SSD Drive clone question

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bravo14

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I notice last year my desktop hard drive (Seagate 3.5) is slowly booting up. I was looking into cloning the hard drive to a new SSD Drive. I see some videos on this product was thinking of getting https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Exte...&sprefix=sata+hard+drive+clone,aps,235&sr=8-2 I was wondering will it transfer windows to programs I have installed in that main drive to the new one and some programs I use have key products like office to scanner software? I normally reformat the hard drive and start from scratch.
 

poltergeisty

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You don't need to buy anything. I use AOMEI Backupper. Other's may use Macrium Reflect. All you do is plugin the SSD drive into a free SATA port, run AOMEI or Macrium, chose source which would be your Seagate and destination which would be your new SSD. In AOMEI chose the option to align partition. You don't need to go sector by sector.

Yes, EVERYTHING is cloned over and when you remove the Seagate and just have the SSD installed it will boot like nothing ever changed.


I clone all of my computers to external USB hard drives and store those in a fireproof safe meant for electronics. Those safes can be had on eBay for around $35. I use this USB to SATA adapter. Vantec IDE/SATA TO USB 3.0 Adapter 844767021256 | eBay
 

bravo14

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I've been using SeaGate for about 15 years. I never had a Hitachi HD before. I do stay away from Western Digital had too many problems back in the day. I haven't bought anything yet just looking around see what's out there. Thanks for the info.
 

enine

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Don't buy anything, just download a gpartd boot disk (dvd/usb) and use it.
 

moonbounce

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I see the OP wanted to replace his desktop hard drive with an SSD, would the instructions above apply to a laptop? And what would I use instead of a Sata port?

Thanks
MB
 
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poltergeisty

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I see the OP wanted to replace his desktop hard drive with an SSD, would the instructions above apply to a laptop? And what would I use instead of a Sata port?

Thanks
MB


With a laptop you'll need a SATA to USB adapter like the Vantec I list in my first post. What you'll do is plug in the new hard drive to the adapter, the adapter plugs into the USB port. Then in the cloning software you chose source which of course would be your C drive with Windows and then you'd chose your destination which would be the USB attached hard drive. Once that is cloned, remove the current laptop hard drive and replace it with your new one.

If you have a desktop you could just remove the laptop hard drive and plug it into a free SATA port inside the desktop. Then run your cloning software. But be careful that when you chose source and destination for the clone you don't chose any other hard drive that may be connected inside your computer.
 

moonbounce

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Thanks for that tip Poltergeisy, but as luck would have it my desktop doesn't have a second SATA plug. I had ordered an adapter from China but it never arrived. Canada Computers wants $75 to do the same thing, and I say over my dead body lol.

MB
 
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