SSD project queries

[Hunsel]

Hello

Looking for some guidance on a query please.

 

Can you clone an existing HDD from ONE Windows 7 PC onto an SSD, and then use that same SSD image on multiple windows 7 PC’s ? Will this work ok on the network? what about duplicate SIDs? Do I need to sysprep? If so, when do I need to run sysprep? Or will this only work without any issues if I cloned each HDD individually onto individual SSD’s (approx 20 PC’s)

 

Have a project to upgrade all computers in our ICT suite (20 PC’s) from their existing HDD to SSD’s, current imaging solution isn’t working and requires investigations so looking for a quick solution to do this, hence my above question.

 

Lastly, what freebie imaging solution would you recommend?

 

Thanks

Hunsel

[synaesthesia]

Hard to really recommend imaging software with MDT being so easy, however there's certainly some convenience to it at times. We have a hard drive duplicator (cheap and cheerful plug in the top things) which will whip through a whole drive in half an hour for the odd times we do it, otherwise I use Acronis trueimage. Clonezilla would be more than sufficient otherwise. And yes, definitely sysprep. I would still recommend fresh install though, especially going from spinning rust to SSD just so proper operating system changes are made especially on older systems like win 7. It may also give the opportunity to tweak the system BIOS, if any are still set to compatible/IDE mode, you'd want to change them to AHCI mode which requires a fresh install also.

[3s-gtech]

You can change a non-AHCI to AHCI install by tweaking the registry before changing the BIOS. Did it across many PCs back in our W7 days.

[EddyAllen]

You can.... Although I would generally advise making a new image that you are going to deploy. If you really want to use this image what I would suggest is the following;

 

1) Capture the PC! Once you've virtualized the PC you can chop, change, update and play around with it however you want. You can either do this using an SCCM capture task OR use Disk2Vhd (a nice little sysinternals tool https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/disk2vhd )

2) Driver removal - https://www.thewindowsclub.com/device-cleanup-tool-windows - Fantastic little tool for P2V conversions that will remove any unneeded drivers from your image.

3) Import the VM and make any modifications you need.

4) Sysprep the machine, this will remove any machine specific information so that it is ready to be deployed.

5) Recapture the image or just deploy the sysprepped vhd

 

If the computer names are something you are trying to preserve then I would just use a bog standard HDD to SSD tool.

[supportman]

We just use a hardware Inateck drive duplicator. It was less than £100 so well worth it.

[synaesthesia]

Less than £100? £30 off the shelf just about anywhere, various brands including Inateck (startech etc, all the same people/hardware) So you're not wrong

[Katy]

We've got a standalone Startech duplicator and eraser that we've used where we're moving something with peculiar software/settings that were set up so long ago nobody knows what they were - so fresh install would be very difficult, we did this with I think 10 Win 7 PCs. Although all the SSDs since died... guessing Win 7 didn't know they were SSDs.

[supportman]

We've got a standalone Startech duplicator and eraser that we've used where we're moving something with peculiar software/settings that were set up so long ago nobody knows what they were - so fresh install would be very difficult, we did this with I think 10 Win 7 PCs. Although all the SSDs since died... guessing Win 7 didn't know they were SSDs.

 

We've never had an SSD die and have probably bought over 1000 on Windows 7. Which brand are you using?

[AlanD]

We have had SSDs fail....although some that appear to fail came back to life when I discovered the manufacturers had released firmware updates (...hadn't taken much notice of firmware updates for SSDs before then...well worth doing...even improves performance in some cases).

 

Not sure I would want to waste any time with Win7 when they are end of life at the end of the year.

 

And yes, I'd be using MDT or some other dynamic build process...assuming you have AD why not stick an image in WDS and build them from a PXE boot?

[Ertech]

Anyone used crucial SSD? any recommendations?

[Katy]

We've never had an SSD die and have probably bought over 1000 on Windows 7. Which brand are you using?

Sandisk. We've got about 200 of these, I think it was 7 were on Win 7 and 6 failed (all Win 7 ones).

[supportman]

Sandisk. We've got about 200 of these, I think it was 7 were on Win 7 and 6 failed (all Win 7 ones).

 

Ahh OK yes Sandisk and Crucial are budget brands for sure.

 

Samsung or Intel just don't fail from our experience.

[Arthur]

I think it was 7 were on Win 7 and 6 failed (all Win 7 ones).

It's probably worth running the following command from an admin command prompt to force Windows 7 to 'see' the drive as an SSD.

 

winsat formal -restart clean

 

Ahh OK yes Sandisk and Crucial are budget brands for sure.

I think @Katy bought the really cheap (£25) SanDisk SSDs. That might be the problem?

 

I tend to avoid these and go with the more expensive models like the MX300/MX500. None of these have failed so far at my school (although we mainly have Samsung SSDs).

[Katy]

It's probably worth running the following command from an admin command prompt to force Windows 7 to 'see' the drive as an SSD.

 

winsat formal -restart clean

 

 

I think @Katy bought the really cheap (£25) SanDisk SSDs. That might be the problem?

 

I tend to avoid these and go with the more expensive models like the MX300/MX500. None of these have failed so far at my school (although we mainly have Samsung SSDs).

Yeah I got the cheap ones but they've been fine on all the Win8.1 (then subsequently Win10), only fail if I've done a clone HDD -> SSD on a Win 7 machine. I guess when it installs it sets a flag to treat the drive differently or something, which then wasn't changed as I cloned the drives rather than re-installed. Dunno just guessing.