From 250GB SSD to 500GB SSD (internal) How to transfer data?

I already made a recovery drive on a USB flash drive from the Windows Recovery section. When it was finished, I removed it, then shut down the computer. I put it back in, turned on the PC, and then hit F12 until I got in to the boot menu. I selected the correct media, and it booted me up. So, I think that part is done. Going to make the mirror image on Friday night. The new drive is scheduled to be delivered on Saturday. I will report the results here. Thanks to all for the help.

Aye aye.

You might want to run a complete virus scan just before making the image. No sense in restoring a diseased hard drive image.

I made an image of my SSD C: Drive with Macrium Reflect. It created two files on an external drive.

They look like the pictures. Which one do I click on to install the image after I install and boot up the new drive?

You would:

Remove the old drive.

Put in the new drive by attaching it to the same cables you removed from the old drive.

Boot from your USB rescue media.

That takes you to the Macrium interface.

Then go to the "Restore" menu and choose that .mrimg file and tell Macrium to restore it to the new drive that you just attached.

You shouldn't need to prepare the new drive in any way beforehand.

Thank you.

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ignatzatsonic said:

You would:

Remove the old drive.

Put in the new drive by attaching it to the same cables you removed from the old drive.

Boot from your USB rescue media.

That takes you to the Macrium interface.

Then go to the "Restore" menu and choose that .mrimg file and tell Macrium to restore it to the new drive that you just attached.

You shouldn't need to prepare the new drive in any way beforehand.

It won't take me to the Macrium Interface, because my recovery flash drive was made on Windows, not Macrium. I assume I can just boot up, and when it gets to Windows installation, I can check my external drive as the source. And then click on the mirror image. Yes?

The recovery media IS typically made in Windows, while booted from the hard drive, from within Macrium.

If the recovery media won't take you to the Macrium interface, it may not have been made correctly. You need to test the recovery media when you finish making it.

If it won't boot your PC, it's useless. As you just found out. If your primary hard drive dropped dead in the next 10 seconds, what would you do?

I'm assuming you inserted the USB stick, restarted the PC, and during the restart, you used whatever keyboard sequence is necessary to bring up a boot menu. You then chose the USB stick from that menu using the arrow keys. And that attempt failed to boot and bring you to the Macrium interface.

Is that correct? Or did you do something else? Did you ever see a boot menu with multiple choices---including a hard drive choice, a USB stick choice, etc?

You need to find out how to bring up a boot menu if you never saw one.

I'm just trying to determine IF you actually attempted to boot from the USB stick, NOT from the hard drive.

You say in your post 21:

"I already made a recovery drive on a USB flash drive from the Windows Recovery section."

You also say in post 25: "my recovery flash drive was made on Windows, not Macrium."

Wrong move, if I understand you correctly.

You need to make the recovery stick IN MACRIUM, nowhere else.

See Ztrukers post 16.

Redo that stick. Confirm it will boot your PC and lead you to Macrium. Nowhere else.

I know how to get to the boot menu. I have shut down the PC, put in the recovery flash drive, and the restarted...F12'd to the boot menu chose the USB drive, and it booted up. From there I just assume it will ask me if I want to 'restore' and what the source is. Yes?

therealsimpsons said:

I know how to get to the boot menu. I have shut down the PC, put in the recovery flash drive, and the restarted...F12'd to the boot menu and it booted up. From there I just assume it will ask me if I want to 'restore' and what the source is. Yes?

No.

You didn't say it booted you to Macrium. It needs to do that.

See my post 27.

Got it. Back at it. Thanks.

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Done. All good. Easy cheesy, like a boss! Thanks to all who responded with suggestions and solutions. Post #27 was key.