Cloning or Restoring in Win10/Installing a new SSD

Viper69 · Dec 3, 2016

I may be getting a new laptop with Win10 Home on it. The SSD is 256Gig. I may decide to replace it with a 512Gig SSD.

In doing this "right out of the box", I have a few questions

1. Should I make an image or a clone of the original drive?
2. Does it matter that the new drive will be larger in size in either case?
3. What's the best course of action in doing this process.

I've only made archival image backups, incremental etc, of HD, so my experience is a bit limited here.

Someone suggested that I made a backup of the original drive, and then just restore that backup onto the new drive. Not sure how any of this will occur when the new drive in the laptop would be blank. Clearly there's a gap in my knowledge on this.

Thanks in advance.

trents · Dec 3, 2016

You can use cloning software like Acronis True Image or Macrium Reflect (free) to clone drives or you can use Macrium Reflect to make an image, create a self-booting restore CD/DVD and restore the image to the new drive. I've done it both ways many times and either way works just fine. If you choose to clone, make sure you are careful which drive you choose as the source and which as the target. You don't want to clone an empty drive to an empty drive. And whether you use cloning or imaging, make sure you adjust the partition size of the new drive after the cloning is done. Some products, like Acronis, automatically enlarge the partitions proportionately when the target drive is larger. If it is smaller then Acronis will automatically downsize all the partitions in a proportional way. You don't want to be using only part of your drive's capacity. Clonezilla is another popular freeware drive cloner but I have never used it.

HankB · Dec 4, 2016

How much bloatware will be installed on the new laptop? How much of it do you want? Some, like Lenovo's Superfish are truly bad, compromising the user's security.

I would use the original install to produce W10 install media and perhaps get a copy of any required drivers from the manufacturer's web site an then perform a fresh bloat free install on the new SSD.

You may still need to watch for bloatware. Lenovo even had something in the ACPI firmware that would reinstall some of their bloatware following a clean install.

Viper69 · Dec 4, 2016

trents said:
You can use cloning software like Acronis True Image or Macrium Reflect (free) to clone drives or you can use Macrium Reflect to make an image, create a self-booting restore CD/DVD and restore the image to the new drive. I've done it both ways many times and either way works just fine. If you choose to clone, make sure you are careful which drive you choose as the source and which as the target. You don't want to clone an empty drive to an empty drive. And whether you use cloning or imaging, make sure you adjust the partition size of the new drive after the cloning is done. Some products, like Acronis, automatically enlarge the partitions proportionately when the target drive is larger. If it is smaller then Acronis will automatically downsize all the partitions in a proportional way. You don't want to be using only part of your drive's capacity. Clonezilla is another popular freeware drive cloner but I have never used it.

Thanks for this. I hadn't heard of Macrium. I know of Acronis, years ago I used to use Norton Ghost. On another machine I've only been using Win7 built in software solution for backups.

I will look into Macrium. Thanks for the tips. I honestly wasn't sure if it mattered which method was chosen.

HankB said:
How much bloatware will be installed on the new laptop? How much of it do you want? Some, like Lenovo's Superfish are truly bad, compromising the user's security.

I would use the original install to produce W10 install media and perhaps get a copy of any required drivers from the manufacturer's web site an then perform a fresh bloat free install on the new SSD.

You may still need to watch for bloatware. Lenovo even had something in the ACPI firmware that would reinstall some of their bloatware following a clean install.

AH bloatware, thanks for reminding me of this. Well the computer is either going to be a Samsung or a Lenovo it seems. Never owned or used a Samsung computer, used a few Lenovo Thinkpads. I always liked the design under IBM. I wish IBMs Butterfly board was still available!

I did hear about Superfish, but did not learn of bloatware in the ACPI firmware.

IS there a good site/s that have bloatware lists that can be removed from various manufacturers?

HankB · Dec 4, 2016

I do not know about bloatware lists.

I have had Thinkpads almost continuously since I bought my first laptop - a Thinkpad 750Cs. That came out in '93. My Lenovo Y50 complete with Superfish and self installing bloatware will be the last Lenovo I will ever buy. I've never owned a Dell, but if I were to replace the Y50 today it would be with an XPS 13 or maybe an XPS 15.

Viper69 · Dec 5, 2016

Yeah I saw the XPS13, the only deal breaker was the placement of the webcam at the bottom left. I think that was pretty stupid for a design. If it was top center I would have bought it. I don't care about having a bit of "extra" screen up top for a webcam. What were they thinking.

ATMINSIDE · Dec 5, 2016

Do the laptops have removable storage or is it soldered in?

Viper69 · Dec 5, 2016

ATMINSIDE said:
Do the laptops have removable storage or is it soldered in?

Storage:

I know the Thinkpad does allow its storage to upgraded. It's stock with a 256SSD, I forget off hand what brand and type.

The Samsung's drive can be upgraded too.

Liteon CV1 SSD which appears to be the M.2 2280 format with SATA interface. Oddly Samsung didn't go w/their own drives and faster technology for some reason on their own notebook..How weird is that...

The Samsung doesn't support PCIe for storage, just SATA3.

RAM:

Samsung 8 gig RAM soldered in. No path to upgrade that.

Thinkpad 8 gig, 1 slot only, but can be upgraded to a 16 gig stick.

Theocnoob · Dec 5, 2016

Viper69 said:
I may be getting a new laptop with Win10 Home on it. The SSD is 256Gig. I may decide to replace it with a 512Gig SSD.

In doing this "right out of the box", I have a few questions

Make sure the drive is upgradeable, ie, a 2.5" standard SATA drive. You may need a pry tool such as an iOpener to help you open the laptop up.

1. Should I make an image or a clone of the original drive?
That's what I would do. Just put both drives in a desktop and use a program like acronis to clone the drive image over to the new drive. Then boot into it and delete the bloatware.
2. Does it matter that the new drive will be larger in size in either case?
Nope
3. What's the best course of action in doing this process.
See above

I've only made archival image backups, incremental etc, of HD, so my experience is a bit limited here.

Someone suggested that I made a backup of the original drive, and then just restore that backup onto the new drive. Not sure how any of this will occur when the new drive in the laptop would be blank. Clearly there's a gap in my knowledge on this.

Thanks in advance.

Viper69 · Dec 6, 2016

Much appreciated people, thank you all.

Cloning or Restoring in Win10/Installing a new SSD

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