Upgrading to SSD

ComputerNoob407 · 14 Jul 2016

I'm still a noob at computers. My lenovo y50 uses windows 8. I purchased a new Samsung 850 EVO SSD 500gb to replace my 5400 rpm WD slim 1 tb. Without formatting the drive, I inserted the empty drive into a external enclosure, attached a SATA connector though USB on the laptop. First I tried Samsung's data migration to clone, which was successful, but when I replaced the WD slim, after booting it showed the lenovo screen and it immediately went to a blank black screen (mouse shows and HDD activity light blinks). I take the drive out, put back in the enclosure and used Macrium Reflect to clone it. Replaced the drive again and upon booting, it showed the lenovo logo and at the bottom was performing automatic repair. After a few minutes, it said automatic repair couldn't be performed and asked to shut down, this was an endless loop. Both times, the bios recognizes the SSD. So I finally decided to just create an image from macrium reflect on an external hard drive. The image went successful and it passed the verify option, no errors. My question is, do I have to reformat the SSD though disk management again? To restore the image on the SSD, can I put the SSD in an external enslosure with a SATA connector attached via USB and restore the image that way? Would still that be considered an image? If I replaced the HD again, I want to be 100% sure it will boot normally with no problems and function normal. Thanks for advice!

mitchell65 · 14 Jul 2016

Perhaps reading this excellent tutorial will help you:
SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System

ignatzatsonic · 14 Jul 2016

see comments in bold

ComputerNoob407 said:

My question is, do I have to reformat the SSD though disk management again?

You shouldn't have to. An image restoration will do the necessary formatting automatically.

To restore the image on the SSD, can I put the SSD in an external enslosure with a SATA connector attached via USB and restore the image that way?

I've never tried it as I don't use enclosures, but why not just put the SSD into the internal bay where it's supposed to be and restore to that from the external? I'd think restoring to the SSD in an enclosure would just be an unnecessary complication.

If I replaced the HD again, I want to be 100% sure it will boot normally with no problems and function normal.

You are imaging. Therefore, you cannot be 100% sure of anything. It's not a foolproof process, but it seems to be more reliable than cloning. You have to be prepared to have imaging and cloning both fail and have another plan--typically a clean install.

ThrashZone · 14 Jul 2016

Hi,
Normally I would create the system image onto the same drive as the os I was imaging if I didn't have an extra one to place the system image on.

Then I would create the WinPE recovery media so I had that to boot to and use to restore the system image.

I would then remove the old hdd and install the new ssd where it was,
Install the old hdd with the system image into the external enclosure.
Boot to the WinPE recovery cd or flash media and restore the image to the new ssd.

Seeing this is a win-8 machine you'd probably have to disable fast start and Secure boot so you could boot to the WinPE recovery media.

AddRAM · 14 Jul 2016

Whenever you reimage a drive, it automatically reformats the target drive. You don`t have to do it.

My question is, why aren`t you doing a clean install on the new ssd ?

That way you`ll have a beautifully clean pristine PC ?

Other then the fact that you will still be using Windows 8

Benteke · 14 Jul 2016

I swapped my laptop 750gb HDD w/a Samsung Pro 500gb SSD a few months ago. Take addRAM's advice and perform a clean install! Can't tell you how many hrs I wasted on the clone/image route... encountered far too many issues to even list here, so I won't. Eventually performed a clean OS install, downloaded & installed apps and then just migrated old HDD data files to the new SSD.

ThrashZone · 14 Jul 2016

Hi,
Funny I just restored an image on a 850 evo last weekend worked great and operates great :)
Of course I went from one ssd to another ssd :)

An hdd might need a little cleanup but reflect does trim operation pretty well I believe.

ComputerNoob407 · 15 Jul 2016

Thank you for all the replies. A clean install sounds really good, but I don't want to reinstall all the programs, windows updates and games from steam and origin. After imaging, I noticed from the macrium reflect log history #2: SYSTEM_DRV and #3: LRS_ESP, the actual size is 4 mb less. #2 total size is 260 mb and #3 is 1000 gb, than the original. What is #4 Will this be a problem when restoring to the SSD? Why is the total size off? Verify option was a success, no errors and from the log, there was no errors as well.

ignatzatsonic · 15 Jul 2016

What settings did you make within Macrium just before you made the image file?

Specifically--did you select certain partitions manually and leave certain partitions unselected?

Or did you choose "image selected disks on this computer"?

Or did you choose "create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows"?

Or did you do something else?

You need to post a screen shot of Windows Disk Management show we can see the details of your partition layout. The pic you did post doesn't show that detail.

Lastly--have you made Macrium restore (recovery) media?

The successful verification is no guarantee that an image restoration will succeed.

ComputerNoob407 · 15 Jul 2016

Well, when macrium reflect v5.1.5870 opened, all the partitions were already selected and I chose to 'image this disk' below. I used the recommended settings 'medium compression level', 'intelligent sector copy', 'automatic file size', and 'highest priority'. I created the image using an admin. account I disabled real time protection on my antivirus and didn't have anything open or running in task manager while the image was being created, screen saver was off. Yes I created a bootable USB 'windows PE 4.0' Here is disk management of my OEM hard drive, this was before the image was created.