from the current 250GB SSD and selected the 500GB SSD as the target, Told it to delete all partitions on the target first then let it run.

    Once it finished. I removed the 250, moved the 500 to the SATA cable the 250 had been on, powered up and everything worked perfectly.

    I then took the 250GB SSD and connected it to my laptop which had a 300GB 5400RPM spinner. Installed Macrium on the Laptop, cloned the 300 GB drive to the smaller 250GB SSD, swapped drives and booted up and all was fine and it boots a whole lot faster.

    Macrium is an excellent tool for cloning.
      My Computers


  6. Posts : 30
    Win10 Pro 64 21H1 19043.1165
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Well I got it to boot but maybe not moving the new drive to the same channel/cable the boot drive is on is messing with it because it still sees my original boot SSD as C drive and the new bigger drive is M and it thinks the M letter is the same size as the original drive then has all the other partitions as adjoining drive letters.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 30
    Win10 Pro 64 21H1 19043.1165
    Thread Starter
       #7

    OK, plugged it into the c drives cable and now it is seen as C with one drive but it only sees the 117 gig of the original drive and then 327 gig of unallocated free space. How do I get the whole drive to be seen as 480 gig whole?
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 2,487
    Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
       #8

    Dartman said:
    OK, plugged it into the c drives cable and now it is seen as C with one drive but it only sees the 117 gig of the original drive and then 327 gig of unallocated free space. How do I get the whole drive to be seen as 480 gig whole?
    You should be able to add the unallocated space to C in Windows Disk Management using menus. I forget the terminology----it's something like "extend volume" or words to that effect. Look in the "action" menu.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 30
    Win10 Pro 64 21H1 19043.1165
    Thread Starter
       #9

    I thought I saw that option somewhere, now to find it, if I break it the old boot drive works.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 30
    Win10 Pro 64 21H1 19043.1165
    Thread Starter
       #10

    Nope, no extend volume on this drive, some of the others show it though.
      My Computer


 

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