Is it possible to image a SSD and restore to a larger SSD?

[sygyzy]

I know, for some reason, it's ill advised to clone a PATA/SATA drive and restore it to a SSD drive. I have a slightly different problem. My Intel SSD is rapidly filling up in space (all I allow on it is the OS and some program files but 40GB is not much to work with). Anyway, I see myself upgrading to a 60 or 80GB SSD in the future.

What's the best way to do this to avoid a system reinstall? I don't understand all this talk about alignment issues and what have you. I also read that if imaged a 40GB SSD (for example) and restored on a 80GB, you would have a 40GB partition and 40GB unassigned. Is that true? I'd prefer just one partition with 40GB space taken up and 40GB free.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[FishAk]

Use Macrium Reflect. It's free. Images can be fragile, so don't move, or defrag them, and make a couple extra- just in case. If for some reason you end up with unassigned space, assign it.

No need to understand alignment. Just download the alignment tool from Paragon at:
http://www.paragon-software.com/landing-pages/WhitePapers/paragon_alignment_tool.html

and it can fix any misalignment issues for you. It's free till the end of this month.

 

[wpcoe]

I know, for some reason, it's ill advised to clone a PATA/SATA drive and restore it to a SSD drive.

I've heard the same conventional wisdom, usually involving alignment issues on the new SSD.

Would another way to move from an old (spindle or SSD) drive to a new SSD be to:

(1) make a backup of the boot C: partition from the old drive,
(2) install Windows on the new SSD and set it to be the boot drive, and then
(3) restore the backup from the old drive to the new Windows installation on the new SSD?

 

[flamenko]

There is no need to concern yourself with alignment with Windows 7. You can fnd any number of programs which will clone from the spindle to the ssd but, if there is any way to d it, I would suggest a clean install just to be safe and make sure the ssd is set properly.

There are countless instances of people complaining of difficulties encountered in the clone transfer when first getting an ssd, many of which I have tried to assist with here and on other sites. The answer always seems to be a fresh install which works...

 

[kmmatney]

I used the Seagate Disc Wizard to close from a spindle disk to an SSD, running Windows XP. The alignment was off, and I followed a fairly complicated procedure to align it. There is a new tool (mentioned earlier) called Paragon alignment tool, which I sued the second time, and this was very easy.

I would suggest you simply try cloning the disk, and then use the AS SSD benchmark tool to check if the drive alignment is OK. If you have a Western Digital or Seagate disk lying around, then you can use their free disk tools for cloning the drive. Note: You do not need to have the WD or Seagate drives actually installed in your system. If you simply attach it externally with a USB adapter, then that is good enough. I know the Seagate tool has a sector-by-sector copy option. It doesn;t hurt to give it a try - if alignment is bad, then the Paragon tools will fix it quickly.

Otherwise, a fresh install would work.

 

[razel]

I know, for some reason, it's ill advised to clone a PATA/SATA drive and restore it to a SSD drive. I have a slightly different problem. My Intel SSD is rapidly filling up in space (all I allow on it is the OS and some program files but 40GB is not much to work with). Anyway, I see myself upgrading to a 60 or 80GB SSD in the future.

What's the best way to do this to avoid a system reinstall? I don't understand all this talk about alignment issues and what have you. I also read that if imaged a 40GB SSD (for example) and restored on a 80GB, you would have a 40GB partition and 40GB unassigned. Is that true? I'd prefer just one partition with 40GB space taken up and 40GB free.

Any help would be appreciated.

Since you'll be working in SSDs, as FiskAh mentioned, download the Paragon free partition utility. It'll be very useful. Run it and see if your partition is aligned. If not do so.

Once it's aligned if you're on Win7, avoiding a system reinstall is easier with it's built in backup. It will create an image that you can restore to a larger SSD. After the restore to a larger SSD, you can then use Disk Manager to extend your 40GB to take up full capacity. This worked for me several times at least with NTFS.

If you're on any other OS, you still might be in luck. Some HDD manufacturers (like WD) have free cloning utilities. The trick is you must connect the drive for the software to run. It's usually natively by PATA or SATA. Sometimes if you're lucky and you have a USB enclosure that passes the manufacturer name it might work too.

Even after you clone, do run the Paragon utility to double check if your drive is aligned.

Have fun.

 

[FishAk]

Be careful using the stock W7 image tool. I'm not saying it doesn't work- obviously they wouldn't include it if it didn't work for some- but it has never worked for me. The boot disks it creates won't boot, and when I boot from the install disk and try to restore an image, it finds the image, but can't use it.

I like Macrium Reflect. It's free, and only failed me when I all owed my defragger access to the image partition. Thankfully, I had a good image on a USB drive.

 

[sub.mesa]

Booting with an Ubuntu Linux livecd and copying raw data using dd would always work, if your new SSD is bigger than your current C partition.

Beware of cloning applications that change the alignment themselves, or alignment programs that try to correct alignment afterwards. For performance reasons, do not use these utilities.

Intel SSDs generally run 25% slower when not aligned. But Sandforce and other controllers are more strongly affected by improper alignment; or correcting alignment afterwards; which can lower their IOps by a large degree (i.e. more than half as slow). Whether you will actually notice that is a second question, since SSDs are quite fast.

Installing fresh also makes sure Windows sets some sane options; like disabling defragmentation and SuperFetch. Cloning won't do that, so you have to do it yourself.

If possible i highly recommend a fresh install; that way you also lost all the junk you don't really need. Keeping a clean system is generally the best advice for those interested in performance.

 

[wpcoe]

Be careful using the stock W7 image tool. I'm not saying it doesn't work- obviously they wouldn't include it if it didn't work for some- but it has never worked for me. The boot disks it creates won't boot, and when I boot from the install disk and try to restore an image, it finds the image, but can't use it.

Hear, hear!

Just last night I attempted the following with the Win7 Backup tool:

(1) created z: partition and made a system image of my c: (boot) drive
(2) disconnected that hard drive from mobo
(3) connected new SSD to mobo
(4) booted from Win7 DVD, installed Win7 onto virgin SSD
(5) reconnected old HDD, made sure BIOS still had new SSD as the boot hard drive
(6) booted Win7 on the SSD
(7) tried to "restore" system image from z: partition to overwrite my newly installed one on c:, but Win7 Backup tool couldn't find it
(8) rebooted, pressed <F8> to get menu with Repair (Recovery?) option, booted into that
(9) Repair/Recovery found the image on my z: partition, took about 7 minutes restoring it
(10) Rebooted to Win7 on SSD, nothing changed (!)
(11) Rinse, lather, repeat (steps 8-9-10)

Apparently the Win7 Repair/Recovery function kept restoring my z: image to my old c: partition? Don't know. So, I spent the rest of the night, reinstall all my apps to my fresh install of Win7, which though is a PITA, is probably a Good Thing to start fresh.

 

[Zap]

Be careful using the stock W7 image tool. I'm not saying it doesn't work- obviously they wouldn't include it if it didn't work for some- but it has never worked for me. The boot disks it creates won't boot, and when I boot from the install disk and try to restore an image, it finds the image, but can't use it.

I've had a chance to play around with it and have made some interesting discoveries. What I've discovered is basically that it is picky about optical DRIVES, and may be picky about media (but I'm not as sure on this).

I have found optical drives that absolutely won't work with it, and some that partially works (finds stuff but can't do anything with it). This is both in the Preinstallation Environment (for restoring) and the Windows Backup utility (for creating images).

I don't remember all the details, but I remember a recent desktop LG SATA DVDRW drive as working for everything, and a slim (notebook) SATA slot load Panasonic DVDRW drive as not working for anything, and a slim (notebook) SATA slot load Panasonic BDRE drive as pretending to burn, but making coasters and/or not being able to read what it burned. I think I also had an LG slim (notebook) SATA DVDRW tray load drive that was a bit flakey with the Windows utilities.

All of these drives worked fine for normal reading, normal burning (such as using Nero) and reading/burning using Acronis.