Drive Cloning & Imaging

[@ExplainingComputers]

Sadly, Macrium Reflect Free is no longer available from Paramount software. However, it is still available for download from many sites, such as Techspot: www.techspot.com/downloads/5442-macrium-reflect-free.html However, do take great take when downloading software from third-party sites. Macrium Reflect Free will reach end-of-life on 1st January 2024 -- see end of this page: www.macrium.com/product-support-policy

[@dougcooper9804]

I noticed this as I wanted to use this on my parents PC for backups. Thanks for the new link. Looks like the Home version is currently only about £40, so for what it actually does, this is not too bad a price I feel. I will probably use the paid for version down the line.

[@smokeinthebreeze]

Thank you ever so much for providing an updated link! :)

[@patvb3243]

Thanks for the link to Techspot, I just downloaded it ! Are you planning an update video with an overview of Clonezilla? I for one would be interested!

[@nicholasroberts6954]

Isn't best to run a thorough anti-virus scan and PC cleaner app on the existing drive and to re-format the destination SSD (For Safety) before even starting a cloning/imaging ? I've been down the cloning and imaging route before, many times, and whilst such software probably operates better today than in days by-gone by, quite honestly, for the average home user, it ain't worth the faff or the risk of carrying malware/viruses forward or the small possibility the process not completing properlyas happened here. Leave cloning to those who really have no choice but to do it . . the commercial and industrial IT operators. Best option for the Home user is to preserve personal data and settings on a USB stick or NAS, . . Do a fresh OS install and then re-install the personal data (After doing a malware and scan and trash clean ) onto the newly formatted SSD or Disk. With Windows 10 and 11, for the average home user with hardware under 7 years old, it takes less time doing a fresh install than doing all the cloning nause and being left with the feeling, at the end of the day, that even if the the process appears to complete properly there's still the small chance that the system will inexplicably and unexpectedly Blue Screen or stall.

[@greenclover913]

I was wondering what happened to the free version when trying download the software from the website today. Luckily, I have an archive stored in my flash drive. Thanks for the alternate link. So sad they will stop the support free version on 2024.

[@robhuanout5443]

Just cloned my grandmothers 60Gb HDD to a 120Gb SSD using this video as a tutorial. I also upgraded her RAM from a measly 512mb to whopping (all things considered) 4gb! With her being a woman in her 70's I felt this was the best option instead of giving her a fresh install that could possibly be quite daunting for her. Cheers Chris!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Sounds like you have done a good thing. :) Performance must be greatly improved.

[@stevenmacdonald9619]

This is how kids in the UK were taught computing in the late 80's. I apologise for laughing at first, I'm 46, but I felt like I was 7yrs old again. It works though!!! So easy to learn. Now I'm hooked. Guilty pleasures are always the best

[@DrawdeThePotato]

Technology is always evolving....but we are just the same kids but from another year so no matter the generation technology it's always going find some new method to show us what's new. But we learn with the method that's teachers feel it's safe to teach. ¡And another great video we have!

[@TXNLaurenMcN]

I love it that I found this tutorial; it's definitely going to come in handy. For those, like myself, who might be in a hurry... Cloning instructions: 05:53 Imaging instructions: 13:53

[@arthurdanielles4784]

Aug 2020 Time for me to upgrade my hard drive to SSD and a quick refresh on the process for cloning it.. Your program used I found worked effortlessly once downloaded and installed. Took me about 1 hour and after unplugging the old drive, the new one booted fast and easy. Great vid and if you are thinking of upgrading all I can say is watch this and go for it! 👍

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great to hear that everything worked well for you.

[@stevenolin7229]

I’ve been using Macrium Reflect Free for years, but I learned a lot from the part of the video on partition expansion. It’s always been an afterthought for me, and I end up flailing around with partitioning software, which ruins an otherwise satisfying experience. Thanks for informing me that Reflect already includes the necessary tool and how to use it.

[@phaikyouser9499]

me too!

[@elviraeloramilosic9813]

You did it again Chris! Just few days ago I was entertaining myself with cloning, imaging, backing up... 0:01 hit like! 10:14 Wallace and Gromit tea time! 19:06. Basking in satisfying aw feeling after another great EC video!

[@billholt174]

17:58 "...I said 'Deary, deary me', a few other words like that..."

[@intillzah6160]

Did a clone of my HD for my main laptop, using the instructions provided. It worked flawlessly... I love your channel, you explain things in a manner that a novice or a intermediate user can easily understand. I am more of an ancient amateur instead of a young professional.. Keep up the outstanding work!!!!!!!!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for sharing your experience here -- I know it helps others when there are comments here that things have worked! :)

[@jhovadroc]

To my surprise the first time I watched a video of his on different types of storage and RAM, I understood it right away. After that, all videos I would see come up on youtube when I was searching for information, his channel would be among the top to show up. I really like how he explains and demonstrates topics and tutorials. Thanks, Chris.👍

[@freesaxon6835]

Good video, it's always useful when you recommend software, as there is so much out there that is rogue bloatware or worse! The partition walk through was particularly helpful, as in the past I have often ended up with ' runt' drive partitions, a messy multiple partitions. What with a cup of tea in a Wallace & gromit mug AND a whisper bar of chocolate, it was a cracking video

[@robinpeters9616]

absolutely agree about the partition walkthrough. Very helpful.

[@johnc7512]

This channel is so great and straightforward without alot of drama like most pc videos.

[@thomasottvideos]

Hey, Chris: As always, thank you for keeping me one step ahead of my ignorance. Levity aside, your show is pure excellence. I retired 18 years from the technology world, and your show allows me to keep-in-touch with technology and feel less "out to pasture." With kind regards, T. Phoenix, AZ USA

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks Thomas. :)

[@morten5939]

bought a USB to Sata connection today because of your video. been trying to move around my 3 existing SSDs and my new M.2 SSD and transfer data from my 3-in-use HDDs (ignoring the 10 backups i have laying around) on my 3 laptops. it is a pain in the a** to having to open them up, install SSD + 1 HDD in the laptops, pray to god it will boot up as it should, and transfer files from there. Im lucky my Asus got a space for an extra HDD in the cd-rom tray (at least they used that space for something useful when they removed the blueray tray) but still too much work just for basic transfers. Your videos are always very educational and not filled with "exciting" and "cool" edits. Information > entertainment. Hands down the best educational computer related channel on this platform; and you are not a corporate shill like so many are, you are user-experience driven, not corporate profit driven. I truly appreciate that

[@joerussophil]

Just cloned my drive last night. It was a success but I wish this video had come out before then! I was looking for a KZbin video from explaining computers just like this since I really like his style.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Glad your clone worked!

[@joerussophil]

Thanks, although I wasn’t as impressed with the speed. I bought an HP PCI express nvme drive and upgraded from a standard hard drive in my Z640 workstation. It takes about 50 seconds to a minute to boot but solid works still doesn’t load as snappy as I was hoping, which was what I was hoping for more than anything. Is that style of SSD not as fast as SATA version?

[@ExplainingComputers]

NVMe drives are faster than SATA, so should result in better performance. May perhaps be a driver issue?

[@Sinkill86D]

I really enjoyed this tutorial primarily because multiple software options were shown. Many tutorial videos of this genre feel like they're trying to secretly sell you a piece of software about halfway through the video.

[@msjaxp]

Why when I am watching your videos I feel relaxed and comfy

[@donporter8432]

Me too. I always feel there may be hope for me after all!

[@slicedpage]

I feel the same. I think it's because he knows exactly what he is doing so you know you have arrived. He will explain what you need to know so you can relax and enjoy. It's like going abroad on package holiday, the travel company look after everything all you have to do is let them.

[@LunarJim69]

Likewise. Chris gets everything just right. Complete opposite to guys like LinusTechTips who just annoy me.

[@izyaanlatif8907]

Your videos are the most informative and explanatory. Others make videos which are good but yours are perfectly timed which allows for people not only to follow your videos but also to gain an understanding of the many concepts behind computing. You remind me of one of my teachers, it's like being in school again which is a brilliant thing.

[@niallwood]

Regardless of the video topic, I always find myself watching right through every video and always learning something

[@grahamgove4279]

An Englishman through and through. Gotta have a nice cup of tea to complete a job! Another excellent explanation and great quality video Christopher.

[@mcmcd1950]

I just wanted to say thank you very much. I have never tried cloning a hard drive before. I followed your clear instructions and, much to my amazement, it worked. I look forward to learning more from your videos. Thanks again.

[@lotuselan5187]

Great video as always Chris. Quick warning for anyone going from a large HDD to smaller SSD. I had a laptop hdd that was failing 7 days before this video and tried Windows Backup and Macrium. I found trying to clone from 500Gb Hdd to 240SSD it wouldn't create a system disc or clone even though there was only 90GB of data on the disc. The cause (after several hours of attempts and head-scratching) was because the Unmovable windows part of the disc finished at 249Gb!

[@HackDaBox]

""Deary Deary Me and a few other words like that" love it !

[@binarybox.binarybox]

I had an OCZ SSD which failed and I thought " That hasn't lasted very long and I won't be buying any more SSDs" . I stick with WD HDs and they work for years....some are 11 years old...I do have many copies on different drives. I like Macrium 7...best to set it going and do something else 8-)

[@jeffsaginaw1769]

Must say THANK YOU followed your lead and used MacRef7 it took 10 hrs BUT I'm typing on the reborn SSD computer now! Woke up and saw SUCCESS results and swapped the drives and VOILA! Not even a BURP! It's like the old drive is still there only smoking fast. THANKS!

[@ExplainingComputers]

This is great to hear. :) Enjoy your new SSD Mac.

[@RoboNuggie]

Excellent as always Christopher... I had to stop my work colleague copying the drive when he decided to put it on the photocopier.... Thank you once again Christopher....

[@1jdandy]

Christopher, thanks for this educational video. I downloaded the Macrium Reflect software, followed your instructions, and now have a new Samsung 1TB SSD in my desktop computer in place of an old 1TB Hitachi 7200 RPM hard drive that's been spinning for seven years. The Macrium Reflect cloning software is remarkable. My new SSD booted immediately with all applications, files, photos, icons and wallpaper exactly as I had hoped. I didn't even have any issues with Microsoft Office or Norton 360. Very pleased with the results and the immediate speed boost. I appreciate your thoughtful and well presented videos.

[@ExplainingComputers]

This sounds like a great result -- thanks for sharing your experience here. It will give ocnfidence to others that this really works! :)

[@nutsnproud6932]

Thanks Chris. I am a Linux geek and generally use Clonezilla from a USB stick. If I wanted to increase a partition size like you did I would need to use Parted Magic. Your demonstration makes it easy. I'll give it a go to upgrade a Windows machine. I had to pause and brew up, fellow teapot users unite! I'm not too keen on Wispa bars but did have a Mint Club bar with my cuppa. Best wishes.

[@Beevreeter]

Thank you for another instructive video - One thing you should perhaps mention is the creation of scheduled images of your system drive - I do this automatically on a daily basis to a folder on another physical disk in my PC AND to a network folder - and my bacon has been well and truly saved more times than I care to remember. Of course the benefit of this is that your system backup is always up-to-date as well, so you have peace of mind while enjoying your cuppa!

[@sk8thundr]

you are a god. I'm practicing using this software at work, and finding one of my fav channels covering it, is just awesome.

[@frankfiamingo9102]

Well done! It bears emphasizing that it takes patience to create a recovery drive. It takes quite a bit of time for the tool to gather up everything it needs and you may think that it has gone rogue. It probably hasn't. It really does take that long. Then again when writing the USB it can take quite a long time. Don't bail on it. It is worth having. Another way to go is to use a "free for personal use" version of Macrium Reflect. You may find this tool has additional options (such as disk cloning) that can be extremely handy - such as converting your system from an older mechanical hard drive to a faster, more modern SSD drive. Thanks for the tutorial.

[@VIPINSAINI_20]

People are very excited for your work

[@00LordTedric]

I realise this video is nearly 2 years old now but I've just used this guide to upgrade and clone a 250GB Samsung SSD to a 1TB Samsung SSD using Macrium Reflect. easy cloning and installed in the computer in about 30 mins. Great tutorial. Keep it up.

[@Rouxenator]

I have been using Macrium Reflect for years and it is awesome. The only other app I use along side it is MiniTool Partition Wizard as it allows you to move partitions after the main partition (like OEM software restore partitions) forward on the drive if you are cloning to a smaller drive. You might want to cover that process in a future video. It was only yesterday when I upgraded my parents cheap Packard Bell celeron laptop with 500GB HDD to a 250GB SSD. This was a simple task of defraging the freespace (Defragler), shrinking the system partition (Windows Disk Management), moving in the Packard Bell recovery partition (MiniTool Partition Wizard) and finally Macrium Reflect to the smaller 250GB SSD.

[@getyerspn]

Snap I've been using the same two pieces of software for years ... They have never failed me.

[@Rouxenator]

@@getyerspn They are just so versatile, especially with most laptop manufacturers favouring having the recover partition after the system partition. MiniTool and Macrium combined is an unbeatable combo.

[@jenda386]

I have found MiniTool to be so good that I don't even need Macrium. What can Macrium do that MiniTool cannot? Just so I can prepare in advance.

[@getyerspn]

@@jenda386 macrium can boot from a ' recovery media' device like a USB drive or CDR/dvdr and restore images as well as browsing and copying individual files from an image and loads more ...Also if you make sure you make a rescue media specific to each device so it contains the correct storage driver's the restoration process can be very fast with macrium ...which is nice if you have lots of PC's to look after....the two together (macrium and mini tool) are perfect partners ....As for mini tool..IMHO mini tool partition wizard V9 was one of they're best releases...

[@jenda386]

​@@getyerspn I see. So Macrium is better suited for backups and restores since it offers far more versatility, whereas MiniTool is better for manipulation with whole partitions which are left "as is". Thank you. (I also use v9. I never saw the need to update.)

[@spikekent]

Just re-watched because I've just ordered a SanDisk SDSSDXPM2-500G-G25 Extreme PRO which should arrive tomorrow. Not the first time your videos have been immensely helpful Chris. Thank you.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Enjoy your new drive! :)

[@spikekent]

@@ExplainingComputers It works. Although I did have some issues. Macrium Reflect behaved as it did for you, although the time taken was only around 5 minutes for the 120Gb Kingston (source) drive. However, the M.2 drive would not boot. I made many attempts, thinking I'd done something wrong. Then I searched the SanDisk support pages and they have a version of Acronis. So I tried it with that and it worked first time. My original SATA 2 drive had read/write speeds of 280.2/251.9MB/s respectively. The new M.2 drive has read/write speeds of 3492.1/2596.1MB/s respectively. Very close to the claimed 35,000MB/s Happy days. Thanks for all you do Chris, I might not have even considered this upgrade without your insights.

[@MohamedSayed-sr6yp]

The best explanation for cloning and imaging ever made .

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks.

[@edgenet1]

I think Chris is a real pro, very easy to follow and keeps it simple for the rest of us. I think I will give it a try. Thanks Chris. Re your hair cut I guess the Beatles are still your favourite music group.

[@tinkmarshino]

outstanding again Chris... I used to back up my stuff like that years back (when I had important thing on my systems) these last few years the only important things on my computer is this email saying I might have already won $100,000.. But now that I am starting to play with the raspberry pi and have all of this new software and tagged web and youtube sites.. plus many many notes.. I am thinking I should do this again.. What an excellent way of doing it to.. ah this new software they have these days sure makes life a lot easier when it comes to working with computers .. I remember doing all this by "long division" back In the day.. take care my friend.. stay safe and warm..!

[@anandmoon5701]

I successfully cloned my 1TB 2.5' hdd to 1 TB 2.5' ssd. Thanks your very much. Now it's little bit faster to work on.

[@L.Scott_Music]

Love the Wallace and Gromit mug. I feel like you should have had some cheeeeeze with that. Anyway, another great and informative video from you. Thanks! I'd like to see you talk about automatic backup of a system drive to stay more up to date.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Wensleydale.

[@EpicHardware]

i quick searched on the comments and i was surprises that nobody mention alignment and trim enable, that was probably what killed your 128gb kingstone drive. Also size matters, the bigger the size the better the controller can manage the wear per cell. Excellent video as always. edit: typo

[@ExplainingComputers]

Sector alignment ceased to be an issue many years ago, as I've detailed in another reply here. And there s no way this had anything to do with the Kingston drive, as it has a fresh install of Windows on it when first installed. The Raptor clone was a backup.

[@jim8230]

I've been using Mini Tool Partition Wizard for years. Works great.

[@Beevreeter]

Mini-tool is absolutely amazing free software, even better than Macrium as far as I am concerned. I clone disks practically on a daily basis in the course of my work and this makes it incredibly simple and fast.

[@spookydreamer7370]

I'm just about to clone to, and install my first SSD on my ancient desktop, and thought I'd check out a few videos to see if it's any different from cloning HDD to HDD which I've done a few times before, usually using the HDD makers supplied software which is often a doctored version of Acronis. This was just about the most perfect video, clear, factual, and precise, one human to another. I'm watching in tandem with your "Old PC Upgrade #2: SSD Boot Drive" video, and am now hooked, and am going to have to watch everything you've posted! We obviously are alike, I have a steaming mug of tea next to me but need far more sugar than you seem to, so I have a Picnic bar, Cadbury's caramel bar, stick of fudge, and an orange flavoured Kit-Kat to get me through the process :)

[@ExplainingComputers]

:)

[@spookydreamer7370]

@@ExplainingComputers All done, and I can't believe what a difference an SSD makes to program startups. Just wanted to say thanks for the Macrium Reflect 7 Free heads up, I used it in the end and it was so much smoother than previous software I've used. Also, it's only about a 100mb download these days, it didn't seem to need WinPE, unless of course I've already got it sitting around somewhere. Thanks again.

[@HyperspaceQ]

*Excellent timing! I just started to use Macrium yesterday. This is a great cloning and imaging tool.*

[@nanopulga098]

Impresses me how easy can be to replace a drive in Windows, I thought it was a more complicated way but thanks Christopher for showing how easy is to replace a drive and creating a image for backup of it.

[@raimogeel9497]

Hi Chris, If i clone a laptop drive, i always swap the drives first. This because reading from an USB drive is faster than writing to it. Saves some time, but leaves enough to drink some tea. Kind regards, Raimo

[@fb1051]

Clear and good info Chris. One thing I realised from your video, related to removing internet connection... YOU did it the correct way by unplugging cable.. I did it the wrong way by disabling the network adapter... when I booted from 'new' disk I found a nice little message from the Microsoft people telling me my software was not genuine.. could not re-activate.. so did the cloning all over with cable unplugged and adapter re-connected !! Duh !!.. Then , it worked !

[@ExplainingComputers]

We live and learn. :)

Thank you so much for this Chris! Best cloning and imaging video I've watched (and that was several). I built a lot of PCs in the day, but it's been a while. I was a little nervous doing this to my MSi GF72VR 7RF laptop. I know I'm over thinking it! :0) Great tip everyone else missed was unplug your ethernet cable and turn off the wifi! My MSi came with a 128 gig m.2 NVMe ssd drive so with Windows 10 in 2020, there's not much room for anything else. Thanks again!

[@Christopher-N]

I so dearly wished I had access to this sort of service in the 90s. We could have saved the old OS and data from our earlier home computers (an 8088, a 486, and the original HDD from a P5)-it's since been lost, permanently. While you make cloning and imaging look easy, at this time I'd rather have a professional do this for me rather than performing it myself. I like the idea of interchangeable CompactFlash for earlier drives.

[@paulm.7422]

I never use image backups; only clones. That way, I can quickly replace a failed drive, if needed. Macrium Reflect is a great (free) tool to clone drives ... even those containing an OS. OS drives contain files and loaders that are not copied via a normal copy process. These are needed to make the drive bootable.

[@reh-linchen4698]

Just upgraded my 7-year old PC hard drive to SSD using Macrium, thanks to your help. It is much faster now. Love it!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great to hear! An SSD is always a good upgrade. :)

[@EldaLuna]

i had that exact same kingston model of ssd. one day it stopped working like you said but i managed to get it working again by taking it apart and gentle bend the pcb one way then the other. since then after 4 years or when ever those came out other then its still sata 2. it still works even today. i guess those era ones had some rare trouble at some point.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I must try your bending trick!

[@EldaLuna]

gl aha cant say it would work for everyone but luckily i had nothing on it i was worried if lost. just curious to see if it would work as a last option. but it worked for me in my case

[@georgeetherege8347]

Can’t thank you enough. Have desired to create an exact copy of the entire HDD in a Windows 10 PC inherited after a family member passed on.

[@_BlackSpectrum]

Thanks I was thinking of attaching a new SSD in my laptop by replacing CD drive and you did a video of it now I can backup my drive too thanks.

[@libertycentral6564]

I was searching for this topic and ended up at my favourite computer channel. Thank you, sir!

[@ExplainingComputers]

:)

[@DrNPCabd]

Great video!!! As always setting the bar high!!! I miss a linux example on how to setup an image recovery software. This is pretty useful due the images only records small changes made in the drive periodically, and in an eventually catastrophical loss of information, everything can be recovered loading those images. That is the main purpose of disk imaging as far as I am aware. My best regards.

[@The-Other-Guy]

Thanks Christopher, Videos like this one are more useful to the general public than robotic stuff, you are saving lots of money for a lot of people that they usually pay to Repair Shops to do this these kind of things for them. Universal Memory Bless You.

[@southsidedojo2]

deary me is definately some word i would use on crashed disks! Great job once again.

[@henryD9363]

Wow! I downloaded the Macrium software to backup my laptop SSD's 64GB to an external hard drive. It took less than 26 minutes for backup AND verify! Very fast, especially compared to Acronis True Image which takes almost an hour. thanks

[@MicrobyteAlan]

Great technical video, glad to see Stanley the knife again. Thanks as all ways from Orlando.

[@peter-johnduncan2071]

Did this 3 days ago and it works like a charm. Now using my Samsung EVO 870

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great to hear! :)

[@sleepy_teethtv]

Thanks for this guide. It made swapping my from my old spinning disk to my new SSD super painless. +1

[@ExplainingComputers]

Great to hear!

[@ganapathivaideeswaran7208]

Such clear and simple explanation of a complex procedure is hard to come by these days. Thanks a lot.

[@timrobinson9192]

Had three cups of tea while watching this ! Haven't used Clonezilla before, but will grab it for the next time I need to clone: Thumbs up Chris 👍👍👍☕☕☕

[@MwishaLudack]

Just how fast can you sip your tea? In 19 minutes you have had all that many cups? Wow, you can consume some beverages. Take it easy on tea, drink it slow and you'll enjoy the flavor...

[@KameraShy]

I found the Clonezilla interface extremely complicated to use. So much so that I gave up. And I am no newbie at this computer thing. In frustration, I searched for alternatives and found Macrium Reflect Free. I found it easy to use and worked very well. A very well designed, powerful software. If you are set on Clonezilla, try working with it well before you you need it.

[@sherryniedbalec1140]

Chris! I can't thank you enough for this video! You saved me from buying a new laptop. I am very fond of my old laptop and it was on its last leg. But thanks to you, it lives to see another day!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Excellent!

[@PeteVanDemark]

“Deary, deary me, and a few other words like that.” I busted out laughing! :-D Not sure how I missed this great video the first time round, but I’m glad I finally found it.

[@markwtal9453]

Great Video. Just opened my mom's old and weak Sony laptop, cleaned it, new thermal paste, put more ram in it and now cloning the drive. Thanks for the video. Works like a charm and I don't have to buy her a new one lol.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Sounds like you have had a successful refurb. :)

[@rayben2010]

Yes the completely free version no longer exists but it comes free for a time period, which is fine for me as I will probably only use it once. The cloning went without a hitch and I was glad of the tutorial although the software has changed slightly now but can easily be understood by just adapting the instructions, I got it right first time so it must be easy. It took 1hr 40mins to clone 360GB from my 500GB HDD to my new samsung 1TB SSD. It was on my laptop so nothing to do in BIOS. This was the only software that allowed you to clone from the free trial, all the others would not let you clone from the free trial. Highly recommended.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for this. I have a new video on free drive cloning apps (now that Macrium Reflect Free has been withdrawn) posting in a few weeks time.

[@simply-tom]

Sounds simple enough. I think cloning is the best method but I can see how an image might be more beneficial if you’re dealing with a lot of pc units.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Exactly right.

[@amilalakshan8849]

I make it a point to watch a video every day, please keep on adding more content. As a teacher I learn a lot form your videos and pass that knowledge to my students.

[@MarkTheMorose]

Cracking video, Gromit.

[@ExplainingComputers]

:)

[@donporter8432]

What the heck is Gromit? Bwaha!

[@MarkTheMorose]

@@donporter8432 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_and_Gromit

[@rbphilip]

Nice.. I use Acronis True Image Home for my daily backups, and a bootable version of it for catastrophic recoveries. Like your failed drive. I've had that happen and have literally swapped in a new drive/ssd, booted into the Acronis recovery medium and restored my world as of the last nightly backup. I went from down & dead to up and running as of midnight the previous night in less than an hour. It's amazingly powerful and flexible. I very often find myself having enlarge the drive on a virtual machine and with Acronis it's just a matter of telling it to clone your system drive, allowing you to adjust the partition sizes if you use them and saying "go". It'll reboot your machine, do the clone, and reboot into Windows when done. It's even great for non-Windows cloning. I've also used it successfully, booting from a "recovery" USB stick, to clone Linux drives on virtual machines. It's very flexible and "just works". And it's pretty cheap.

[@2namtaB]

Thanks to Mr Clone the day was saved. 👍😁

[@pbrstreetgang2489]

Thank you for the help cloning my slow 5400 rpm HDD to an SSD. It worked perfectly. I used the Macrium software just as you explained. Many thanks!!

[@ExplainingComputers]

This is great to hear! :)

[@somecoder3054]

Had to pause this to get a cuppa tea meself.

[@vincehadley8774]

Great timing on this video. You see, after much research, I just purchased an SSD yesterday and needed a tutorial explaining cloning. Thanks again for a concise and easy to follow tutorial!

[@ExplainingComputers]

Good luck with your new drive.

[@watsoft70]

Hi Chris. Another informative video that I ended up watching in its entirety even though I've been cloning and imaging disks for years. I think I used Norton Utilities in the early days, followed by Clonezilla, (a few dreadful ones) and settled on Macrium because it is so reliable. Anyway, if you do an article on data backups you might want to have a play with a product called "Free File Sync". It's like SyncToy with every conceivable option. That said, a simple backup is just that to set up. I am in no way affiliated with this product, just one that deserves a place in my extremely vetted toolbox.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks for the tip -- will check it out. :)

[@juliogranados3615]

Today I changed my ssd to one with more capacity, this video is excellent, thank you very much for all your time Chris

[@ExplainingComputers]

You can't beat an SSD upgrade!

[@tpobrienjr]

I did this (imaging) with a room full of OS/2 machines, some time ago (1990s). Wish I had the Macrium software.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Life has certainly become easier! :)

[@Inaflap]

Nothing simpler than the dd command.

[@MichelMorinMontreal]

Just a word: this video saved the day twice at work in HD upgrade emergecies... Many thanks.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Glad to hear it was useful. :)

[@arthurdent8091]

Hi Chris. You have covered a subject that is verynear and dear to me. I particularily liked the way that you pointed out the difference between cloning and imaging, To me this is a an often misunderstood and readily confused topic. I was amused by seeing a Walace and Gromit coffee ( Tea?) mug. I regret that Peter is no longer with us. I would like to see that Nicolas Parkbe persuaded in doing a talent hunt and find a voice actor and recast the part. Just curiously, do you share the late George Feynman 's interest in locks as well? I was reminded of it after seeing an episode of The Big Bang Theory and the fact that I am a locksmith as well, or at least I was before my Parkinsons ' kicked in. Cheers.

[@WalterPetrovic]

I have a pc, and three laptops (more, soon). I had bought a bunch of SSDs and am wanting to clone at least two of my laptops and just screw around with my Dell Vostro junker I bought for $50 to literally destroy. Which I did. Trying to install Mint, then Google OS then back to Windows 10 and all I can say is that an older machine can't take it, and the HDD in Vostro is toast. I think I will just do a fresh install of win10 and add a few applications, maybe tweak the RAM and sell it. I want to thank you for your great ability to teach an old dog about hardware and how it works. I am not as intimidated as I used to be. I know this video is an older one, but every one I have seen, so far, has taught me much.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Thanks Walter. :)

[@allluckyseven]

I'm not sure now if you pointed this out, but you may want to get rid of all your temporary files before you clone your drive. Personally, I use a Ramdrive for internet browsing, so most (?) of those files are wiped out as soon as I boot up my machine, but there's still plenty of stuff to get rid of. Files created by all sorts of software, like those annoying and huge Premiere cache files. Really sorry about your dead SSD, Chris. I've heard bad things of Kingston drives before, so this confirms that I should avoid those, despite them being attractively cheap. :P

[@HS-eq3gk]

Oh damn, I did mention on a past video that the drives are risky, though I'm still running one! I only have stuff I don't care about on it: like Windows, so I think I'm safe

[@arthurdanielles4784]

Always sound advice AND it is so much easier to keep a spare drive in case of an emergency such as you describe. It does not matter whether it is an SSD or a HARD DRIVE, drives fail. As a writer I regularly backup my data but also OS image AND data et regularly. As you so often point out - using quality known products. Also putting your items where you can find them without fuss ! Not a case of now where the heck did I put that☺☺☺Brilliant vid for those doing their first cloning. Don't be put off as once you've done it you'll find a 2nd time is a breeze.

[@devriv8983]

Very helpful, thank you :)

[@azimuth2142]

Another informative video for us who don't like reading instructions. Thank you Christopher.

[@povilasstaniulis9484]

Thanks for the video. I've noticed that you are trying to clone a live OS. Cloning a live (booted) OS is not a good idea, regardless if it's connected to the web or not. To properly clone an OS installation, you should do it from another OS, for example a live CD or USB. My preferred software of choice for hard disk manipulation is Paragon HDM. It's not free, but it's a really powerful piece of software which can do pretty much anything you want with partitions (create, move, resize, clone, backup, etc.). It even has protection against unexpected interruptions (such as power loss) for some operations, for example file system resizing and partition moving. I also use Linux dd command for cloning and data recovery from damaged drives.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Years ago I would have agreed with you. But many modern cloning programs (eg from Samsung, macrium and EaseUS) clone live partitions just fine. There is no technical reason for it not to work, providing the the cloning software takes full account of what the OS is and may be accessing. Technology moves on! :)

[@povilasstaniulis9484]

@@ExplainingComputers True, but I still prefer to do it the old way just to be sure. I trust my experience more than the software I'm using.

[@ExplainingComputers]

:)

[@landychev]

@@povilasstaniulis9484 As long as you do not save new data while cloning there should not be any problem.

[@jorgecalero6325]

Once installed, Macrium encourages you to create bootable media (CD, flash drive), which will allow you to clone the main drive in a computer from an offline state. I have created images from live and offline drives, and never had a problem restoring one of those when I needed to.

[@kranibal]

Your series of show is already a modern “must see” classic.

[@Abishek_Muthian]

At last a youtuber who drinks tea with milk :D

[@G-Vecom]

2018 - 2021 this video still useful i'm glad subscribe back then to this lovely channel

[@shaunrichter3735]

That is thee best Coffee Cup ever..

[@darkebeare]

Excellent explanation - just changed my old 60G SSD for a 480G SSD and all done and working in 15 mins - just following this.

[@ExplainingComputers]

That sounds like a good upgrade. :)

[@frigbychilwether]

Hi, you are likely to start a flame war having put the milk in first !

[@frigbychilwether]

@PlebzOr Blapparapp I'm not a tea drinker, so I don't know what's right, I've just heard there is some kind of schism between the milk or tea first sides !

[@timrobinson9192]

Tea first, always ! Has an added bonus of adding as much or as little milk according to taste, BTW I never use a teapot. Never thought I would be commenting on tea today lol.

[@lucasmayo]

Small amount of milk in the cup when pouring from teapot and watch it change colour whilst pouring tea with a little distance and with an up and down motion to increase decrease the said distance whilst the tea aroma enters the air and tiny little splashes almost leave the cup.... 😊

[@hasansalim1868]

Thanks Chris. I watched this video, again, to double check my info before performing a cloning of HDD to a new SSD to a family member.

[@ExplainingComputers]

I hope it went well. Always a great upgrade from an HDD to an SSD.

[@hasansalim1868]

@@ExplainingComputers Hi Chris. Thanks for asking. Imaging the HDD to a compressed file went well. However, restoring it to the SSD hit a wall. The partition on the HDD is larger than the SSD size. The partition is almost empty, but considering it is a Linux distro (Ubuntu) so Macrium Reflect has no idea how to shrink it! I ended with a fresh installation of Win 10 instead 😒and skipped the compressed volume. But at least I enjoyed your video and learned a lesson: With all the advancements in software development, however, Windows and Linux still cannot always play together.

[@ExplainingComputers]

@@hasansalim1868 Oh yes, Windows and Linux are still not always happy playmates. And in fact this Sunday's video is in that ballpark . . .

[@MwishaLudack]

You got humor.

[@georgeetherege8347]

I followed your steps using Reflect and the clone, once installed, worked exactly as the original. Great video.

[@ExplainingComputers]

Excellent! Glad to hear that everything worked. :)

[@samuelhulme8347]

35 th and 7th like

[@ExplainingComputers]

Ah, a very special set of numbers! :)

[@pheotonia]

As a fellow computer NERD, I always appreciate your content. Thank you for it!

[@richardcreese]

Why would you want to clone Windows lol. Spotted your washing machine in the reflection on your kettle :-)

[@jesuisjamaiscontent]

I'm happy that you give a good shout out to Clonezilla. I've been using it for years to take regular images of partitions or disks without any failures. I've used it for Linux and Windows OS and confirm that it's very powerful. These days I stick a copy of the Clonezilla ISO on my hard disk and configure the boot manager so that my boot menu gives the option "Backup & Restore".

[@johncnorris]

CLONING IS AN ABOMINATION AGAINST GOD! PS - Yes, I watched the whole video before commenting.

[@realdadgaming]

16:55 This exactly what I needed to know. I can't decide between backing up, system image or cloning in case of catastrophic failure. Cloning it is then. You earned my sub!