Migrating data to a new SSD. Some advice please...

I just picked up a Samsung 850 EVO 256GB SSD from Newegg. While I wait for it to get to me, I thought I would ask some advice...

I currently have a 120 GB SSD holding my Windows 7 install and a 64 GB SSD holding my Windows 8 install. I plan to upgrade the Win 8 installation to Win 10, but I figure that I'm going to need a bigger drive, since the Win 8 SSD is about 65% full.

My plan is to move the Win 8 installation to the 120 GB SSD, and move the Win 7 installation to the new 250 GB SSD. I should mention that it is configured as dual boot.

What would be the best way to migrate the data from drive to drive? Cloning? Imaging? Do I have to worry about byte alignment if I clone?

I would really like to avoid a reinstall if I can. I have a recent system image that I could use if necessary.

I'm really not sure about how to do this properly, so any advice would be most welcome.

Thanks

I'd make images of each and every partition on the current Win 7 and Win 8 SSDs, storing those images on some unrelated drive.

Then I might try cloning to move the 2 current installations to the new destinations. If that goes up in smoke, go to fallback plan B--restoring the images.

In my experience, if a drive is properly aligned before cloning or imaging, it will be properly aligned afterwards.

You say "best way to migrate the data". I assume you mean migrate the entire contents of the drives, not just personal data.

I haven't dual booted in 20 years, so I don't know how or if that will affect your plan.

ignatzatsonic said:

You say "best way to migrate the data". I assume you mean migrate the entire contents of the drives, not just personal data.

Yes. Sorry. I mean the entire contents of the drive.