X-13 Posted June 1, 2015 Posted June 1, 2015 I'm considering a SSD for my laptop [relegating the HDD to a pure storage drive] and thought about capturing the current installation so I don't have to faff aboot reinstalling everything I want. I've got a 2TB external HDD I use for backups [as/when I remember to do them] that I was planning to use to store the image. Planning to use a WinPE boot disk and DISM. Does anyone do this?
mowgli82 Posted June 1, 2015 Posted June 1, 2015 I have done this, you would need to create the correct disk partitions first. The easiest way to is to do a Windows install but cancel it after has created the partitions. you could always use VEAM Endpoint which is free and do a bare metal recovery with the recovery disk it creates
featured_spectre Posted June 1, 2015 Posted June 1, 2015 If you go with Samsung, it will clone the machine directly to the SSD, so you can remove the previous HDD as a snapshot "to the date of upgrade".
kmount Posted June 1, 2015 Posted June 1, 2015 Recently used Download free backup software - EaseUS Todo Backup Free free version to clone wife's machine from old SSD to new SSD. No hassle, just worked.
rich_tech Posted June 1, 2015 Posted June 1, 2015 was about to add, Samsung will directly sort it out with their software, I run with a samsung SSD and 2 1TB hard disks in mine nowadays. Failing that reinstall from a USB wasnt too bad either flash to flash copying over USB3 to an SSD = faster than the days of CDs by far
LeMarchand Posted June 1, 2015 Posted June 1, 2015 Tend to use Clonezilla, but mainly because I'm used to it.
TechSupp Posted June 1, 2015 Posted June 1, 2015 Found that ClonEzilla does not like SSD's as I tried it and it just errored. Something to do with how it sees the SSD/creates the partitions.
googlemad Posted June 1, 2015 Posted June 1, 2015 If you're running Windows 7 you can create a system image using the built in tool to your backup drive (It won't wipe any data on the drive) but if your SSD is smaller than your current hard drive you need to shrink the C:\ partition down to a size smaller or equal to your SSD first using a tool such as GParted Live boot CD/USB. I tried the EaseUS and similar tools but none of them worked for my Mum's laptop!
Arthur Posted June 1, 2015 Posted June 1, 2015 If you have Windows 8/8.1 you could just use the built-in recimg.exe program.
alemanyorks Posted June 1, 2015 Posted June 1, 2015 Did a similar thing recently & tried using the built in windows tool. Seems fine taking an image that works OK but recovery is a problem. Ran into the size issue mentioned above even though I had a same size disk the actual partition was slightly larger which screwed it up. Went back shrank it but go a different error this time, was fed up by now so used Acronis true image HD 2014, just worked first time.
Garacesh Posted June 1, 2015 Posted June 1, 2015 Potentially dumb question as I've never done this before.. But can you not just create a mirror in Disk Management, then break it?
Passat1983ICTech Posted June 1, 2015 Posted June 1, 2015 there a software call drive copy you will have to use that and will copy the full driver
yugo Posted June 1, 2015 Posted June 1, 2015 Think I used a program called AOMEI Backupper when I got mine, connected the ssd with a docking station.
Chris_Jones Posted June 2, 2015 Posted June 2, 2015 If you're running Windows 7 you can create a system image using the built in tool to your backup drive (It won't wipe any data on the drive) but if your SSD is smaller than your current hard drive you need to shrink the C:\ partition down to a size smaller or equal to your SSD first using a tool such as GParted Live boot CD/USB. I have done this a few times, and never had any issues. just backup using the windows backup to an external drive and boot using your windows media to restore the image. Disclaimer - I have only done this moving from a smaller drive to a larger one and you will have to faff about shrinking things if your SSD is smaller than your current C Drive. You can shrink a partition in Windows Disk Management but this often hits a buffer and won't shrink past a certain size.
cpjitservices Posted June 2, 2015 Posted June 2, 2015 +1 for Acronis and Easus ToDo Free. I use Acronis 11.5 Backup & Recovery mainly (not free)
3s-gtech Posted June 2, 2015 Posted June 2, 2015 Many drives are bundled with bootable Acronis True Image (I know many Kingston ones are, not sure what others use). I've found it to be very able. It's a handy tool at work too, and not expensive.
Arthur Posted June 2, 2015 Posted June 2, 2015 and not expensive. Do you use the Technician version since wouldn't you need one license for every computer you are imaging?
X-13 Posted June 2, 2015 Author Posted June 2, 2015 Recently used Download free backup software - EaseUS Todo Backup Free free version to clone wife's machine from old SSD to new SSD. No hassle, just worked. I just tried this with a sacrificial computer [unused, unneeded, would have to be reimaged anyway]... Tried to clone a smaller HDD onto a completely blank larger one, clones the system partition [~500mb] but then fails. So I'm left with a 500GB drive with most of the space unallocated.
pete Posted June 2, 2015 Posted June 2, 2015 I put Imagex and gimagex (gui for imagex) on a WinPE image and used that to copy to the NAS and then back after swapping disks.
X-13 Posted June 2, 2015 Author Posted June 2, 2015 I found AOMEI Backupper through a google search. Free and worked fine when testing it out from small to large. [No unallocated space.] Going to try large to small tomorrow and see it it removes unused space.
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