Windows 10: Cloned OS from HDD to SSD; good install? Have doubts

(1) will work if you select the right partitions, (2) will guarantee the right partitions to back up Windows. I would use the default settings but check Verify to confirm the backup is OK. Note my tip to backup rather than clone.

 

Latter could come into play (short of actual "forensic" work - in the law enforcement/investigative sense), for instance, it you have disk errors or file errors on the source drive which prevent MR imaging from completing (it checks file/disk data integrity as part of imaging) and you really just ned to get the data off of a possibly physically failing disk and onto a new working disk. This would allow imaging or cloning to complete by taking the source bytes at face value and then you can restore to a good disk and possibly recover data you really want. If sectors on the source disk were marked bad by Windows, then you could use chkdsk /B, for instance, to have those sectors re-evaluated by Windows and returned to service if found good. Probably not relevant to OP's questions but thought I'd expand a little on that specific topic.

Agreed that image/restore can be the most seamless with MR for the "average" user (like me). Even more seamless, IMO, would be just imaging entire disk (all partitions) as is and restoring that way - partition work/optimization can be completed on the new drive. Running "winsat formal" from an elevated (admin) command prompt once all is restored to the new disk is one of the first things I would do, to ensure that Windows sees the disk correctly (mainly SSD versus HDD).

Also note that cloning/restoring can be done with modification of partitions on the fly. For restore details, more is here: http://knowledgebase.macrium.com/dis...ion+properties

 

I would let it run and see what happens. Maybe there is something to be learned.

 

After imaging the exact copy, it did do the whole 1TB HDD for 5 hours but insufficient space on my external HDD. Next, did the intelligent copy of 60GB, which took 8 minutes. After trying to restore image to SSD, get this, a bit frustrating.

Partitions 4 & 5 appear to be for restoring windows. Don't know what partitions 1 & 2 are for.

 

Partition 1 is a definite keeper to have your system bootable, 2 is a reserved and unformatted partition you also have to keep. You ran out of space because you haven't yet shrunk the size of your third partition to leave room for 4 & 5. Please read the MR knowledge base article carefully that I linked you to above.

 

I'm not sure why creating an image would be a better way to do things than simply cloning the drive. First off, imaging takes approximately twice as long since you have to make the image and then restore it. IMO, it also has more opportunities for something to go wrong. First of all there is 2 operations instead of one and on top of that, imaging involves compression (unless you turn it off) and the compressed image must be expanded when restoring. If something goes wrong during compression or expansion, your restore will not be successful.

I have cloned many drives over the years and have never had an issue. Hate to see someone spin their tires needlessly when the outcome is the same.

 

I understand what you mean @strollin and generally agree - it may just be a matter of personal preference but further than that, for me, it was to preserve a complete image of where I started from and immediately take (perfectly good) source drives, reformat them, and put them into enclosures to use as external portable backup media.

 

OK, finished the Macrium imaging. One glitch I had was when trying to reduce the target C drive from the source, I would go from say max 220 to 200 GB. Then, when I see I need to go back up to max 210, I can't without undoing several steps. Since this required several attempts to get the right number, it was a tedious process. Am I missing something there?

I ran "winsat formal" & "sfc /scannow." Results below; winsat doesn't offer a good/bad verdict. Anything else I can do to verify all is well on the new SSD before re-formatting the OEM HDD?

Still not clear if I should have just tried to clone a second time, but now I learned how to clone & image. For recovery media, I have the Macrium image on an external USB HDD and the Apricorn clone on a USB flash drive. Thanks for everybody's help.

 

Looks to me well done, BIC!

1) Main reason I recommended "winsat formal" is I've seen a few people here go from an HDD to an SSD and, for some reason, Windows hasn't realized that the disk type has changed - winsat formal gets the OS to take a fresh look at all of the hardware types you have - usually the complaint is that Windows Disk Optimization is not realizing that it's a solid state drive and the fear is that it would be inappropriately fully defragmented. A check for you would be to open Windows Disk Optimization and see that it is correctly listed as solid state.

2) You could always run a "chkdsk /F" (letting it reboot for that) on the drive just as another check - but I suspect you're completely good to go.

Unless you're in a hurry to convert that old HDD, you could just let it sit, unmodified, in a safe place for a week and make sure everything works according to plan.

Enjoy!

 

@BIC
I noticed you seem to be using a camera or web cam for your pics on here, their is a MUCH better way to take a screen shot for this forum. Take a look at this link. Most of us use this tool. *Smile
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2...u-windows.html

 

After I cloned it the first time, I was using it for a few days and everything seemed to be working OK. It was only when I went to do a Windows Update & create a Windows Repair Disk, did hints of issues arise which led me to go with the imaging procedure.

Yes, I was using a regular camera to capture the screen shots, primarily because I had to go to a different computer to do my posts here. But, I was not aware of the Snipping Tool; I'll check that out next time. Thanks.

 

Hi,

Good to see you have it working.
Ideally the recovery should sit in front of the OS partition. Easy enough to fix but if it doesn't bother you that's fine.

Best, *Wink

 

Why is that? I just left it the way Dell created it. Thanks.

 

MS recommends having WinRE (your partition #4) first like this





The reasoning given is "This partition order helps to keep the system and Windows RE partitions safe during actions such as removing the recovery image partition or altering the size of the Windows partition." Source

However it really doesn't matter at all what order your partitions are in. You could shuffle them around with MiniTool Partition Wizard if you wanted (you would then have to re-register WinRE in in the new location with reagentc.exe) but I wouldn't bother unless you want to remove your dell recovery partition (your partition #5) anyway (if you are running short of space for example).

 

Interesting, because I let Windows 10 Pro make my partitions on my 1st clean install. Windows made 4 partitions in the order it wanted on my UEFI /GPT Partitions. No WinRE partition was made. And my C-Drive is the last partition.