How do I go about doing this

[Dari]

I'm getting a new Lenovo T440s w/ 512GB HDD. I'm also buying a 2.5" SSD drive. I want to clone the HDD that comes with the machine to the SSD drive and put the SSD drive in the T440s. I have Acronis True Image 2014 and 3.5/2.5" docking station. Can I clone the HDD to a partition on my desktop computer and clone that partition to the SSD drive? Or is it better to just buy another enclosure and do the cloning that way?

 

[DigDog]

are you just trying to save a OS license? or does the cloning have other reasons ?

 

[Dari]

are you just trying to save a OS license? or does the cloning have other reasons ?

Five reasons:

1) I want to upgrade the new machine to an SSD drive in as simple a way as possible.

2) Lenovo computers do not come with any media

3) Even if they did come with media, according to our IT Department, the media are either extremely unreliable (prone to errors when installing) or

4) Windows 8 only works in UEFI mode. But the DVD disc drive is not recognized in UEFI mode (and vice-versa with Legacy).

5) I could try to convert all those DVD discs (if I ask Lenovo to send them to me) to USB but that presents its own sorts of problems. Therefore, imho, it's just better to do a clone.

 

[DigDog]

well, i find it strange that the mobo does not see the dvd under uefi, but anyway, i would install both the HDD and SSD on a system with its own HDD and then do the cloning. this, provided you have a second PC, obviously.
however i'm not much of an expert in this. i was actually hoping you'd say yes and that you just needed to extract the serial from your current OS, to reinstall in on the SSD.
i did once do a cloning with partition commander and it went fine, but all i did was clone my system OS on a empty HDD on the same system.

 

[Cerb]

well, i find it strange that the mobo does not see the dvd under uefi

Had it happen several times with Dells. I just install w/ CSM on, myself, booting non-EUFI. Since the OEM doesn't need the ODD to install, it's no loss for them.

 

[corkyg]

When I changed my Thinkpad from HDD to SSD, I simply cloned the HDD directly to the SSD using Acronis TI 2014 on a bootable Thumb Drive. I also had an Ultrabay adapter in the Thinkpad. I put the SSD in the drive slot and the HDD in the Ultrabay. I booted to the Thumbdrive with TI 2014, and directly cloned the HDD to the SSD. I then booted to the new SSD with no problem.

I have also cloned the SSD to a backup external drive with no problem. The key to good cloning for me is to always use bootable media, i.e., thumb drive and never try it from within Windows.

 

[Dari]

When I changed my Thinkpad from HDD to SSD, I simply cloned the HDD directly to the SSD using Acronis TI 2014 on a bootable Thumb Drive. I also had an Ultrabay adapter in the Thinkpad. I put the SSD in the drive slot and the HDD in the Ultrabay. I booted to the Thumbdrive with TI 2014, and directly cloned the HDD to the SSD. I then booted to the new SSD with no problem.

I have also cloned the SSD to a backup external drive with no problem. The key to good cloning for me is to always use bootable media, i.e., thumb drive and never try it from within Windows.

Thanks. How do I go about installing Acronis to a bootable thumb drive?

Or can I just connect the two drives to my desktop and clone from the Lenovo HDD in a USB enclosure to the SSD drive in a docking station? I'd prefer doing it this way, if possible.

 

[corkyg]

Assume you have TI installed. Open and go to Tools and Utilities. Then select Acronis Media Builder and the Wiz will guide you. The media is a choice - I used to use CDR, but for the Thinkpad I use a thumb drive.

 

[Dari]

Assume you have TI installed. Open and go to Tools and Utilities. Then select Acronis Media Builder and the Wiz will guide you. The media is a choice - I used to use CDR, but for the Thinkpad I use a thumb drive.

Thanks.