You made the same mistake as OP, you downloaded the demo when there's a perfectly fine freeware available right here.
It doesn't clone drives, but Macrium Reflect does and it's also free.
Or just clone/image your drive from time to time. Tools like Macrium Reflect are 1. free 2. easy to use 3. save you from colossal fuckups
EDIT: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree free for home use, no I am not affiliated with them in any way, just like the product
Macrium Reflect Free is a great one. I use it personally for drive cloning/backups, and the organization I work for also uses it for backups, system imaging, etc.
Macrium Reflect - free. I was a long time Acronis user and liked the product but Macrium seems to be just as good if not better and its definitely cheaper as its FREE.
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Macrium Reflect have free home and business options:
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https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
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That'd be a one machine at a time, manually deal. You can set schedules although this is probably more useful for ad-hoc type imaging.
Installing Ubuntu replaced the Windows bootloader with GRUB.
Easiest solution is to use Macrium Reflect Free on another computer (or yours if Windows is working) to create the rescue media on a flash drive. Delete the Linux partition, and then boot from the flash drive and select the option to repair the Windows MBR. This will get rid of GRUB, restore the Windows boolloader, and (most likely) solve your problem.
You want to make a 1:1 clone copy of the drive if you want it to be a bootable backup of the drive. The best way to do this in linux is with the built in dd command
For windows there are a bunch of programs, Macrium Reflect is a good free option and there are ports of "dd" for windows too.
For Virtual Machines I use Veeam since it can image a running VM.
> I would like to take a ghost copy of the disk stock before I start with the aim of reverting back if I screw it up.
A factory restore function is most likely available.
> another ghost copy of the final config to revert back should I need to.
If the ghost days are the last time you've touched imaging, a lot has changed and IMO for the better.
Cheers.
PS: Clonezilla is a great option too. Try both.
Wouldn't it be easier to install the other OS in a virtual machine? If that's for whatever reason not possible, download Macrium Reflect [1], do a full system image, store that image on an external drive, create a bootable Windows PE USB stick with Macrium. Once you want to go back to the old OS, boot from that USB stick and use the system image to restore your system drive.
Definitely - if there's any mission-critical information on that drive, you should use a program like Macrium Reflect to back it up at the block level, then perform any necessary repairs.
You could clone it, but I'd be careful. I worked for a pharmacy and do IT work. You really don't want to fuck around with pirating stuff for actual businesses in general. Two of my clients had their licenses audited by Microsoft in the past 5 years and its a giant hassle. Very likely any pirated pharmacy/EMR etc software is going to be at least somewhat out-of-date. You don't wanna be where the buck stops if they get busted.
Plus pharmacies literally print money. They can afford it. If they are having problems paying for the software, which costs a fraction of what a pharmacist does, then they are doing something very very wrong as a business.
Anyway, if you are going to go for it anyway I suggest setting up a remote server with instanced logins using the same seat. Depending on the software their database system may not work with it though.
A final thought: My pharmacy literally killed people through negligence and bad practices (not dispensing drugs, but with their automated drug dispensing system that got setup for people incapable of using it), you really don't want to fuck around with pirating something in a situation where someone could die or HIPAA violations could occur. Tell them to fuck off and pay their bills or get into another crooked business.
Anyway, if you decide to go with cloning I like Macrium Reflect. https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
You can use a software utility like Partition Wizard Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Wizard Free
I would recommend that you use something called Macrium Reflect Free to create a backup of your hard drive. Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free make sure to create a bootable rescue USB stick, this way if anything goes bad you can at least return to where you are.
I have used Partition Wizard in the past to do exactly what you want to do w/o issue but it is ALWAYS best to backup before making any changes.
Good luck.
Macrium Reflect <em>Free</em> worked well for me on 3 different PCs I upgraded a week or so ago.
I had Samsung SSD's and and tried Samsung's sata migration/cloning software but it messed up something on the recovery partition and resulted in an invalid Windows 10 installation, i.e. "could not be activated".
Don't just back up your data - image your whole HDD to your external drive as well with Macrium Reflect Free. You didn't post the specs, but it sounds like an old machine. You probably won't have any issues, but if you do, it will be driver issues, most likely. If 10 fails to work right on it, it'll be good to have a system image to revert to.
Macrium Reflect and AOMEI Backerupper are decent. I've heard best cases using Macirum Reflect so I'd trust that one. I have a subscription to Acronis and it's working pretty well.
Not joking -- try an external USB dock and Macrium Reflect it's gotten me past disk clones that won't succeed in clonezilla. If neither work, then yeah you're most likely going to have to ignore the bad sectors.
I don't know what's different about plugging a SATA drive into a USB dock compared to an internal SATA port, but for some reason my success rate cloning otherwise dead drives is around 75% by using one. Same with using recovery software on a USB docked drive that simply isn't seen when plugged into an internal SATA port.
I usually use Macrium Reflect ... but I'll give EaseUS a try next time I have to do a migration, I've used a bunch of their other freeware and most of it is great
You can usually migrate windows across providing you have space on your new drive for it. There a dedicated partition for Windows on your drive, you should be able to copy that across to a new drive.
I would create a backup of all your files as well as a Windows recovery drive on a usb flash drive, just so you're prepared for the worse case scenarios, data loss/corruption etc.
Handy instructions on Microsoft about window 10 recovery with links to other windows versions Here.
Software I use to copy partitions.
P.S Forgive formatting, on mobile
Note, you will need to have the same amount of space (or the amount of data that is on the HDD space free) on the SSD.
Cloning the drive will wipe any data off the drive your cloning to.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
Use Macrium Reflect. It's the easiest free program to clone your operating system drive onto an SSD.
Make sure to clone the main drive and the System Reserved partition when cloning.
Then google 'How to enable Trim' this is important, because sometimes it's not enabled when you clone from a HDD to SSD, but for me I think Macrium Reflect enabled it on the SSD.
I had issues cloning so had to go a little longer route and backup my main drive and System reserved and then restore it to the SSD I bought.
Once you have cloned, make sure to test the SSD will load by disconnecting your HDD, then startup and see if it boots into windows. If it does, you can then connect the HDD again, go into the Bios/UEFI and change the SSD to the first boot drive, then load into windows and do what you want with the HDD, format it or keep it as a backup.
Is the M.2 SSD larger than the SATA SSD? If yes you can use a program called macrium reflect to clone the SATA SSD to the M.2 SSD.
When you are on the step for partitions make sure to resize the windows partition to fill up the rest of the M.2 SSD.
If you aren't doing image backups on a regular basis, get something like https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree and use one of the drives to hold the image backups.
Since SSDs have a limited number of write cycles, offload temp file folders and browser cache folders like this:
> If you have a folder, say, C:\MyStuff, and want to move it and all of its contents including subfolder to D:\MyStuff, follow these steps:
>
>Copy all of C:\MyStuff to D:\MyStuff
>
>Temporarily rename C:\MyStuff as C:\MyStuff.old
>
>In a command window: mklink /D C:\MyStuff D:\MyStuff
>
>In a file explorer navigate to C:\MyStuff to be certain it looks OK.
>
>In a command window: notepad C:\MyStuff\TestJunk.txt
>
>Type some junk text into the notepad window and save it.
>
>In a file explorer, check that D:\MyStuff\TestJunk.txt exists. If it does, then you have done everything correctly.
>
>When you are satisfied that the C:\MyStuff symbolic link is working OK and D:\MyStuff is correctly populated, then you can delete C:\MyStuff.old
>
>If files are locked and so prohibit step 1 or step 2, then you need to do the work in the Safe Mode or a recovery environment.
>
>You can do that for browser caches, which are highly active if you surf a lot.
>
>You do not need to change anything else, like shortcuts, if you do it this way.
Works great. I've used Macrium Reflect twice in the past few months and it even clones from a larger drive to a smaller SSD provided there's less data being cloned to the new drive than the new drive can hold.
I’ve used cloning software like macrium reflect for migrating on laptops before with little issues. Cloning should be a fairly painless process and Windows should still be activated. Just make sure to backup all your data in case anything goes wrong.
Use this. It's free. Also there is linux boot cd called clonezilla but it's not as easy as reflect free.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
How to
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW7/Cloning+a+disk
Are you going to have go around to put the SSD in anyway? I would use this
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
You can make a usb drive, and boot the machine and then clone the drive while you are there. Its going to be very quick disk to disk.
Windows 10 has 2 user backup solutions and 1 extra system backup solution: https://www.howtogeek.com/220986/how-to-use-all-of-windows-10%E2%80%99s-backup-and-recovery-tools/
User backup solutions: System Imaging (Full image of all system volumes) and File History (versioned automatic file backups)
System backup solutions: System imaging and System Resource Protection aka System Restore Points (often defaults to OFF), as well as automatic backups version of system files
All these technologies use VSS (Volume Shadow Copy) which should be able to copy most locked files.
Windows Images and System Restore Points can both be recovered even if the system stops booting as long as the data is accessible, via the built-in Windows Recovery environment.
If you want a third-party solution you can use something like Macrium Reflect Free, though it will require making your own bootable WinPE environment: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
Now if you're using Windows 7 as you mentioned, then that supports the System Imaging and System Restore Points but doesn't support File History; instead it supports incremental imaging via the built-in Windows backup options (basically in the same place). It also supports VSS as well. For file versioning I'd use a client like Dropbox or OneDrive. Windows 7 also supports a "System State" imaging backup type which includes a backup of the registry, but usually System Restore Points are better for this.
Its similar, but a restore point would be on the computer. Say if the hard drive crashes, you would lose all that. If you make a system image and save it on an external drive, you can just replace the hard drive and restore. Also say if you get a nasty virus, it might affect the restore points. There is more pros and cons out there.
This is one of the best and free software to make a system image: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
Macrium Reflect is good and free, at least for personal use.
I've used a lot of different disk-cloning software over the years, but ever since I discovered Reflect 7-8 years ago, I haven't had to bother with trying anything else.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
https://www.easeus.com/backup-utility/free-disk-cloning-software.html
There's a ton that work for free. I forget which I just used to clone by SATA SSD to my WD Black nvme m.2 then cloned that to an old mechanical hard drive as a back up. Even put another backup on my network drive.
Now I think I'm going to return the WD Black for this.
Dear user,
Please make sure you do a image backup of your Windows installation/disk. That way you can always revert back if things go south. Just make sure you create a USB stick with the appropriate software so you can do a bare-metal restore anytime you want.
Personal preferences for free imaging softwares are:
Best of luck!
Macrium Reflect Free has never failed me. Makes an initial image (not a clone, although it has that option as well) of all the data on your HDD, then you can do differential backups regularly to keep it up to date.
There are a ton of utilities to do this. I used Macrium Reflect Free: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
You use a USB thumb drive to install Macrium Reflect on.
Then you hook up the SSD and your old HD at the same time.
Boot off of the UBS thumb drive, this boots into Macriums OS
You pick your old HD as the source and your SSD as the target.
Then you clone it. I picked the slowest "safe" option. Left it running while i was at work.
I had a TON of files so it took ~5 hours to clone.
When its done you shut down your computer and disconnect your old HD.
Then you boot your computer off your SSD and done.
I went from ~1 minute boot times to Windows login to 5 seconds.
> (close your eyes if you're squeamish lol)
I cannot express how much we really don't care. This isn't /r/pcmasterrace - we don't really care what specs you're using.
> (yesyes boom boom)
Again, we don't care. If it works, it works.
> Stuff
All of this can be solved by simply replacing your SSD with a larger SSD. Get Macrium Reflect. Get the new SSD, unplug your HDD, plug-in the new SSD, follow this video to clone your old SSD into the new one and re-size the partition, remove the old SSD and plug-in the new one in the place of the old one, re-connect HDD, all set.
You won't have to activate windows, and you'll have more SSD space.
No that is doubtful, however, GSOD is likely a driver issue or a corrupt file during the upgrade procedure. Windows can cause hardware to freak out to where a complete power off and on is needed. We dealt with an NVMe bug that caused a GSOD and when the PC restarted the NVMe drive wasn't seen (no even in UEFI) until the PC was powered off and back on via the power switch on the power supply.
When I decide to update I use a software called Macrium Reflect Free to make an image of my current boot drive. This allows me to easily go back to it if things go awry. I had used the rollback and Windows own system image tool but both had failed me. Macrium has not. Be sure to learn how it works before you NEED it.
Then I open a powershell as admin and run these two commands
sfc /scannow
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Just to check for any issues with corrupt or missing Windows system files.
There are times when a driver or chipset update is required to run the latest insider build, of course this depends on your PCs internals and they will usually state this in the blog post regarding the update, it is a good idea to check that first as it will state what you need to do beforehand (if anything), what is fixed, and what they know if a problem in the build.
As these are dev (pre-beta) and beta versions you may have to start over (unless you have an image of your system to restore) at any time.
Good luck and have fun with them, I've been an insider since Oct 2014 it is a great program and you might even help resolve serious issues from making it out into the wild.
You can mirror the whole HDD to the new SSD if the used space can fit onto the new SSD drive, and the HDD is in good shape.
There are many cloning software programs, As stated Samsung has a Migration Tool that has a link for a free download that comes with their SSD. Or you can use Macrium Reflect, Easeus Todo Backup, Aoemi Backerupper, or Acronis True Image. It's best to create a bootable USB Rescue disk in the clone software and boot with the USB Flash and run the Clone job Outside of Windows. Be sure to select the Whole drive that C: is on, the Source Drive. When cloning, including all small hidden partitions. Then choose to Clone it to your SSD, the Destination Drive.
BTW, Your Windows 10 Product key is embedded in your UEFI Bios of your motherboard, so you can reinstall Windows 10 as much as you like on that computer and not have to type in your product key.
Check the website of the SSD's manufacturer. They will often include free cloning software.
There's also Macrium Reflect Free and EaseUS Todo Backup Free.
Yep. Clone the D: drive to your new drive and swap the drives out. If you have both the old and the new drives installed, yes, just reassign the drive letters. Macrium Reflect Free does drive cloning flawlessly.
You can clone the old drive to the new one, they should be the same size or the new one should be larger. You can use a program called Macrium Reflect it's free, you can get it here: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
Here is the instructions on how to make a clone of a drive https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW72/Cloning+a+disk
Or you can do a clean windows install to the new ssd. Download the media creation tool from the microsoft website and make a bootable usb disk with the windows installer on it. Shutdown and unplug the old drive and leave only the new one plugged. Plug the usb and boot to the windows installer and install a new copy of windows. You don't need to enter your key during the installation as it is stored along with your machine information and windows will be activated once you are online.
Edit: If you do a clean install you will need to reinstall all the drivers and applications you had on the system.
100% this. Storage is pretty cheap these days and there are multiple methods for backup (physical and online). Everyone needs to take the time to back their important files up. MacOS is dead simple with Time Machine and Windows has some decent built in backup options as well. There are many other good 3rd party Windows backup software options too like Macrium Reflect, VEEAM, Acronis True Image .
I don't know where people get this "It's best to do a clean install" from. Changing out motherboard and CPU, yes, why live with likely instability problems difficult to diagnose.
I have done three migrations using Macrium Reflect and one of my sons has done another. All of these were even over to a larger capacity drive than the donor drive. macrium as far as I know is one of the few that makes this not only easy, but possible. All have performed flawlessly for between one to two years. Certainly as well as my recent fresh Windows installations.
Anyone looking for backup/imaging software, Macrium Reflect does damn near everything you could possibly want, including compression, forensic backups, booting VMs from an image (w/ the viboot add-on with windows pro hyper-v), and is completely free
Samung has utilties for cloning into a new drive https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/
Your disk may well too. Or you can make a copy with https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
Veeam free agent for incremental and reliable OS backups with full and/or atomic restoration through browsing or bootable ISO. Extremely reliable for restoration to different hardware, far beyond any cloning tool.
PWiz for very flexible cloning and Macrium for imaging.
Zilla has given me bsods when attempting the same things as I've achieved with the tools above. After 4 years in an IT workshop where I swap drives and do hdd/ssd/sata/nvme migrations and upgrades almost weekly, those are my favorites.
Try Macrium. Chances are, your HDD is larger in size than your new SSD. Macrium is the only cloning software I am aware of that allows you to clone to a smaller volume target drive from a larger drive....provided the new SSD has enough space for the original OS and data. Make sure their is plenty of room on the target drive. If there isn't, Macrium may allow you to exclude the transfer of back up copy of Windows, which is redundant anyhow as you'll still have your complete copy of Windows on the original drive to use as a back up.
Existem diferentes programas que você pode usar para fazer a clonagem.
A necessidade principal é que a quantidade de dados ocupados no disco original seja menor que o tamanho total do SSD. (Exemplo: Você tem um HD de um 1TB com 200GB ocupados -> Você precisa de um SSD de 240GB e vai ter apenas 40GB livres após a transferência)
Caso esteja usando um PC, recomendo o Macrium Reflect 7 que além de gratuíto (por 30 dias se não me engano) é relativamente simpes e amigável de se usar.
Caso esteja usando um MAC, recomendo o Carbon Copy Cloner que é igualmente simples e intuitivo além de ser gratuito por 30 dias.
Macrium Reflect and Aomei Backupper both include a universal restore function in their cheaper paid editions, but their free-for-commercial-use editions do not include it. So if you want a low-cost alternative, there's at least two off the top of my head.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
https://www.backup-utility.com/
Note that any universal restore function should ideally only be used for recovery scenarios. If you want to make a master image for new deployments, or move an already-bootable OS to new hardware, you should leverage sysprep and the /generalize switch, then use any imaging software of your choice since that will accommodate for the new hardware. (And reset SIDs, etc)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-vista/cc721940(v=ws.10)
Documentation and blogs make sysprep sound harder than it really is. At its absolute simplest form, all you do is:
1) Open Run command, type sysprep and hit Enter.
2) Double-click sysprep.exe.
3) Choose "Enter System OOBE", put a check next to "Generalize", and choose "Shutdown".
4) Click OK, watch system shut down. Capture your image now before the next boot.
When you re-deploy that image, it will detect new hardware.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
Download that, plug in both drives and: Clone drive 2 onto drive 3 Power down Unplug drive 2, move drive 3 to its position Power up. If it boots and works right, check the files, make sure there is no corruption, and you’re golden.
After that, scrub the old drive 2 and turn it into a porn catalog.
Just use a cloning software and do it yourself.
If system is working fine, you don't want to send it back and get something new screwed in return.
You may use Macrium Reflect 7, if you want. https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
Following tutorial to help you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufaX_d8o1ZM
Once cloning is done, don't forget to select your SSD as your boot drive in your BIOS setup.
Call tech support and let them do migration for you, only if you think you can't do it by your own.
But, if you have got a new system that is working fine otherwise, there is a risk that you get new issues once you receive it back from service center.
Using hard drives/ssds the way you want doesn't void your warranty.
Download something free like Macrium Reflect (or CloneZilla if you're old school) and create an image of your working system. Macrium has the option of creating the clone from within Windows or you can create removable media, boot from it, and create/restore a system image.
Do some simple diagnostics with task manager, try to see what is using the processor. Try Edge if you're using Chrome. Nuke and start over is a last resort, but if you need to, here's good backup program: Macrium Reflect Free.
edit: redirect to OP /u/marcocet
Sounds like SyncToy is just what you're looking for. I wrote a guide for it here.
Alternately, just back up all of your partitions with Macrium Reflect Free, and run a differential backup every month (or whenever).
You could clone it using Macrium, as there is a free version and it works great. I use it myself. Doing this you will not have to re-install any software, programs, etc. This is one option.
Doing a new install is another option. Doing so allows you to start from scratch which is fine, but you have to install any software you previously had, personal settings, etc. This is what takes the most time.
Myself, I would do a clean install. In the end the choice is your to decide.
Reinstalling to Windows 7 sounds like a good idea in your case.
With regard to common user data folder locations: In Windows 7 and newer almost all user data is located in C:\Users\[username]\ and occasionally you'll find something in C:\Users\Public\ .
With regards to the drivers: You can probably download any drivers Windows 7 does not have built-in from Toshiba's website. Especially if the computer came with Windows 7 originally.
And a final note: I always make a copy of the entire hard drive before wiping anything for a reinstallation. Macrium Reflect Free is good for this purpose.
The best thing to do is to useMacrium Reflect to clone the hdd to the sdd. Then just format the hdd and use it for whatever. Macrium Reflect is free. You will not get the benefits of the ssd if you do not clone or install a fresh copy of windows on the ssd. You will still have improved loading speeds on any games installed on the ssd but your windows startup will still be very slow.
Just be sure to change your primary boot drive to the ssd in your bios after you clone.
If the hdd used space is larger than the ssd free space the cloning process will not work. You will need to install a fresh copy of windows on the ssd in that case.
Macrium reflect installs just like any program, and the clone can be done from within windows. after it clones it, you shut down and swap the drive over and boot to the SSD.
I'm not sure if there's a video specific to the G15 but you can certainly YouTube how to image Windows with Macrium Reflect and here's the download page: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree?mo# for Reflect 7 Free.
Here's how I would proceed:
Again, this is how I would personally do it but proceed at your own risk.
If you have another PC you can create yourself a Repair USB-Stick that is much better than Windows Tools. They can also change MBR-Installs to GPT-Installs.
My Favourite Tools for that Problems are:
Use Macrium Reflect to create a Boot Repair Stick
Use Lazesoft Recovery Suite to create a Boot Repair Stick
You only need the Free Versions of that tools!
With Lazesoft you can also recover files if you cannot recover the whole install - but 99% works
You can try it. Sometimes if it’s a dell, or HP store bought it may not work as the versions are made for the laptop as it has the recovery partition. Even if you get the key and download the Exact same installer, chances are it will still be a version mismatch and it will just say the key is invalid when you go to enter it. Use a tool like Blearc advisor. Not sure if they charge now for the OS key.
You can also try to clone the drive, use a bit by bit HDD copy program. https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
Could use a cloning software for the system like Macrium Reflect, it's pretty good
Or you can do this
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Get a Windows 10 Media Creation Tool, download it on your hard drive, run it and download W10 to your SSD
Go into your board's BIOS and set the SSD as the main boot drive
Reboot the PC, login into your Microsoft acount to reconfigure your license to the new drive so the activate watermark goes away
When you first get your pc setup / ready to roll before you do make a clone image of it with macrium 7 free https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree That way no matter what you'll be able to restore it to as it was on the day you got it.
if you are building a new system, i still recommend installing windows fresh on a new drive.
If you are hooking up the other drives as just storage drives, it's pretty plug and play. sometimes you need to hop into the bios and change the boot order so the computer knows which is the right drive to boot off of, but other than that it's good.
If you ever need to clone a drive, i recommend https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
Download Windows 10 to an ISO (Google download Windows 10) then reinstall Windows. You will want to back up too if you have portable storage.
Will edit with more links.
Edit: download windows 10: https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows10
Use this to make a backup: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
I would look at Macrium Reflect 7 Free, and simply clone your existing Windows installation to your SSD, then unplug your HDD (assuming that the size your Windows installation is taking up is less than the total capacity of your HDD). That's likely going to be the easiest method of achieving what you're after, without the complications of migrating just your %appdata%\Roaming folder.
Macrium Reflect is good for cloning from hdd to sdd but if they are not boot drives just copy/paste should do the job fine. Just hook them both up to sata. Most mobos have like 6 ports.
Do yourself a favour and DL and install Macrium Reflect free.
Provided the new or target disk is large enough for all of the data, Macrium will allow you to move an image from a larger HDD/SSD to a smaller drive. Not many others will do this.
It's also dead easy to use and it just works.
When you click on the "Download", a window requesting your email address will pop up. Just hit the "Continue" button without giving them your email. :)
Macrium Reflect Free can do a clone.
I have zero monetary interest in this software. I do use this software on multiple PCs at home plus I use it on a crap load of PCs where I work. There is a little bit of a learning curve.
It depends on the type of your W10 licence. Afaik there were different ways to activate Windows (online, OEM or retail etc.). To be honest, I'm still confused about the W10 activation procedures.
I used a cloning app on a used PC to be absolutely sure.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
(the free trial version is sufficient - I found it easy to use)
Don't forget the obligatory backup.
A highly recommended Free Imaging/Cloning software is Macrium Reflect.
If your current HDD won't boot, then it has become corrupted, possibly due to Bad Sectors. it may not successfully clone. Or If you are successful, it will import any of the problems you had from your old HDD into the new.
If that happens, you can attach the new drive, and do a Clean Install of Windows 10 from USB Flash drive, which is suggested. Then attach your old HDD as a secondary drive. It should be still accessible to view the files and you can drag and drop your files (not programs) from the old drive to the new.
I would recommend using Macrium reflect, it's a tool that lets you clone drives really easily, I've used it to move my boot drive from a HDD to an SSD and it worked great.
Be sure to have a backup procedure in place, I use Macrium Reflect Free, I make an image of my system before applying any new update. It is a development branch and can have major issues, that said I've run them since October 2014 and have had maybe a handful of times where my PC was unusable where I needed to restore without the backup it would have been a reinstall Windows and everything process.
I've poked around with the in-built backup tool quite some time ago and I just couldn't get on with it. Maybe it's improved today but I've felt 3rd party options had more to offer.
Personally, I'd have a look at Macrium Reflect Free. I've been using the paid version of this for many years and it has been very reliable. The free version might be all you need. This will give you a true image of the drive so it copies EVERYTHING. You can restore the image if needed or you can browse it if you just want to copy back specific files/folders. It's a solid tool!
i also originally upgraded from an HDD to SSD and i used this software called macrium reflect- i've used it a lot and never had a problem- it's really straight forward you should be able to find a quick tutorial on youtube, and i personally didn't prepare anything because i didn't have anything that i really needed to keep but if you have anything on your drive that you don't want to be deleted/corrupted i would move it to a backup drive
> With storage snapshots, you should be okay. https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E51475_01/html/E52872/shares__space_management__understanding_snapshots.html
The OP is not using ZFS or snapshots, so at this point he is not safe from ransomware. Those are very cool technologies, however.
The OP's OS and installed programs are not protected. That's why Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows or Macrium Reflect Free are needed for an orderly, faster recovery from ransomware or even a simple hard drive crash. I prefer Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows for its flexibility with multiple USB drives, though perhaps that can be done with Macrium as well. Macrium Free only does differentials, so backups take more space than Veeam, which does incrementals.
As for at least 3-2-1, technically, yes. But if ransomware hits or the room with the computer burns, 3 of the 5 copies are gone. Tthere's only an out-of-date local offsite backup and BackBlaze. Better hope BackBlaze has everything you need, including all your product keys, software installation files, bookmarks, and whatever else is valuable.
Which Windows version is running on that laptop?
Perhaps you can upgrade to Win10 if your Windows is not too old. I think you can upgrade from Win7 to 10, but I might be wrong here.
Cheap licenses for Windows are mostly not legit. The code might work but it is not really a legit license.
For the switch to ssd: You will need an USB2SATA adapter or an external hdd/ssd enclosure.
And you will need software to clone your hdd to your ssd. I used the free version of macrium reflect a few times in the past and it worked well. https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
First you should backup any files you would like to keep to an extra device (external hdd, USB-stick,...). I did not have any data loss, but better safe than sorry.
So you install the software, connect your ssd via usb to your laptop. Then you select the disk you want to clone (the software is not really hard to understand).
After selecting the target (external ssd) the software starts copying the hdd to the ssd, this can take a while depending on how much data there is and how fast your system is.
When everything is finished you turn off and unplug your laptop, remove the battery if possible. Now you remove the hdd and put the ssd where the hdd was.
After reassembling the system you can turn it on and you should have the same system as before but faster.
If your ssd is smaller (capacity) than the hdd the cloning process is slightly different.
Hope that helps.
f.
You definitely want to be booting off an SSD (for speed and responsiveness).
You can move the windows install partition with https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
Can't be done that way. The 2.5" drive slot supports only SATA drives meaning the 2.5" to M.2 adapter would only work for SATA M.2 drives.
The 980 pro is a NVMe M.2 drive.
You'll need to either use a M.2 NVMe to USB adapter or make a image of that drive using macrium reflect on a portable hard drive or a 2.5" drive you can install in the laptop.
Once the image is done make a macrium PE bootable USB (rescue media) use that to boot off of when you have the new M.2 installed.
Have also the drive installed that has the backup image on it (e.g external backup drive). Once the macrium usb is booted restore that image onto the 980 Pro, resize the windows partition accordingly to fill up the empty space of the drive as I assume the drive will be larger.
Download macrium reflect here
How to restore an image using rescue media from Macrium Reflect with a backup image here
Guide for how to resize image refer to this guide
Sorry about it being lengthy but that is a way to do it without needing to buy a NVMe to USB adapter to use for clone and backup.
Dear people of reddit i beg of you if you have a mech-15 G3 Gsync model pls use this link https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree and take a snapshot of your device and send it to me so i can at least restore my old settings.I dont have any money left to give so i have be a begger here sorry but if you do this i can at least thank you If you are having a hard time believing me thinking this is a virus link or something here's the proof.https://youtu.be/x9BGn4MivJw
The windows license and/or activation is tied to your motherboard and will be retained even after reinstalling windows.
When you reinstall windows you skip entering in a license key and selecting the edition of windows you want to install e.g Home. When done installing and connecting to the internet it'll automatically activate your windows.
You can still clone your HDD to your SSD but you must make sure you have enough space to do so as I assume the HDD is larger than the SSD in capacity.
You can use macrium reflect to do the clone, you'll need to delete the existing partitions using the clone wizard in that tool and resize the windows partition accordingly on the new drive to fit with the other partitions.
Here is video for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LClr3FPg4_4
I used macrium reflect to clone my boot drive to nvme, worked perfectly first time, give it a try if you didn't already!
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I think the only way to do what you want is to backup your data and then reinstall Windows 10 20H2, unfortunately.
Going forward:
You can go into your settings -> windows update & security -> windows insider program and use the Stop Getting Preview builds section to jump out of the insider program after the next release.
I keep 3 backups that I create with Macrium Reflect free it creates a complete image of my boot drive so I can restore back to that point.
No. You need to transfer the non-system files (such as games, downloads) that are taking up the space on the SSD off to another drive like a backup external hard drive so that the used space is just small enough to be able to clone the SSD to the M.2 drive.
Cloning programs like Macrium Reflect let you resize partitions accordingly to fit onto a smaller drive like your M.2.
> Is it better for me to just wipe my HDD and reinstall windows on my SSD?
This will give you a fresh, fast, clean install (so if it's been a while since your last clean install, it's not a bad idea).
But it's not necessary. Macrium Reflect is completely reliable, easy to use, and free cloning / imaging software.
Yes, you can use any storage cloning software you like to do that. It will copy the HDD exactly to the SSD, with windows and everything, without messing up the hard drive. You will need to have both plugged into your PC though.
I personally have used Macrium Reflect, but any one you like will work. Free trial is great.
If the total used space on the HD is the same or smaller than the total available space on the SSD then you can shrink the HD's parition down to fit on the SSD and clone it over. Similar to copying, but not the same.
I believe Macrium Reflect is your best free option and I believe it takes the guesswork out of it.
Personally, I'd just get install disk iso from Microsoft and install a fresh copy of Windows 10 on it. Then you can access the old HD to get old files and/or move required files over.
I mean there is no way to magic the information over there. You are going to have to copy and paste at some point.
Ultimately, you're going to want to clone your drive in order to get what you want (which is all the same data on a new drive without reinstalling)
Macrium Reflect Free is all you need for this as the free version will clone the drive for you.
A lot of that is scammy as there are a ton of sketchy programs out there that claim to be cloning software. There's also a handful of reputable ones that can lead one to option shock even if they can separate the wheat from the chaff.
Personally, I did mine with the same program I still use to do backups; the free version of Macrium Reflect. You could also use Acronis, or Clonezilla as I see them mentioned about as often on "Best cloning software" lists, but I feel more comfortable recommending something I've actually used with good results over stuff I know only by reputation.
Cloning by definition makes an exact duplicate of your hard drive, size typically doesn't change significantly other than the amount of free space if you're moving to a larger drive.
I recently had to clone a drive and the free version of Macrium worked surprisingly well to do the job.
If your new setup doesn't boot and it's Windows, look into fixing the MBR, the master boot record. This is the little bit of code at the "beginning" of a hard drive that tells your hardware how to boot up the operating system. If this is missing or corrupted you can't boot things normally. Also it might be good to create a Windows system repair disc as well just in case you need it after the cloning is complete.
Install windows on the other SSD and copy the files you want over. You could also try cloning your SSD with macrium reflect, however I tried that when moving to a SSD without luck.
Not sure if this one will work, but you could clone the drive onto the SSD, then use it to boot to and do a clean install using the factory reset partition.
Or, use your windows license key to download a new copy of windows off of microsofts website and then reinstall on the SSD.
I used Macriom Reflect https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
Made a image/backup of my main drive, system reserved (and you will probably see another for the recovery partition), then restored it to the SSD.
ah and you try bootrec commands? and see also can try and dl a boot repair and make a usb with this
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree try this if not we will go from their
One of your drives is failing the self checks. Use something like this to test and figure out which drive is failing. https://hddscan.com/
Either copy anything important to another drive or usb, or create a full image of the drive using something like macrium reflect to copy everything. https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
An image will allow you to reload it to a new drive and pick up where you left off.
Get a new drive and replace the faulty one. Destroy the faulty drive once you are sure you have copied everything important.
lucky you i just did it today.
Here's what you need : 1) Software to clone your old drive into the new one : https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
It's free for home usage.
Also you need an adapter to plug your new hard drive on your laptop via USB port, on amazon about 20 USB you type : Nvme pcie USB adapter youll get a bunch, cant give you the link cause i bought it on amazon France and i doubt the same one is available wherever you live.
It's pretty easy to do but you still need to have some skills / knowledge, if you have somes i can guide you when the time is right if you ask me, it took me about 20minutes to clone my drive, after that it's plug and play.
Dont really wanna recommend you something if you dont feel confident doint it though.
how big is your current drive?
I use Macrium Reflect (free edition) to clone my drives (because copy-paste won't work for making bootable drives/partitions).
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
Hose the SSD and then clone all existing partitions and data to the SSD. Then go into the BIOS and ask the computer to change boot priority to the SSD.
A simple SSD swap won't make Windows drop it's licence.
Have fun and enjoy the speed! The Crucial MX500 is my 2nd choice for an SSD in the market. It's fast and good!
I use these, Reflect for OS, whole C partition, SyncBackFree for folder, both are free for its purpose.
I'm fixing to do this in a week or so and hope it works.
Shut Down and physically install the new hard drive. Drive to be copied must still be installed.
Boot computer as normal. Once PLEX is running, turn it off.
Use Windows Partition Manager to change the letter of the existing "M:" Drive to "X"".
Use Macrium Reflect to clone the now "X" (old) drive partition onto the new drive.
Use Windows Partition Manager to expand the reflected partition onto the new drive up to the drive's capacity. Rename the drive "M:".
Shut down the computer.
Disconnect the old drive from the motherboard.
Boot the PC and restart PLEX. Since it was off the whole time, ideally it has no idea the switcheroo ever happened because M:/Movies is still a valid location and nothing has changed.
Once new drive is secured, format and start dumping new stuff onto it.
> I now have some options to put some larger drives in the Gen8 and use it for backups. But what should I use?
What is the context of the question? What type of hard drives?
FreeNAS might be worth a look for that Gen8. You could have the Win boxen image to that. Macrium offers a free business edition now.
If you go this route be sure to have FreeNAS send a log report of some sort so someone, somewhere knows it is running and doing the job.
I know you only talked about a folder sync, but I suggest having a look at this https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree .
I use it to do a daily incremental image of my whole computer to the NAS. You can schedule operations, create a USB-Stick to boot from and restore via network (which really saved my ass one time) and have a backup of your whole drive/computer. First backup takes some time of course depending on the amount of data and network speed, but the incremental ones are really fast. Plus you can define a ruleset how long backups should be retained. So you never overflow your storage on the QNAP with these.
I strongly recommend this software to everyone looking for a backup solution because it is so much easier and complete than a simple file-based backup. The time needed for it also isn't that much of a hassle really. You can also adjust, how much processing power it uses, when running in the background.
Only drawback of the free version is, that you can't do differential backups - only incremental as said, but that's usually not a biggy.
Have a nice day.
If you are doing a fresh install of your OS you will need to reauthorise or reinstall and authorise your plugins as well as most of your other software. The only way round it is if you clone your C drive on to your new SSD rather than do a fresh install.
If you want to clone it you can use something like Macrium Reflect Free to do it: https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree allows you to clone a HDD to a SSD - essentially moving everything from your HDD to your SSD. You'll just need to boot to the SSD after and it will work great.
The QVO doesn't have cache; it will be somewhat slower in large load situations.