How do I move my operating system to a SSD.

acmanten · 12 Sep 2015

acmanten said:

: Thanks for all your assistance as I am learning ..

The graphic below shows what my Windows 10 disk management software says about it now..
Attachment 36885

Yesterday my Drive C (win 10) and my Toshiba 1TB drive was as above, so last night I downloaded and used the Free MiniTool 9.1 on my Toshiba drive as Disk2 to "wipe disk" and also "wipe sectors with zero" and those changes to that disk2 took about 3 hours. After that I used the MiniTool to convert my Toshiba Disk2 which was Basic MBR to basic GPT and I made that change because disk1 says it is Basic GPT.

*** I was doing that yesterday on 911 <<--->> and each of us will never forget about what happened on 911 ***

So new day is here, 12 Sept and in the MiniTool graphic below you see that my drives are both Basic GPT and same size GB.

Attachment 37077
and at this point I suspect it does not make any difference that my Disk2 says it is "unallocated" as I plan to use Macrium Reflect software to make it the same as Disk1. Is that correct ???

Mike: So at this point I am going to stop and ask this question to you -- ref the Macrium Reflect
Attachment 37083
??? In your opinion, should I use the "CLONE this disk" or "IMAGE this disk"? I had used Clone before but now I wonder about it ? I am not really sure about the difference of the two commands as shown on the Macrium Reflect screen ???

So now - I am on-hold until I see your reply....and or comments.... Thanks so much to all for any comments, as I am always learning and later will be very willing to discuss experiences about this . . .
All be safe . Cliff M. acmanten

OldMike65 · 12 Sep 2015

Well Cliff, I'll answer your question 1st. Clone is for making a exact copy to transfer to another drive. Image is to make a backup image of your hard drive. So you can restore your hard drive to the date of when you made the disk image. I use Image a lot, but I don't use the programs you do. I own Acronis True Image. Used it for years. But the programs you have should work fine.

Now, this is the part you might not like. :) I have looked at your partitions that you made, they looked pretty messed up to me, Don't understand why you used GPT at all, but that's your choice. Why you have so many partitions on your Toshiba I have no idea.
The recovery partition is ok, if you really need it, ESP fat, no idea why that was even made? and those 3 partitions labeled *: should not be their in my opinion which all seem to be recovery partitions. I count 7 partitions.....which maybe 3 of them will be actually used. maybe..... right now your partitions looked pretty messed up.
All you need is ONE reserved partition, ONE recovery partition (IF you really need one) and then your primary partition C: If you want to split your drive in half, then you would want a drive D: that's all you should have. Right now you got lots of wasted space on your hard drive. If your computer uses UEFI then you have to use the GPT method. (newer computers use this) This part I don't know about your computer. All my partitions are MBR. I'm sure their are others on here that can also chime in here for their thoughts too. :) Hope at least I helped you a little.

Word Man · 12 Sep 2015

acmanten said:

<SNIP>??? In your opinion, should I use the "CLONE this disk" or "IMAGE this disk"? I had used Clone before but now I wonder about it ? I am not really sure about the difference of the two commands as shown on the Macrium Reflect screen ???<SNIP>

CLIFF - the answer really depends on what you intend to do after that.

From what I have seen of your posts, you want to get your new Samsung SSD installed and get Windows 10 on it. Is that correct?

Difference between clone and image:

Clone will just take an exact COPY of all partitions, their structure and ALL of your files and put them onto ANOTHER disk exactly the way they were on the disk they came from - that's what I see on your Disk 2 (EARLIER, before you WIPED IT), having come from your Disk0 earlier (NOTE - don't get confused between Disk1/Disk2 and Disk0/Disk1/Disk2 as reported in Windows Disk Management, Macrium, and MiniTool 9.1! They are numbered different according to the creators of the different software! I am using Disk0 and Disk2 the way Windows Disk Management has them numbered!) This clone could have been used (before you wiped it) to clone to your new SSD once you put it in and once booted and all working OK you could have wiped both Disk 0 and Disk 2.

Hope you are with me so far.

Image will (if you select image entire DISK) will take ALL of your partitions from that disk, the entire structure, how they tie together, how you boot off of that disk, all of the FILES on each PARTITION and CONVERT them to Macrium backup files, a different animal altogether and ONLY for use by Macrium to do a restore. Then, if you wanted to, you could do a RESTORE of that image to your new empty SSD and boot from it. The IMAGE files are in a completely different format from the files you CLONED to Disk2, are ONLY useable by Macrium and will be decoded in a restore by Macrium to give you back the exact same files in the exact same format they started in when you took the image.

The choice how to do the SSD install and whether to use clone or image is up to you once you understand the difference.

HOWEVER, Cliff, NO MATTER how you do the SSD install and whether you put a clone on it or restore to it, I would highly recommend that:

FIRST you make an IMAGE of your entire Macrium Disk1 (Disk0 in Windows Disk Management - your original Acer 1TB HDD) with Macrium with that image targeted to store on your EXTENRAL USB drive.

SECOND, may sure you create the resuce media for Macrium if you haven't already (in Macrium menu: Other Tasks - Create Rescue Media). You can create the resucue media on the external USB you will use to store an image or you can create it on a separate USB flash drive but my recommendation create is that you create this first on the external USB drive you will store your image on. This way you have something to always go back to where you started from in case the SSD install and applying your clone or image restore all goes haywire on you. You can boot from that external USB disk and have it pull the restoire from the same USB disk to apply them back to your original Acer 1TB HDD that you took the image from.

Help us be sure where you want to end up with this so you can get more specific help.

I will stop for now since I want you to have all your ducks in a row on this and I don't want to overwhelm you with detail until we get your real target in sight.

P.S. - if my guess is correct and you want to get the new SSD installed first, I think the focus should be on that. All of the partitions you have can be explained and we can work on that too but we should follow the K.I.S.S. principle if you want to make a smooth transition to the SSD and hit the ground running with it before we start teasing apart the reason you have all those partitions on that disk.

OldMike65 · 12 Sep 2015

Never thought to ask you Cliff, when you use MiniTool to change your partitions, IF you do, This can ONLY be done by using MiniTool from your DVD, in others words, put in your minitool iso, which I hope you burned to a dvd, then put dvd in, and reboot. You can only make changes to your C-Drive and system reserved partitions from a boot disk. (like MiniTool)

Of course Always backup 1st....before playing....:)

linw · 12 Sep 2015

OldMike65 said:

Never thought to ask you Cliff, when you use MiniTool to change your partitions, IF you do, This can ONLY be done by using MiniTool from your DVD, in others words, put in your minitool iso, which I hope you burned to a dvd, then put dvd in, and reboot. You can only make changes to your C-Drive and system reserved partitions from a boot disk. (like MiniTool)

Of course Always backup 1st....before playing....:)

Not true. You can definitely work on C: drive in situ as Mini Tool finishes operations on the next reboot before windows gets loaded.

fredc · 12 Sep 2015

I installed my new SSD and just used "command prompt" with a few "Diskpart" commands but i think my reserved partition is too big , i was hoping for maybe 100mb not 500 .

Maybe "mini partition" can change this for me i don't know.

linw · 12 Sep 2015

450MB is standard so 500 is OK. Win 10 needs this size so you can't decide to chop it down.

You can delete it entirely and win 10 will run OK except you can't use the recovery feature, naturally.

Just carry on as is as 500MB isn't much, really. Congrats on your successful move to the SSD - don't poke it with a stick!

fredc · 12 Sep 2015

linw said:

450MB is standard so 500 is OK. Win 10 needs this size so you can't decide to chop it down.

You can delete it entirely and win 10 will run OK except you can't use the recovery feature, naturally.

Just carry on as is as 500MB isn't much, really. Congrats on your successful move to the SSD - don't poke it with a stick!

Thank you very much , was just about to poke it with a small stick but your saying don't do it , i'm glad you chimed in.

linw · 12 Sep 2015

Happy computing, fred!

Word Man · 12 Sep 2015

Good job, fredc. I'm goning to guess you set this up MBR as opposed to GPT. With GPT, you may well have had the 100MB partition you were expecting PLUS a separate 400MB or so recovery partition.