How to clone a hard drive

[ExtraSlow]

So, tell me like I'm an idiot, if I buy a desktop, and it comes with a traditional hard drive, what steps do I need to take to clone that hard drive onto an SSD so that the entire thing runs off the SSD?

I'd probably keep the Hard drive around in case the SSD failed, instant system restore!

But, seriously, do i just hook up the SSD to the cables in the case? And then what?

[taemo]

i used paragon migrate os to ssd to upgrade clients pc to ssd and cloned my computers too.
no issue with any of them.

[revelations]

yep, just connect it and run a migration program. samsung ssd and their migration tools work great

[ExtraSlow]

Sounds simple. I assume if I wanted to do this for a laptop, it would be more complex, since laptops don't have an extra connector?

[Seth1968]

^ You would need a USB to Sata adapter.

[ExtraSlow]

Does it matter if the hard drives are the same size? Like if the desktop comes with a 500 gb drive, but it's only 20 gb full when it's new, is there any issues using a 120 or 240 gb SSD?

[Boostn]

I just upgraded my old 120 GB SSD to a Samsung Evo 250 GB. I used Macrium Reflect free to clone the original drive over. Simple to use and worked great! Not sure if there's potential issues cloning from a larger to smaller drive though...

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

[msommers]

This is probably a newb question but...

If I have an non-OS drive with all my photos/editing software/catalogs that is 2TB, and I want to move everything to my new drive that is 4tb, if both are plugged in and running, can I literally just copy and paste everything over?

[revelations]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Does it matter if the hard drives are the same size? Like if the desktop comes with a 500 gb drive, but it's only 20 gb full when it's new, is there any issues using a 120 or 240 gb SSD?

Most migration programs (like the ones that come with Samsung) will easily clone a HDD to SDD as long as the actual data amount doesn't exceed the SSD capacity to 90% I believe.

Originally posted by msommers
This is probably a newb question but...

If I have an non-OS drive with all my photos/editing software/catalogs that is 2TB, and I want to move everything to my new drive that is 4tb, if both are plugged in and running, can I literally just copy and paste everything over?

As long as you call it the same drive letter as the previous one, and you've done the file/folder creation on the original drive yourself - yep its just a literal drive copy. But you will have to remove the old drive and then rename the new drive the same letter.

[taemo]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
Does it matter if the hard drives are the same size? Like if the desktop comes with a 500 gb drive, but it's only 20 gb full when it's new, is there any issues using a 120 or 240 gb SSD?

The Paragon software that I use doesn't care if the SSD will be smaller than the previous HDD as long as it can copy all the required files into the new one.
There's also a setting where you can deselect folders that you don't want migrated into the new drive.
I also use this program to clone HDD to HDD, not just SSD

Originally posted by msommers
This is probably a newb question but...

If I have an non-OS drive with all my photos/editing software/catalogs that is 2TB, and I want to move everything to my new drive that is 4tb, if both are plugged in and running, can I literally just copy and paste everything over?

Yup, as long both drives are connected and your PC assign them a drive letter then you can transfer the files over from your 2TB to the 4TB.
I would at least do a copy instead of move/cut so that you can confirm that the files have been succesfully copied over to the new drive. I would use robocopy.

[msommers]

I like the idea of confirming files have been copied, I'll give that a whirl. Cheers guys!

[Mitsu3000gt]

Samsung Magician software is very good, not sure if it works with non-samsung drives or not.