Question best (free) disk cloning software?

Homerboy

Lifer
Mar 1, 2000
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going to a friends business tonight to replace his boot drive with a larger capacity SSD. It's been quite some time since I've done a disk clone (let alone on a boot drive). What's the recommended software nowadays? Ideally free/trial of course :)
Thanks!
 

DAPUNISHER

Super Moderator CPU Forum Mod and Elite Member
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Aug 22, 2001
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Macrium Reflect has been my go to for years. Free and easy to use. Remember to expand the C: partition since you are going to a larger drive.
 
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Tech Junky

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2022
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expand the C:
or shrink it and add a 2nd partition for storage. I set my W partition at 100GB during setup for a couple of reasons like my typical all in use isn't near that number and there are security risks with larger partitions with a shadow process.

1658334857345.png
1658334932152.png

On the linux side though I shrink the EFI to 50MB as it's the bare minimum. The / just set for the rest of the disk but, could confine it to a whole lot less than W.

nvme0n1 259:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1 0 49M 0 part /boot/efi
└─nvme0n1p2 259:2 0 931.5G 0 part /
 

mindless1

Diamond Member
Aug 11, 2001
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Many SSD brands come with disk cloning software, like Acronis Trueimage or NTI Echo , and work as long as that brand of drive is connected.

When I write "come with", I really mean you qualify for a license, some of them you download from the SSD manufacturer's website and are given an install key when you register, while others only detect if that brand of SSD is installed to validate the install.
 

balloonshark

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Jun 5, 2008
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I just cloned my sister's laptop HDD to an SDD and I made and used a macrium boot usb stick. I believe there was also an option to make a bootable cd/dvd.

Edit: I just checked and yes their is an option to make a cd/dvd rescue disk.
 
Nov 26, 2005
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If I clone my main boot gaming drive (M.2 nvme W10) onto a different M.2 nvme drive will it behave the same like boot perfectly normal, games will have no issues, etc.

Thanks
 
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TheELF

Diamond Member
Dec 22, 2012
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If I clone my main boot gaming drive onto a different M.2 nvme drive will it behave the same like boot perfectly normal, games will have no issues, etc.

Thanks
If you then connect it to the same port as the old one, yes. Excluding any titles where the anti piracy will act up due to change of hardware.
Otherwise you have to re configure your bios to use the new drive as the boot drive.

Also it seems it's not a widely known fact but most partition tools also have the option to do partition and/or disk clones.
 
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