Getting a new SSD, should I clone it or install from scratch?

[tracerit]

I have a 256GB Crucial M4 that has served me well but I'd like to upgrade my mom's new laptop with an SSD and was thinking about giving her my M4 and then I'd pick up a Samsung Evo for myself.

Thing is would there be any issues cloning the M4 to the Evo and using the Evo? It'd be the same size (256GB).

 

[Elixer]

Nope, no issues cloning, lots of people do it.
The only time you need to install from scratch is if something is wrong with the system, or, you just want a clean start for some reason.

 

[OlyAR15]

The lazy way is to clone it, which is fine as long as the old system is running well. However, a fresh install of Windows is often worth the extra work.

 

[Charlie98]

The lazy way is to clone it, which is fine as long as the old system is running well. However, a fresh install of Windows is often worth the extra work.

I agree... except the 'lazy' part. Cloning is a reasonable way to transfer a good OS to a new drive... sometimes it's the best solution. I just did it with my HTPC SSD... there was no reason to clean install.

 

[MustISO]

Personally I always clean install. The programs I have installed can be easily re-installed and all my user data is backed up daily.

 

[Essence_of_War]

Thing is would there be any issues cloning the M4 to the Evo and using the Evo? It'd be the same size (256GB).

If it's going into the same motherboard with the same windows installation, it should be totally fine to clone it over without doing anything else.

I don't know how much qualitatively faster it will feel though. It might be best to give your mom the Evo (or an MX100, or an Ultra II, etc) and wait to upgrade when you can afford to increase capacity also.

 

[Danrr]

I always do clean installs, only backup the important stuff and the games currently playing.

I like to install and configure the system the way I want, so it doesn't bother me to do it.

 

[corkyg]

A lot depends on how much customization and number of installed programs. My method is clone first and then if that is not to your liking, clean install. Cloning takes a fraction of the time that a clean install does, and in my case, getting all the programs and customizations installed and working takes about 3 days! I can clone the drive in about 10 minutes and a clean install takes over an hour.

When Win 8 came out, I did a clean install, and it was not at all to my liking. So, I then did a clone job and it was perfect, and has never failed -and is now 8.1.

 

[HOSED]

Since it is a new laptop I would guess there have been minimal changes or chances to get any malware so I would clone in this case. If it had been used for a few years I would do a full backup/image of the existing drive and do a fresh install on the M4.
If you need recommendations for SW let us know

 

[Data-Medics]

Actually cloning it can lead to sector misalignment if you're going from a traditional HDD with 512K sectors to an SSD which always has 4K sectors. This will result in extra read/writes and can not only slow down the SSD but can also lead to premature failure.

If you want to clone, I'd use a utility designed specifically for SSD migration. Some SSD's come with this software or you can use something like Paragon SSD Migration. That way it'll adjust the sector alignment if necessary.

Other than that, no real issues with imaging to an SSD.

 

[Data-Medics]

Edit: I misunderstood. I thought you were talking about cloning her hdd to the SSD not your SSD to another SSD. Shouldn't have any issues there.

 

[ronbo613]

I've cloned an OS hard drive to an SSD and an OS SSD to a larger SSD a few times without any problems. If you use good cloning software like Clonezilla and perhaps gParted if you need to make some adjustments, it should be smooth sailing.

It may be true that an SSD will perform marginally better on a clean install, but the time it would take to reinstall and reconfigure all my programs is not worth the effort in my case.