SSD to SSD cloning device

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Cartel

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Good Day.

I've been searching for a device similar as per the title.

Basically need to Clone and image from one SSD drive (say 250GB) to another SSD drive of the same size/make/model etc.

The two drives would be in a SATA enclosure's so will connect to a SATA port on the Motherboard.

Is there anything like this out there, I did find some devices that does HDD to HDD, just wondering if it is at all possible/advisable to do SSD to SSD cloning.

The original drive will have a normal Windows 10 installation with a couple of apps (Office, Adobe, Java) that sort of thing.

Thank you in advance for any input

Regards
 
Cartel said:
Good Day.

I've been searching for a device similar as per the title.

Basically need to Clone and image from one SSD drive (say 250GB) to another SSD drive of the same size/make/model etc.

The two drives would be in a SATA enclosure's so will connect to a SATA port on the Motherboard.

Is there anything like this out there, I did find some devices that does HDD to HDD, just wondering if it is at all possible/advisable to do SSD to SSD cloning.

The original drive will have a normal Windows 10 installation with a couple of apps (Office, Adobe, Java) that sort of thing.

Thank you in advance for any input

Regards
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, why don't you do a fresh installation? Will take a maximum of 45 minutes with a SSD.

Unless it's a for a client, I would do a fresh installation.

Anyway:
Free:
http://www.todo-backup.com/backup-resource/clone/ssd-to-ssd-cloning-software.html
 
The last I saw....

SSDs use SATA. Can you remove them from their enclosures(or leave them if you prefer). If not enough sata ports to supprt a DVD rom, have a USB DVD device handy.

Use something like Acronis or other cloning software.

And all should be well.
 
I would say Acronis or Clonezilla should do the trick. Can't imagine cloning a SSD being any different to cloning a normal HDD? Am I wrong?

Just be careful with this process. Depending on what you are trying to do Windows specifically is (was? havent done it in a while) not always happy when the system architecture changes so if you are planning on cloning one machine and sticking it in another machine you might run into issues. There is a way around it where you create a windows that installs on first boot onto the drive you cloned it to. You can add applications and drivers etc beforehand. This is typically what you get with a new laptop that has an OEM windows installed. On first boot it configures itself for the machine it is in.
 
Clonezilla will do it in a couple of clicks easily if the ssds are the exact same.

Otherwise you need to partition manually then do a clone
 
Werfetter said:
I would say Acronis or Clonezilla should do the trick. Can't imagine cloning a SSD being any different to cloning a normal HDD? Am I wrong?

Just be careful with this process. Depending on what you are trying to do Windows specifically is (was? havent done it in a while) not always happy when the system architecture changes so if you are planning on cloning one machine and sticking it in another machine you might run into issues. There is a way around it where you create a windows that installs on first boot onto the drive you cloned it to. You can add applications and drivers etc beforehand. This is typically what you get with a new laptop that has an OEM windows installed. On first boot it configures itself for the machine it is in.
Click to expand...

+1 for Acronis, thats what I use.
 
Cartel said:
The two drives would be in a SATA enclosure's so will connect to a SATA port on the Motherboard.

Is there anything like this out there, I did find some devices that does HDD to HDD, just wondering if it is at all possible/advisable to do SSD to SSD cloning.
Click to expand...

You can use those SATA drive docks that have a one-touch cloning option, because all they essentially do is a direct drive clone bit for bit. This is fine for drives that are otherwise identical. You can also clone from SSD to HDD and vice versa, but doing it from one SSD to another of a different brand may have some bit rot issues because the controllers operate differently.

Doing this through software is a little more reliable when you're working with different drives. Acronis or Macrium Reflect both do this quite well.

Windows 10 also migrates between hardware setups just as easily as Linux, btw. It's not a difficult process like the Windows 7 days.
 
Hi again and thank you for all the feedback.

Just some background on this. We do use a Imaging tool (SCCM) but our environment is currently going through a rebuild phase and thus PXE/imaging will be unavailable for the foreseeable future. We do have a Desktop/Laptop refresh project coming up so I've been looking for other options with regards to bulk imaging.

I like the idea of using one of those 1 touch dock stations though, as the drives will need to be physically detached/reattached from the PC's in any case to clone it.

So how I envision it, will be having one SSD fully prepped, OS/Updates/Apps etc, dock it so to speak and then connect the other drives one by one to be cloned. Its a schlep yes, but its either that or creating a USB bootable disk and going that route. Installing a fresh copy of Windows on 200+ devices then waiting for SUS to patch it will just take too long.

This would work great
You can use those SATA drive docks that have a one-touch cloning option, because all they essentially do is a direct drive clone bit for bit. This is fine for drives that are otherwise identical. You can also clone from SSD to HDD and vice versa, but doing it from one SSD to another of a different brand may have some bit rot issues because the controllers operate differently
Click to expand...
 
Cartel said:
Hi again and thank you for all the feedback.

Just some background on this. We do use a Imaging tool (SCCM) but our environment is currently going through a rebuild phase and thus PXE/imaging will be unavailable for the foreseeable future. We do have a Desktop/Laptop refresh project coming up so I've been looking for other options with regards to bulk imaging.

I like the idea of using one of those 1 touch dock stations though, as the drives will need to be physically detached/reattached from the PC's in any case to clone it.

So how I envision it, will be having one SSD fully prepped, OS/Updates/Apps etc, dock it so to speak and then connect the other drives one by one to be cloned. Its a schlep yes, but its either that or creating a USB bootable disk and going that route. Installing a fresh copy of Windows on 200+ devices then waiting for SUS to patch it will just take too long.

This would work great
Click to expand...

Ah, you didn't mention an enterprise environment in your original post.

I would go with the dock option. It's pretty cheap as well.

I'm currently using this: http://www.loot.co.za/product/orico...M5qMd8Q_lXmOWfEqLaFdRZaoRTLE618caAtYXEALw_wcB

You do get multi dock options as well, but they are relatively pricey.
 
One PC, disk cloning software booting from CD or USB (the same software as for hard drives).

You may be tempted to hotswap drives (without rebooting the computer). Set appropriate SATA ports as removable in the BIOS. Cloning software must support hotswap. This would achieve the same results as docking station with a 'Copy' button.
 
Just remember to power off and remove either the source or target from the machine before rebooting, so there's only one bootable drive with OS.
After IML, Windows NT executive enumerates the first bootable drive and marks all others it finds as unbootable. If you reboot your system with both drives attached, one of them will be marked as unbootable, so when you place it in your new system it won't boot. There's an easy fix for that, but doing it right avoids a needless hassle.
 
Arthur said:
Just remember to power off and remove either the source or target from the machine before rebooting, so there's only one bootable drive with OS.
After IML, Windows NT executive enumerates the first bootable drive and marks all others it finds as unbootable. If you reboot your system with both drives attached, one of them will be marked as unbootable, so when you place it in your new system it won't boot. There's an easy fix for that, but doing it right avoids a needless hassle.
Click to expand...
True, but booting Windows for cloning is out of question in any production environment. I didn't mention it in my previous post, I thought it was obvious for everybody. DOS/Unix is fine, even the Hiren's Boot CD with customised XP. It also contains a separate boot environment for Acronis cloning software. It is made for Seagate, so you need at least one Seagate drive present in the system.
 
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sajunky said:
True, but booting Windows for cloning is out of question in any production environment. I didn't mention it in my previous post, I thought it was obvious for everybody. DOS/Unix is fine, even the Hiren's Boot CD with customised XP. It also contains a separate boot environment for Acronis cloning software. It is made for Seagate, so you need at least one Seagate drive present in the system.
Click to expand...

This ^
 
sajunky said:
True, but booting Windows for cloning is out of question in any production environment. I didn't mention it in my previous post, I thought it was obvious for everybody. DOS/Unix is fine, even the Hiren's Boot CD with customised XP. It also contains a separate boot environment for Acronis cloning software. It is made for Seagate, so you need at least one Seagate drive present in the system.
Click to expand...
Well, it depends.

Acronis's corporate products support full imaging of a live production machine, and a full image restore to bare metal or to dissimilar hardware or VM for seamless P2P, P2V or V2P migration, for both Windows workstations and servers as well as of course Linux. It's used by some of the largest and most mission-critical production environments in the country for precisely this capability.

Acronis True Image is the home/soho product for individual Windows or Mac systems. The corporate/professional products, called Acronis Backup and Backup Advanced, are indispensable tools in a serious production and DR environment. They do the whole image and restore, have Universal Restore (ie restore to dissimilar hw), SID management, VSS, and full MBR management, including partition resizing on restore (if desired), etc, etc. I've personally seen this magic in dozens of business-critical environments and DCs over many years. There's even support for full or granular recovery of AD, SP, Exchange, SQL Server. Visit their website and download a free trial.
 
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Sounds like somebody wants to clone their girlfriend's laptop SSD to see if she's cheating on him.

An SSD cloning program isn't gonna help in the long run.
 
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