Copy/Clone an SSD to upgrade laptop Hard Drive

[dsgrnmcm]

Morning All,

So after selling my Surface Book 2 on and getting a X360 Spectre 15, which I'm more than happy with I want to upgrade the SSD from 512gb to 1 TB.

(MS Book link https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&... )

I was not going to but the Mrs got me a 1TB SSD, as I had originally purchased a Alienware R2 M15 on Amazon that has 2 NVME slots, but it did not turn up, or exist. Long story...

So I have looked at a number of videos online and found 2 recent ones:

1. Minitool Partition. Version 11 is free and works, but every-time I download it, I get version 12 which is not free and does not work.

2. Macrium tool, free but does not copy across the OS, so I can not boot from the new SSD.

Can I ask any IT ninjas if they have way for me to copy my original SSD to my new one? I have the adaptors, just need to software or know how to do it.

Regards

[Shadow R1]

Look at acronis.
Depending on the brand of the drive, the software can be found for free.

[sgrimshaw]

Macrium Reflect works perfectly for cloning drives.

https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW72/C...

In short ...

1. Put new SSD in a USB caddy and connect to laptop
2. Clone exising drive to SSD using Macrium Reflect
3. Shutdown laptop
4. Replace existing laptop hard drive with SSD
5. Turn on laptop.
6. Job done.

[Mr Pointy]

Macrium Reflect absolutely does copy across the OS partitions - it's never failed me in the past.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

Read the knowledgebase to learn how to use it:
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/

You might need to make a Rescue disc/stick first so you can sort out any boot issues, although it's not always needed.

[dsgrnmcm]

Morning All, the issue I have had / have is;

I used "Clone this disk" but it has not copied the entire data across. just by looking at the capacity copied and it warned me that it can not copy the OS, even when I run as admin?

If I'm missing something obvious please tell me.

Laptop is a 2020 x360 15 Spectre.
New SSD is Samsung 970 Evo




When selecting clone it mentions that partition 3 will be copied with bitlocker disabled, and to enable once cloned? will this then display the full data copied over?

[emperorburger]

You could try Clonezilla.

https://clonezilla.org/

[dsgrnmcm]

emperorburger said:

You could try Clonezilla.

https://clonezilla.org/

Looks a bit complex for me!

[emperorburger]

dsgrnmcm said:

Looks a bit complex for me!

Don't be put off. It works really well and if you are prepared to watch a few YouTube videos, you will get the hang of it.

[sgrimshaw]

You didn't say that the existing drive was encrypted with Bitlocker !

Not used this personally, but know people who have:

https://www.ubackup.com/clone/clone-bitlocker-encr...

Alternatively, remove the bitlocker encryption and use Macrium.

[sgrimshaw]

emperorburger said:

Don't be put off. It works really well and if you are prepared to watch a few YouTube videos, you will get the hang of it.

Won't work on a Bitlocker encrypted drive though.

[Civilian47]

Just use the Samsung drive cloning software? You will have to disable bitlocker whilst it's copying.

[Mr Pointy]

dsgrnmcm said:

Morning All, the issue I have had / have is;

I used "Clone this disk" but it has not copied the entire data across. just by looking at the capacity copied and it warned me that it can not copy the OS, even when I run as admin?

If I'm missing something obvious please tell me.

Laptop is a 2020 x360 15 Spectre.
New SSD is Samsung 970 Evo



When selecting clone it mentions that partition 3 will be copied with bitlocker disabled, and to enable once cloned? will this then display the full data copied over?

Why don't you disable Bitlocker before cloning & then re-enable it on the SSD? That might be the safer route.
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW72/B...

[dsgrnmcm]

Civilian47 said:

Just use the Samsung drive cloning software?

Is that from the website? the drive was empty when I claged it up

[Civilian47]

https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd...

It's called data migration

[dsgrnmcm]

Thanks all,

Just re wiping the destination drive and removing the bit locker from my original SSD (seems to take a while)

and will try again!

[dsgrnmcm]

So took it apart, put the new SSD in, and would not boot and got the BSOD!

FFS!

[Mr Pointy]

dsgrnmcm said:

So took it apart, put the new SSD in, and would not boot and got the BSOD!

You might need to set the SSD boot partition as active. Put the original drive back in & create a rescue disk/stick using Macrium (it needs to be a bootable USB stick). Then put the SSD in & boot from the rescue stick & follow the process for sorting out the boot partition. Then close down, remove the rescue stick & with luck the PC will boot from the SSD.

[dsgrnmcm]

Finally did it!

Used Macrium shadow to clone the SSD to new SSD, popped it in and it finally works.

Thanks for the assistance all!

[Mr Pointy]

Glad to hear you got there in the end.

[dsgrnmcm]

Bugger,

Just checked the drive and it is only 475GB oyt of the 1TB

BLOODY HELL!!!