Recommendations for free drive cloning software for HDD->SSD?

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gbwelly

1243 posts

Uber Geek

#185732 3-Dec-2015 09:25

Hello, searching indicates a number of free products for cloning drives from HDD to SSD. However the results look a lot like the experience when searching for video conversion software; -a lot of flaky and scam software is out there.

Can anyone recommend me some free software which will allow me to clone my HDD Windows 10 install (x64) from a 1TB HDD to a 960GB SSD drive, re-sizing and aligning correctly in the process?

Cheers!

MackinNZ

450 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1439724 3-Dec-2015 09:31

I used Macrium Reflect Free recently to do clone a PC with a failing spinning disk to an SSD and found it worked very well.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Lias

5589 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#1439743 3-Dec-2015 09:54

CloneZilla

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Poll

343 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1439791 3-Dec-2015 11:23

I've used Macrium for cloning many times and it is great, it won't do the resizing but if you resize in windows disk management or use something like partition magic you can resize the partition down to the right size then clone it across.

timbosan

2159 posts

Uber Geek

#1439811 3-Dec-2015 11:31

Lias: CloneZilla

+1 for CloneZilla. Used it many times including to and from different sized drives and never had a problem.

linw

2849 posts

Uber Geek

#1439832 3-Dec-2015 11:55

Macrium for me. See here for cloning instructions http://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW/Cloning+a+disk

1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#1440006 3-Dec-2015 16:49

: .. it won't do the resizing but ....

Many of the newer disk imaging software/cloning software that Ive tried wont resize downwards
Its a real pain when the new HD is even a few Mb less in size.

Perhaps the software that came with the SSD may be worth a try.

gbwelly

1243 posts

Uber Geek

#1440163 3-Dec-2015 21:04

Well I tried Macrium Reflect free edition. I must say it is a tidy piece of software. It does allow partition shrinking. The process was quite slow, taking around three hours for a 1TB SSHDD to SSD. Given the price this was reasonable.

For the benefit of others, the process is as such:

Remove all partitions on the destination SSD.
Use the clone drive option and select the SSD as the destination drive.
It will produce an error because the destination drive is smaller.
My Win 10 install had 3 partitions: System Reserved, C:, and Recovery.
Select the destination partition representing the C: drive and configure the options for it, lowering the size to leave enough room for the recovery partition.
Clicking the clone drive option again now will throw the same error as before. The trick is to now use drag and drop on the last (recovery) partition to the area of free space you have created.
Off you go with the cloning.

Thanks to those that replied!

Equinox IT

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linw

2849 posts

Uber Geek

#1440177 3-Dec-2015 21:39

And Macrium also now does disk management and differentials when imaging. Pretty darn good for a free product.

It is also very good at fixing boot problems as well.

rhy7s

623 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1440229 3-Dec-2015 23:56

Another reply after the fact, but also check out Aomei Backupper

Athlonite

1828 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#1440242 4-Dec-2015 03:36

rhy7s: Another reply after the fact, but also check out Aomei Backupper

Simple and complete software aswell as free I think I'll give it a try when I go from 2x 500GB HDDs in raid0 to 2x 1TB HDD in raid0