Cloning/Imaging Hybrid Drive (SSD+HDD)


  1. Posts : 2,171
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #1

    Cloning/Imaging Hybrid Drive (SSD+HDD)


    To start with, assume the OS runs from a hybrid drive (SSD+HDD in one package).

    Everything I read about these hybrid drives indicates to me that they can be treated as a standard drive when cloning/imaging to/from any other drive, as long as the OS and the cloning/imaging program is booted from a different drive. During normal operation (booting off of the hybrid) the drive itself manages what HDD and SSD data gets copied/read between each media type and to the system. But when the drive is properly shutdown, all data that's in SSD storage that isn't already on the HDD gets written to the HDD.

    So upon a restart, whether it's a normal boot or a boot from other media (a cloning/imaging app) the hybrid drive is in a state where the HDD media is in a state where it contains all the data that's necessary to create a perfect clone/image.

    Does anyone have any insight to this, or actual experience? Are there any other issues that might need to be addressed to ensure a perfect copy, each and every time?

    Or do I have this all wrong, and other methods/steps need to be taken to ensure success?

    I've never run across any of these drives and therefore have no experience, but I'm trying to help someone else, and I want to make sure nothing can go wrong (barring hardware/user issues).
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  2. Posts : 24,479
    Windows 7 Ultimate X64 SP1
       #2

    I have no experience but I found this. Hybrid drive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Seagate has developed a SSHD that has on internal controller to manage what data is used by the SSD portion of the drive.
    This is a good question about imaging. My gut feeling is it would be treated as any HDD. Laptops are sold with SSHDs and have their own recovery partitions.
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  3. Posts : 2,171
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Thanks for your thoughts and the link Gary. From what I've read about them all current hybrids have internal controllers that manage everything. It was the originals that were partly dependent on the OS (which I guess might be part of the reason they didn't become more popular more quickly). Either way it seems as though that as long as the image/clone is made offline it'll grab everything that's needed from the HDD itself. So based on your post and what I've read I'm thinking there are no other issues.

    I'll leave the thread "unsolved" for a few more days in case others chime in.
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