SSD to SSD cloning device

[sajunky]

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.

For that purpose 'someone' can use Windows as Arthur suggests.

 

[CataclysmZA]

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.

Keep in mind that Linux Live or full install environments have great disk cloning tools as well. If the motherboard supports hot-swap on the SATA ports, you can actually script this with Bash to the point where the OS initialises the drive, clones the image, and then safely ejects it so that all you have to so is take it out and plug in the next one. You can make it do as many drives as the board supports.

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.

Well, if you're doing 200+ devices, your options at that point should be:

1) Network installation
2) USB setup

Going with the USB setup might just be easier. Grab 20 flash drives, use NTLite to set up answer files along with slipped in drivers, updates, and software to get things installed automatically. Plug it in, start the install, walk away and come back after 30 minutes.

Heck, do 50 flash drives. You could have half of the work done in one day.

The real goal you should be looking at here is just automating as much as possible so that you don't have to babysit the process. You can find instructions for common software to automate its install with batch files that run on startup, and you can also rope in Ninite to install some of the apps it offers automatically.

 

[Budza]

Which is the best software to migrate OS+programs from a HDD to a smaller SSD?

I take it I'd need to shrink the install partition, then clone that?

 

[sajunky]

Which is the best software to migrate OS+programs from a HDD to a smaller SSD?

I take it I'd need to shrink the install partition, then clone that?

Better programs like Acronis (everybody mention) will resize partitions by default. You need just to clean hard drive before cloning from the junk, unneccessary programs, temporary files, etc., to get enough amount of free space.

 

[Budza]

Better programs like Acronis (everybody mention) will resize partitions by default. You need just to clean hard drive before cloning from the junk, unneccessary programs, temporary files, etc., to get enough amount of free space.

Excellent. I'll try that one then

 

[Werfetter]

Windows 10 also migrates between hardware setups just as easily as Linux, btw. It's not a difficult process like the Windows 7 days.

Thanks, good to know I only ever tried it with Win7 once and that went very well (as you can imagine)

 

[Arthur]

Keep in mind that Linux Live or full install environments have great disk cloning tools as well. If the motherboard supports hot-swap on the SATA ports, you can actually script this with Bash to the point where the OS initialises the drive, clones the image, and then safely ejects it so that all you have to so is take it out and plug in the next one. You can make it do as many drives as the board supports.



Well, if you're doing 200+ devices, your options at that point should be:

1) Network installation
2) USB setup

Going with the USB setup might just be easier. Grab 20 flash drives, use NTLite to set up answer files along with slipped in drivers, updates, and software to get things installed automatically. Plug it in, start the install, walk away and come back after 30 minutes.

Heck, do 50 flash drives. You could have half of the work done in one day.

The real goal you should be looking at here is just automating as much as possible so that you don't have to babysit the process. You can find instructions for common software to automate its install with batch files that run on startup, and you can also rope in Ninite to install some of the apps it offers automatically.

Even better, for large scale deployments use Snap Deploy. It's even used at some schools and universities to reset lab/class PCs daily. Create a master image and deploy in multicast to any number of devices.