HDD Cloning Software

[Pudgie]

Hi Folks!

I'm needing some info & advise on acquiring a good disk cloning software & what to look out for when using such.

I have just bought 2 SSD's & will want to clone my 2 HDD's onto them.

I was looking at Acronis Disk Director 11.........looks pretty good to me & the reviews in Newegg are favorable.

Are there any others that y'all recommend?

This will be my 1st time doing a disk clone...............have always just started over & reloaded all from scratch in the past but now I want to expand my skills....................... ......

The 2 SSD's will be the OCZ Vertex4 MLC SATA III 256Gb version. I'll be cloning data from 2 WD Caviar Black SATA III 500Gb HDD's.

I'll be studying up on this in the meantime but any help or advise will be appreciated.

 

[wabbit]

I've been using Acronis True Image for years, and loved it, (Not familiar with Disk director).

Until just this last week, that is...

Try Macrium Reflect FREE.

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

I runs under Windows has many of the features that Acronis has, (Acronis is NOT Free), and it also has a bootable rescue cd/DVD.  You can also place the rescue iso on a bootable USB thumb drive, if you use 'Xboot' or one of the other bootable usb Thumb Drive creation utilities. It does both image backups and cloning.

So far I've found this program to work about as fast as Acronis and it creates images files that are just about the same size. It's easy to use and best of all IT'S FREE!

I haven't used the cloning option yet, but since the software's free, you can give that a try youself. I would make an image backup first just-to-be-safe...

Wabb

[wabbit]

I have a step-by-step for replacing your system boot drive with an SSD. Since you said you're installing 2 SSD's, I'm not sure exactly what you're doing.

Are you replacing your system boot drive with an SSD? And then will you be replacing your second, (data drive), with an ssd data drive?

And what version of Windows are you running?

Let me know. I have a step-by-step for replacing the system boot drive under windows 7, if that's what your doing. I can post it here for ya. If you're also replacing a second, (data drive), with an SSD, I can amend the step-by-step for that too.

Let me know so I post the right instructions.

Here are some Free SSD benchmarking programs you can use to test your new drives, once you get them installed.

1. AS SSD benchmark:

http://www.alex-is.de/PHP/fusion/news.php

2. Atto Disk benchmark:

http://www.attotech.com/products/product.php?sku=Disk_Benchmark

There is also an SSD tweaker that says it will make all the changes to Windows 7 for you automatically. I haven't tried that, since I did mine manually. Here's the link if you're feeling bold:

http://majorgeeks.com/SSD_Tweaker_d6382.html


Hope this helps,

Wabb

[katanaso]

I'd recommend doing a fresh install, so you can align the sectors on the SSD as needed.  I found that the cloning software removed any alignment that I had done prior to trying to clone, and manually making the changes was going to be more of a PITA than simply installing the OS again.

[Denniss]

WD offers an OEM version of Acronis True image that shall be capable to do what you want for free - you might want to test that first. You need to have at least one WD drive plugged-in to use it.
http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119

[Pudgie]

I have a step-by-step for replacing your system boot drive with an SSD. Since you said you're installing 2 SSD's, I'm not sure exactly what you're doing.

Are you replacing your system boot drive with an SSD? And then will you be replacing your second, (data drive), with an ssd data drive?

And what version of Windows are you running?

Let me know. I have a step-by-step for replacing the system boot drive under windows 7, if that's what your doing. I can post it here for ya. If you're also replacing a second, (data drive), with an SSD, I can amend the step-by-step for that too.

Let me know so I post the right instructions.

Here are some Free SSD benchmarking programs you can use to test your new drives, once you get them installed.

1. AS SSD benchmark:

http://www.alex-is.de/PHP/fusion/news.php

2. Atto Disk benchmark:

http://www.attotech.com/products/product.php?sku=Disk_Benchmark

There is also an SSD tweaker that says it will make all the changes to Windows 7 for you automatically. I haven't tried that, since I did mine manually. Here's the link if you're feeling bold:

http://majorgeeks.com/SSD_Tweaker_d6382.html


Hope this helps,

Wabb

Hi Wabbit,

Yes I'm replacing my system boot drive as well as my data drive w/ these SSD's.
My box is running Win 7 HP 64 SP1.

I was looking at EaseUS Todo to use to clone both drives...software looked easy enuff to use & got good reviews....recommended to use to clone system drives w/ Win 7.......what say ye?

I would appreciate any & all help/suggestions.......SSD's will be here 10-4.
Looking to do this this weekend.

 

[jigsaw]

+1 for Acronis True Image.  I moved to that from Norton Ghost (spit).  Acronis 2012 has some cool new stuff like "Try and Decide" and supports SSD cloning.

Some people have cloned/swapped to SSD with no problem. Others have had to do a full install. I recently flipped the AHCI switch from IDE on my desktop with no issues, but when I tried it on my laptop (Raid in bios to AHCI) it barfed and I had to switch back.

[Chalenge]

I would not use anything other than Acronis myself.

[katanaso]

FWIW, I use Acronis too, and I tried it to clone to a SSD, both a single SSD and two in RAID-0, and in both instances, it did not have the correct offset.

[cattb]

I'm trying Paragon, see how it goes.

[Pudgie]

Alright folks........................ ..

My SSD's came in today!

I couldn't stand it no more so I went online & downloaded a copy of EaseUS Todo Backup Free to do the cloning with.

Popped 1 of the SSD's in the 2.5 to 3.5 drive bracket that came w/ my case & put it in my box.

Booted up........BIOS recognized the SSD no problems.

Got in Windows, loaded up the software (did not run it), defragged the boot drive, set up the SSD as a MBR drive in Windows.

Went & started EaseUS, selected Clone Disk, selected my boot drive as source, selected the SSD as the destination, selected EaseUS to optimize for SSD, looked at the finished partitions & executed clone & checked the box to shut down the computer when clone is completed.................... ............................. was done in 25 mins & shut my box down.

Went in my box & switched out the boot drive for the newly cloned SSD boot drive & fired her up........didn't have to do a thing! BIOS recognized the SSD as the boot drive & booted Windows w/ no issues, no reactivation, no fuss!

 

Man have I been missing out!!!!

Typing on it right now...............

Can't wait for tomorrow to get here so I can go to Best Buy & pick up another 2.5 to 3.5 bracket to clone the 2nd one & finish this!

 

[wabbit]

Nice Going,

      Sorry I missed uploading the instructions yesterday for ya. I got involved with a plumbing problem and never got back to do the upload.

      Use one of those drive speed test utils to make sure you're getting the speeds advertised for your drives.


Wabb

[katanaso]

Look at your partition alignment and make sure it's correct.

[Pudgie]

Look at your partition alignment and make sure it's correct.

Hi Katanaso,

That was easy to do w/ EaseUS as once you set up your source drive & destination drive & tell it to optimize the clone for an SSD the software will then show you a graphical representation of the SSD as it will be once cloned & will allow you to make changes to it before you pull the trigger.

Since I knew that I told it to make a sector-by-sector clone optimized for a SSD just to see what it would do & EaseUS said it can't be done due to the SSD being too small.

All the reviews that I saw online gave this software very high marks for it's accuracy, versatility, simplicity & one of the utilities reccommended to use to clone Windows 7 OS's............................ .........

So far to me it looks to be holding up to the reviews.........I used the EaseUS Todo Backup 5.0 Free (free version of the full one....only thing not in the free vers is the ability to make a bootable disk (whether CD/DVD or USB) using WinPE (useful for recovering data off bad HDD's).

But I'm an admitted novice so y'all gurus need to make a final judgement on this product.........all I can say is that it worked flawless for me.

Now I have ordered me 2 of these for my SSD's: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817999015

I'm in love w/ these & I'm not going back to platter drives so I'm setting my box up w these to make it easy to work w/ SSD's going forward.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Pudgie]

Nice Going,

      Sorry I missed uploading the instructions yesterday for ya. I got involved with a plumbing problem and never got back to do the upload.

      Use one of those drive speed test utils to make sure you're getting the speeds advertised for your drives.


Wabb

Hi Wabbit,

No problem as I can easily relate to that......................... ..............

As for the utilities you listed:

I like the Atto Disk benchmark utility but I hesitated on the download when they wanted all that info before allowing a download..................

I'm not gonna get spammed by a lot of stuff if I go thru w/ all that, right?

Just curious....................