Cloning apps to handle SSDs?

aem said:

Yes i know but you already know a couple of software that clones HDDs. And i have given oen also Ghost. But which will work for Windows 7 is something of a trial and error. If you are worried about SIDs, Windows Keys, MAC address, Computername (or anyone of of those). Sysprep with imagex i recon.

I was a huge Ghost supporter for about a decade, but it has really fallen off, unfortunately.

As for the list of things you mentioned, I wouldn't have any concerns or worries about anything on that list, given that the drive was going right back into the same system. I was cloning from one drive to another...not imaging and deploying. There's a big difference between the two. I'm not sure if you have some kind of personal stock on Sysprep, but I've used it thousands of times. I'm well aware of when it is needed, and this isn't one of those times. Sysprep is a great piece of software, but it's a hammer, and I'm dealing with socket wrenches.

I am very confused, to be honest, as to why you seem to insist I make this a much more difficult process. Maybe we aren't understanding each other, so let me ask this question.

Why do you seem to be against the easiest method...of putting both drives in the system, booting from the .iso of the software I'm using...choosing the source drive, then choosing the target drive, and then clone the HDD to the SDD? I can do that in a matter of minutes, and then boot from the SSD. No need to pull drives...no need for Sysprep, etc.

Aside from wondering my above question, once again, it isn't about the process of getting the OS over to the SSD and making it bootable. That's the easy part. My questions were asking what software will, if any, reconfigure the OS for the SSD.

So, if I'm missing something, please say so. But I am at a loss as to why you keep derailing the thread by insisting I make the cloning process much more difficult than it is....rather than sticking to the topic at hand?

Okay, so I realize my above may have come across as being harsh, but I'm asking out of curiosity. Is there a reason that I'm missing that keeps you going back to me creating an image, rather than going direct from source drive to target?

aem said:

I'm not against that method but personally i would not do it that way. The way i usually do is to image a HDD, dumping it onto a media and from that media i dump it onto another HDD (which often means another machine, or same machine with different or replaced HDD). This way might take a little more time but for me it's a more sured way. Also with the copied image (on an external media) it can be re-used and on the fly with other machine if needed, if you know what i mean.

Why would you assume it was the most safe way? Yes, an image can be re-used, but that's where you keep going off the topic. I'm not trying to make an image for deployment. I'm just cloning a drive to another. It's a one time process. You're over-complicating a simple job.

aem said:

Question about your method, what happen after clone it onto the SDD and after reboot to the SSD and it doesn't work? You original HDD is still on the system and what if it corrupts that HDD in a way no one knows, you are then in real trouble are you not?

If you decided not to pay attention, I guess it is possible, but the entire point of choosing the source and target is to leave the source untouched, just in case the process would ever fail for some reason. You seem to be scared off of this method for some reason, maybe a bad experience or misinformation, but when you choose the source disk, it doesn't get altered or changed. Now, going by your previous comments, applying Sysprep to a drive will alter the source, so if something does go awry, you have now made changes to your source. That's taking more of a risk than my method.

aem, you do understand that your method is just another version of cloning, without extra step to create image first. It seems you are the one who cannot let go that there are alternative methods that work just as well.

It isn't about opinions. If the source drive isn't touched, what is left to chance? Have you ever cloned directly before? It seems to me that you are assuming the data is moved from one drive to another, rather than copied. Images can be corrupt, which you often won't know until you attempt your restore. Doing the simple cloning not only is faster, but it leaves your original drive untouched. I'm a bit baffled why you keep pushing a method that involves more steps, more time, and more of a chance of error. If it works for you, great. I'm not out to change anyone's mind. But you also have to realize that it isn't the best method for what I was trying to accomplish, nor was it even relevant to the actual topic.