Clone Disk or System Image for porting an existing system to a new drive - What's your preference, and why?

[britechguy]

I think I know how this is going to play out, but thought it was worth asking anyway.

Back in "the old days" virtually everyone simply cloned the existing system disk to its replacement, then if the replacement was larger, did whatever was necessary either during the clone process (if the cloning software supported it) or after to repartition the new, larger drive as they saw fit.

It seems that it's now far more popular to take a full system image with the backup software of your choosing, and then restoring that image on to the replacement disk.

Just curious who's using which technique, and why. Particularly if you mix and match 'em based on specific circumstances.

 

[Porthos]

It seems that it's now far more popular to take a full system image with the backup software of your choosing, and then restoring that image on to the replacement disk.

That is my choice IF I can get a successful Image. Some image software will choke on failing disks, ex. Macrium.

 

[britechguy]

@Porthos,

I used the image-then-restore technique today on a machine where an old spinner was being replaced by an NVme SSD. Luckily, the old drive did not appear to be on its last legs or near to it.

 

[frase]

I generally create a system image with Macrium, then write the image never fails or it can with certain failure errors. Though this may be due to the original drives partition structure or corruption; which can be verified with CHKDSK. I make sure the original drive is fine using Crystalmethinfo

It has errored with myself sometimes, though always found a way around it particularly VSS errors.