Windows 10: Cloning C Drive

I have a desktop computer running Win 10 and I want to copy/clone the C drive to an SSD for faster access. I intend using EaseUS Disk Copy, but I have what I consider to be a problem. My C and D (for Data) drives are partitions on one 500GB HDD, which is Drive 0. I also have another 500GB HHD Drive 1 installed, which gives drives K,Land M. My SSD is 250GB. I can't use the disc copy option, as the SSD is too small to fit the C and D drives on, and have free space. So I have to use the Partition Copy option.
Should I just clone the C partition, or should I clone all partitions except the D one. The partitions on the current Drive 0 are:-
Recovery(* NTFS 277MB
(* FAT32 81MB System
(* Other 128MB
(C NTFS 147.22GB Boot
(* NTFS 396MB
(* NTFS 329MB
(D NTFS 60.06GB

Then I intend installing the SSD, and booting from it, while renaming the existing C Drive as P, so that I still have it as a backup operating system.

:)

 

Cloning Drive C:/

I bought a new hard drive so I could clone my main hard drive. The new drive was formatted after putting into an external hard drive bay connected using USB cable. I right clicked on my C:/ drive & chose copy. I then right clicked on my new hard drive F:/
and chose paste. It then started to copy C:/ to F:/, but it eventually failed saying I wasn't authorized to access certain files even though I'm the Administrator of my computer. It also said I had a bad sector on C:/ drive. I then reformatted C:/ & tried
to make a clone drive onto F:/. All that did was copy over ...

$RECYCLEBIN, Boot, Recovery, System Volume 1, bootmgr, BOOTNXT, BOOTSECT.BAK

It appears to me that all it did was make a boot disk in case C:/ drive failed to boot I could have the computer boot using drive F:/ which is not what I wanted. I already have drive E:/ for that in the same bay housing as F:/.

What I want is an exact clone of C:/ drive, every program & file on it!

Anyone got any suggestions?

 

Cloning to SSD then swapping drive letters


@SamHobbs
What you want done is very simple and can be done in short period of time. Here's my suggestion:
There's 2 modes that Windows can be installed: UEFI and the old legacy MBR. Open Disk Management, look at the disk where your C drive is, if there's a

1. EFI System Partition, your Windows was installed using UEFI.
2. System Reserved partition, your Windows was installed using MBR

Next, Connect your SSD to an available Sata port (no need to format or do anything). Download: Macrium Reflect Free . Install and run. Follow the steps below:

1. From Macrium, click on image this disk under your C drive and save it to either an Internal or External Drive. This will create a single backup image of the whole disk containing your C drive.
2. Again, from Macrium, click on Restore tab and select the image created from step 1, Select your SSD as the destination drive, click Next->Finish
3. Exit Macrium. If your Windows was installed using MBR, Open disk management and make sure the SSD is marked "Active" else go to next step.
4. Shutdown your PC. Disconnect the HD containing Windows C drive then connect your SSD to it.
5. Reboot. Your PC should boot and the Windows should have C as the drive letter.

NOTE: The procedure above is to backup your Windows to an image file then copy it back to the SSD. This ensures proper cluster size aligment for the SSD. In addition, Macrium also perform Trimming for the SSD. This is more preferable than cloning.

 

Clone Bitlocker enable drive to SSD

Keitaro

My name is Andre Da Costa; an Independent Consultant, Windows Insider MVP and Windows & Devices for IT MVP. I'm here to help you with your problem.

Heed the advice of the software, you must disable BitLocker before cloning. This is highly recommend if you ever want to get access to the drive.

There is nothing wrong with having to re-enable it after restoring the clone.

Step 1: disable BitLocker.

Step 2: clone drive

Step 3: restore the cloned image to the new drive.

Step 4: Re-Enable BitLocker.