Best way to replace PC boot disk with SSD - Clone vs. Recovery from disk image

[datro]

I'm planning to upgrade the system disk on my machine (HP Z800 workstation running Windows 10) with an SSD (Samsung 860 Pro).  I'm aware that there are basically two approaches for doing this:

• Use cloning software to make a cloned copy of the system disk to the SSD, shutdown, remove old HD and install SSD in its place, reboot
• Use Windows Backup built-in feature to store a system image to an external USB drive (or even a non-system disk already in the system), shutdown, remove old HD and install SSD in its place, boot with a Windows 10 Repair Disk, restore the system image to the newly installed SSD

I've done "2" above on a laptop in the past with no problems, works like a champ and doesn't involve purchasing a third-party software product (which might involve some additional risk).  But I'm wondering if there is any specific advantage of doing it one way or the other that I haven't yet discovered in my research on this topic.  For systems that don't have a CD/DVD drive, I can see that "1" is the only option.  Any comments here on pros/cons of "1" vs. "2"?

Thanks.

[MDL_SD]

I have used your #2 approach many times with no issues.  To me there is no reason to "complicate" things with additional software unless for some reason you want to produce multiple copies of the source disk, which I have never wanted/needed. 

Why add additional software when the system provides you with the tools to do what you want? 

[MattBurt]

I've had trouble with the Windows approach not making my new drive bootable. I forget the specifics but I was able to get out of the pickle with some command line utilities but it was more trouble than I had hoped beforehand.

I've also used the software Acronis TrueImage and it was easy, faster than the Windows solution and didn't require any extra steps. I got a copy of it with a hard drive purchase and it's been handy on a few occasions.

Both are valid approaches and both leave your original drive intact in case you have to punt and come up with a new approach which I like.

[Joe Towner]

Acronis TrueImage Home makes it easy - install, reboot, clone disk & go.  The basic version comes with Crucial SSD's for free.  Nothing against Samsung, but I really like Crucial drives.

Upside is you get a great backup program for use going forward.

[datro]

Acronis TrueImage Home makes it easy - install, reboot, clone disk & go.  The basic version comes with Crucial SSD's for free.  Nothing against Samsung, but I really like Crucial drives.

Upside is you get a great backup program for use going forward.

Looks like the lowest cost for Acronis True Image would be $35/year for me ("Essential" product, 1 computer).  And it is normally $50/year.  Sorry, but that is not a cost-effective solution for me given that I already have a backup solution in place and all I need to do is install a new SSD in place of my HD.  I just hate buying something that I KNOW in advance will be mostly a waste, even though the dollars are not hugely significant.

Are there any decent open source or free/shareware solutions out there that are focused only on making a disk clone?  I'm only asking to get the full picture of options...at this point I am strongly leaning towards just using the tools I have already embedded in Windows.

 

[MattBurt]

Just try the windows tools. You have nothing to lose but time as long as you keep your original drive in its current state.
If it doesn't work then see what else will do it for you. When I had trouble Google had all the info I needed to get out of it.

I use an open source backup server product, UrBackup that can do this too.
It can make an image backup of your drive and a bootable USB image to restore it back on a "bare metal" new drive or even new computer.

That works great but will be slower than something like Acronis because it needs to go through your network. It is free (open source) for the software although that software requires more hardware (a PC or NAS) to do this for you.

[Joe Towner]

Looks like the lowest cost for Acronis True Image would be $35/year for me ("Essential" product, 1 computer).  And it is normally $50/year.  Sorry, but that is not a cost-effective solution for me given that I already have a backup solution in place and all I need to do is install a new SSD in place of my HD.  I just hate buying something that I KNOW in advance will be mostly a waste, even though the dollars are not hugely significant.

Are there any decent open source or free/shareware solutions out there that are focused only on making a disk clone?  I'm only asking to get the full picture of options...at this point I am strongly leaning towards just using the tools I have already embedded in Windows.

Don't worry about the renewal - just use it & cancel.  It's $35 for the software for the use.

If you want a free option, Gparted has a Live CD/USB version - https://gparted.org/

Remember that you have turn off BitLocker during the clone.

[richs]

I'm planning to upgrade the system disk on my machine (HP Z800 workstation running Windows 10) with an SSD (Samsung 860 Pro).

As you are using a Samsung SSD, you could even do something radical like use the Samsung provided clone tool - Samsung Data Migration:

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

 

[datro]

Here's a quick status update on my original post for anyone following this topic or reading it later.

My option "2" worked perfectly!  No extra cloning software required.  However I did learn a few interesting things that should be mentioned as caveats for anyone contemplating the same procedure.

When I started to make the System Image backup of the boot drive (C:), Windows Backup insisted on also including drive D: in the stored image (the box for unchecking this drive was greyed out).  This drive had nothing but data on it (or so I thought).  After some investigation, I discovered I had two system-level services that had executables located on the D: drive.  It turned out that I had previously installed my WAMP server on the D: drive, and it configures Apache and MySQL as system services.

So take note:  Windows Backup is smart enough to check for things like Pagefile.sys and system services running on drives other than the boot drive, and if they exist, it will force you to include the other drives (the whole drive) in the System Image backup.  (I have no idea how the cloning software solutions handle this; my guess is they just ignore it.)  I decided to take the time to re-install and re-configure my WAMP environment on the C: drive and also did a bit of disk cleanup in the process.  This allowed me to proceed with making the System Image backup (SYSTEM and C: drive partitions only) and the rest of the process went smoothly with no issues.

I used the following PowerShell script (thanks Google!) to find the offending system services:

Get-WmiObject win32_service | ?{$_.Name -like '*'} | select Name, DisplayName, @{Name="Path"; Expression={$_.PathName.split('"')[1]}} | Format-List

Just run PowerShell as administrator and copy/paste the above and run it...it will list out all the installed services and will show the path for those services which have explicit paths.  Note that even if the offending services are stopped, Windows Backup will still force you to include the drive in a System Image.

Anyway, I'm loving my new SSD boot drive...the Samsung Magician benchmarks show roughly 238% improvement on sequential reads and writes, and much higher than that on Random reads/writes.  All in all, a worthy investment in time and new SSD.

[Ben Rubinstein]

As you are using a Samsung SSD, you could even do something radical like use the Samsung provided clone tool - Samsung Data Migration:

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

 

Used it yesterday to clone my boot drive to a new SSD bought during the BF sales. Thanks for the heads up! Nice little program.

[nemophoto]

I have done this numerous times over the years. Cloning. Even so, there is some pain involved because most programs see the new drive as a new computer. It's important to deactivate all your software before you make the swap. There are utilities that help ease the swap. One that comes to mind is Ease US. Another is Macrium Reflect.

[tived]

Best way - would be to do a clean install 

[Ben Rubinstein]

Best way - would be to do a clean install 

Why? All you're changing is a hard drive. Yes you might have to input some program log in details again. I didn't with my clone last week. It's a clone not a copy. Nothing changes.

[Joe Towner]

Why? All you're changing is a hard drive. Yes you might have to input some program log in details again. I didn't with my clone last week. It's a clone not a copy. Nothing changes.

A clean install has a few benefits, mostly because of the windows gunk after a few upgrades.  It's more applicable to HDD's & earlier versions of Windows, but it is still legit in 2020.

[tived]

A clean install has a few benefits, mostly because of the windows gunk after a few upgrades.  It's more applicable to HDD's & earlier versions of Windows, but it is still legit in 2020.

Thanks Joe

You beat me to it

Ben, it might be more convenient to do a clone, I just find that it is better housekeeping to do a fresh, also you get to install what you need now and not all the programs that you once thought were interesting but never use 😉

Having said all that I replaced my Ryzen 9 3900x with a Treadripper 3960x and windows refused to accept my serial number when I tried to activate it. I had only replaced two items??? 🤬 that was annoying.

[datro]

I have done this numerous times over the years. Cloning. Even so, there is some pain involved because most programs see the new drive as a new computer. It's important to deactivate all your software before you make the swap. There are utilities that help ease the swap. One that comes to mind is Ease US. Another is Macrium Reflect.

Yes, this is a good recommendation, regardless of whether you do the cloning process or the System Image recovery process to install the new SSD.  In my case, after booting up with the new SSD, I had to access my Adobe account and de-activate one of my two "active" Photoshop installations (the one on the now-replaced HD) so that I could launch Photoshop.

But I wouldn't say that "most programs" will require this.  Out of a ton of imaging software on my machine, Photoshop was the only one that required the de-activation.  For sure, if you know you have subscriptions that are "machine" based in terms of the licensing, it is useful to de-activate before you proceed.