Disk Cloning software

[comda]

Greetings CH,

Long story short, I have a HTPC that's running windows 10 that I wish to swap the drive out. It has a WD black thats pretty much new and I want to use that in another system, and swap the drive with one that has far more hours on it that I wouldn't trust with my main PC.

I'm not in the mood to reinstall drivers, and applications so I'd like to clone one drive to the other. Now, I've used Macrium reflect for years and when I worked in a computer store we had a drive duplicator and Norton Ghost.

However, what are some free alternatives you would suggest that would allow me to connect the replacement drive to the PC, and duplicate one drive to another so I can simply disconnect the other drive after completion boot into the replacement Hitatchi drive and nothings changed.

One suggestion I See is AOMEI and I've never used it. Thoughts on its job? Also I see Acronis has a free option. Any other suggestions?

As always, appreciate any feedback.

[patio]

Easus.
Aeomi is garbage...

Note: the source drive has to be equal or larger than the main HDD for sucess

[comda]

Appreciate the quick reply Patio,

Both drives are 1tb in size, but I'll have to check exact parameters. Am I able to somehow shrink the partition and then simply expand on the new drive?

[patio]

I would seriously advise against that...if the source drive is close to capacity then do some housekeeping...

BTW the Easus app is called ToDo..;.still Free i believe.
Keep us posted...

[Salmon Trout]

Why not use Macrium Reflect? You are used to it, and the free edition clones disks. I have been using it for that, and for image backups, for years. This screen clip is of my system. Click image to enlarge.

With Macrium Reflect you can boot the target disk on the same system after cloning. 

https://blog.macrium.com/techie-tuesday-cloning-a-disk-764bed0ad6e1

[patio]

Agreed... i only suggested an alternative cause he asked...

[Salmon Trout]

I've tried Easeus, Clonezilla, Acronis, and Paragon, and while they all do the job, I seem to have stuck with Macrium, I think it's because the interface is well designed. or maybe I just like blue-and-white. A disk cloner is a disk cloner. Period.

[comda]

Why not use Macrium Reflect? You are used to it, and the free edition clones disks. I have been using it for that, and for image backups, for years. This screen clip is of my system. Click image to enlarge.

https://blog.macrium.com/techie-tuesday-cloning-a-disk-764bed0ad6e1

I could give macrium a shot. I've honestly not used it in years, since my PC last ran XP when I'd log into the linux disk to restore a drive.. In order to do this, I'd have to use a third PC, so the main drive thats being mirrored isn't in operation?

[patio]

No...you have the source HDD in place...you connect the destination HDD as slave...and you run Macrium from a bootable media...
No 3rd PC or 2nd PC required...

[Salmon Trout]

In order to do this, I'd have to use a third PC, so the main drive thats being mirrored isn't in operation?

Not sure what you mean. If you want to clone a drive, both drives have to be connected to the same computer, either by SATA/IDE or you could put the target in a USB enclosure to do the clone.  You can clone or image the running system disk while the system is up, with the Macrium app minimized. I image my system every Saturday and I just do whatever I want while it is happening. Surf the web, whatever. That Macrium techie-tuesday article I linked to above discusses these things. Another thing you can do which is handy, is, if you have made an image file (rather than a clone) on an external, or secondary, or NAS drive, you can mount that image as a virtual drive with its own drive letter and view or copy stuff from it, and, of course, you can restore an image back to a disk. If you have dual boot Linux and Windows disk it will clone or image everything, both systems and the Grub boot stuff.

[Salmon Trout]

...and you run Macrium from a bootable media...

You can do this, but since you have to have Macrium installed to make the bootable media, you might as well do the clone in Windows while it is running.

[patio]

I stopped doin it this way as the 1st 2 clones i ran out of windows way back when both failed...

Thats why i suggested the bootable media..

[Salmon Trout]

I stopped doin it this way as the 1st 2 clones i ran out of windows way back when both failed...

Well, I agree that if you try a clone from Windows and it fails, then the bootable media is another way to do it. I have been making backup images every Saturday morning for about 10 years, plus at other times, like before an important update, and I have never had one fail yet. When I have bought SSDs for systems I have used Macrium to clone the system HDD to the new SSD and it worked then also.

[Salmon Trout]

I just remembered - the last Samsung SSD I bought came with Samsung's Disk Migration software to clone a hard drive to SSD, and that was for running in Windows, to clone the same drive that Windows was on.

[BC_Programmer]

I have had good luck replacing a drive by merely connecting the new drive, using Reflect to clone the original drive to the new drive, then swapping the original drive out for the replacement. Has worked for both system drives as well as data drive replacements.