Help cloning HDD to SSD
Author
Discussion

Scrump

Original Poster:

23,947 posts

189 months

Saturday 21st September 2019
quotequote all
Today I tried to clone the HDD in my daughter's W10 laptop to a SSD but it does not seem to have worked so am after some advice.
The laptop has a 1TB HDD and the storage settings show it is only using 91.9GB with 824GB free.
I purchased a 500GB SSD.

Using Macrium Reflect it shows this:


If you can't see the picture it shows 5 partitions:
System FATS32 Primary 58.1 GB of 250GB
Unformatted Primary 16GB of 16GB
Windows C: NTFS Primary 90.65GB of 915GB
(None) NTFS Primary 563MB of 963MB
Recovery D: 13.33GB of 15.14GB

I tried using the clone this disk function and it all seemed to go okay. WHen I put the SSD into the laptop I get an error message telling me there is no operating system on the boot disk.

Any ideas or pointers?

Ozone

3,112 posts

218 months

Saturday 21st September 2019
quotequote all
I think you're trying to fit a pint in to a half pot.

The primary partition on your C drive is larger than the target disk of 500Gb.

You could look at changing the partition size on you 1Gb drive to fit on the 500Gb drive

HRL

3,358 posts

250 months

Saturday 21st September 2019
quotequote all
Instead of trying to clone all of the partitions just clone C.

Scrump

Original Poster:

23,947 posts

189 months

Saturday 21st September 2019
quotequote all
Ozone said:
You could look at changing the partition size on you 1Gb drive to fit on the 500Gb drive
The software does that automatically when I ask it to clone to the SSD.

HRL said:
Instead of trying to clone all of the partitions just clone C.
I am trying this now.

Scrump

Original Poster:

23,947 posts

189 months

Sunday 22nd September 2019
quotequote all
No luck.
Same error message.
Anybody got any ideas what I might be doing wrong or how I can clone the HDD onto the SSD?

eltawater

3,546 posts

210 months

Sunday 22nd September 2019
quotequote all
Pop the cloned SSD back into the caddy, connect it to the laptop (or another PC).

Windows key, "Create and format hard disk partitions"

Show us a screenshot of what that says.

e.g.


HRL

3,358 posts

250 months

Sunday 22nd September 2019
quotequote all
Or pop the SSD back into the laptop, boot into the BIOS and change it from legacy boot to UEFI, then restart.

Penelope Stopit

11,209 posts

140 months

Monday 23rd September 2019
quotequote all
Have you considered installing a clean Windows 10 OS to the SSD and then copying over any important files to it?

Scrump

Original Poster:

23,947 posts

189 months

Monday 23rd September 2019
quotequote all
I hadn't considered a clean install, but then I wouldn't know where to start.
I had read that a "simple" clone was the easiest option.

I will take another look at the SSD tonight.

HRL

3,358 posts

250 months

Monday 23rd September 2019
quotequote all
Penelope Stopit said:
Have you considered installing a clean Windows 10 OS to the SSD and then copying over any important files to it?
By far the simplest method. Just need a Windows PC and an 8Gb USB stick.

Google Windows 10 download and follow the instructions on the MS page. Far less faffing and you’ll get the latest version, currently 1903.

Mr Pointy

13,429 posts

190 months

Monday 23rd September 2019
quotequote all
Scrump said:
Today I tried to clone the HDD in my daughter's W10 laptop to a SSD but it does not seem to have worked so am after some advice.
The laptop has a 1TB HDD and the storage settings show it is only using 91.9GB with 824GB free.
I purchased a 500GB SSD.

Using Macrium Reflect it shows this:

If you can't see the picture it shows 5 partitions:
System FATS32 Primary 58.1 GB of 250GB
Unformatted Primary 16GB of 16GB
Windows C: NTFS Primary 90.65GB of 915GB
(None) NTFS Primary 563MB of 963MB
Recovery D: 13.33GB of 15.14GB

I tried using the clone this disk function and it all seemed to go okay. WHen I put the SSD into the laptop I get an error message telling me there is no operating system on the boot disk.

Any ideas or pointers?
First off: put the HDD back in & make a Recovery Disk using Macrium:
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW72/R...
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW72/C...

Always do this first when using Macrium to clone a disk. You'll need to create a bootable USB drive:
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW72/P...
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW72/C...

Next attach the SSD & clone the HDD but I'd suggest only ticking the three following partitions:

YES - System FATS32 Primary 58.1 GB of 250GB
NO - Unformatted Primary 16GB of 16GB
YES - Windows C: NTFS Primary 90.65GB of 915GB
NO - (None) NTFS Primary 563MB of 963MB
YES - Recovery D: 13.33GB of 15.14GB

Adjust the C partion size to fill the free space if Macrium doesn't do this automatically.

Remove the HDD & put the SSD in. If it doesn't boot then follow this procedure (you'll need to boot from the USB Recovery key so make sure you have set the USB higher than the SSD in the BIOS boot order).
https://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW72/F...

Hopefully this will result in an SSD that boots.

If you want to start again with a new copy of Windows 10 then that's been covered numerous times on this forum.