Best disk cloning software of 2022 [since SSD prices lowest ever - see comments. Vastly improve speed=productively, for good and God]

SoftwareTestingHelp 2022 ^ | October 25, 2022 | Best disk cloning software of 2022

[daniel1212]

Switching from a mechanical hard drive to a SSD for your OS is the cheapest way to increase speed (and or add storage), and right now, partly due to the exchange rate I think, the price of SSDs are about half of what they were about a year ago, so that a 120GB one can be bought for uinder $20 and a 240GB for under $30, thank God. id="isPasted">

 

I have used 1_AOMEI_Backupper_Standard, Macrium and MiniTool ShadowMaker, and all work fine.

I way i do it is to format and name a new drive first. In most modern computers, the BIOS (on reboot,and tap the key it says to access setup, such as F2, Del,. Esc) will enable hot plugging, meaning you can plug in a drive while the OS is running and the drive will show up in Windows File Explorer (press Windows key and tap e), where you can right click on a new drive and format it and give it a name. Or you can shutdown the computer, connect the new drive and boot up and find it to do so.

Note however, that at least on my computer, even if I unplug a non-OS drive then it will still show up in File Explorer and Device Manager.

Since I have more than one drive, to avoid confusion when cloning, I shutdown and unplug any other drives except the one with the OS on it, and the new drive (and it should be at least 120GB)

Next, in File Explorer, note the name of the main drive (C) as well as the new one. . Then launch the cloning software, and make sure you have the main drive as the source, with its partitions, and clone that to the new drive.

Then shut down when done, and unplug the old drive and plug the data and power cable from that one into the new drive you just cloned the OS to, and boot from that.

If that works fine, then you can connect the old drive as a spare but make sure in your BIOS that the PC does not boot from that. Note that most BIOS tapping one of the F keys (like F10,11,12) when the PC reboots will provide you with a list of drives to boot from. You should then delete the Windows folder, but back up your OS to another drive. At the cost of SSDs now then that is a relatively inexpensive option.

 
Right now I am downloading the   https://www.sermonindex.net/ site, which they offer.

 

For more on how, this may help https://www.diskpart.com/clone/os-cloning-software-7201.html

 

Thank God for such tools, but I hope we only use them for what is good in God's eyes.

[daniel1212]

Lowest: LEVEN JS300 SSD 240GB 3D NAND SATA III Internal Solid State Drive - 6 Gb/s, 2.5 inch /7mm (0.28") - up to 550MB/s 4.5 2,976 ratings $15.99 Only 11 left in stock

[Still Thinking]

I like an external 2-bay dock with cloning capability. I clone a lot of drives other than my primary. One odd thing. It used to take about 5-10 minutes to clone a 240-256GB SATA III SSD, now some of them are taking almost an hour, and I have no idea why.

[MCSETots]

Any recommendations for Hillary’s server, Huma/Anthony’s laptop, Hunter’s laptop and voting machines . . .

[bitt]

p

[ShadowAce]

[TomGuy]

I recently came across Hasloe Backup Suite. I used it to image my main drive.

https://www.hasleo.com

[Dr. Sivana]

Ping

[algore]

I dont understand. If using a windows platform

Why not use winpe and dism?

Free is good

[algore]

Or powertools p2v

[Bob434]

[[so that a 120GB one can be bought for under $20 and a 240GB for under $30, ]]

2 terabyte is about min now if one does gaming and photos and such- and run a dual boot- i have a 1 terabyte- and am running out of room-

[Bob434]

my disk cloner takes almost a whole day to clone a 2 terabyte drive (HHD)

I cloned a drive once, and went to take the new drive out of the cloner, and static electricity popped from the drive to my hand- and apparently it fubarred the clone contents- I had to wipe disk again with reformat, and start over (it worked the second time)

[Bob434]

macrium reflect is free too

[zeugma]

Disk cloning made easy, the Linux way

#dd if=/dev/sda1 of /dev/sda2

[daniel1212]

I like an external 2-bay dock with cloning capability. I clone a lot of drives other than my primary. One odd thing. It used to take about 5-10 minutes to clone a 240-256GB SATA III SSD, now some of them are taking almost an hour, and I have no idea why

Try a different cable, or drive. Check what is using CPU cycles. Task Manager (Ctrl, Alt, Del)

[daniel1212]

2 terabyte is about min now if one does gaming and photos and such- and run a dual boot- i have a 1 terabyte- and am running out of room-

No gaming for me. Waste of time for one.

[daniel1212]

I dont understand. If using a windows platform Why not use winpe and dism? Free is good

Thanks. https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/133132-dism-clone-deploy-using-ffu-image.html

[daniel1212]

Disk cloning made easy, the Linux way #dd if=/dev/sda1 of /dev/sda2

Viable, but that presumes the Windows user knows how to create a Linux live USB, and boot from it, what a "Terminal" is/where, and which drive it which. My instructions on booting can partly help. Under Linux there is also the option to clone partition via GParted

[daniel1212]

Maybe time to build your own?

 And sites such as http://pcpartpicker.com enable finding compatible parts at competitive prices, with overall better price for quality than you will get from companies you pay to buy a PC from.

Currently (10–22) part prices are overall low, and here is a build that costs less than $500 as of now (not including the OS).

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/PBJ/saved/8jRdbv

Component Selection Base Promo Shipping Tax Price Where

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9 GHz 6-Core Processor (integrated video - card no needed) $129.00

Thermal Compound (USE!): Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5 g Thermal Paste $5.99

Motherboard: MSI B450-A PRO MAX ATX AM4 Motherboard $89.99 $89.99

Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory $73.97

Storage: Silicon Power A80 512 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive $39.99

Storage: Leven JS600 512 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive $26.99

Case: DIYPC Solo-T2-R Black USB 3.0 ATX Mid Tower Case $36.99 $+9.99 $46.98

Power Supply: Thermaltake Smart 500 W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply $34.99 $34.99

Case Fan: Xigmatek XAF 75.3 CFM 120 mm Fan $5.99

Case Fan: Corsair AF140L 67.43 CFM 140 mm Fan $4.99

$458.88

[daniel1212]

I just unplugged the Windows drive and installed Mint on partition(s) of old OptiPlex on a $14 SSD to experiment on. Rather than dual boot I press F11 during POST to choose the drive.