Windows 10: cloning (not imaging) speed -- Macrium vs DD

Hi folks
I'm talking about Cloning here not imaging which is a separate methodology and Macrium does perfectly with it (both performance and reliability wise).

However on Cloning Macrium performs rather worse on Windows than using DD on most Linux systems fairly significantly though

Testing on the same hardware with the same source and target disks the macrium performs roughly at 800 Mb/s or 200 MB/s whereas the DD method using parameters DD if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=64M status=progress runs at 320 MB/s which is over 1 Gb/s so a lot faster.

On both tests I was running the application from within the Native OS's --i.e not using a stand alone recovery type system.

Not sure why there should be this difference in performance since the functionality can't be that different -- both methods read a block of raw data - the file system type is totally irrelevantant - and write it to the target drive so no "OS" file system or I/O handling routines would presumably be needed -- just a BIOS call to the Disk controller. I think the answer might lie in the way you can "Buffer" the DD method by specifying the block size for the data transfer with the bs parameter.

Perhaps anyone from Macrium could explain a bit and see if there's an easy method of improving the data transfer via the Cloning method.

Imaging is usually faster since only actual data is copied - not empty blocks in files etc -- for cloning though you want an identical target disk to the source.

Cheers
jimbo

:)

 

cloning / imaging


As long as the thumb drive has enough capacity for the image or clone.
I suggest using Macrium Reflect as it uses compression when making images.

 

Restoring Windows 10 Image using Macrium Reflect


In addition to the above. Here's my suggestion in step by step.
I assume you have Macrium Installed in your current HD and already made a backup copy.

1. Connect your new HD via USB port and boot up.
2. Run Macrium, click on Restore tab then select the Backup Image that you made to restore
3. click on "select a different target disk" then select your new HD as destination
   
   
   
4. Proceed to restore then Shutdown and disconnect the old HD and replace with the new HD
5. Boot up with your new HD.

 

Cloning to SSD then swapping drive letters


@SamHobbs
What you want done is very simple and can be done in short period of time. Here's my suggestion:
There's 2 modes that Windows can be installed: UEFI and the old legacy MBR. Open Disk Management, look at the disk where your C drive is, if there's a

1. EFI System Partition, your Windows was installed using UEFI.
2. System Reserved partition, your Windows was installed using MBR

Next, Connect your SSD to an available Sata port (no need to format or do anything). Download: Macrium Reflect Free . Install and run. Follow the steps below:

1. From Macrium, click on image this disk under your C drive and save it to either an Internal or External Drive. This will create a single backup image of the whole disk containing your C drive.
2. Again, from Macrium, click on Restore tab and select the image created from step 1, Select your SSD as the destination drive, click Next->Finish
3. Exit Macrium. If your Windows was installed using MBR, Open disk management and make sure the SSD is marked "Active" else go to next step.
4. Shutdown your PC. Disconnect the HD containing Windows C drive then connect your SSD to it.
5. Reboot. Your PC should boot and the Windows should have C as the drive letter.

NOTE: The procedure above is to backup your Windows to an image file then copy it back to the SSD. This ensures proper cluster size aligment for the SSD. In addition, Macrium also perform Trimming for the SSD. This is more preferable than cloning.