Windows 10: Cloning a Windows drive

Hi all,I have a physical SSD drive, which came with my computer. It has 2 drive letters, C and D. The C portion has 4 partitions and contains Windows and Program files. The D drive has 3 partitions and contains my Documents. I didn’t realize it at the time but I thought the C and D drive were 2 physical drives not 1. God only knows why the whizz kid at Best Buy configured it that way. The drive is 500GB. On the C drive, I’m running out of space, as seen in the image. At the time, I thought the C drive only had about 9 GB left but that’s just that portion of it. There’s actually more space.&nbs

:)

 

Moving to SSD. Clone or not to clone?

Part of how I keep my SSD fast is to clone it to a platter drive, then clone back. You just want to make sure that you are only cloning teh used space, and not the empty space.


So, again, I isntall Windows to the ssd. Clone to platter drive, then clone back.

I am not sure why, but if I do not do the clone step, the drive's speed, and windows booting, decreases substantially within a week or so.

I am using a Corsair F60 SSD and a Western Digital 500AAKS as drives, and using the free version of Acronis that WD provides, if any of that matters. I am not sure, at this point.

 

Moving to SSD. Clone or not to clone?

I kinda agree with you, but on a wholr, do not. While I have done things a bit differently than this specific situation, by installing Windows directly to the SSD, and cloning after, my testing shows that there are no issues doing this, very little that can go wrong, provided your system is stable.

There are certain features that must be disabled in this situation, like auto defrag and such, but even with a fresh install to the SSD, you need to take steps to ensure that you SSD performs properly, regardless of how the data got there.

Arming yourself with a bit of knowledge can go a long way.

Installing the latest chipset driver, and the RST Tools, will ensure optimal performance of the SSD. but rather than taking my advice, I suggest the OP takes a look here:

http://blogs.dirteam.com/blogs/sand...7-and-ssds-to-clone-windows-or-reinstall.aspx

Installing The SSD - Install A Solid State Drive In Your Notebook | Tom's Hardware

Keep in mind, also, Digibucc, that many retail drives include software and such that very specifically is to be used to ttranser the OS from an existing mechanical drive to an SSD, and if there really was alot fo issues stemming from the cloning process, they would not have packages like that, simply to eliminate tech support costs. While not the optimal option, cloning is NOT a bad thing, as long as you take the nessecary steps.

 

Clone Bitlocker enable drive to SSD

Keitaro

My name is Andre Da Costa; an Independent Consultant, Windows Insider MVP and Windows & Devices for IT MVP. I'm here to help you with your problem.

Heed the advice of the software, you must disable BitLocker before cloning. This is highly recommend if you ever want to get access to the drive.

There is nothing wrong with having to re-enable it after restoring the clone.

Step 1: disable BitLocker.

Step 2: clone drive

Step 3: restore the cloned image to the new drive.

Step 4: Re-Enable BitLocker.