Windows 10: $17 way of migrating to SSD and more...

I stumbled upon this Startech Portable Dock/Cloner/Duplicator on Bestbuy.ca for only over $16.

Startech Portable SATA Hard Drive Duplicator With eSATA and USB (SATDUPUE) : Storage Accessories - Best Buy Canada

Other sites are selling it for a higher price up to more than twice this price. So to satisfy my curiosity, I purchased one. If it doesn't work, I can always return it back to the store anyway.
But after testing it to clone a Mac OSX and Windows OS (standalone without a help of a PC), this is now a keeper. It gave a smooth boot up on any OS. This will become handy in the future like perhaps copying a dying drive or just a test dock for an OS (boot up via eSATA port on it). It also has USB port. Very versatile little thing.





:)

 

Windows 10 migration

To migrate Windows 10 from HDD to SSD, here are many different ways. But here I would like to introduce the most simple method, that is using a software AOMEI Backupper, and you can

migrate Windows 10 to SSD with a few steps. with this way, you need to prepare an SSD which is enough to store the system files before.

 

From one hard drive to another

Try AOMEI Backupper Standard, a freeware. It has a feature called System Clone, which will clone OS to SSD. it will check if the ssd has enough space for the clone. As long as your ssd have enough space for the data on the
system drive(C: drive), it will successfully clone your OS to your ssd. more detials:

Freeware to Migrate Windows 10/8/7 OS to SSD/HDD without Reinstalling

 

Under £19 at dads UK
http://www.dabs.com/products/startec...e%20Enclosures

Looks handy.

 

Yeah, that's almost $29 canadian. Almost double but yeah I think it's still worth it.

 

I like that.. may get one!
*Smile

 

Btw, before diving in to get one I must also let you know that like all other standalone duplicator/cloning docks, when cloning with this device, the destination drive must be equal or greater than the capacity of the source drive. On my photo above, I am cloning from a clean install backups on 80GB drives (got those drives for $15 each from local store). So, direct (no PC) cloning may not work with everyone. But it can be used as a dock to migrate to SSD using a PC with software that supports cloning from bigger capacity hard drives to smaller capacity hard drives like Free Macrium Reflect or Paragon MigrateOS software.

 

Here is a link for the Manual

 

Thanks. The device came with a printed manual with the same exact content. *Smile

 

I wonder how that works with SSDs - concerning the alignment.

 

You are welcome. Most of the time it is better to look over the manual before purchase. Some times the manufacture does not make the manual available I do not purchase those items because of that practice.

 

I do like a PDF manual some times the paper one is lost or of such fine print that you need a magnifier to read it.

 

It's not mentioned but I did a post-cloning alignment with MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro and there's a pop-up message saying that the SSD is already aligned.

 

Not a problem for me. I keep all my manuals and warranty on those IKEA black boxes on top of my PC. *Smile
But yours is not a bad idea.

 

I'm not sure when I'd ever use this device since I would always have a computer handy when trying to clone a drive so wouldn't have much use for it. I can't imagine ever needing to clone a drive on a stand alone basis.

As far as partition alignment, it wouldn't work any different than any other time you cloned a drive, regardless of the method. I've cloned a half dozen hdds to ssds and always checked the alignment afterwards, the alignment has always been fine with no re-alignment needed.