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.

 

[carmen617]

I buy Samsung or WD drives. If I use a Samsung drive, I use their cloning software, which will do the resizing automatically for me. The only problem is it can be balky if the drive is failing. If I use a WD drive, I use their included Acronis software, which also does the resizing for me automatically. The Acronis software has much better functionality than the Samsung software (although the Samsung software is is much simpler to use and faster), for example it can image a drive that is unable to boot into Windows, so I go that route if I think the drive is in failure.

 

[HCHTech]

If the drive is not showing any signs of failure, we take a data backup first, then clone to the new drive. We only use Samsung SSDs (well, 99% of the time) and use their cloning software. Simple, fast & predictable.

If the drive is failing, then getting the data is the most important task. We do whatever is necessary to save the data (up to and including sending the drive out for recovery). If we get the data, then we can try to clone the drive if the customer insists, but much prefer to do a fresh install with a new drive, restore the data and then get as much of the software as we can by reinstalling.

 

[Diggs]

I usually work with a backup image and if the drive won't image then I'll clone the drive with ddrescue.