Solved How to Migrate OS to new Hard disk.

[theog]

Hi Theog,

Sorry but I don't understand why you gave a link to "how to download Windows 8 ISO" since my laptop comes with preinstalled Windows 8. Sorry...but what you were trying to show to me again?

The QUOTE is from the link.

 

[catilley1092]

In addition to all of the excellent advise that theog has provided, Macrium Reflect (Free Version) will do the trick, as I cloned a 1TB Windows 8 OEM install (from Dell XPS 8700) to a 120GB Samsung 840 EVO.

WinPE media had to be created, Macrium will try to download the needed files (about 300MB) to create the ISO. In my case, the file download kept breaking up, so I installed the Windows 8 ADK, then all Macrium needed to fetch was another 6MB file.

After creating an ISO for a spare, I used a no longer needed 1GB SDHC card to create bootable media, from which I attached to a USB 3.0 card reader, though the inbuilt reader probably could have done the same. Or a Flash drive/CD, I just had no other use for that small SDHC card, so I used that.

I then cloned the HDD to the SSD (my recovery sets had already long been made) by booting from the SDHC card, after starting up the new SSD, a reboot wasn't even needed. The recovery partition, I didn't clone, as it only works with the same size or larger drive. That left me with 10+GB for the Samsung over provisioning utility, which is good for the longevity of the SSD.

This bootable ISO can also be used to backup the OS with, just like Acronis or any other popular backup app. Backup integrity seems to be better when made from outside of the Windows environment.

The good thing is, nothing had to be purchased & I use that same SDHC card to backup my other Windows installs that doesn't have a paid backup app installed.

Cat

 

[SIW2]

Any respectable imaging or partitioning program can clone successfully. Aomei backupper (free) Aomei partition Assitant (free), Partition Wizard (free ), etc.

Very few have the ability to exclude, so you can clone to an ssd smaller than the used space on the source drive.

That is why Theog suggested Paragon.

 

[Clintlgm]

Any respectable imaging or partitioning program can clone successfully. Aomei backupper (free) Aomei partition Assitant (free), Partition Wizard (free ), etc.

Very few have the ability to exclude, so you can clone to an ssd smaller than the used space on the source drive.

That is why Theog suggested Paragon.

yes but I think Macrium Reflect had this figured out for UEFI GPT back in 2012 and their free version will do this with 100% correct booting. Tech support is intelligent, English speaking, and they understand their software which I find pretty amazing these days.

 

[azasadny]

I use Acronis True Image Home v14 for this and Corsair has a free utility that does this and it's included when you buy one of their SSD's. I do a lot of testing at home, so I bought Acronis years ago and it's saved my bacon many many times, so it's been well worth the initial and upgrades costs to me...

 

[Flynne]

I had to create an account just to say THANK YOU Theog. This was my first ever hardware upgrade and I just wanted to say thank you for making it painless.

 

[theog]

You are welcome, well done.

 

[yktan]

Excluding data partitions

Hi, I'm trying to clone my 1TB HDD to a new 256GB SSD. Since I have a lot of data in the Data partition, is it possible for me to exclude the Data partition and clone the rest (attached screen dump to show the partitions on my original HDD)?

I tried cloning the partitions from the beginning of the drive up to the OS partition onto the SSD using Macrium Reflect (as show in the screen dump as Hard Disk 1), but when I rebooted the machine and tried to select boot order, I only see one "Windows Boot Manager" which doesn't let me choose to boot from the SSD.

Thanks

 

[SIW2]

Sounds like macrium didn't update the bcd store on your current system volume.

Boot into the one can get into, then open an elevated cmd and type

bcdboot f:\windows

press enter.

 

[kaybee327]

YKTAN

I am always looking for an easy life have a look at Paragon Backup and Recovery™ this will do exactly what you want and is FREE.

Can't put a link but look at paragon-software. Usual three letters c**

Keith

 

[yktan]

It works!

Sounds like macrium didn't update the bcd store on your current system volume.

Boot into the one can get into, then open an elevated cmd and type

bcdboot f:\windows

press enter.

Hi SIW2, thanks for your help. Running the bcdboot command worked! Now windows prompts me to choose which HDD to boot and I managed to boot using my SSD! Thank you so much!

 

[mando]

It worked for me aswell. Installed Paragon 14. Then switched SSD with the old HDD in the laptop. Restarted the computer and it worked. WOW! Theog rules!

 

[redbeard]

Using Paragon B&R 14 on 64-bit Windows 8.1 System

Just a heads up. Anyone using the Paragon Backup and Recovery 14 Home program with a 64-bit Windows system configured to the uEFI boot mode will need to modify Theog's example copy settings in his Step 8 (page 1 of the thread) by checking the Create new EFI boot entry for destination drive checkbox under Copy Options. This option is only displayed if that type of system is detected by the software.

I have such a system and the first time I ran the program I did not check the "Create new EFI..." box. After the copy operation completed I took out the old drive, installed in the new one, restarted and all I got was the bios screen and no ability to boot. I re-did the copy, this time checking the box and it worked!

My clone was from the Samsung ST1000LM024 1TB hard drive that came with my laptop (Asus N550JK-DS71T) to a 1TB Samsung 840 EVO SSD.

UPDATE: Looks like I spoke too soon. Although Paragon seems to have cloned the working portion of the original hard disk the recovery partition seems to be missing on the new SSD. Both Asus' Backtracker program (used to back up the recovery partition to a flash drive) and the Windows 8.1 Recovery Drive utility report that there is no recovery partition on the SSD. NICE JOB PARAGON!!!

I wanted to talk to Paragon about it but they won't talk to you if you haven't paid for the program and I'm certainly not going to pay for it to find out why it didn't work. I guess that's what a free demo is for...to discover the program doesn't work! Oh, well!

 

[Davi]

Looks like I spoke too soon. Although Paragon seems to have cloned the working portion of the original hard disk the recovery partition seems to be missing on the new SSD. Both Asus' Backtracker program (used to back up the recovery partition to a flash drive) and the Windows 8.1 Recovery Drive utility report that there is no recovery partition on the SSD. NICE JOB PARAGON!!!

Well, I'm very curious about how all this have ende... I also have an Asus N550JK and I want to migrate my system from my 1tb HDD to a 500gb Samsung 840 Evo, so every news on this subject will be very apreciated! Thanks!

 

[redbeard]

Well, I'm very curious about how all this have ende... I also have an Asus N550JK and I want to migrate my system from my 1tb HDD to a 500gb Samsung 840 Evo, so every news on this subject will be very apreciated! Thanks!

It didn't end well for me. The Windows 8 recovery tool couldn't find the recovery partition on either the original HDD or the SSD after the cloning operation. The SSD does work though. It boots to Win 8 and the laptop operates normally (and a lot faster now) but it seems to have left me with no way to recover if there is ever a disk failure. I'm sure the data is still there somewhere on the drive and recoverable by someone who knows their way around disk structures but I'm not going to worry about it for now.

If I had it to do over again I think I'd try using the Asus Backtracker software to create a recovery DVD BEFORE attempting to swap disks. Then I'd remove the HDD, install the SSD and rebuild the OS from the recovery DVD onto the new SSD rather than trying to clone from the HD. I have a feeling that might have worked.

Good luck to you Davi, whatever you try, and be sure to let us know what worked for you.

 

[Clintlgm]

Well, I'm very curious about how all this have ende... I also have an Asus N550JK and I want to migrate my system from my 1tb HDD to a 500gb Samsung 840 Evo, so every news on this subject will be very apreciated! Thanks!

It didn't end well for me. The Windows 8 recovery tool couldn't find the recovery partition on either the original HDD or the SSD after the cloning operation. The SSD does work though. It boots to Win 8 and the laptop operates normally (and a lot faster now) but it seems to have left me with no way to recover if there is ever a disk failure. I'm sure the data is still there somewhere on the drive and recoverable by someone who knows their way around disk structures but I'm not going to worry about it for now.

If I had it to do over again I think I'd try using the Asus Backtracker software to create a recovery DVD BEFORE attempting to swap disks. Then I'd remove the HDD, install the SSD and rebuild the OS from the recovery DVD onto the new SSD rather than trying to clone from the HD. I have a feeling that might have worked.

Good luck to you Davi, whatever you try, and be sure to let us know what worked for you.

Asus Backtracker does not create a DVD, it creates a bootable recovery Media a USB Thumb Drive. That will put your computer back to the way it came out of the factory Bloat ware and all.

I haven't heard of any failures to Clone using Macrium Reflect Always Clone the complete disk I always shrink my C:\ partition to minim size. Don't mess with any of the other partitions Reflect will always create a bootable OS along with any recovery partitions you have. With the paid for version you can just use deploy to different hard ware. the partition will automatically adjust the sizes.

Where people go wrong is trying to clone partitions only, you could do that with BIOS MBR disk, not so with UEFI GPT disk,

 

[Dominionsden]

I just relieved my ASUS N550JK and upgraded the HDD to a Samsung 250GB Evo. For my first attempt to clone the OEM HDD to the SSD I used Macrium to clone all of the Partitions. Macrium successfully copied all 5 partitions (EFI System, Recovery, OS C:, Data D: and a second Recovery partition). Windows 8.1 would boot normally but none of the Windows recovery options Refresh or Reinstall Windows would work. An error would appear that files were missing.

The second attempt involved the ASUS Backtracker app. After downloading and installing the app I was able to create a bootable recovery drive on a USB Thumb Drive. I was able to recreate the OEM image on the Samsung SSD in about 20 minutes. This time everything works including the Refresh and Reinstall options.

IMHO using ASUS Backtracker is the easiest way to reinstall if you want to keep the recovery partitions.

 

[Winuser]

I used Macrium Reflect to clone my HD to my new SSD. I only copied the Partitions needed for Windows 8.1 to load and run correctly. Instead of copying the OEM recovery partitions I Imaged the SSD to an external HDD. Then I created a bootable usb drive. I also added a boot option to start the Reflect recovery environment if ever needed. I didn't copy the OEM partition because I didn't want to start with Windows 8 and have to redo everything. I made the bootable usb drive incase the SSD ever fails, I can replace it with a new drive and load the image from the external drive and I'm good to go..

 

[Clintlgm]

I just relieved my ASUS N550JK and upgraded the HDD to a Samsung 250GB Evo. For my first attempt to clone the OEM HDD to the SSD I used Macrium to clone all of the Partitions. Macrium successfully copied all 5 partitions (EFI System, Recovery, OS C:, Data D: and a second Recovery partition). Windows 8.1 would boot normally but none of the Windows recovery options Refresh or Reinstall Windows would work. An error would appear that files were missing.

The second attempt involved the ASUS Backtracker app. After downloading and installing the app I was able to create a bootable recovery drive on a USB Thumb Drive. I was able to recreate the OEM image on the Samsung SSD in about 20 minutes. This time everything works including the Refresh and Reinstall options.

IMHO using ASUS Backtracker is the easiest way to reinstall if you want to keep the recovery partitions.

When Cloning or Imaging you have to Clone/Image the complete disk. If you clone or image just the partitions, With UEFI GPT Disk you'll have problems. Asus Backtracker works great for Asus Computers its just slower than Cloning It also will adjust to the smaller size of the SSD.
When Cloning Hard drive to SSD being smaller I with a paid version just use redeploy to different hardware. With the free version you need to shrink your C:\ partition so that the complete disk will fit on the SSD. After the Clone I expand the C:\ partition to leave 10% Raw disk for OP. We don't really need to OP with these newer SSD but I figure it can't hurt

 

[Davi]

I've created a usb recovery disk, including a backup of my recovery partition, just running this command line in the prompt: RecoveryDrive.exe (I've followed this tutorial: http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/5132-recovery-drive-create-usb-flash-drive-windows-8-a.html )

When I was doing this, there was an option that allowed me to make a backup of my recovery partition (it all ended with just about 18gb, but I have a 32gb pendrive and it all went just fine).

So my question is: Do I need to make a recovery backup using ASUS Backtrack? Or can I be safe just with the backup that I've already made?

Question 2: Can I do a clean/fresh install in my new sdd, without all the ASUS bloatware, using this usb recovery drive? I mean, without having to worry about imputing any serial number to activate my Windows (since I don't have any because my notebook came with Windows 8.1 pre-installed)?