Free Disk Drive Cloning Recommendations

[Old_Geezer]

My woman's PC has been getting slow, delays and suchlike. Looking at it I saw the system drive was getting quite full (%wise anyway) and we've opted to buy a larger SSD to replace it.

 

But I expected that I could get some free software for the task from EaseUS, as I've done in times past. I have now downloaded 2 different offerings there, both insists on being paid before they will run. Which is disappointing.

 

Has anyone got any suggestions for a reliable freeware cloning software I could try ?  I note EaseUS suggests Clonezilla; does anyone have experience with that ?

 

TIA.

[Atheist]

Is it worth checking for unwanted/junk files by using ccleaner (free) before you take the plunge?

[bhg481]

I recently took my Windows 7 laptop out of service and replaced the 2TB system disc with a HDD; it took about 15 mins to boot.

I have now put the SSD back and it boots in less than 2 mins.

The HDD was cloned from the SSD so there is no chance it was junk files causing the slow boot.

I have a piece of hardware (cost about £30) which has stand-alone cloning as well as acting a USB 3.0 hot-swap device for 2 x 2.5" or 3.5" HDDS, plus USB 3.0 hub and SD/microSD card reader.

[Radagast]

I copied a 931GB hard drive (on a ten year old machine) to a 937GB usb drive by booting from a Ubuntu usb drive and using the unix dd command. It took 3 days and 7 hours.

[Old_Geezer]

Cheers all. New drive has already been bought & connected via USB. Really looking for windows s/w that just gets on with it. Getting too old to be getting stuck in to special setting up.

[ToraToraTora]

I've used macrium in the past

https://www.macrium.com/

 

[Old_Geezer]

Cheers. I'll check it out. Notice it is trial, so may need to time it for day of action.

[Buenchico]

I have full faith in the integrity of the TechRadar website for the quality and independence of its reviews. 

While this link includes paid disk cloning software, it also examines the functionality of the free versions too:
https://www.techradar.com/best/best-disk-cloning-software

[Old_Geezer]

Cheers once more.

[Old_Geezer]

Just to say that Macrium seems to have worked thanks.

Still a 30 day trial only though, but done now.

 

Didn't go 100% simply though. I was getting a screen on start-up telling me there was an issue, I had to pick a keyboard layout, then it wanted to start deleting things. It took a while checking the BIOS boot-up changing things etc.. I finally realised there was a back-up external hard disk still connected. On removing it all was well. (I have yet to try to reconnect it though.)

 

One other thing I foolishly missed: I did the cloning in the afternoon, then got dragged out shopping and it being late and I tired on return, I left continuing until the following morning. I'd left it on all afternoon/night with the e-mail client running, so a group of e-mails arriving during that period are on the old drive, not the new. Arrhhhh !!!!!

[PsalmEquipt]

DiskGenius software includes this in the free version, calling it Windows System Migration. https://www.diskgenius.com/editions.php
 

 

[Buenchico]

Assuming that your email uses IMAP, rather than POP3, O_G, the missing emails should magically appear anyway when you connect using the new drive.

[Old_Geezer]

I don't think she has checked yet, but I suspect when the old disk e-mail client received the e-mail it would have been deleted at the server.

[Buenchico]

>>> "I suspect when the old disk e-mail client received the e-mail it would have been deleted at the server"

That only happens when using POP3 mail (with the default settings).  As just about everyone has been using IMAP for the past couple of decades or so, it would seem to be very unlikely now.