When installing a new SSD is it better to fresh install windows or can I copy a image

[pcslookout]

I use Macrium Reflect free is it ok to just use the image of my old SSD and move it to the new SSD or is it best to do a fresh Windows 10 install ?

 

[Sheep221]

No need for complete reinstall, just clone the partition.

 

[Elixer]

Yeah, no need to reinstall, I would clone.
Just make sure the clone utility aligns the SSD correctly, or you will have a slow SSD.

 

[corkyg]

Second what Elixer said. I always clone first. It takes only about 10 minutes whereas fresh install takes about 45 minutes to an hour. Then you have to install software and apps. Then also have to deal with drivers and personal customizations. If the cloning works right, you save a boatload of time.

 

[Ventanni]

What's a good software to clone something like that? And what do you mean align correctly?

 

[BlueWeasel]

There are numerous free cloning/imaging software - Macrium, AOMEI Backupper, Clonezilla, to name a few. Macrium and AOMEI are both excellent and I highly recommend them.

 

[pcslookout]

And what do you mean align correctly?

This is a good question and I am wondering the same thing?

Also how do you know it is align correctly?

 

[postmortemIA]

This is a good question and I am wondering the same thing?

Also how do you know it is align correctly?

if your partition divides nicely with page size of SSD, which is variable, but it will always align nicely if your partition starts in multiples of MB. Vista aligns to 1MB (OK) and Win 7 to 2MB. Either of these are fine, so if you make your partition using Vista or later, it will be fine. XP - not so. Some older partitioning tools would be problem too, but they would have to be 6+ yrs old at this point

How to know? I use AS SSD bench. and it displays alignment status on main window.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I'm not sure how the alignment issue arose. It may have come about during the time when "AF" format drives were introduced for HDDs. I really can't say.

But I still use an Acronis Disk Director 11 Update#2 released around 2011 (before the Update) to prepare an SSD for use or more specifically for cloning, and it assures proper alignment.

But here's my advice about cloning one OS boot-system disk to a fresh SSD.

Run a thorough CHKDSK with repair options on the old SSD (or HDD). Use SFC /SCANNOW to determine if there are any files on the disk that are corrupt or need repair -- and hope that SFC does the repair.

Then, one by one, fix all the red-bang error events in your Windows System event-log, except for any you might determine are benign. And perhaps you might check the Windows "Application log" for similar problems to see if they persistently re-occur. If they seem to derive from some software installation, uninstall the software or update to newer versions.

Once your event logs are properly "in the blue" with some routine yellow "warnings" or "benign red-bangs," clone the drive. If you're cloning an HDD to the new SSD, defragment it before making the clone.

 

[dlerious]

I've used EaseUs ToDo and Macrium for cloning. For partition alignment MiniTool Partition Manager https://www.partitionwizard.com/

 

[Elixer]

For SSD alignment (or the newer 4K sector HDs), it has to do with were the data starts.
You want it aligned so that a read/write starts perfectly on a block size, so it can read/write the data in 1 access event.
If it is misaligned, then it needs multiple access events to read/write the same data, and your performance takes a nosedive.
As was mentioned, you can use AS-SSD to check alignment.

 

[MustISO]

Checking for proper alignment (from Lifehacker)

To see if your partitions are aligned correctly, hit the Start menu and type in msinfo32. Enter Msinfo32 and go to Components > Storage > Disks. Look for your SSD on the list and find the "Partition Starting Offset" item. If this number is divisible by 4096 (that is, if dividing it by 4096 equals a whole number and not a decimal), your partition is correctly aligned.