Windows 10: Macrium reflect users - best route to upgrade disks sans fragmentation

So its tax time. Im finally upgrading all 9 of my disks and joining the 100tb club.

However im trying to be proactive so it doenst take the rest of my life to migrate data, adjust paths, and get on with things.

Im a macrium user but so far its simply been backing up an OS image on a schedule. Im now wondering if its going to be my best route to migrate this data.

its my understanding that an image will remove all fragmentation. But i dont have the space to image a current 8tb hard drive to restore it somewhere else.

its said that cloning a disk does a 1:1 including said fragmentation. I'd like to remove the fragmentation as these drives are so huge and packed that running a defrag the conventional way would take much longer than is reasonable, if it would ever finish tbh.

I figured now would be the time. A quick google indicates that some programs allow cloning with, or without fragmentation included so to speak. A further google and this didnt seem to be the case with macrium (best i could tell).

So TLDR, how can i migrate this data without the fragmentation coming along for the ride? It seems a copy n paste/drag n drop will remove fragments, but apparently it can screw up permissions and while several of the drives (plex media) i dont forsee this presenting any issue, some others that I run things off of, it may. I'll pass on the unforseen nightmares that could create.

:)

 

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.

 

Newbie needs advice moving Win8.1 ==> Win10


In your shoes I would

1. Take a backup of the OS drive with Macrium Reflect, as suggested
2. Download the ISO and do an Upgrade install (step 7 in this tutorial)

Macrium gives you a way back if the upgrade doesn't work, and I also think that doing an Upgrade install is probably likely to be your quickest route to being activated on Windows 10 by the deadline.

Once activated, you can consider doing a clean install later but without the time pressure.

 

New Macrium Reflect Updates


Something I found interesting:

New Feature: Automatic System Restore Macrium Software Blog