SSD Cloning Program....

[Sithtiger]

Can anyone tell me what's the best cloning program for a HDD or SSD? I'm not just looking at free ones, but the best overall. I just ordered a Crucial MX100 SSD 256GB (was getting the Crucial M550, but sold at $90 price). Also how does one clone a drive....never done it before. I can't just clone the whole drive because my dying WD 500GB drive has more data than the 256GB MX100.

Is there a way to select, say Windows 7 and what programs I want cloned?

Thanks!

 

[geek117]

I typically use Minitool Partition Wizard (free). It is a fantastic program, and works well. I have used it multiple times to migrate larger drives to smaller SSDs.

Due to the size difference, you'll first want to run a full defrag on your 500gb drive to get everything into a compacted space, and then you can move it. You can't selectively clone things, but you can migrate a partition proportionally so long as the amount of data is less than the size of the destination disk. Otherwise you'll have to delete something from the drive before you clone it.

The program above should allow you to clone the disk while the system is live, right in Windows.

 

[crjdriver]

Is there a way to select, say Windows 7 and what programs I want cloned?

No.

Can anyone tell me what's the best cloning program for a HDD or SSD?

Hands down it is acronis true image.

Move the large data files to another drive, Uninstall any program you do not need Once you get your Drive down to a reasonable size, you can clone it to the ssd. Since you already have a WD drive, you can download and install the free version of acronis from the WD site. This version does have a few limitations however it will do what you want and it is free. Note you can install acronis and make the bootable media ie cd or usb. Once you make the bootable media, you can uninstall acronis to save some space.

Note for wear leveling, you should not have more than approx 80~90% of the ssd used; the less the better.

 

[geek117]

Hands down it is acronis true image.

To each their own. I'm not personally a fan of Acronis, their software is relatively heavy with a large install footprint. I prefer simpler tools that get the job done.

Either way, did this solve your problem Sithtiger?

 

[crjdriver]

They really are two different things. I looked at the home page for that program and unless I am missing something, disk cloning is not a function. It does show disk copy which may or may not do the job [some files are hidden and not visible in windows] It does not do imaging of drives, and again unless I am missing something, there is no boot disk. There is no restore to different hardware option nor do I see a bare metal restore option. There is no optimize for ssd option [which would be very useful for the poster]

This seems like more of a partition tool than a cloning tool.

BTW I agree that acronis takes up a lot of space so I always doing cloning, imaging, restore, etc from the boot disk and never install.

If you want simple, use clonezilla. Very quick and easy to use however it does not have all of the options of acronis and you have to have some skill with linux.

 

[saikee]

I just use one line of command in a Linux terminal (from any Linux Live CD)

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb

where the input file is device sda (source) and the output file is device sdb (target).

The command operates at the maximum read write speed the SSD manufacturer claimed. The only thing need to remember is the clone must be equal or larger than the source.

By default the command dd, which is a basic command of every Unix and Linux kernel, read and write a block of at least one sector of 512byte per record from the disk but the size can be specified by the user.

It has never failed me, not even once, and can do any operating system and on any hard disk with any number of operating systems inside (because it reads and copies binary pattern of the disk so it is a 100% duplication and nothing else).

 

[crjdriver]

Saikee I agree the DD cmd is probably the quickest however unless the poster has a reasonable level of skill with linux, it might be beyond someone who is used to windows. Even clonzilla might be too difficult, maybe not however for anyone who is used to a windows interface, the terminal is somewhat daunting.

 

[DaveBurnett]

Partition Wizard DOES include copying data and DOES include re-aligning for SSD.

 

[geek117]

Partition Wizard DOES include copying data and DOES include re-aligning for SSD.

I only suggested it because I've used it multiple times to migrate from HDDs to SSDs on several computers. They do also have a bootable CD available for download, which can be found here:

http://www.partitionwizard.com/partition-wizard-bootable-cd.html