dan99t Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 Hi, I have been using 3.5 inch 500 GB HDDs & have never used an SSD. I clone my 500 GB HDD every night using Acronis software so I have a spare HDD in case something goes wrong. Now I want to buy Western Digital Blue 500 GB SSD. My question is would I be able to clone it just like regular HDD ? Meaning I will have to make this new SSD as a slave drive & clone it from my HDD so I will have a new bootable SDD with OS & data from old HDD ? Thank You Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1420961-how-to-replace-hdd-with-an-ssd/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
DoctorD Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 Real easy to do in a live environment lots of videos out there on how to make new drive and partition active. Here is an example Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1420961-how-to-replace-hdd-with-an-ssd/#findComment-598757446 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rigby Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 (edited) Master/slave settings were only used with old PATA drives, they no longer exist with SATA so you don't have to do anything there, you just plug it in and it works. An SSD appears just like any other hard drive to the OS and software so yes, you can clone them or do anything else you could do with a spinning hard drive. Xenon 1 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1420961-how-to-replace-hdd-with-an-ssd/#findComment-598757449 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sulphy Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 I would recommend that you install the OS from scratch... What OS are you running currently on your HDD ? Xenon and goretsky 2 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1420961-how-to-replace-hdd-with-an-ssd/#findComment-598757451 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riggers Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 If you have Acronis use their disc cloning software from the bootable CD (or direvt from the software). Iv`e done it dozens of times and never had a failure. I just set the boot priority to the CD/DVD, boot from it (the Acronis CD), clone the drive to the new one, power down, remove the cable from the old drive, reboot... https://kb.acronis.com/content/61665 Good luck... Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1420961-how-to-replace-hdd-with-an-ssd/#findComment-598757455 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra.Xtreme Posted August 29, 2022 Share Posted August 29, 2022 I've used Reflect to clone a 256GB SATA SSD to a 512GB M.2 SSD. It had Bitlocker enabled, which I assumed was going to be an issue. But nope, it was super easy and zero issues. https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree Som and devHead 2 Share Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1420961-how-to-replace-hdd-with-an-ssd/#findComment-598757468 Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan99t Posted August 29, 2022 Author Share Posted August 29, 2022 On 29/08/2022 at 17:06, DoctorD said: Real easy to do in a live environment lots of videos out there on how to make new drive and partition active. Here is an example Many Thanks On 29/08/2022 at 17:10, Rigby said: Master/slave settings were only used with old PATA drives, they no longer exist with SATA so you don't have to do anything there, you just plug it in and it works. An SSD appears just like any other hard drive to the OS and software so yes, you can clone them or do anything else you could do with a spinning hard drive. Thank You. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1420961-how-to-replace-hdd-with-an-ssd/#findComment-598757487 Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan99t Posted August 29, 2022 Author Share Posted August 29, 2022 On 29/08/2022 at 17:22, Sulphy said: I would recommend that you install the OS from scratch... What OS are you running currently on your HDD ? Win-7 due to graphics card that I am using but buying a new system. On 29/08/2022 at 17:59, Riggers said: If you have Acronis use their disc cloning software from the bootable CD (or direvt from the software). Iv`e done it dozens of times and never had a failure. Thank You. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1420961-how-to-replace-hdd-with-an-ssd/#findComment-598757489 Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan99t Posted August 29, 2022 Author Share Posted August 29, 2022 On 29/08/2022 at 19:01, Astra.Xtreme said: I've used Reflect to clone a 256GB SATA SSD to a 512GB M.2 SSD. It had Bitlocker enabled, which I assumed was going to be an issue. But nope, it was super easy and zero issues. Thank You. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1420961-how-to-replace-hdd-with-an-ssd/#findComment-598757491 Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Supervisor Posted August 29, 2022 Supervisor Share Posted August 29, 2022 Hello, Often the SSD manufacturer provides disk cloning software, sometimes on a CD as part of a kit with necessary cables and mounting hardware, but more often these days as a download available from their support website. One thing to keep in mind is that when you clone a HDD to an SSD, various settings related to how Windows manages the drive will be still be set as if a HDD is installed, resulting in decreased performance. A message thread here on Neowin from a couple of years ago explains why this occurs. Be sure to check @warwagon's reply in the thread on how to resolve this issue. Another option you might want to consider, though, is to perform a clean installation of Windows 10 to the SSD, and then reinstall your applications under that. This will help you familiarize yourself with that newer version of the operating system in preparation for your new system purchase. Regards, Aryeh Goretsky Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1420961-how-to-replace-hdd-with-an-ssd/#findComment-598757600 Share on other sites More sharing options...
xpablo Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 Most SSD's include some type of cloning software, at least all the different ones i've bought. Just clone the drive onto SSD and swap out the drives that simple. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1420961-how-to-replace-hdd-with-an-ssd/#findComment-598757631 Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan99t Posted August 30, 2022 Author Share Posted August 30, 2022 On 30/08/2022 at 03:57, goretsky said: Aryeh Goretsky Very kind of you. Right now I am using Win-7 due to older GPUs but getting a new system soon. How should I initiate ? MBR OR GPT ? All my 500GB SATA HDDs are "MBR" Other 3 TBs are GPT. I was under the impression that if HDD is smaller than 3 TB you have to go for MBR OR for 3 TB & Larger you have to do GPT. Please advice. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1420961-how-to-replace-hdd-with-an-ssd/#findComment-598757706 Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan99t Posted August 30, 2022 Author Share Posted August 30, 2022 (edited) On 30/08/2022 at 06:04, xpablo said: Most SSD's include some type of cloning software, at least all the different ones i've bought. Just clone the drive onto SSD and swap out the drives that simple. Thank you xpablo. I have been using Acronis Home for many years. I tried AOMEI backupper that lets me work while clonning. But clonned HDDs Partition size were different especially OS 😄 drive. So I went back to Acronis. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1420961-how-to-replace-hdd-with-an-ssd/#findComment-598757708 Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Supervisor Posted August 31, 2022 Supervisor Share Posted August 31, 2022 Hello, GPT (GUID Partition Table) is required if you want to have support for disk partitions which are greater than 2TB in capacity. You do not need to use it with smaller-capacity drives, or on drives which will only have smaller partitions, but I would suggest using it, as it is a more modern method of partitioning drives. It will also make it easier if you to decide to upgrade the computer to a newer version of Windows at some point. One thing about GPT, though, is that it requires the computer to have UEFI enabled in its BIOS firmware (with support for Legacy or CSM disabled, if possible), and the installation media needs to support it. Windows 7 installation media does not support this out of the box, but you can customize the Windows 7 installation media to support it. Intel has a PDF file explaining how to to this here on their website using Rufus, a popular tool for making bootable USB flash drives. Another option might be Hasleo Software's WinToUSB. I have not used the latter tool myself, but the instructions seem straightforward. Regards, Aryeh Goretsky Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1420961-how-to-replace-hdd-with-an-ssd/#findComment-598758050 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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