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

[Mellon Head]

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

 

[ignatzatsonic]

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.

 

[Mellon Head]

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.