Transfer from existing SSD to new SSD...

[looper]

My existing Intel X-25 128GB SSD is just about 'full' and I need to move on. I'm about to get the Crucial MX200 - 500GB SSD.

What cables do I need to transfer the contents from the old SSD to the new one when using the included Acronis program?

Thanks.

 

[Charlie98]

If you are able to mount it in your existing PC, even temporarily just for the transfer, you just need a SATA cable and a SATA power plug. I would (I do...) use Acronis outside of Windows to clone, however... you will need to make a bootable Acronis CD or device of some sort.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

My existing Intel X-25 128GB SSD is just about 'full' and I need to move on. I'm about to get the Crucial MX200 - 500GB SSD.

What cables do I need to transfer the contents from the old SSD to the new one when using the included Acronis program?

Thanks.

I don't really get it -- you have a couple choices.

All you'd need to do is to cable the new SSD to the system with the Intel SSD using an SATA cable. It won't matter whether the port is SATA-II or SATA-III, since you will simply clone the X-25 to the Crucial drive.

More specific procedural steps:

Power down the system
Install the new SSD
[At this point, two possibilities with whichever Acronis you're using:
1) You installed a version of Acronis that allows making a bootable Linux-based CD for cloning and other duties -- which you did. OR --
2) You installed the Acronis product for use within Windows.]

Either way, you'll likely have a choice to either copy the disk signature from the old drive to the new one, or create a new signature with no impact on the target drive's future operation. If you choose to copy the signature, you will want Acronis to shut down the system immediately after the clone, or you would shut down manually within Windows.

You would then remove the X25 and replace it with the Crucial clone.

Hopefully, the Acronis product version will clone the smaller X25 partition to the new drive leaving the latter with its full 500GB partition size. If not, you should be able to resize the resulting partition within Windows "Computer-Management->Disk-Management" anyway.

Now IF your question was about an SATA connection to the new drive versus a USB connection -- Acronis should do that equally and just as well. I had to use a Thermaltake BlackX docking station with USB cable to clone a WD Blue lappie drive (in the laptop) to a Crucial MX100 last year. Just had to shut down the laptop, pull out the WD and replace with the MX100. No problem.

I don't know how the shareware version of Acronis might behave, but I was using Disk Director Home 11 with the "Update" patch from the bootable CD on the laptop.

There's also another $5 utility you could probably use called Parted Magic. Not "Partition Magic," but "Parted Magic." It should also do cloning for you.

 

[ArisVer]

What is the disk signature? Never heard of it.

 

[looper]

What is the disk signature? Never heard of it.

It's another word for the disc 'image' I believe...

 

[looper]

Thanks, guys.

Here's a semi-sideways hijack of my own thread...

When Windows 10 arrives in a more fully developed form in late Summer/early Fall, I think I read somewhere that it can be installed right over Windows 7 64 bit?

 

[ArisVer]

Windows 10 will be a free upgrade to Windows 7 and Windows 8 users during the first year of its release. There will be upgrades but I don't know whether you are allowed to do fresh installs.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

What is the disk signature? Never heard of it.

Truth is, I'm as hazy on the particulars of disk storage as anyone here, but I'm pretty sure it's a code written to the boot sectors or "master boot record." Two otherwise identical disks can have the same or different signature.

When using a cloning/disk-management tool like Acronis, you are forewarned by the software and asked whether you want the clone to have the same or different signature. If two Windows boot-system disks are connected to the system at boot-time and they have the same signature, the system will fail to boot from either, and it is only "likely" that you will be able to use the Windows install-disc repair feature to restore the chosen drive.

So Acronis will automatically shut down the system after completing a clone with identical signatures (provided a checkbox to the question has been checked) allowing the user to manually disconnect the "source" drive, leaving the "target" drive connected for use at next system start-up.

Otherwise, making a clone with a different signature doesn't make a hill-a-beans difference for the operation or performance of the target disk -- or what the user "sees" on that disk through Windows Explorer.

 

[ArisVer]

My apologies for highjacking the thread.

At first I thought it was the UUID (universal disk identifier) which is the way linux recognizes the disks.

What you are describing might have happened to me while cloning my notebook disk (below in sig). I cloned the recovery, efi and windows partitions manually to the smaller disk using the MiniTool Partition Wizard. When I tried to boot, the system loaded from the second disk and I had to remove the second disk and repair the first. I don't remember anything mentioned about a disk signature though and it was the first time I used that program.

 

[looper]

Windows 10 will be a free upgrade to Windows 7 and Windows 8 users during the first year of its release. There will be upgrades but I don't know whether you are allowed to do fresh installs.

I want to install Windows 10 right over my current OS of Win 7 (64 bit)... thought I read somewhere that could be done.... that was my question in that post...

I much prefer not to have to format/re-install everything... Drives me nuts...

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I want to install Windows 10 right over my current OS of Win 7 (64 bit)... thought I read somewhere that could be done.... that was my question in that post...

I much prefer not to have to format/re-install everything...

There should be an upgrade option which results in a working Windows 10 boot disk with your old software still configured to run. Such a solution may also result in imperfections - partial success. You could make backup clones before trying it different ways, but you'd need a different disk for each approach.

For the upgrade path, you'd want to also evaluate the Event Logs to see if there are new red-bang errors or yellow-bang warnings, what caused them, and determination of a fix for every non-benign Event ID, source and messages. Sometimes, an upgrade-in-place can turn a blue event-log into a multi-colored mix of event messages. Since there are benign warnings and even errors (red), this can be time-consuming if you get sidetracked before determining you've been trying to fix much-ado-about-nothing.

Even for that, there are sometimes problems. When I went from Vista-64 to win7-64, I had to replace about $150 in software, because the older versions that worked in VISTA-64 couldn't seem to be made to work in Win7-64, even with "compatibility mode."

It is also worthy to speculate about relative success of such upgrades depending on the initial version: Win 7 is older than Win 8.x. One might deduce a higher likelihood for more trouble in upgrading from the older OS.

 

[ArisVer]

Direct upgrade path is supported for Windows 7 SP1.

 

[looper]

There should be an upgrade option which results in a working Windows 10 boot disk with your old software still configured to run. Such a solution may also result in imperfections - partial success. You could make backup clones before trying it different ways, but you'd need a different disk for each approach.

For the upgrade path, you'd want to also evaluate the Event Logs to see if there are new red-bang errors or yellow-bang warnings, what caused them, and determination of a fix for every non-benign Event ID, source and messages. Sometimes, an upgrade-in-place can turn a blue event-log into a multi-colored mix of event messages. Since there are benign warnings and even errors (red), this can be time-consuming if you get sidetracked before determining you've been trying to fix much-ado-about-nothing.

Even for that, there are sometimes problems. When I went from Vista-64 to win7-64, I had to replace about $150 in software, because the older versions that worked in VISTA-64 couldn't seem to be made to work in Win7-64, even with "compatibility mode."

It is also worthy to speculate about relative success of such upgrades depending on the initial version: Win 7 is older than Win 8.x. One might deduce a higher likelihood for more trouble in upgrading from the older OS.

I knew you were going to say that............ "The horror, the horror....."

 

[ArisVer]

This is the official upgrades revealed from Microsoft. And I believe there will be problems with some people from upgrades stalling their systems, that's no news.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

So . . . The reality trumps my inconclusive deduction about older versions representing more obstacles. How about another deduction? M$ may have calculated their roll-out based on a lackluster response of long-standing Win7 users to Windows 8?

In other words, the very success that established Win 7 as a lingering preference among 60% of Anandtech forum members last year would prompt M$ to focus "upgrade-ability" on the older 7 OS as opposed to Windows 8?

Waste of words: I see that direct-upgrade applies to Win 8.1 "S14."

Ultimately, it becomes an issue with an unknown outcome: Which of those two versions will upgrade with least problem, if not flawlessly.

This is the official upgrades revealed from Microsoft. And I believe there will be problems with some people from upgrades stalling their systems, that's no news.

 

[looper]

Looking at the chart, the latest version of Win 7 (64 bit) looks to be problematic trying to park Windows 10 on top of it.

My silly/lazy hope was to install Win 10 over my Win 7 install, then get the new, bigger SSD (500GB or 1T) and clone the old to the new.

Best scenario by far.... Get Win 10 and the new SSD... install on new drive, then reload all progs. I knew I was going to end up doing that...

 

[Free_Speech]

SATA cables.
There are better ways:Norton ghost,Drive snapshot.
Acronis is OK though.