Attempting to replace notebook HDD with SSD; Windows 8

SomeGuyOnOzB on 14/03/2019 - 18:57
Last edited 19/03/2019 - 17:21

Update: sorted :)

It was a HP notebook.
After several experiments with cloning, which failed (seems to be an issue for cloning notebooks to new ssds; they give a lower bytes/sector number when you access them via USB, so they are better compatible with Windows XP for storage drives),
I found the HP restore drive that I made years ago.
Clean rebuild. Some time spent finding my registrations etc. Microsoft were really helpful with Office that I purchased last year.
All good and thank you everyone for your suggestions
:)

I have a notebook from around 2014. It had a HDD in it and I replaced it with a Samsung SSD 850 Evo around 30 June 2016.
Everything ran beautifully till a few weeks ago. This was during those hot weeks where we got over 40C in Melbourne. Computer would keep crashing. Eventually I got a useful message during one restart which said there was an imminent problem with the hard drive.

I cloned back to an old 1TB HDD. I am now trying to clone to a new Crucial MX500 500GB SSD. (I only have about 300GB of stuff on the drive)

As I've encountered problems with about 4 or 5 different cloning applications, I'm going to document what I found and problems as I go along, to help keep me organized and maybe it'll help others.

(1) Acronis True Image for Crucial
Crucial MX500 says to use Acronis True Image for Crucial
This software, tells me it won't run without a Crucial drive connected to the system, even though I've tried with the Crucial drive in a USB enclosure, and a Sata to USB cable.
Googling shows other people got the same problem.
Note: 1 person said after using Minitool on the drive, Acronis could see it
1 person said it works only with select methods of connecting the drive to the system, but the method wasn't specified.

(2) Software suggested by Sandisk; Apricorn Ezy Gig IV
I posted on OzBargain that I had success using Apricorn the last time I cloned to SSD.
Updated
I had to turn legacy boot on, in the system settings and change the order of boot systems to put optical drives higher.
This time around, Apricorn complains about different block sizes. I haven't looked into that yet.

(3) Macrium Reflect
I've seen this recommended by people on OzBargain.
I tried it out and it came up with an error.
I think it was different bytes/sector.

Further Googling found updates from Macrium on the topic.
Newer drives claim they have lower bytes/sector, if viewed via USB.
This makes them more compatible with Windows XP as storage drives.
This creates problems for notebook owners on newer Windows systems, trying to clone their operating system.

(4) Acronis True Image
I got a trial of the full version. Cloning is locked in the trial version. Full version is $70

Computing Computer Component SSD

closed Comments

  • bdl on 14/03/2019 - 19:14
    +2

    I tried it out and it came up with an error to do with the file system, I think it said.
    Something about the SDD has smaller entry size vs what the HDD has.
    Further Googling found updates from Macrium on the topic, saying that some newer drives, tell USB interfaces, that their file system allows for smaller file systems. This is fine for external storage and makes it better backwardly compatible with Windows XP. This is not good for someone with a notebook who is trying to clone a drive with an OS.

    … last time I checked 500GB is smaller than 1TB, so that's your problem.

    Use gparted to shrink your HD down to <400GB, then Clonezilla to copy it. Then use gparted to expand the size of the partition to fill the 'spare' space.

    https://gparted.org/
    https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php

    • Apple96 on 14/03/2019 - 20:03

      exactly what I thought when I read it, but I haven't used windows in years.

  • Hithere on 14/03/2019 - 19:21

    I gave up on Acronis years ago after too many backup failures of critical data.

    I've used Casper https://casper.windows10compatible.com/ for several system backups from XP - Windows 10 including making a regular backup of my current SSD and it's never let me down.

    It's also very simple to use.

  • Randxyz123 on 14/03/2019 - 19:37
    +3

    Ok, I would suggest not cloning it. Start fresh, put your old drive in an enclosure and drag and drop what you need.

    1) Your computer will run faster given it is 5 years old

    2) Sometimes the issues with slowness is just random shit(files) and windows corrupting itself.

  • Tech5 on 14/03/2019 - 23:53

    I am pretty sure it does not matter how much DATA is on your old drive. What matters is how big the partition is. If you have 300gb/1000gb used, that is still likely close to a 1000gb partition. The program will be trying to copy all 1000gb, even the empty space over to your 500gb SSD

  • SomeGuyOnOzB on 15/03/2019 - 21:59

    I've ended up being able to work on a rebuild. Working on it now

  • aim54x on 19/03/2019 - 11:16

    I've used ACRONIS for Crucial several times with no problems, even using SATA>>USB cable (I have a Startech one), and even a dodgy M.2 (SATA) adapter, do you have another PC that you could use to clone the drives?

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