Clone SSD or HDD from existing C: HDD, no OEM disks nor recovery ptn

[bawldiggle]

Using Free Macrium (unless you advise otherwise)

Can I create a clone of (C:\) a 250GB HDD onto 125GB SSD ?
- not sure of sizes but for memory those sizes are correct
- if in future I decide to use a new HDD (say 500GB) smallest around at the moment
- can I clone the smaller capacity SSD clone onto a larger 500GB HDD

I plan on using the SSD as system backup.

BACKGROUND:
Purchased a Lenovo e540 (Win-7 PRO x64) in August-2015, 2 weeks later (before opening the Lenovo box) I had a serious stroke ... three days in a coma and some grey matter damage.

Opened the Lenovo box in Dec-2016, activated on line with MS.
In May-2017 I had more energy to tackle the Lenovo again.
Determined to be a more responsible PC owner, and GregRockers tute on removing the crud from OEM bloatware I uninstalled some Lenove bundleware. No problems, rebooted OK.
During these tasks I created threads on SevenForums about very unstable IE, with a reply from Brink.
- I never did attempt an IE repair.

Uninstalled Adobe Reader with Revo PRO (portable)
Revo PRO makes a Restore Point automatically with each uninstall.
Rebooted ... no desktop ... but could open "Task Manager" with Ctrl+Shift+Esc. There was no "explorer.exe" to be found ... way beyond my very limited knowledge.
So Lenovo was well outside warranty (obviously) after 16 months to activation date plus the 5 months while I got more "energy" back.

PC repair shop checked [C:\) HDD and RAM.
Only solution was to reinstall Windows. But Lenovo only allow one "recovery" and then it is no longer available. And I could not find the recovery disks I had made in December last.

Repair shop installed non -Lenovo Win7-PRO x64 ... (I am glad all the Lenovo bundled ware is gone)
When the repair shop tried to activate Win-7 online, activation was rejected.
Repair shop contacted MS who said this OS had already been activated 12 times. ??
I only activated once in Dec-2016. It transpired my machine is a Win-8 (BIOS?) but I bought the new machine from the repair shop in 2015 with Win-7 PRO already on it (sealed Lenovo carton).
The serial number on the existing C: HDD is what OK'd it with MS by phone

So the thrust of this thread is that I want a cloned HDD orr SSD of the clean installed Win-7 PRO because if I ever need to reinstall ...
1. I don't have a recovery partition nor do I have backup/recovery(?) disks.
2. I don't want to go to battle with MS over activation.
3: I do know that the system is unique to my specific Lenovo and is not transferable.

Since the clean install I have not touched anything on the Lenovo except change the default theme to the factory Classic theme.

Before doing anything with the Lenovo I want to have a secure (eg, SSD clone) on standby.
Would an SSD clone be better than a HDD clone ?
It could be several years before I need it (if) but we never know "when" is !

Would appreciate some expert guidance and reassurance ... thank you

------------------
Created and sent from a borrowed PC

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello mate yes I think you can I did see somewhere where you can just clone the partitions - but I could be wrong of course.

Meant to say doesn't matter about the drive mate as long as you have the clone it is something I do before messing with dual boots etc but usually same size drive to same size.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Using Macrium Reflect, you can clone individual partitions or entire disks and you can clone from both larger to smaller (as long as the content is less than the capacity of the destination) or smaller to larger.

 

[bawldiggle]

@ ICIT2LOL
Thank you John for your response, how is the patient doing.
Is the cold weather giving your leg a hard time.

---------------.

@Lady Fitzgerald
Hi Jeannie, thank you for your feedback, I have read a good number of your posts about Cloning and imaging, some a few years old.
It seems images can be saved on a decent sized HDD (1+ TBs) but in one of your detailed posts you mentioned how complex restoring an image can be.
I keep all my data on an external HDD so the laptop only has programs and a partition for intermediate downloads and uploads.

For extra long term storage of the clone would SSD be a more permanent safer bet than a HDD ?

Do images also include registry or just files ?
Some of Macrium's tutes are for v5 and outdated. I looked at free AOMEI Standard but not much very basic help for dummies.

Best Macrium info I found earlier today was Techie Tuesday: image or clone? dated 6 months ago, so I assume v6.
Even I understood it

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I'm wondering if you may be confusing imaging and cloning. An image is like a photo negative. It is used to make an exact copy of what you imaged the same as a photo negative is used to make a photo print. Same as a photo negative, an image cannot be viewed directly (without special software).

A clone is a direct copy. Cloning is like feeding a document into a copier and having the copier spit out an exact copy of the document.

For transferring data from one drive or partition to another drive or partition, such as when replacing a drive with another one, cloning is best since it is a one step process and doesn't require an intermediary drive. However, cloning is not the best way to make a backup since you can have only the one clone on the backup drive.

If you want to make backups of a drive or partition(s) for possibly restoring the original drive or partition sometime down the road, imaging is better than cloning. Images are usually compressed so they take up less room and you can store multiple images that were made at different times on the same backup drive. Let's say you made an image of your C: and System Reserved partitions on the 1st of the month, a second one on the 10th of the month, and a third one on the 20th of the month and store all three on a backup drive.

On the 25th of the month, you download a program or update and everything goes horribly wrong and you can't fix it or even get it to boot. You can choose anyone of the three images and, using the rescue media you should have made when you first installed Macrium Reflect (you should also set the boot order to boot into the rescue media when connected to the computer) and that image, you can restore your C: and System Reserved partitions back to the state they were in on the day you made the image. Your rescue media will have program called Win PE on it. You boot the computer into Win PE. It will automatically open up Macrium Reflect that is embedded in the installation of Win PE. You then select the image you want to use, then just sit back and wait while Macrium Reflect restores your C: and System Reserve partitions. When done, close Win PE, remove the rescue media, and reboot.

It all just sounds more complicated than it really is. Once you've gone through it once, it will be easy.

Btw, images include everything on the drive or partition you chose to image. You can include more than one partition in an image.

I recommend keeping only the OS and programs on the C: partition and your data on a separate partition or drive. While imaging and cloning are the only way to make working copies of the OS and programs, using a folder/file syncing program is more efficient for backing up data (that is why I recommend keeping data separate from the OS and programs).

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Whether one uses an hdd or a ssd for system images is really budget.

Clones just save a little time because one does not have to go through the restoring a system image to another ssd or hdd
System images are compressed a little so they take up less space is why they are preferred and one can reuse the same system image as many times as one stores it.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...System images are compressed a little so they take up less space is why they are preferred and one can reuse the same system image as many times as one stores it.

Exactly. Also, one can easily store multiple images.

 

[RolandJS]

When restoring a full image of a partition onto another hard-drive, be it SSD or HDD, if the target HD's receiving partition is different in size than the source HD's original partition, be sure to "tell" the backup / restore / clone program the size of the target HD's receiving partition. And, I recommend giving each internal and external HD, and each user-made partition unique names, so that you will always know what HD and what partition your program is being "aimed at".

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

When restoring a full image of a partition onto another hard-drive, be it SSD or HDD, if the target HD's receiving partition is different in size than the source HD's original partition, be sure to "tell" the backup / restore / clone program the size of the target HD's receiving partition...

I never had to do that with Macrium Reflect (in fact, I don't think you can).

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Thank you John for your response, how is the patient doing.
Is the cold weather giving your leg a hard time.

Yes mate and you forget the older you get the longer it takes to heal up for a bull at a gate LOL!!

Yep well as you can see yes is the answer I haven't done the partitio personally because I could afford spare drives. But again like I said before if I ma going to do a dual boot or try something out of the ordinary or another OS - I like to clone the original install. It's a no brainer unless the budget is tight of course.

 

[mjf]

With cloning you do a byte copy of one drive to a second drive. The second drive then represents a single dedicated copy/clone of the first. The second drive is good for nothing else but is immediately bootable.

With system imaging you could store typically in excess of 50 system images on a single 1TB drive using a program like Macrium. You can store whatever other data on that drive you like. Each of these system images can be restored to an existing or new drive (SSD or HDD). I'm not saying you need 50 system images but 5-10 over a period of time is reasonable so you can go back in time before some bad thing (eg. malware) happened.

A restored system image gives the same effective result as a clone. You can create a bootable spare drive from a system image any time you want and store it away.

With Macrium system imaging the new drive can be smaller (eg. 1TB HDD to 256GB SSD) provided the restored image fits. The creation and restoring of an image is really very simple provided you have created a working restore pe CD/USB.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...With Macrium system imaging the new drive can be smaller (eg. 1TB HDD to 256GB SSD) provided the restored image fits. The creation and restoring of an image is really very simple provided you have created a working restore pe CD/USB.

The same is true with cloning on Macrium Reflect (MR). MR has two kinds of cloning. The default is called Intelligent Sector Cloning. Only sectors that have any data in them are cloned over. Thos is what allows cloning to a smaller drive as long as the amount of data being cloned will fit inside the smaller drive. The other type is called Forensic Cloning. Every sector, occupied or not, is cloned over to the destination drive. With this type of cloning, the destination drive must be as large or larger than the source drive.

 

[mjf]

The same is true with cloning on Macrium Reflect (MR).

Yes that's correct. A point I was trying to get through is that a clone ties up a cloned drive and is just one copy of that drive for that one point in time the clone was made.
Cloning is not a replacement for system imaging. System imaging can perform the same function as cloning.
If you think a clone suites your purposes then that's up to the individual.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Yes that's correct. A point I was trying to get through is that a clone ties up a cloned drive and is just one copy of that drive for that one point in time the clone was made.
Cloning is not a replacement for system imaging. System imaging can perform the same function as cloning.
If you think a clone suites your purposes then that's up to the individual.

That I totally agree with. Cloning is ideal for transferring the contents of a drive to a replacement drive, such as when upgrading to a larger drive or replacing an HDD with an SSD but, for backing up system files (the OS and programs), imaging is indeed the better choice.