Very clear instructions. The cloning software worked perfectly. The cloning time was 7:46 hours with my USB 2.0! Replacing the existing HDD took some improvisation. The 860 EVO SDD was about 3/16 thinner than the HDD. I used a deck of playing cards to build a shim of the correct height. Then the big moment- powering up the computer.......screen was black showing only the message "boot drive not found". OMG........Some 5 seconds later it did boot up. Life is good. Thanks for the very helpful video.
Thanks. You give info that noone else does. I've spent many hours, and you explained 2 points noone else does... 1. Mbr b/c boot drive. 2. Make the partition smaller. Invaluable info, thanks.
1. Not necessarily so. Most newer computers have UEFI/GPT firmware rather than BIOS which we had in older computers. If your computer has UEFI firmware you want GPT, not MBR. See Comment replies from the author below.
Hi, i cloned my HDD onto my new 500gb SSD after 2hours of waiting. But when i boot up my laptop with the SSD inside it says system32 is missing and wouldnt show another screen. But if i try with my HDD in it works.should i just retry the clone? Edit2: Just cloned again and it solved the problem. didnt take as long this time around 40mins. Hope this helped anyone :)
Thanks very much for posting this tutorial.....I had bought a 250 gb SSD & replaced a 500 gb old school disc drive..This showed me how to reduce the partition size to fit the smaller SSD.....I didn't realise this was possible..🤔👍
This was a good video. As a true PC tech who makes a living on repairing PC, this guy is spot on. For many, many people, switching to a SSD will be a big improvement which is noticeable. Keep in mind that this is just the hard drive. For someone with a old PC which is pegging the CPU while in use don't expect a SSD to fix your issue. If you're surfing the web and it slow this is not going to help.
Thanks to your step by step guide video, I could easily transfer the contents of the old mechanical drive on to a new Samsung SSD. Having increased the RAM to 8 GB, and upgrading to a new SSD my wives' Vaio has reborn! Thank you.
Thanks for the step-by-step. Worked flawlessly. Tricky task, I wanted speed over size, I went from 1-TB HD down to a 480 SSD. You had the best info. Truly grateful for your careful, real-world process.
I have just completed a SSD install as shown in this video and no issues .Fortunately I had access to a 3T external HDD for file storage prior to the process of cloning .Thanks for a very good video.
Just wanted to say thanks for this. Before following this video I'd tried twice to upgrade to an SSD. Once by cloning with EaseUS (wouldn't boot), and once by trying to do a fresh Windows recovery/install on the new disk (Windows wouldn't activate). Both took ages and failed. This method was super fast and worked seamlessly first time. Great software, and a thorough tutorial. Thanks!
This worked great! I first tried Ease US with no luck. I downloaded Macrium Reflect and followed your video step by step and was done in short order. My PC is MUCH faster with my new SSD!
Well explained and easy to follow. I had tried many other methods shown on youtube but my ssd simply would not boot up.Had to format my hard drive with every failure and I think I formatted it close to 10 times and was just about to give up when I stumbled onto this vid.One thing though, I don't think its necessary to shrink your partition to fit whatever you drag from the top as long as your disk has enough space to fit all the file from your source drive,unless you need to.I was downsizing to a smaller hard drive and it worked perfectly.I simply dragged everything to my new disc in the top(source) order.I thank you for your vid.Highly appreciated
its been more the 5 years since you posted the video and i just followed the steps to upgrade my dell inspiron 13. Thanks a lot!! Extremely helpful tutorial.
Thank you sir, it worked like a charm. Just cloned my 9-year old HDD. It was running way slow on an upgraded Win10. Now the bootup is like almost 10x faster with my Patriot SSD. A new lease of life for my ASUS laptop. Great instructions, luckily no screw-ups during the clone process. Opening my laptop was a fragile process but all is good now. Thumbs up!
I forgot to add; Thanks for posting this! My new SSD is smaller than my old HDD which is where I think I ran into trouble with Ease US. Macrium worked great following your tutorial.
Dear Sir. I needed to upgrade my beloved Sony Vaio notebook by installing an 1 year old 120gb Kingston SSD and crashed into Kingston's hassle to make the system transfer to it. I am very grateful to you dear and distant friend for your invaluable help. I had tried everything and was already ready to do a windows7 fresh installation and those interminable Sony Vaio drivers when I found your video. People like you make the internet wonderful and human as it is.. Greetings to you from Porto Alegre city in South Brazil. By Hermes Cywiakowski
Great video and well explained. There's nothing better than going back to basics and sticking to Macrium. I managed to get off track using some new software that came with the ssd, which led me down a tunnel of regret and hours wasted. Your video put me back on course and reminded me of old faithful. Thanks for taking the time to make this well explained video.
Great video. I used to use Symantec ghost and it required a boot disk. It's so cool to have a tool where you can do this right from Windows! The first time I cloned I tried to do it with only the o/s partition. My Dell booted up to the bios screen and said o/s not found. Basically I re-ran the tool exactly like you have in your video. I think the trick in my situation was cloning the partitions exactly as they were in the old drive; dragging each partition to the exact location. After that I unplugged the original drive and it booted right into Windows. Great tool and video.
Just tried upgrading to the same samsung ssd evo 850 500gb using the included Migration software. Took 4 hours to copy my hdd over (did twice) and was met with boot problems. Watched your video and used Macrium with no problems whatsoever so far. Thank you!
A ton of thanks! Worked like a charm. Went with with a Crucial MX300 512GB to upgrade a Core i7 Inspiron 13 with a 256 SSD. Performed the upgrade right upon setting up the Dell so it was 'like new.' The MX came with a licensed copy of Acronis but after watching your video, the Acronis instructions seemed like hard work. One nit though, my partition resizing took three passes. The new disk showed as 489.05 GB available at the start. Allowing for the three other partitions (1st: 0.5GB, 2nd: 0.128GB and 4th: 0.45GB) left me with 487.972GB to up-size the 3rd (main) partition. However, after adding the last partition, I still had 24.5MB unallocated. You can leave as it but I chose to back up the cloning process, added that difference, and went with 487.9965GB for the 3rd partition. That left me .5MB short for the last one--which again is a non-critical difference. Still, I took a third pass and went with 487.996GB on the third round. That flipped the difference and left me with .5MB unallocated--good enough, and Macrium treats it as zero difference anyway. Not a perfect process because the numbers in the Macrium resizing panel are accurate to the nearest 100MB. Overall, I definitely liked this and am subscribed.
Only just came by this video and it worked a charm for me. I tried using Acronis but you have to have a WD or SanDisk product which unfortunately I did not have and this was the perfect alternative for me. Works great! Thank you!
Did you ever try the software that comes with the EVO to transfer files? Just got the 1tb version as they've really come down now. Probably more now that the NAND's successor was announced.
I always buy the bare drives without the migration software. I've had plenty of people giving me reports of problems using every method though. Some people seem to prefer one over the other. I do recommend Macrium Reflect over Acronis True Image Though... Hands down.
GadgetClass Well, if anyone is interested, Samsung's software can be downloaded here: www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/support/downloads.html
Great explanation! I was having issues cloning my Windows partition to my new SSD and Clonezilla wasn't pulling it off. This video showed me Macrium Reflect and I'm now posting this using my new SSD!
Here's the reddit thread that started it all and lead me here: www.reddit.com/r/24hoursupport/comments/5zrjrb/installed_m2_drive_into_desktop_motherboard_now/
Itsneight and did you have to switch ahci or the soft did it automatically; and btw: where did you publish this comment, I can't see it under the vid, only in this little notification tab
The procedure worked for me. I just improve a Toshiba satellite L875D-57232 by increasing RAM fron 6GB to 12 GB and replacing the 580 Gigs HDD for a SSD 512 Gigs (addknk). Before it has to waiting almosts 1 min for windows login and 10 min before the laptop to complete loading all services and become ready to use without lag. Thanks pal!!
Excellent video! Cloned a 2TB 7200 Drive to a 1TB Crucial SSD using this tutorial. Much better tutorial then from Macrium (which was a good tutorial but not as through as this one).
My solution: I have used the demo version of AOMEI Backuper, which you can use for 30 days without limitations. First create a Recovery CD with AMEI Backupper (can be used more than 30 days btw.). Then you create an SSD optimized backup to an external drive. Next step is replacing your HDD with the empty SSD. You can then recover to your SSD from your external drive easily after booting from the Recovery CD. Better than doing a direct clone from an HDD to an SSD.
Thank you so much for the macrium tutorial! Saved me from returning my x300 and replacing it with a 850 evo just to be able to use Samsungs data migration tool... Youre kick ass!!
I was having a hard time finding the right way to do this because everyone was suggesting I use Clonezilla...but I'm going from a TB HDD to a 250GB SSD...looks like Macrium will be the best free software to accomplish this. Thanks!
I get an "operating system not found" after putting in the SSD. I can see the new hard drive in the bios with new 500 GB vs the old HDD of 700 GB. It took 3.5 hour to transfer just shy of 200GB in 2 partitions, one being a small system portion of 100mb. It is a Sony Vaio vpcsb28gg with win 7 pro 64 bit. I checked the cable, looks good. Hard drive is also listed in bios under boot priority.
Jungstar CPH Did you put them on the new SSD in exactly the same order? when you resize the big partition you have to make sure they end up in the same order.
Solved. Yes, I only had 2 partitions - one for system 100mb and the remaining 690GB. It is a 500 ssd but I only had 200GB data, so the last one just filled up. I plugged in my old harddrive and ran boot recovery and it setup another boot option that worked. I had to find a tool to remove the damaged boot option but, now I am good! Great tutorial btw. I looked a lot to find one that did not skip any essentials!
I just cloned using the Samsung disc that was included with my EVO850. went smooth, fast, and easy. The Reflect program you recommend looks decent too, I'll try it another time.
I followed the instructions, and once I cloned the drives, the C drive from the HDD had 41.37 GB, and newly created E drive on the SSD has only 36.75. Any suggestions as to why this might be???
I don't know how to say thanks. I bought new SSD bit smaller than my old HDD and every thing gone smooth . just followed what you said in your videos. I am subscribing you and thanks once again. best wishes bro
Great videos Corey. I've got the Q551LN and just finished the squeaky clean recovery method on my sd card. I'm doing the ssd upgrade next! Thanks for all of your explanations.
You're Welcome! I recommend keeping your old hard drive intact. Some people are having trouble using the backtrack recovery off of the SD card. Depending on the state of your current system(how much stuff you have installed). I would recommend doing a factory restore off of the hard drive onto itself, then use the clone method in this video to clone onto the new SSD. As long as you keep your old Hard Drive intact, you can always go back and clone it.
Thanks for the instructions. Nicely done video. I do have one question, hope it isn't a foolish one. I didn't see you doing anything in terms of the BIOS and changing boot drives. Doesn't one have to do that, in disk management?
even though this video is dated, the methods work! thank you!!! not manay people mention a scenario where you have less data on the SSD than the original hard drive
Marius will actually reformat it to GPT during the cloning process. Yes, it should detect and show the drive in Macrium... especially if you have already formatted and partitioned the drive.
Thank you! i have success to clone a 500gb hdd to a 120gb ssd by using the macrium reflect partition tool that you have shown in the video. Never believe a freeware can done the job ;)
Hi thanks for this video, educational! At 8.50- storage discrepancy: aim to allow enough storage on the external SSD to copy O/S partition (inc. my files in C:) AND any proceeding partitions right? But clean wiping internal SSD would mimic and partition only 500GB to match ext.SSD. no? or can i combine unallocated space via DiskManagement?
Thank you for showing me this. I was able to make a clone of my hard drive, and now have a back up. I do have a quick question. Once you have cloned a drive it starts to become "out of date". I'd like to know if I can occasionally update my cloned drive using the same software, but without having to copy over all the data a second time (only the changes from one to the other). Can you make a short video for that?
10:47 when i clicked "next" it just says "incompatible disk selected, the target has incompatible sector size for this operation. please choose a different disk." why is that? my C:drive is 915gb and under 60gb is used. i tried to transfer it in to 120gb (107)gb ssd.
@GadgetClass i did everything exatly like you did in the video, it still just says that. i also tried to give little bit "extra room" for that but nope. i mean the 7th "file" (or what ever those things are) is 13.63 and i gave it like 20gb and still doesnt work.
*Beforehand, I accidentally initialized the HD before the cloning process. You said in the video when initalizing the drive for the first time to set the drive as "MVR". I particioned my drive, before finding your video, but my question is can I still clone to the new drive even though it was not initialized as MVR, and with particions on it. If not what do I need to do?*
one question! I've a used SSHD from my old laptop and now i have a new laptop but this one has HDD. Can i really replace the HDD of the new laptop with my old SSHD ? I did it once. When i checked it look like it would work, everything like games and programs from my old PC are showing on my new PC BUT for some reason the new PC isn't working correctly. Some buttons doesn't work when i pressed it, things are starting to activated by themselves, sometime the screen is freeze and all. So i had to switch back to the HDD :( If i factory reset my SSHD and then instal to my new laptop since i don't mind reinstall games, do you think it would run properly this time ?
FRIED NEKO Yes. It wasn't working because it was trying to use all of the old drivers and system files on incompatible hardware. A clean install is always better than a clone anyways.
Thank you excellent video and a great software Macrium I upgraded an ssd 250GB into my Acer laptop removed the one 1TB hdd very easily and in a short period of time!
Nice vid!. quick question for ya tho.. I too have an Asus laptop, I have the Q550lF model. but some of the keyboard buttons do not work, I am currently using an external wireless keyboard. Any ideas? should i remove the driver and reinstall? I have read some forum that said to send the keyboard back to the manufacture and they'll send me a new one... but i do not want to do that b.c i need this laptop for shcool
+Matem H if it's still under warranty, you would want to send it in for warranty repair. Otherwise you are looking at swapping out the keyboard yourself. Not a big deal, but will void warranty.
Want to add, if anyone's source disk has problems or is too messed up a direct clone may fail. In this case you want to run CHKDSK a few times on the source disk to try to repair bad sectors! If this still doesn't work you have to make an IMAGE with macrium first to another disk, then use that IMAGE to RESTORE to the destination SSD/disk. IF that doesn't work then you are probably shit out of luck and will need to fresh reinstall.
dear, just saw this hdd to ssd cloning tutorial. Had followed lifehacker tutorial and saw on screenshot that they selected the GPT option on initialize, so followed it. Would there be any problem if I follow your instruction but with GPT already set in my SSD? If there is how can I resolved to, change to MBR? Another question. My 1TB original HDD (with 2 partition: C:// - system; D:// data) is set as GPT, would there be any conflict if I clone my system partition (C:) from it to my SSD that is set to MBR, as advised in this tutorial? I wanted to have my SSD to be my system disk and make my 1 TB original system disk to be an external data disk. Appreciate your help much.
hi, Can I ask why you used Macrium and not the samsung software that comes with the drive? Also, what was the enclosure you were using? I read that many people had problems connecting 850evo using sata/usb adapters.
Rafał S The Samsung software does not come with all drive packages. Macrium is the only software that can be used without booting into a special windows PE or linux shell to do the clone. The enclosure I used in this video is just a cheapo ebay USB 2.0 enclosure I've had for years. Many of my fans are using this one without any problems: www.amazon.com/dp/B00FCLG65U/?tag=cr38er-20
Your method is is very simple and clearly explained /thank You/ - I would like to use it to clone my old HD to new one . But I Have one problem. #1 - Recovery (None) -NTFS Primery box is not in blue but red color and it is about 3/16 - 1/4 " by the end of the box. Under the box I have the numbers: 9.64 GB/10.12 GB. Could You tell me please it is something wrong with this part of the hard drive or it is just not enough space for the recovery - if so how to make it bigger? Thanks for answer.
Stefan Swiderski If you don't have a recovery partition to worry about, then the process becomes much simpler. simply resize your primary partition to match the available space. I think this "red" area you are referring to is just extra space. resize the primary partition until this red space goes away.
Great video! Thanks. I'll try it. One Q: Using this method, does anything need to be done manually about the "Disk Signature" on the new SSD, or does Macrium take care of that as well? Thanks again!
Thanks so much! I've been struggling with EaseUS Todo and AOMei Partition Assistant Pro - neither of which worked for me because my HDD had multiple partitions, some larger than the 120Gb target SSD. Downloaded Macrium Reflect and resized per your method and all it running just fine!
Hi. I seem to have inadvertently created a Macrium Rescue File on the computer itself. I did manage to make a CD and USB but now there is a file that shows up when I restart and I have to choose between windows and macrium. Can I remove the macrium option? New SSD arrived today but will not register and I cannot drag and drop when trying to clone. It could be the SATA cable but just have to try and figure out where the fault is. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Worked for me thanks for the video...had to do it twice though because in my first try macrium reflect created drive letters for the healthy partitions as well which I did not needed.
so will the recovery partition work on the new ssd? if you was to boot into it on the new clone ssd? and restore it to factory state? i have a acer v15 nitro and i want to do this something.
derek dauzat Yes, as long as you clone all of the partitions as they were on the original disk, you will not loose your recovery boot options. The only one you can change in size is the primary C partition which can be shrinked to fint on a smaller drive. The Samsung 850 EVO just won my SSD benchmark roundup for best overall performance for the money:www.amazon.com/dp/B00OBRE5UE/?tag=cr38er-20
brilliant video with the only real freeware to migrate you OS!! All other freeware that I tried, needed payment for OS migration or could only move OS from old partition!! Thanks a mill
Great video, managed to create a clone of my system on the ssd, have a question though. In my boot manager I only have the original system so cannot set to boot the ssd. If its an exact clone then surely all the services will still be run from (C:) (original) rather than (D:) (clone) ??? I want to get rid of the original system but not sure if the clone will work without the original??
Just don't boot with both attached. Unplug the old one. Plug the new one into the same port as the old one and it should boot normally off of the new one. If Windows sees 2 systems with the same signature at boot, it may flag one as unbootable.
@@GadgetClass Yep that is the mistake that I made, tried unplugging the hdd and running just ssd but it wouldn't load so gonna format it and start again 😅
My harddrive is about 1 terabyte. It has a C: "partition" of about 149 gigs and D: "partition" of about 764 gigs. I want to clone everything except the files, etc on the D: "partition" to a 240 gig SSD. I want to be able to use all 240 gigs of the SSD as the C: drive. Everything from the D: "partition" is backed up so I'm not worried about losing anything.
very helpful, thank you HOWEVER,(yes there is always a however !) In my 2012 laptops bios there is only options to boot from hdd,floppy and dvd. By replacing the hdd with the ssd does that effectively become hdd in bios ?
Macrium is good software but I would go with the Samsung Software that is linked below......i had some problems using macrium with a SanDisk 250GB SSD....you have to get the conversion kit for the SanDisk...so just heads up with that....Macrium worked great with everything else i used it for....
Macrium is not seeing the new drive. My computer has a 120 gig sad and a terabyte hard drive. When I click clone it is giving me only the existing hard drive for the option. When I plugged in the new 850EVO 500 sad, the computer did make the noise that led me to believe it was recognized, but that is as far as I got. Any suggestions? Thanks very much.
@gadgetclass, this video was very helpful. Yesterday i was able to swap my hdd out for a new samsung sdd. The installation went great. I have ran into 1 problem now, after doing to swap, my battery seems to be dying much faster than it has been when i had the hdd in it. Have you come across this and if so, would you be able to tell me what to look at or what i can so the get the battery to last just as long as it did when i had the hdd in it?
Nathan Brown It should be using less power. Do you have any weird Hard drive helper/drivers installed? Check your system tray and installed programs and uninstall anything HDD related. Things like RAID managers, drop sensors, disk managers, etc...
Thanks for the video! I got a question. So once im done with cloning and I install the new SSD on the port the old HDD was in and it boots fine. Can I place my old HDD on the other hardrive slot and still use it for storage? or will I have to reformat my old HDD to be able to use it again? Thanks!
Very clear instructions. The cloning software worked perfectly. The cloning time was 7:46 hours with my USB 2.0! Replacing the existing HDD took some improvisation. The 860 EVO SDD was about 3/16 thinner than the HDD. I used a deck of playing cards to build a shim of the correct height.
Then the big moment- powering up the computer.......screen was black showing only the message "boot drive not found". OMG........Some 5 seconds later it did boot up. Life is good.
Thanks for the very helpful video.
Awesome!
Are you noticing a huge increase in system performance?
Awesome!
Are you noticing a huge increase in system performance?
Your video gave me the "handholding" I needed to successfully clone my HDD to an m.2 SSD... THANK YOU for the well-done video!
Thanks. You give info that noone else does. I've spent many hours, and you explained 2 points noone else does...
1. Mbr b/c boot drive.
2. Make the partition smaller.
Invaluable info, thanks.
1. Not necessarily so. Most newer computers have UEFI/GPT firmware rather than BIOS which we had in older computers. If your computer has UEFI firmware you want GPT, not MBR. See Comment replies from the author below.
One of the best hard drive cloning videos on youtube, very easy to follow your clear and precise instructions.
Thanks for the feedback!
Not if you are a newbie. He scared away most the first 3 mins with jargon that was not needed for purposes of this video.
Hi, i cloned my HDD onto my new 500gb SSD after 2hours of waiting. But when i boot up my laptop with the SSD inside it says system32 is missing and wouldnt show another screen. But if i try with my HDD in it works.should i just retry the clone?
Edit2: Just cloned again and it solved the problem. didnt take as long this time around 40mins. Hope this helped anyone :)
Thanks very much for posting this tutorial.....I had bought a 250 gb SSD & replaced a 500 gb old school disc drive..This showed me how to reduce the partition size to fit the smaller SSD.....I didn't realise this was possible..🤔👍
Glad I could help :)
This was a good video. As a true PC tech who makes a living on repairing PC, this guy is spot on. For many, many people, switching to a SSD will be a big improvement which is noticeable. Keep in mind that this is just the hard drive. For someone with a old PC which is pegging the CPU while in use don't expect a SSD to fix your issue. If you're surfing the web and it slow this is not going to help.
Thanks to your step by step guide video, I could easily transfer the contents of the old mechanical drive on to a new Samsung SSD. Having increased the RAM to 8 GB, and upgrading to a new SSD my wives' Vaio has reborn! Thank you.
Glad to help!
Thanks for the step-by-step. Worked flawlessly. Tricky task, I wanted speed over size, I went from 1-TB HD down to a 480 SSD. You had the best info. Truly grateful for your careful, real-world process.
Glad to help!
I have just completed a SSD install as shown in this video and no issues .Fortunately I had access to a 3T external HDD for file storage prior to the process of cloning .Thanks for a very good video.
Just wanted to say thanks for this. Before following this video I'd tried twice to upgrade to an SSD. Once by cloning with EaseUS (wouldn't boot), and once by trying to do a fresh Windows recovery/install on the new disk (Windows wouldn't activate). Both took ages and failed. This method was super fast and worked seamlessly first time. Great software, and a thorough tutorial. Thanks!
This worked great! I first tried Ease US with no luck. I downloaded Macrium Reflect and followed your video step by step and was done in short order. My PC is MUCH faster with my new SSD!
Wonderful tutorial!! So grateful!! Acronis wasnt working for me... just did what you did and now my ssd is running!! Nice and smooth!! Thks!!
Glad to help :)
Well explained and easy to follow. I had tried many other methods shown on youtube but my ssd simply would not boot up.Had to format my hard drive with every failure and I think I formatted it close to 10 times and was just about to give up when I stumbled onto this vid.One thing though, I don't think its necessary to shrink your partition to fit whatever you drag from the top as long as your disk has enough space to fit all the file from your source drive,unless you need to.I was downsizing to a smaller hard drive and it worked perfectly.I simply dragged everything to my new disc in the top(source) order.I thank you for your vid.Highly appreciated
its been more the 5 years since you posted the video and i just followed the steps to upgrade my dell inspiron 13. Thanks a lot!! Extremely helpful tutorial.
Awesome!
Glad they haven't changed much.
Thank you sir, it worked like a charm. Just cloned my 9-year old HDD. It was running way slow on an upgraded Win10. Now the bootup is like almost 10x faster with my Patriot SSD. A new lease of life for my ASUS laptop. Great instructions, luckily no screw-ups during the clone process. Opening my laptop was a fragile process but all is good now. Thumbs up!
Just amazing, flawless. Best cloning video on RUclips. Reflect app is the best one for free out there too.
Great job explaining....I needed to do the exact same thing going from larger to smaller SSD and these directions were perfect. Thanks!
Oops, wasn't listening. spent an entire 10 minutes looking at the yellow thing.
Fuck. Now I want that yellow thing. I don't even know what it is
Y’mean the little yella fella with the big smile? I move my head like that when I’m listening to music.
I forgot to add; Thanks for posting this! My new SSD is smaller than my old HDD which is where I think I ran into trouble with Ease US. Macrium worked great following your tutorial.
B Swanson Glad to help :)
Dear Sir. I needed to upgrade my beloved Sony Vaio notebook by installing an 1 year old 120gb Kingston SSD and
crashed into Kingston's hassle to make the system transfer to it. I am very grateful to you dear and distant friend for your invaluable help. I had tried everything and was already ready to do a windows7 fresh installation and those interminable Sony Vaio drivers when I found your video. People like you make the internet wonderful and human as it is.. Greetings to you from Porto Alegre city in South Brazil. By Hermes Cywiakowski
hermeski Glad to help! :)
Great video and well explained. There's nothing better than going back to basics and sticking to Macrium. I managed to get off track using some new software that came with the ssd, which led me down a tunnel of regret and hours wasted. Your video put me back on course and reminded me of old faithful. Thanks for taking the time to make this well explained video.
Great video. I used to use Symantec ghost and it required a boot disk. It's so cool to have a tool where you can do this right from Windows! The first time I cloned I tried to do it with only the o/s partition. My Dell booted up to the bios screen and said o/s not found. Basically I re-ran the tool exactly like you have in your video. I think the trick in my situation was cloning the partitions exactly as they were in the old drive; dragging each partition to the exact location. After that I unplugged the original drive and it booted right into Windows. Great tool and video.
Glad to Help!
@@GadgetClass You got it man. I'm going to create a backup image next. Such very useful software.
best SSD video on RUclips ! ! !
your secret is you did leave 23% in the needed
information out of the video
Just tried upgrading to the same samsung ssd evo 850 500gb using the included Migration software. Took 4 hours to copy my hdd over (did twice) and was met with boot problems. Watched your video and used Macrium with no problems whatsoever so far. Thank you!
Cool! Glad to help :)
I watched many videos about SSD migrations. Yours is the best step by step video.
Glad to help!
You are awesome. Acronis failed twice. You triumphed. Thank you very much.
Spaceman Moses You're welcome
A ton of thanks! Worked like a charm. Went with with a Crucial MX300 512GB to upgrade a Core i7 Inspiron 13 with a 256 SSD. Performed the upgrade right upon setting up the Dell so it was 'like new.' The MX came with a licensed copy of Acronis but after watching your video, the Acronis instructions seemed like hard work.
One nit though, my partition resizing took three passes. The new disk showed as 489.05 GB available at the start. Allowing for the three other partitions (1st: 0.5GB, 2nd: 0.128GB and 4th: 0.45GB) left me with 487.972GB to up-size the 3rd (main) partition. However, after adding the last partition, I still had 24.5MB unallocated. You can leave as it but I chose to back up the cloning process, added that difference, and went with 487.9965GB for the 3rd partition. That left me .5MB short for the last one--which again is a non-critical difference. Still, I took a third pass and went with 487.996GB on the third round. That flipped the difference and left me with .5MB unallocated--good enough, and Macrium treats it as zero difference anyway. Not a perfect process because the numbers in the Macrium resizing panel are accurate to the nearest 100MB.
Overall, I definitely liked this and am subscribed.
Glad to help. The sizes will definitely be different for each system and drive.
Only just came by this video and it worked a charm for me. I tried using Acronis but you have to have a WD or SanDisk product which unfortunately I did not have and this was the perfect alternative for me. Works great! Thank you!
Glad it still helps after all these years!
Make sure that partition is marked as MBR. This is also the only one application that actually works as it should. Thank you for tutorial!
This is by far the best step by step video tutorial I had seen. Im doing a new build gigabyte 78mlt usb 3.0, amd fx 8 cores. Thanks
My upgrade went flawlessly thanks to your step by step! Many thanks!
You're welcome :)
Did you ever try the software that comes with the EVO to transfer files?
Just got the 1tb version as they've really come down now. Probably more now that the NAND's successor was announced.
I always buy the bare drives without the migration software. I've had plenty of people giving me reports of problems using every method though. Some people seem to prefer one over the other. I do recommend Macrium Reflect over Acronis True Image Though... Hands down.
GadgetClass Well, if anyone is interested, Samsung's software can be downloaded here:
www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/support/downloads.html
+GadgetClass Agreed.
Question - if your original hdd is partitioned as GPT partitions, why would you select MBR...
Great explanation! I was having issues cloning my Windows partition to my new SSD and Clonezilla wasn't pulling it off. This video showed me Macrium Reflect and I'm now posting this using my new SSD!
Stefano Giaimo Sweet!
Here's the reddit thread that started it all and lead me here:
www.reddit.com/r/24hoursupport/comments/5zrjrb/installed_m2_drive_into_desktop_motherboard_now/
Thanks! Just upgraded to SSD flawlessly!
man this cloning thing is harder than people make it out to be. i've tried macrium and ez gig iv. and there is always an error.
did you fix it somehow?
Itsneight and did you have to switch ahci or the soft did it automatically; and btw: where did you publish this comment, I can't see it under the vid, only in this little notification tab
Macrium will wipe and configure the drive during the clone.
GadgetClass hey it cloned the hard drive to the ssd but when I boot it up. it just takes me to the uefi bios utility. need your help asap
Lazarus LeftTurn You can't boot with both connected at the same time otherwise Windows will freak out and flag one as unbeatable.
The procedure worked for me. I just improve a Toshiba satellite L875D-57232 by increasing RAM fron 6GB to 12 GB and replacing the 580 Gigs HDD for a SSD 512 Gigs (addknk). Before it has to waiting almosts 1 min for windows login and 10 min before the laptop to complete loading all services and become ready to use without lag. Thanks pal!!
Awesome!
Excellent video! Cloned a 2TB 7200 Drive to a 1TB Crucial SSD using this tutorial. Much better tutorial then from Macrium (which was a good tutorial but not as through as this one).
My solution: I have used the demo version of AOMEI Backuper, which you can use for 30 days without limitations. First create a Recovery CD with AMEI Backupper (can be used more than 30 days btw.). Then you create an SSD optimized backup to an external drive. Next step is replacing your HDD with the empty SSD. You can then recover to your SSD from your external drive easily after booting from the Recovery CD. Better than doing a direct clone from an HDD to an SSD.
your tutorial is the only one thats actually helped me understand this better thank you!
Thank you Sir. I am computer ignorant, but just changed to a SSD hard drive with your help.
Sweet!
Thank you so much. I was struggling with Acronis True Image when I came upon your tutorial. Worked great! Thank you!
where is the link to Squeaky Clean Method???
You have to factory reset the computer and then install windows onto the ssd
Tyler Walter AKA the "no fun" method
Thank YOU! I've been looking for this video all sunday!
Thank you so much for the macrium tutorial! Saved me from returning my x300 and replacing it with a 850 evo just to be able to use Samsungs data migration tool... Youre kick ass!!
My right ear feels nice...
Jay G same
I was having a hard time finding the right way to do this because everyone was suggesting I use Clonezilla...but I'm going from a TB HDD to a 250GB SSD...looks like Macrium will be the best free software to accomplish this. Thanks!
Chris Gd Glad it's working. I found it easier than most that required booting into a Shell.
Please explain more details on Partition 4 on the primary partition what needs to be subtract?? hard to see on video
I get an "operating system not found" after putting in the SSD. I can see the new hard drive in the bios with new 500 GB vs the old HDD of 700 GB. It took 3.5 hour to transfer just shy of 200GB in 2 partitions, one being a small system portion of 100mb. It is a Sony Vaio vpcsb28gg with win 7 pro 64 bit. I checked the cable, looks good. Hard drive is also listed in bios under boot priority.
Jungstar CPH Did you put them on the new SSD in exactly the same order? when you resize the big partition you have to make sure they end up in the same order.
Solved. Yes, I only had 2 partitions - one for system 100mb and the remaining 690GB. It is a 500 ssd but I only had 200GB data, so the last one just filled up. I plugged in my old harddrive and ran boot recovery and it setup another boot option that worked. I had to find a tool to remove the damaged boot option but, now I am good! Great tutorial btw. I looked a lot to find one that did not skip any essentials!
I just cloned using the Samsung disc that was included with my EVO850. went smooth, fast, and easy. The Reflect program you recommend looks decent too, I'll try it another time.
I followed the instructions, and once I cloned the drives, the C drive from the HDD had 41.37 GB, and newly created E drive on the SSD has only 36.75. Any suggestions as to why this might be???
Just clone my 1TB to 240GB SSD by following the video. Great video. Thank you.
How?
I have a main C: and another partition that is a total of 700gb but only 200gb of it is filled. Will the above method work?
so I can clone the hard drive I am running the software on?
Yes. That is what most people do.
I don't know how to say thanks. I bought new SSD bit smaller than my old HDD and every thing gone smooth . just followed what you said in your videos. I am subscribing you and thanks once again. best wishes bro
Great videos Corey. I've got the Q551LN and just finished the squeaky clean recovery method on my sd card. I'm doing the ssd upgrade next! Thanks for all of your explanations.
You're Welcome!
I recommend keeping your old hard drive intact. Some people are having trouble using the backtrack recovery off of the SD card.
Depending on the state of your current system(how much stuff you have installed). I would recommend doing a factory restore off of the hard drive onto itself, then use the clone method in this video to clone onto the new SSD.
As long as you keep your old Hard Drive intact, you can always go back and clone it.
Good idea. That's exactly what I'll do. Thanks again! I'll be waiting for your next videos.
Thanks for the instructions. Nicely done video. I do have one question, hope it isn't a foolish one. I didn't see you doing anything in terms of the BIOS and changing boot drives. Doesn't one have to do that, in disk management?
even though this video is dated, the methods work! thank you!!! not manay people mention a scenario where you have less data on the SSD than the original hard drive
Awesome! Glad they haven't changed the software much ;}
*Another question at (**6:54**) Should the Macrium software automatically detect and show the new HD underneath the old particioned HD?*
Marius will actually reformat it to GPT during the cloning process. Yes, it should detect and show the drive in Macrium... especially if you have already formatted and partitioned the drive.
I upgraded my computer to an SSD. Then I did the same thing on two computers for my brother and sister. It was an easy upgrade.
Amazing! This is so good. Tried it on my laptop with windows 10, and can confirm it works so well. Subscribed for sure.
Awesome!
Thanks. It worked very well on vaio F13 upgraded with crucial MX200. Great post. Apreciated!
Thank you! i have success to clone a 500gb hdd to a 120gb ssd by using the macrium reflect partition tool that you have shown in the video. Never believe a freeware can done the job ;)
Hi thanks for this video, educational! At 8.50- storage discrepancy: aim to allow enough storage on the external SSD to copy O/S partition (inc. my files in C:) AND any proceeding partitions right? But clean wiping internal SSD would mimic and partition only 500GB to match ext.SSD. no? or can i combine unallocated space via DiskManagement?
As easy as the video shows. Excellent video.
I hadn't the chance to say, thanks for uploading this. I know it's nothing but I'll subscribe as a means of thanking you.
Thank you for showing me this. I was able to make a clone of my hard drive, and now have a back up. I do have a quick question. Once you have cloned a drive it starts to become "out of date". I'd like to know if I can occasionally update my cloned drive using the same software, but without having to copy over all the data a second time (only the changes from one to the other). Can you make a short video for that?
Hi thanks for a great video, tried 3 times and failed with Crucial ssd and Acronis software, your clear instructions worked first time. Cheers
Awesome!
10:47 when i clicked "next" it just says "incompatible disk selected, the target has incompatible sector size for this operation. please choose a different disk." why is that? my C:drive is 915gb and under 60gb is used. i tried to transfer it in to 120gb (107)gb ssd.
Did you resize like I did earlier in the video?
@GadgetClass i did everything exatly like you did in the video, it still just says that. i also tried to give little bit "extra room" for that but nope. i mean the 7th "file" (or what ever those things are) is 13.63 and i gave it like 20gb and still doesnt work.
Thanks so much for this useful video tutorial. Made all the difference. My new SSD hard drive is working perfectly!!
Awesome! Glad to help!
*Beforehand, I accidentally initialized the HD before the cloning process. You said in the video when initalizing the drive for the first time to set the drive as "MVR". I particioned my drive, before finding your video, but my question is can I still clone to the new drive even though it was not initialized as MVR, and with particions on it. If not what do I need to do?*
one question! I've a used SSHD from my old laptop and now i have a new laptop but this one has HDD.
Can i really replace the HDD of the new laptop with my old SSHD ? I did it once. When i checked it look like it would work, everything like games and programs from my old PC are showing on my new PC BUT for some reason the new PC isn't working correctly. Some buttons doesn't work when i pressed it, things are starting to activated by themselves, sometime the screen is freeze and all.
So i had to switch back to the HDD :(
If i factory reset my SSHD and then instal to my new laptop since i don't mind reinstall games, do you think it would run properly this time ?
FRIED NEKO Yes. It wasn't working because it was trying to use all of the old drivers and system files on incompatible hardware. A clean install is always better than a clone anyways.
phewww nice ! got my hope up again, ty! :>
This worked for my new SDD into Windows 10 Acer laptop,. Great 'how to', thanks!
Thank you excellent video and a great software Macrium I upgraded an ssd 250GB into my Acer laptop removed the one 1TB hdd very easily and in a short period of time!
Awesome!
Nice vid!. quick question for ya tho.. I too have an Asus laptop, I have the Q550lF model. but some of the keyboard buttons do not work, I am currently using an external wireless keyboard. Any ideas? should i remove the driver and reinstall? I have read some forum that said to send the keyboard back to the manufacture and they'll send me a new one... but i do not want to do that b.c i need this laptop for shcool
+Matem H if it's still under warranty, you would want to send it in for warranty repair. Otherwise you are looking at swapping out the keyboard yourself. Not a big deal, but will void warranty.
i was soo close to sending it in... but idk how but everything works now 0.0 im not even questioning it lol thanks tho!
+Matem H No problem. Yeah if you aren't 100% on your ability to replace the keyboard yourself, why not let Asus do it for free?
well I don't have time to wait at least 2 weeks for it. I need this laptop for school
+Jon Watt Not all drives come with the migration software and some have trouble with it.
My problem was at 9:45. But Macrium is soooooo slow! The SDD is now on the DVD bay. I can't understand why it is running so slow.
Want to add, if anyone's source disk has problems or is too messed up a direct clone may fail. In this case you want to run CHKDSK a few times on the source disk to try to repair bad sectors! If this still doesn't work you have to make an IMAGE with macrium first to another disk, then use that IMAGE to RESTORE to the destination SSD/disk. IF that doesn't work then you are probably shit out of luck and will need to fresh reinstall.
dear, just saw this hdd to ssd cloning tutorial. Had followed lifehacker tutorial and saw on screenshot that they selected the GPT option on initialize, so followed it. Would there be any problem if I follow your instruction but with GPT already set in my SSD? If there is how can I resolved to, change to MBR?
Another question. My 1TB original HDD (with 2 partition: C:// - system; D:// data) is set as GPT, would there be any conflict if I clone my system partition (C:) from it to my SSD that is set to MBR, as advised in this tutorial? I wanted to have my SSD to be my system disk and make my 1 TB original system disk to be an external data disk.
Appreciate your help much.
hi,
Can I ask why you used Macrium and not the samsung software that comes with the drive? Also, what was the enclosure you were using? I read that many people had problems connecting 850evo using sata/usb adapters.
Rafał S The Samsung software does not come with all drive packages. Macrium is the only software that can be used without booting into a special windows PE or linux shell to do the clone. The enclosure I used in this video is just a cheapo ebay USB 2.0 enclosure I've had for years. Many of my fans are using this one without any problems:
www.amazon.com/dp/B00FCLG65U/?tag=cr38er-20
Your method is is very simple and clearly explained /thank You/ - I would like to use it to clone my old HD to new one . But I Have one problem. #1 - Recovery (None) -NTFS Primery box is not in blue but red color and it is about 3/16 - 1/4 " by the end of the box. Under the box I have the numbers: 9.64 GB/10.12 GB. Could You tell me please it is something wrong with this part of the hard drive or it is just not enough space for the recovery - if so how to make it bigger?
Thanks for answer.
Stefan Swiderski If you don't have a recovery partition to worry about, then the process becomes much simpler. simply resize your primary partition to match the available space. I think this "red" area you are referring to is just extra space. resize the primary partition until this red space goes away.
Great video! Thanks.
I'll try it. One Q: Using this method, does anything need to be done manually about the "Disk Signature" on the new SSD, or does Macrium take care of that as well?
Thanks again!
+Jan Novak Macrium takes care of that.
Thanks so much! I've been struggling with EaseUS Todo and AOMei Partition Assistant Pro - neither of which worked for me because my HDD had multiple partitions, some larger than the 120Gb target SSD. Downloaded Macrium Reflect and resized per your method and all it running just fine!
hansegg08 Nice! Glad to help!
Great Video. I used now the 2nd or 3rd time to clone a harddisk to ssd.
Glad to help😀
Hi. I seem to have inadvertently created a Macrium Rescue File on the computer itself. I did manage to make a CD and USB but now there is a file that shows up when I restart and I have to choose between windows and macrium. Can I remove the macrium option? New SSD arrived today but will not register and I cannot drag and drop when trying to clone. It could be the SATA cable but just have to try and figure out where the fault is. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Worked for me thanks for the video...had to do it twice though because in my first try macrium reflect created drive letters for the healthy partitions as well which I did not needed.
so will the recovery partition work on the new ssd? if you was to boot into it on the new clone ssd? and restore it to factory state?
i have a acer v15 nitro and i want to do this something.
derek dauzat Yes, as long as you clone all of the partitions as they were on the original disk, you will not loose your recovery boot options. The only one you can change in size is the primary C partition which can be shrinked to fint on a smaller drive. The Samsung 850 EVO just won my SSD benchmark roundup for best overall performance for the money:www.amazon.com/dp/B00OBRE5UE/?tag=cr38er-20
brilliant video with the only real freeware to migrate you OS!! All other freeware that I tried, needed payment for OS migration or could only move OS from old partition!! Thanks a mill
Does Macrium Reflect Free come in a version for Macs?? If not what do you recommend to use with a Mac?
Is there a way to set the starting sector for each partition so the SSD can be used in Windows XP Sp3 without performance loss?
Great video, managed to create a clone of my system on the ssd, have a question though. In my boot manager I only have the original system so cannot set to boot the ssd. If its an exact clone then surely all the services will still be run from (C:) (original) rather than (D:) (clone) ??? I want to get rid of the original system but not sure if the clone will work without the original??
Just don't boot with both attached. Unplug the old one. Plug the new one into the same port as the old one and it should boot normally off of the new one. If Windows sees 2 systems with the same signature at boot, it may flag one as unbootable.
@@GadgetClass Yep that is the mistake that I made, tried unplugging the hdd and running just ssd but it wouldn't load so gonna format it and start again 😅
Thank you so much for uploading this video! You saved me! I tried to clone with samsungs program but it was not reliable. You made my day!
My harddrive is about 1 terabyte. It has a C: "partition" of about 149 gigs and D: "partition" of about 764 gigs. I want to clone everything except the files, etc on the D: "partition" to a 240 gig SSD. I want to be able to use all 240 gigs of the SSD as the C: drive. Everything from the D: "partition" is backed up so I'm not worried about losing anything.
very helpful, thank you HOWEVER,(yes there is always a however !) In my 2012 laptops bios there is only options to boot from hdd,floppy and dvd. By replacing the hdd with the ssd does that effectively become hdd in bios ?
yes
wow thanks for the prompt reply
RUclips gadget class
Macrium is good software but I would go with the Samsung Software that is linked below......i had some problems using macrium with a SanDisk 250GB SSD....you have to get the conversion kit for the SanDisk...so just heads up with that....Macrium worked great with everything else i used it for....
just wondering.. there were some changes with your desktop icons.. before & after recovery.. Thanks! Great video
Desktop icon move around during any restore or desktop resize event.
Macrium is not seeing the new drive. My computer has a 120 gig sad and a terabyte hard drive. When I click clone it is giving me only the existing hard drive for the option. When I plugged in the new 850EVO 500 sad, the computer did make the noise that led me to believe it was recognized, but that is as far as I got. Any suggestions? Thanks very much.
@gadgetclass, this video was very helpful. Yesterday i was able to swap my hdd out for a new samsung sdd. The installation went great. I have ran into 1 problem now, after doing to swap, my battery seems to be dying much faster than it has been when i had the hdd in it. Have you come across this and if so, would you be able to tell me what to look at or what i can so the get the battery to last just as long as it did when i had the hdd in it?
Nathan Brown It should be using less power. Do you have any weird Hard drive helper/drivers installed? Check your system tray and installed programs and uninstall anything HDD related. Things like RAID managers, drop sensors, disk managers, etc...
Worked exactly as you said. Thanks for the video!
RatherPleasantVideos Glad to help :)
Could I just get an external hard drive enclosure to use? Then after cloning use it for the 1TB that came with my Asus Q551LN?
Thanks for the video! I got a question. So once im done with cloning and I install the new SSD on the port the old HDD was in and it boots fine. Can I place my old HDD on the other hardrive slot and still use it for storage? or will I have to reformat my old HDD to be able to use it again? Thanks!
you will want to wipe it (format it) so that the system doesn't get confused about 2 systems with the same signature on bootup