Cloning hard drives?

[BillyCarpenter]

I was wondering what software is best for cloning a hard drive. I've tried a couple of free ones.

-AOEMI Backupper
-Macrium

Macrium seemed to be a little better. I was able to make a mirror image on an External SSD and then place it on a new SSD on a laptop.


I've only ever done this one other time. Was wondering if there's something better out there. Thanks in advance.

[rthonpm]

Re: Cloning hard drives?

Clonezilla is pretty good as well, just make sure not to mix up your target and destination disk!

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Cloning hard drives?

I had to replace a hard drive in a Lenovo laptop the other day. Someone had worked on it before. A few screws were missing and I think they'd been jacking around with the wireless card. And this is where it gets interesting.

The wireless card has two wires, one black and one white, and they have a special type connector that locks the wires down. During disassembly, both wires got disconnected. I think they were damaged previously. They would not reattach.

From there I had 2 choices. I could install a USB wireless adaptor or I could replace the antenna wires. Only problem is that the wires went up into the LCD panel and I had never done this before. I ended up doing it but it was kind of a bitch.

[techsxge]

Re: Cloning hard drives?

Do you want to clone an HDD to another HDD or SSD to another SSD?

What do you hope to achieve? If you're setting up a new System and want to have a backup disc incase the "main" one starts smoking, just set up raid 1.

I dont realy see the need to copy a working hdd to another, but almost any backup software should be able to do that. UrBackup is the first that comes to mind

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Cloning hard drives?

Do you want to clone an HDD to another HDD or SSD to another SSD?

What do you hope to achieve? If you're setting up a new System and want to have a backup disc incase the "main" one starts smoking, just set up raid 1.

I dont realy see the need to copy a working hdd to another, but almost any backup software should be able to do that. UrBackup is the first that comes to mind

I replaced a slow mechanical HDD with a faster SSD.Sorry that I didn't make that clear.

[keithxxiii]

Re: Cloning hard drives?

I'm using EASEUS to clone drives and recover files from accidental formatting.

[slimslob]

Re: Cloning hard drives?

Many year ago DOS based Norton Utilities had the ability had the ability to do an absolute sector copy. This not only copied the data but also things like the partition table and both FATs, File Allocation Tables. I used it once to recover the HDD from a computer that had a lightening strike come in on the modem. It had taken out parts of the FATs. Then using Disc Doctor I was able to see that the damage was different on the 2 tables and was able to build a complete table.

[techsxge]

Re: Cloning hard drives?

I replaced a slow mechanical HDD with a faster SSD.Sorry that I didn't make that clear.

UrBackUp is the way to go imo. Free and open source. Works on over 150 Server environments that are managed by me and also for cloning of storage drives (i've done it like 15 times)

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Cloning hard drives?

So, if I buy a USB to SATA adapter, I should be able to clone straight to the new SSD and bypass the external SSD?

The way I'm doing it now to to make a mirror image on an external drive and then transfer to the new SSD.

[rthonpm]

Re: Cloning hard drives?

So, if I buy a USB to SATA adapter, I should be able to clone straight to the new SSD and bypass the external SSD?

The way I'm doing it now to to make a mirror image on an external drive and then transfer to the new SSD.

As long as the disk in the machine isn't encrypted and you can boot from the backup method. I've never really trusted physical to physical disk cloning software that claims to work on booted systems. P2V software? Sure, but not for something going to a new physical disk.

If you want to future proof your drive sled, be sure to get one that will also work with NVMe drives. SATA is pretty much dead on business class machines at this point and they're only going to become more common.

Sent from my Pixel 6 Pro using Tapatalk

[techsxge]

Re: Cloning hard drives?

Copy over Network is still a thing.

[rthonpm]

Re: Cloning hard drives?

Copy over Network is still a thing.

It's considerably slower though. Any USB3 or e-SATA adapter is going to give you considerably faster throughput. I did plenty of Acronis to network drive backups in the past. It took long enough with 40-80 GB drives, I'd hate to see what it takes with a 256 GB or higher drive. You then have the issue of doing a restore back to the new drive. It's much cleaner and faster to do a direct transfer from source drive to target drive.

[techsxge]

Re: Cloning hard drives?

It's considerably slower though. Any USB3 or e-SATA adapter is going to give you considerably faster throughput. I did plenty of Acronis to network drive backups in the past. It took long enough with 40-80 GB drives, I'd hate to see what it takes with a 256 GB or higher drive. You then have the issue of doing a restore back to the new drive. It's much cleaner and faster to do a direct transfer from source drive to target drive.

Well this is all hardwares fault. Put in a good Network, backup server will have cat 7 cables and be able to trandfer with 10 gig. Best thing is i dont have to do anything, backups are done automatically every night.

[slimslob]

Re: Cloning hard drives?

Well this is all hardwares fault. Put in a good Network, backup server will have cat 7 cables and be able to trandfer with 10 gig. Best thing is i dont have to do anything, backups are done automatically every night.

Cat7 specification is a proprietary standard developed by a group of companies. It is not an IEEE standard and is not approved by TIA/EIA. Considering the fact that USB 3.1/SuperSpeed interfaces, devices and cables will also support 10 Gbps data transfer rates.

In addition USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) recently released the specifications for the new USB4 capable of 80 Gbps. https://usb.org/sites/default/files/...t_FINAL_v2.pdf

[Hansoon]

Re: Cloning hard drives?

Cat7 specification is a proprietary standard developed by a group of companies. It is not an IEEE standard and is not approved by TIA/EIA.

Interesting to know, never knew. Thanks for that info.

Hans