My laptop question...

[K Frame]

I have a used HP laptop I bought last year that has a standard hard drive. I'm thinking about switching it out for an SSD.

What's the best (as in, easiest to use for someone who doesn't know what he's doing) cloning software to use? Bonus points for being cheap, or even free...

[lee n. field]

I have a used HP laptop I bought last year that has a standard hard drive. I'm thinking about switching it out for an SSD.

What's the best (as in, easiest to use for someone who doesn't know what he's doing) cloning software to use? Bonus points for being cheap, or even free...

Windows, I assume?

Will the SSD be the same size or larger, than your current hard disk?  Or smaller?

[K Frame]

OK...

Specs are:

HP 8570P EliteBook running Windows 7 Pro

Intel Core i5, 2.5 Ghz

320 GB HD

8 GB RAM


I don't anticipate ever needing a larger hard drive for this thing. It's primarily a travel/entertainment/convenience computer, but considering that I can get a 500 GB drive for about $70 these days I figure why not.

[K Frame]

OK, I just did the Crucial.com "what works with my crapbox" and they've got a 480GB STAT III SSD for $55.

Now the question is... what's the best/easiest software to use to clone the drive.

[Ben]

If it were me (because it's what I do), I would go Samsung on the SSD and use their free cloning software. It's so easy, fast, and reliable, that I now have a second SSD for my main computer that I keep loose and I do monthly clones to it as part of my backup plan. The cloning takes about 1/4th the time as a full Windows backup to an external USB drive.

[K Frame]

OK, Crucial has what seems to be very comprehensive tutorials and instructions on how to clone and then install the new drive, plus free software to do the cloning.

[lee n. field]

OK...

Specs are:

HP 8570P EliteBook running Windows 7 Pro

Intel Core i5, 2.5 Ghz

320 GB HD

8 GB RAM


I don't anticipate ever needing a larger hard drive for this thing. It's primarily a travel/entertainment/convenience computer, but considering that I can get a 500 GB drive for about $70 these days I figure why not.

If the new drive is larger, Clonezilla is free and you don't have to muck with on the fly resizing of partitions.

Contemplate going to Win 10 soon.

If you got nothin' in the way of extra hardware, look into the SanDisk SSD Notebook Upgrade Tool Kit .   Inexpensive, includes some software or other, plus the usb to sata cable.

Now that I'm at work, I can see that the other guys are using a tool from Paragon or Easus to do their cloning.   I hear them sometimes say "oh, the clone didn't work the first time I tried it".   I use Linux based tools, usually ddrescue, and do partition resizing if necessary as a separate step.  Not for beginners.  No failures when I do it my way.

Plain old Windows 7 backup will work for this too.   Full image, then install the SSD, boot from a win7 install disk, pick repair, and recover from backup.

[K Frame]

"Contemplate going to Win 10 soon."

I'd contemplate going straight to hell, first.

[Brad Johnson]

Acronis makes a good product. The drives I bought to update my home machine last year came with it as a downloadable. Made the process dirt-easy.

Brad

[lee n. field]

"Contemplate going to Win 10 soon."

I'd contemplate going straight to hell, first.

<shrug>.   It's kind of a rote sales spiel for us here, for the next bunch of months before Win7's EOL.

[Hawkmoon]

<shrug>.   It's kind of a rote sales spiel for us here, for the next bunch of months before Win7's EOL.

Is there any back door way to still get the free upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10? According to ZDNet, it's still possible. Does anyone know if it works?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

[lee n. field]

Is there any back door way to still get the free upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10? According to ZDNet, it's still possible. Does anyone know if it works?

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

First link here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10, run the update assistant on a system running 7.  worked last time I did it.

[cordex]

I did that a week ago and it worked fine. 

[K Frame]

Realistically yeah, I'll eventually upgrade to Windows 10.

But I won't be happy about it.

[dogmush]

If it were me (because it's what I do), I would go Samsung on the SSD and use their free cloning software. It's so easy, fast, and reliable, that I now have a second SSD for my main computer that I keep loose and I do monthly clones to it as part of my backup plan. The cloning takes about 1/4th the time as a full Windows backup to an external USB drive.

Do you have any details on this?  I'm seriously considering putting a new SSD in my new laptop, because I want more storage.  I was looking at the Samsung 970 Evo or WD Black SN 750, but had paused for a little because I've never cloned a HD.

If Samsung has free software to make the switch easier, that would push me in that direction.

[Ben]

Do you have any details on this?  I'm seriously considering putting a new SSD in my new laptop, because I want more storage.  I was looking at the Samsung 970 Evo or WD Black SN 750, but had paused for a little because I've never cloned a HD.

If Samsung has free software to make the switch easier, that would push me in that direction.

Here's the software:

https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/download/tools/

I only have the 1gig EVO 860 because of my older laptop, but I when I ran the software the very first time, it immediately found my HDD, immediately saw my EVO, and I think it was two mouse clicks and it was off and running*. It was done with ~500MB on my old drive in about 1.5 hours, maybe less. I then simply swapped the drives and everything came up as normal, except way faster. :)

You'll need a cable (I think it will be different for the 970, but it may even come up as "frequently bought together" on Amazon):

https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-SATA-Drive-Adapter-Cable/dp/B00HJZJI84/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=StarTech.com+SATA+to+USB+Cable&qid=1558616850&s=electronics&sr=1-3


* I did a simple clone of a smaller (or equal) sized HDD to a larger SSD. It copies the old drive and leaves the rest of the space on the SSD available for data. If you want to create partitions or whatever, that's a few extra steps. The "standard" clone though, couldn't be simpler. As I said, it's how I even do some of my backups now so that if my current SSD ever goes FUBAR, five minutes of swapping disks has me up and running again, versus waiting for a Windows backup for a slow USB backup to complete.

[lee n. field]

I did that a week ago and it worked fine. 

Sometime it may stop working, but MS really, really wants folks on 10.

[Hawkmoon]

Realistically yeah, I'll eventually upgrade to Windows 10.

But I won't be happy about it.

Ditto.

There's a reason why Windows XP was (maybe still is) the most popular version of Windows ever. I tolerate Windows 7 because they gave us Classic Theme, so I can still have it look pretty much like XP. Then Microsoft took away Classic Theme (just like they changed to the ribbon menus on Office, without giving users who had been using the classic menus for years -- maybe decades -- the option of staying with the classic menus).

[HeroHog]

Windows 10 is great, come on over. We have cake!




Seriously, 10 has been just fine for me. Any issues I have had were caused by ME or the crap I installed on it.

[Ben]

Windows 10 is great, come on over. We have cake!

I like pie.

 

[HeroHog]

(the cake is a lie)

[Calumus]

The free upgrade trick still works. I've been using it multiple times a week lately. Macrium Reflect Free is the easiest cloning software I've used. Again, I've been averaging 4-5 ssd upgrades a week for about the last 5 months. Most of them have also involved a switch to Windows 10. Grab Open Shell, and O&O Shut up 10, and you're good to go.

[HeroHog]

another vote for Macrium Reflect Free as both a backup and clone tool.

[RocketMan]

I did that a week ago and it worked fine. 

Was this an upgrade that retained the previously installed programs and data, or did it wipe everything resulting in a clean install?

[cordex]

Was this an upgrade that retained the previously installed programs and data, or did it wipe everything resulting in a clean install?

In place upgrade for a client.