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Best free software for cloning HDD to SSD

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  • 21-07-2023 2:24pm
    #1
    jimjangles
    Registered Users Posts: 167 ✭✭


    I bought a Samsung Evo 870 Sata SSD to replace my existing old slow Sata HDD. Anyway the Samsung data migration software does not work for me at all. It just comes up with temporary error please refresh and try again so won't clone the harddrive at all and there's zero indication why.

    Anyway so are there any good free alternatives and which would be the best one to copy or clone my already installed Hard drive to the Samsung SSD? I've heard of a couple of ones, EaseUS Partition Master, Clonezilla(which looks a bit awkward), Macrium Reflect but don't know what the best one would be and have never done this before.



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    #2
    Spear
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators, Help & Feedback Category Moderators Posts: 25,300 CMod ✭✭✭✭Spear


    Macrium Reflect is a popular and fairly simple program to use, and works fine with Samsung drives.

    Just to underscore though, be very careful and proceed very slowly no matter what software you try to use given the real risk of data loss.



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    #3
    AllForIt
    Registered Users Posts: 8,423 ✭✭✭AllForIt


    I use clonezilla, free and never had a negative issue with it.

    https://clonezilla.org/

    I use Rufus to burn the iso to a usb stick

    https://rufus.ie/en/


    edit: this method can only be used if you can connect both disks new and old to your device at the same time. It's not a backup/restore thing, just makes one disk identical to the other.



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    #4
    smuggler.ie
    Registered Users Posts: 4,127 ✭✭✭smuggler.ie


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058305960/best-free-software-for-cloning-hdd-to-ssd

    new drive does match size of old drive (or bigger) down to last MB, does it ?

    Edit: my bad wording, meant source data vs destination capacity

    Post edited by smuggler.ie on
    history of boards 2021




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    #5
    irishgeo
    Registered Users Posts: 9,493 ✭✭✭irishgeo


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120881133#Comment_120881133

    It doesn't have too.


    As long as the used space isn't greater than the new SSD size it shouldn't. Macruim Reflect will adjust it.



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    #6
    jimjangles
    Registered Users Posts: 167 ✭✭jimjangles


    They're both 1tb drives.



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    #7
    smuggler.ie
    Registered Users Posts: 4,127 ✭✭✭smuggler.ie


    BTW, anything in the logs?

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Samsung\Samsung Data Migration\Logs

    history of boards 2021




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    #8
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 91,627 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120881264#Comment_120881264

    You can shrink the partition a little using disk manager (or gparted) if there's a small difference. Not all 1TB are the same size.

    If the old drive is fairly full try freeing up space on it , turn off swapfile, delete temp files, move big files off it for now.


    On the off-chance do a check on the old drive in case corrupt files or bad sectors.



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    #9
    Shoog
    Registered Users Posts: 5,104 ✭✭✭Shoog


    Clonezilla. Doesn't require a running system as its a USB livedisk.



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    #10
    jimjangles
    Registered Users Posts: 167 ✭✭jimjangles


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120882104#Comment_120882104

    I checked and there is no Logs folder.

    I also did a chkdisk and it took hours and didn't seem to come up with anything.

    The data migration software didn't work after the chkdisk either.



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    #11
    xhomelezz
    Registered Users Posts: 3,059 ✭✭✭xhomelezz


    Clonezilla is the best. Was doing same job for a friends while ago and the only software which actually worked was clonezilla.



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    #12
    Addmagnet
    Registered Users Posts: 897 ✭✭✭Addmagnet


    If you haven't done so already, might be worth checking you have a genuine Samsung drive - Samsung Magician Software for Consumer SSD



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    #13
    jimjangles
    Registered Users Posts: 167 ✭✭jimjangles


    I got it working on Saturday.

    I pressed start a few times and it worked the third or so time.

    I got it installed last night and it's nearly 10 times faster from boot time to being able to browse. It went from 5 minutes to 40 seconds. Very happy with it, huge improvement. So much faster for everything. I bought it off Amazon themselves, not a third party seller so it's genuine.



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