Solved What software to use with SSD clone and for backup too? Many Choices!!

[LeftC]

With SyncToy, there are left and right folders. Can one be on one drive and the other folder on a different drive? What is SyncToy's true value? I'm a bit confused.

Yes, folders can be on different drives. What do you mean by "value"? Its an excellent program.

I read the info and help info for SyncToy. Looking at the "Preview a SyncToy Run" didn't show different drives used. It just confused me. Reading the info about SyncToy says that it is a very powerful tool. I didn't mean anything off base by the word "value." Sorry.

 

[LeftC]

Here are the drivers Drivers & Downloads | Dell United States (assuming it's the type you have)
You can also use Analyze System for Updates from there

Thanks!

 

[essenbe]

With SyncToy-When you create folder pairs, it gives a left folder and a right folder, each give a search box to choose whatever folder on whatever drive you want. If in the next screen you choose 'echo' it copies the left folder to the right folder, with changes made to the left folder made to the right folder. If you set it up to a new folder on an external for the right folder and the Left folder for your user files, you will have an exact duplicate of your user folders on your external.

It is basically, whatever you want to copy is the left folder and where you want it copied to is the right folder. With Echo, it copies everything left to right.

 

[LeftC]

You want to install fresh to ssd?

If I can.

Yes.

I can't get to the stock HD easily with this laptop. I'd have to remove the keyboard, palm rest, etc.

Without disabling the stock HD I can't do the clean install, I believe.

Oops! It is actually 64bit. The specs that you saw was for an old computer that I used to use. I have changed the specs for the laptop that I would like to modify.

You have an Windows 7 Ultimate 32bit installation DVD?

Got the 64bit installation DVD as well as the 32bit. I am using the 64bit version.

So you have all the stuff needed!
Don't detach old HDD in your case, it's too difficult and not really neccesary. Boot from win7 install dvd and press shift_F10 on first window as shown here http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/682-command-prompt-startup.html

Now mark the partition that's current active inactive http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/197157-partition-mark-inactive.html
(you can mark it active if all fails)

Reboot again normally. It should fail because boot partition went inactive. That's just what you want. Boot again form win7 install DVD and install win7 on SSD

Report back when done. Check for windows updates and install them (most likely you have to connect wired instead of wireless). Reboot and check for updates again and again. Now check "device manager" for devices without drivers and post results.

So, this keeps my boot info from going astray. Correct? I'll have to read this very closely before digging in.

I have 3 partitions on my hard drive (see screenshot below): 102 MB, 19.53 GB and 911.88 GB ... OEM, RECOVERY (active) and C: (boot). In whs' "SSD - Install and transfer the Operating System", he says: "In Windows7, you may have the 100MB active boot partition. The easiest way to deal with that is to move the bootmgr to the C: partition using EasyBCD. ..."

I have a 102MB instead of a 100MB partition for some reason that I don't know why. Should I move the bootmgr to the C partition?

 

[LeftC]

With SyncToy-When you create folder pairs, it gives a left folder and a right folder, each give a search box to choose whatever folder on whatever drive you want. If in the next screen you choose 'echo' it copies the left folder to the right folder, with changes made to the left folder made to the right folder. If you set it up to a new folder on an external for the right folder and the Left folder for your user files, you will have an exact duplicate of your user folders on your external.

It is basically, whatever you want to copy is the left folder and where you want it copied to is the right folder. With Echo, it copies everything left to right.

That is a very neat tool! Thanks!

 

[Spirit Wolfe]

Greetings!

Unfortunately the older the notebooks or laptops are the more difficult it seems to try to get to the hard drive that you want to replace and or modify for one reason or another... I like to keep things as simple as possible. When I was working in my community's community college's computer lab I learned a lot, as well, but I took with me the fact that it is never better than to do a fresh windows installation regardless of version or flavor. A copy IS just that... a COPY! If you want to use "Ghosting" or "Mirroring" programs by all means utilize them, some swear by them; I choose not to. I have a working hard drive with all my goodies and backups that I use and I have an external offline drive with a a clone backup that I use. I use NinjaCopier for my main bulk copying instead of Windows copy command and I use PowerArchiver 13 for my main ZIPping utility, and ImgBurn (free) for my main DVD/Blue Ray burning and ISO creation utility and Virtual Clone Drive for mounting my ISOs once I create them with ImgBurn.

Here is a few thoughts of my own from someone who has gotten that "I have lost everything and have to download and find it all again" T-Shirt as well...

First and foremost did you happen to check the reviews on your new Samsung SSD? Keeping in mind that everything has a failure rating and it will fail ... it is inevitable, does not matter if it is solid state or not. I also utilize a nice little program called CPU-Z Validator...here is my computer's specs after downloading and running CPU-Z...

Example, my mother bought an HP from a well known shopping center and I did not check the specifications before she decided to purchase herself an updated notebook. While Toshiba makes some great products (IMHAHO [in my honest and humble opinion]); they make lousy hard drives... within 14 months of purchasing the computer TWO (the original and a warranty replacement) hard drives failed...

If your original hard drive is still is okay and it works once its ran through a good diagnostics program like Steve Gibson's SpinRite6 it is a tiny program but it works and works well... Do not know how well it will work on SSD drives, mind you. I have always had the best of luck with Seagate hard drives... I own three GoFlex hard drives (2 1.5TB externals and the 500GB WiFi hard drive) and my ASUS notebook houses two internal Seagate hard drives (a 250GB C: drive and a 500GB for my D: drive). I never store any user files on my drive C: (or main drive where the Windows directory and Programs or Programs (x86) directories reside). I store all of my documents, music, pictures, etc. on another drive (my case my notebook's internal drive D)... This is for two reasons, it keeps the wear and tear of the main drive down to a minimal so that the failure rate is not achieved too quickly and the second is so that my user files are not lost.

For me I have setup and used ISO images for computer restorations and there is an ample difference between reinstalling Windows from scratch or reinstalling Windows from an ISO image. Something always seems to go wrong a lot sooner if I remount a drive with an ISO image of a previous Windows install versus installation of a Fresh copy of Windows.

Also, for maintaining my computers I (keeping in mind you will have some say do not do this or touch this at all) swear by three other utilities:

AVG (this anti-virus seems to be the fastest I have found for myself).
Auslogics' Disk Defrag PRO and Auslogics' BoostSpeed. Disk Defrag is the only defragmentation program that I know that can defrag the hidden Windows "string" ($) files, page file and hyber file upon restart of your computer. Bear in mind that a defrag program is not for use with SSD drives as of yet. Although I think Auslogics is working on something though... Good Luck.

Hope this gives you more food for thought....

Cheers!

 

[LeftC]

Thank you very much, Spirit Wolfe, for your advice and tips. I will keep them in mind. I am already using some of those programs and I will check out the other ones.

My Dell laptop is a 2012 model that I have had for 7 months. It is an OK machine, but I like the idea of things being faster by using an SSD. I'm 61 now and having things to get going a little faster gives me a bit of relief. Time is a little more precious as we age, it seems. I do wish that this laptop was like your Asus and have two hard drives.

I read about the early Samsung 840 Pro SSD problems. These were mainly firmware related. Samsung issued an update on 12-13-12 that is supposed to fix it. I haven't read about any tests since this firmware update. It is a gamble, but it does have a 5 year warranty.

I have the same thoughts about having the programs, OS, etc on one drive and my documents, pics, music, etc on another. This is what I would like to do with this laptop.

As you and the others have suggested, a clean install would be the way to go. I do not know if I can pull it off. Kaktussoft's installation suggestion is a bit elevated for me, but maybe I can handle it. I've got to really review the material beforehand.

 

[Kaktussoft]

As you and the others have suggested, a clean install would be the way to go. I do not know if I can pull it off. Kaktussoft's installation suggestion is a bit elevated for me, but maybe I can handle it. I've got to really review the material beforehand.

My solution isn't difficult at all. Just mark the current ACTIVE boot partition INACTIVE and install normally.

 

[LeftC]

As you and the others have suggested, a clean install would be the way to go. I do not know if I can pull it off. Kaktussoft's installation suggestion is a bit elevated for me, but maybe I can handle it. I've got to really review the material beforehand.

My solution isn't difficult at all. Just mark the current ACTIVE boot partition INACTIVE and install normally.

Would you take a look at post #24 where I show my 3 partitions. Am I still OK to follow your directions? Should I do what whs suggests in his tutorial or just leave the bootmgr alone?

 

[Kaktussoft]

102MB partition: It's a special OEM partition. If you have HP computer it's used for driver installations and special software. Not a thing to clone to SSD.

Partition RECOVERY is for "reset to factory" settings. All data will be lost and it looks like you just bought the computer. So start the recovery..... but I don't think you want to. You will lose everything!

Partition RECOVERY is ACTIVE now (see your screenshot). It is actually the BOOT partition with bootmenu. It only has 1 boot entry so it uses that entry automatically. That boot entry instructs bootmanager to start from partition called OS.

When you clean install to SSD....

• New win7 will be installed to SSD
• Boot partition will get an extra boot option (so you can select boot from ssd)

So it will add an extra boot option in RECOVERY partition's boot menu. That's not what you want!! To solve it mark RECOVERY as inactive (so it doesn't know where to boot from) and install to SSD as described before.

If SSD is totally clean (no partitions at all) the installation will make a 100MB "system reserved" partition with bootmenu automatically. Otherwise it adjusts the bootmenu on active partition. If no active partitions exists but there are partitions it marks the partition you install win7 to as ACTIVE and makes the necessary boot files.

You can always mark a partition as ACTIVE afterwards (only primary partitions) (only 1 partition on physical disk can be ACTIVE) and do a "startup repair". This will recreate the needed boot files and recreate the bootmenu. Of course you will lose all things you customized to boot menu (for example boot to linux, boot to winxp)

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71363-system-reserved-partition-delete.html

You can also move the bootmenu to another partition
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/209885-bootmgr-move-c-easybcd.html

 

[LeftC]

102MB partition: It's a special OEM partition. If you have HP computer it's used for driver installations and special software. Not a thing to clone to SSD.

Partition RECOVERY is for "reset to factory" settings. All data will be lost and it looks like you just bought the computer. So start the recovery..... but I don't think you want to. You will lose everything!

Partition RECOVERY is ACTIVE now (see your screenshot). It is actually the BOOT partition with bootmenu. It only has 1 boot entry so it uses that entry automatically. That boot entry instructs bootmanager to start from partition called OS.

When you clean install to SSD....

• New win7 will be installed to SSD
• Boot partition will get an extra boot option (so you can select boot from ssd)

So it will add an extra boot option in RECOVERY partition's boot menu. That's not what you want!! To solve it mark RECOVERY as inactive (so it doesn't know where to boot from) and install to SSD as described before.

If SSD is totally clean (no partitions at all) the installation will make a 100MB "system reserved" partition with bootmenu automatically. Otherwise it adjusts the bootmenu on active partition. If no active partitions exists but there are partitions it marks the partition you install win7 to as ACTIVE and makes the necessary boot files.

You can always mark a partition as ACTIVE afterwards (only primary partitions) (only 1 partition on physical disk can be ACTIVE) and do a "startup repair". This will recreate the needed boot files and recreate the bootmenu. Of course you will lose all things you customized to boot menu (for example boot to linux, boot to winxp)

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71363-system-reserved-partition-delete.html

You can also move the bootmenu to another partition
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/209885-bootmgr-move-c-easybcd.html

Hi Kaktussoft

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer that. What to do with a total of 3 partitions had me concerned a bit. The 100MB partition is actually 102MB. Why is it 102, I wondered. The C partition says "boot" but it isn't active, the recovery partition is the active one. I was just confused. This is mostly new to me, but I have done a bunch of readiing about this SSD thing (but retaining it is a problem ).

I've been out of town all day and I just got back. I haven't had a chance to do anything today computer related.

Thank you for helping me so much. I'm at a nursing home right now recovering from some serious surgeries on my right leg. (That's a story in itself.) Because I am in this nursing facility, working spaces are limited. I would love to be able to do this mod near another computer so that I can look up all these references while working, especially your help Kaktussoft, but I can't. I can't even print anything here. Please bear with me a bit.

PS: The laptop is a Dell and not a HP.

 

[Kaktussoft]

C is "boot" in disk management. It means it has the OS (win7) on it.
RECOVERY is marked ACTIVE is "system" in disk management.

Other software just reverse the names boot and system.

Default win7 creates a 100MB "system reserved" partition, marks it ACTIVE and places bootmgr and bootmenu on it.
The 102MB partition has another purpose and has accidentally same size.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Procedure is simple...

• Mark partition RECOVERY as INACTIVE
• Boot from WIN7 install DVD and install win7 on SSD

 

[LeftC]

Backup is a good thing to do! Use Macrium Reflect Free, very flexible and easy to use.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html
Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

Do you really want a fresh so clean win7 with all th HP bloatware? There is a hot-key which activates booting from RECOVERY paritition and start the fresh reinstall proces.

I've read a little bit about Macrium Reflect Free, but I haven't used it. It was my main "free" backup software choice to try. I'm a little confused about the differences between an "image" and a "copy."

Will you tell me more about the hot-key which activates booting from RECOVERY paritition and start the fresh reinstall proces?

Actually it's not a hotkey. It's built in in windows recovery environment, which DELL customized.

Windows 7 PC Restore | Dell

Clear?

I have 2 full system images done with the Dell Datasafe software now. One was done right when I started using this computer (6/26/12) and the other was done today (1/11/13).

I need to find a CD so that I can make a WinPE recovery CD so that I can use the Macrium Reflect software. I have already downloaded whs' ready made .iso from his SkyDrive site as well as the Macrium software. Just need a clean CD. I have a bunch at home, but I'm here at the nursing home many miles away. Maybe someone has one.

I really need to find a place to work on my laptop. I surely can't use my bedside tray holder. It is too small. I hope that I can use the conference room one day when it is not in use. This is my best option. Some of those screws that came with the NewModeUS.com kit are very tiny. I hope that my old and shaky hands can work with them.

 

[LeftC]

C is "boot" in disk management. It means it has the OS (win7) on it.
RECOVERY is marked ACTIVE is "system" in disk management.

Other software just reverse the names boot and system.

Default win7 creates a 100MB "system reserved" partition, marks it ACTIVE and places bootmgr and bootmenu on it.
The 102MB partition has another purpose and has accidentally same size.

Thank you very much for the explanations.

 

[LeftC]

Procedure is simple...

• Mark partition RECOVERY as INACTIVE
• Boot from WIN7 install DVD and install win7 on SSD

I just made a Word document with all your posts and the various links that you gave me. I also have the other people that helped too. Now I need to find a 64bit Win 7 computer that is connected to a printer. I can put this document on one of my flash drives so that I can move it around.

Now I have to try to memorize as much of this information as I can.

 

[LeftC]

102MB partition: It's a special OEM partition. If you have HP computer it's used for driver installations and special software. Not a thing to clone to SSD.

Partition RECOVERY is for "reset to factory" settings. All data will be lost and it looks like you just bought the computer. So start the recovery..... but I don't think you want to. You will lose everything!

Partition RECOVERY is ACTIVE now (see your screenshot). It is actually the BOOT partition with bootmenu. It only has 1 boot entry so it uses that entry automatically. That boot entry instructs bootmanager to start from partition called OS.

When you clean install to SSD....

• New win7 will be installed to SSD
• Boot partition will get an extra boot option (so you can select boot from ssd)

So it will add an extra boot option in RECOVERY partition's boot menu. That's not what you want!! To solve it mark RECOVERY as inactive (so it doesn't know where to boot from) and install to SSD as described before.

If SSD is totally clean (no partitions at all) the installation will make a 100MB "system reserved" partition with bootmenu automatically. Otherwise it adjusts the bootmenu on active partition. If no active partitions exists but there are partitions it marks the partition you install win7 to as ACTIVE and makes the necessary boot files.

You can always mark a partition as ACTIVE afterwards (only primary partitions) (only 1 partition on physical disk can be ACTIVE) and do a "startup repair". This will recreate the needed boot files and recreate the bootmenu. Of course you will lose all things you customized to boot menu (for example boot to linux, boot to winxp)

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71363-system-reserved-partition-delete.html

You can also move the bootmenu to another partition
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/209885-bootmgr-move-c-easybcd.html

I apologize for being quiet lately. I'd been doing a lot of reading on this forum.

I have moved the bootmenu to the C partition using EasyBCD (see below) and made it the active one.

After all this reading, I want to ask questions about 2 different ways to go:
1 - more about a fresh install of Win 7 and what files to transfer from the hard drive to the SSD
2 - move the OS, partitions, files, folders, etc of the 1 TB hard drive to the 0.5 TB SSD

This laptop is running really sweet now and I don't want to have to start over with the SSD installation.

I am still going to leave the stock 1 TB drive in, remove the CD/DVD player and install the 0.5 TB (512 GB) SSD in its place.

I seems that the Paragon Dive Copy 12 Pro is a good way to go for doing the second option. It is on sale for $25.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Please post screenshot of disk management how situation now.
Move OS SSD is best way to go in your case. I'll give you instructions how to do it easily after seeing the screenshot. It's quite easy. No reason to buy software for it!

In http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

bcdedit/enum all>bcd.txt

Post C:\Windows\System32\bcd.txt. You may delete that file afterwards. I just want to know if there are no references anymore to "system reserved".

 

[LeftC]

Please post screenshot of disk management how situation now.
Move OS SSD is best way to go in your case. I'll give you instructions how to do it easily after seeing the screenshot. It's quite easy. No reason to buy software for it!

In http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/783-elevated-command-prompt.html

bcdedit/enum all>bcd.txt

Post C:\Windows\System32\bcd.txt. You may delete that file afterwards. I just want to know if there are no references anymore to "system reserved".

I don't have the SSD installed yet. So, it is OK to do this command prompt now, correct?

How do I delete the txt file afterwards?

Thanks!

 

[LeftC]

I found some info about Dell's partitions. This Dell laptop is probably like what is mentioned except my bootmenu is moved.

from: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html#post1839164​

Special notes for Dell owners:

If your Recovery partition is triggered at boot from the F8 System Recovery Options then it will no longer run after clean reinstall, so make your Recovery disks first, delete Recovery partition during reinstall.

●The Dell Diagnostics tools stored on the OEM Tools partition often will run from boot but not from the OS after Reinstall so it is worth saving if it will boot - try it now to test your hardware. If not you can run the tests from online at Dell PC Diagnostics | Dell US

●Useful tips for Dell reinstallation plus access to their forums to resolve questions can be found at Dell Community

from: Dell DataSafe Local Backup 2.0 Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) | Dell​

What is a Recovery Partition and why do I have a Recovery Partition on my computer?

Dell DataSafe Local provides the latest recovery technology to Dell consumer by shipping a recovery partition containing a copy of all the factory installed software. This protected partition will boot even when Windows does not run and with Dell's factory recovery software will allow you to reinstall all of the software that came with your Dell computer.