changing out old ssd for new and bigger

Okay ignatzatsonic and whs; so I and others might understand better could you give the plus and minus using a image or a clone?

A clone is a one step operation and in case of to and from SSDs, you don't have to worry about alignment. You do, however, have to fix the alignment when you clone from a HDD to a SSD.

If you use an image, you have 2 steps - the imaging and the restore. A good imaging program has the option of preserving the alignment in the case of SSD to SSD. But if the image comes from a HDD, you also have to fix the alignment or you have to restore the image(s) into predefined, aligned primary active partition(s). But there are plenty of programs that help to fix the alignment in 20/20 hindsight.

Either method is fine as long as you know what you are doing.

Thank you Wolfgang.

Layback Bear said:

Thank you Wolfgang.

You are welcome Jack. I like the "One trick pony" of Ignatz, LOL.

Thank you ignatzatsonic. I also like simple. I'm guessing because I'm simple.

whs said:

A clone is a one step operation and in case of to and from SSDs, you don't have to worry about alignment. You do, however, have to fix the alignment when you clone from a HDD to a SSD...

Curious. I've never had to fix the alignment when cloning from an HDD to an SSD. Must be living right.

ignatzatsonic said:

Layback Bear said:

Okay ignatzatsonic and whs; so I and others might understand better could you give the plus and minus using a image or a clone?

For the simple purposes of moving an existing and healthy system from drive A to drive B, they both can work and both can fail. Cloning is simpler for that purpose when it works. If the cloning fails, try imaging.

For purposes other than moving a system to another drive (backup as normally understood), there isn't much comparison. Cloning has shortcomings as a backup plan when compared with imaging.

For a one-shot deal to move a system, cloning can be a reasonable choice. Regardless, I'd think any conscientious person want to become familiar with imaging for purposes unrelated to moving systems between drives. Cloning is pretty much a one-trick pony.

whs said:

Layback Bear said:

Thank you Wolfgang.

You are welcome Jack. I like the "One trick pony" of Ignatz, LOL.

I also like it. It perfectly describes when to use cloning.

LF, that is unusual. Since a clone is a pure iron copy, it should not be aligned when coming from a HDD. Maybe there was a partition in front that gave the alignment.

whs said:

LF, that is unusual. Since a clone is a pure iron copy, it should not be aligned when coming from a HDD. Maybe there was a partition in front that gave the alignment.

Good point. I do format the SSD first. Also, I use smart sector cloning (the default setting) in Macrium Reflect, which copies over only the sectors with data on them. That can be much faster than forensic cloning, which is an exact duplicate, including empty sectors.