Macrium Reflect FREE clone to new ssd

[Ken1943]

Just ordered from Newegg. Been reading tons of stuff on the net about
doing the clone. Some people said to try the free version. My C partition
is smaller than the ssd size.

I know a clean install is the best way, BUT !! BUT !!

I also have Paragon Backup & Restore

Has anyone used it.


KenW

 

[BillW50]

Just ordered from Newegg. Been reading tons of stuff on the net about
doing the clone. Some people said to try the free version. My C partition
is smaller than the ssd size.

I know a clean install is the best way, BUT !! BUT !!

I also have Paragon Backup& Restore

Has anyone used it.


KenW

Yes, but what version? I know a bit about Paragon products and that
sounds like an old version. If it is what I think it is, it doesn't
support partition alignment. Which partition alignment reduces
unnecessary writes on SSD and even hard drives. SSD lifespan is limited
with the number of writes. Both SSD and the classic hard drives are
slowed down if partition alignment isn't right.

 

[Paul]

Just ordered from Newegg. Been reading tons of stuff on the net about
doing the clone. Some people said to try the free version. My C partition
is smaller than the ssd size.

I know a clean install is the best way, BUT !! BUT !!

I also have Paragon Backup & Restore

Has anyone used it.


KenW

Did you mean to say this ?

"My C partition is smaller than the ssd size."

Or did you mean

"My C partition is larger than the ssd size."

As "larger" presents slightly more of a problem.
Smaller would be no problem at all. You could
even use Macrium Reflect Free in that case. Or
just about anything.

Disk Management should have some options for you.
The Disk Management "shrink" function can shrink
easily by up to 50%. So if you had a 320GB C: partition,
you could reduce it to 160GB, then use whatever tool
you want, to transfer to the SSD. (This assumes it
has less than 160GB of information stored on it
of course, and is mainly empty.) If you want more
"shrink" than that, a partition manager can do that
for you. Maybe even GParted (as long as you had
backups first).

As far as I know, Windows 7 should be consistent
about partition alignment. It uses "megabyte" alignment,
which is suited to SSDs. If copying, it's probably good
enough to just clone the disk as is. If you were
going from an older CHS (sector 63) aligned disk, to
a megabyte aligned setup, then the tools might have
to be a bit more functional.

They make an actual tool, to take CHS aligned things,
and megabyte align them. If an SSD was set up on an older
OS first, and was CHS aligned (sucking some of the
performance out of it), you could use this to realign
the partition so the clusters line up with the flash
block structure. Personally, I'd just do this by hand.
Or, at least I'd try.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/partition-alignment/

For fun, I already tried such a thing. I tried to change
the alignment of some partitions here, but I couldn't get
the thing to boot any more Of course, I had a backup,
and put it all back again. I think the trick was to change
the CHS geometry to 56 from 63 sectors, something like that.
Maybe it was fixboot that didn't do the right thing, but,
it wouldn't boot after I was finished. Still, it was a fun
experiment to try out. (I get a kick out of blowing things
up and then gluing them back together again.) If you want
to experiment, there's probably a web page with your
name on it out there...

Paul

 

[Ken1943]

Yes, but what version? I know a bit about Paragon products and that
sounds like an old version. If it is what I think it is, it doesn't
support partition alignment. Which partition alignment reduces
unnecessary writes on SSD and even hard drives. SSD lifespan is limited
with the number of writes. Both SSD and the classic hard drives are
slowed down if partition alignment isn't right.

It's Paragon 2012


KenW

 

[Ken1943]

Did you mean to say this ?

"My C partition is smaller than the ssd size."

Or did you mean

"My C partition is larger than the ssd size."

As "larger" presents slightly more of a problem.
Smaller would be no problem at all. You could
even use Macrium Reflect Free in that case. Or
just about anything.

Disk Management should have some options for you.
The Disk Management "shrink" function can shrink
easily by up to 50%. So if you had a 320GB C: partition,
you could reduce it to 160GB, then use whatever tool
you want, to transfer to the SSD. (This assumes it
has less than 160GB of information stored on it
of course, and is mainly empty.) If you want more
"shrink" than that, a partition manager can do that
for you. Maybe even GParted (as long as you had
backups first).

As far as I know, Windows 7 should be consistent
about partition alignment. It uses "megabyte" alignment,
which is suited to SSDs. If copying, it's probably good
enough to just clone the disk as is. If you were
going from an older CHS (sector 63) aligned disk, to
a megabyte aligned setup, then the tools might have
to be a bit more functional.

They make an actual tool, to take CHS aligned things,
and megabyte align them. If an SSD was set up on an older
OS first, and was CHS aligned (sucking some of the
performance out of it), you could use this to realign
the partition so the clusters line up with the flash
block structure. Personally, I'd just do this by hand.
Or, at least I'd try.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/partition-alignment/

For fun, I already tried such a thing. I tried to change
the alignment of some partitions here, but I couldn't get
the thing to boot any more Of course, I had a backup,
and put it all back again. I think the trick was to change
the CHS geometry to 56 from 63 sectors, something like that.
Maybe it was fixboot that didn't do the right thing, but,
it wouldn't boot after I was finished. Still, it was a fun
experiment to try out. (I get a kick out of blowing things
up and then gluing them back together again.) If you want
to experiment, there's probably a web page with your
name on it out there...

Paul

I am ok with partition size 100gig to 120gig. Programs only. Other crap
on D:

Heck, if something went wrong I can always stick the Win 7 dvd in and
start from scratch.

I read so much, I would chase my tail if I had one. LOL


KenW

 

[OlderNotWiser]

Macrium Reflect Free does either a compressed image or a clone.
According to their docs, you can fully recover C: using either.
Of course you have to store the .XML it generates and the image file on
another partition or on another or external HDD.
When I generate an image, the resulting image file is smaller than the
C: drive properties report since doing compression and packing takes up
less space. Packing means that the actual file data, not the emptiness
of a last sector is used so the space used in a packed file leaves out
that empty space. Almost every file benefits from packing. Using an
image, you get all the garbage in the so called empty space and thus
loose the packing support. The non-free version of Macrium Reflect
will allow retrieving files from the packed image one at a time.

 

[Char Jackson]

Macrium Reflect Free does either a compressed image or a clone.
According to their docs, you can fully recover C: using either.
Of course you have to store the .XML it generates and the image file on
another partition or on another or external HDD.
When I generate an image, the resulting image file is smaller than the
C: drive properties report since doing compression and packing takes up
less space. Packing means that the actual file data, not the emptiness
of a last sector is used so the space used in a packed file leaves out
that empty space. Almost every file benefits from packing. Using an
image, you get all the garbage in the so called empty space and thus
loose the packing support. The non-free version of Macrium Reflect
will allow retrieving files from the packed image one at a time.

Likewise, the free version allows single file recovery, as well.

 

[BillW50]

It's Paragon 2012

KenW

Paragon has like 12 different products and many of them overlapping
parts of each other. But as far as I know, all Paragon products v12 have
partition alignment. So I think you are just fine. ;-) v11 some of them
are iffy and v10 or lower probably not.