The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Disc Clone on Windows 10: Other free tools than Acronis?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by MDDZ, Dec 22, 2015.

  1. MDDZ

    MDDZ Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    1
    Messages:
    798
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    31
    I have a number of Thinkpads running Windows 7, and I always use Acronis to clone the disc of operating systems for backup.

    I never used Windows 10 before. I just got Windows 10 machine (X1 Carbon). As always, I would like to know whether there is any other tools (esp. free) that can clone/backup the discs (esp. OS discs) for backup?

    Thanks and Happy Holidays!
     
    MDDZ, Dec 22, 2015
    #1
  2. NYalex

    NYalex Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    2
    Messages:
    43
    Likes Received:
    11
    Trophy Points:
    16
    i've been using minitool's partition wizard on windows 10.

    It's free and it's pretty fast and easy to use.

    i've copied multiple partitioned drives into SSDs and also migrated just the OS to an SSD.

    so far 100% satisfied.

    i have used easeus partition master (purchased license) as well. it's better than the aforementioned program, but is not free.
     
    NYalex, Dec 22, 2015
    #2
    MDDZ likes this.
  3. MDDZ

    MDDZ Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    1
    Messages:
    798
    Likes Received:
    3
    Trophy Points:
    31
    NYalex, thanks for your info.

    May I know whether it is easy to restore a cloned copy of an OS disk onto a new SSD drive?

    Happy Holidays!
     
    Last edited: Dec 22, 2015
    MDDZ, Dec 22, 2015
    #3
  4. NYalex

    NYalex Notebook Enthusiast

    Reputations:
    2
    Messages:
    43
    Likes Received:
    11
    Trophy Points:
    16
    not quite understanding your question.

    i'll just assume you want to know the best option when installing an OS to SSD.

    straight up cloning while having both disks is the easiest method, all you gotta do is tell the program to copy 1 disk to the other and making it IDENTICAL. all you have to do is swap the drives after.

    Best way of installing a OS into SSD is to do a FRESH install. in the case of windows 8, 8.1 and 10 you can download a "media creation tool" from microsoft.

    then either burn the image to DVD or create a USB bootable OS installer.

    i really recommend doing a fresh install, specially with windows 10.
     
    NYalex, Dec 24, 2015
    #4
  5. ellalan

    ellalan Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    336
    Messages:
    1,262
    Likes Received:
    82
    Trophy Points:
    66
    I have just done cloning HDD of a G50-80 to a SSD using AOMEI Backupper, you need to create a recovery CD as the cloned disk won't boot and ask to insert the recovery CD, somehow, I managed to clone the 1TB HDD to a 480GB SSD :)
     
    ellalan, Jan 2, 2016
    #5
  6. jayku

    jayku Notebook Guru

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    54
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    16


    I just did it on a new X250 (with Windows 10 Home) using the free version of EaseUS. I went from a 500G HDD to a 240G SSD (an older Intel model). After the clone I shut down and replaced the original drive with the clone. The machine started up perfectly and has been working great ever since.
     
    jayku, Jan 3, 2016
    #6