Cloning SSD

So bought a new pc that has windows 11 pro pre installed on it. Can i clone my old ssd that has windows 11 on it to the new one or will it cause any issues.

What I would do is.
1). Take an image of the new laptop just the way it is
2). Then try cloning your old setup if you want to try to continue using.

If it works good, then great. Proceed. If it doesn't work well, restore your original image and plan to start over. Or format from scratch and install exactly how you want (< that is how I would do it).

flak said:

So bought a new pc that has windows 11 pro pre installed on it. Can i clone my old ssd that has windows 11 on it to the new one or will it cause any issues.

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You can.

And you would be very foolish to do so.

It might boot...or not.

Even if it did, you'd likely be faced with issues over time.....and then you'd have to wonder "Gee, this problem could be because I did not do a clean install. Maybe I was stupid to do that".

Windows does not like to wake up in a new hardware world.

Suit yourself; no one knows what level of problems you might encounter.

Fishmill said:

"Gee, this problem could be because I did not do a clean install. Maybe I was stupid to do that".

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Hoping a process works and have it fail, doesn’t make a person stupid.

“It's better to have tried and failed than to live life wondering what would've happened if I had tried”​

pparks1 said:

What I would do is.
1). Take an image of the new laptop just the way it is
2). Then try cloning your old setup if you want to try to continue using.

If it works good, then great. Proceed. If it doesn't work well, restore your original image and plan to start over. Or format from scratch and install exactly how you want (< that is how I would do it).

Click to expand...

This ^
Great advice from @pparks1

flak said:

So bought a new pc that has windows 11 pro pre installed on it. Can i clone my old ssd that has windows 11 on it to the new one or will it cause any issues.

Click to expand...

This can be done using Macrium or any imaging program of your choice. This is how I do it with Macrium. I make the Macrium boot disk. Then I make an image of both computers. I had failures trying to boot my computer using a clone. Then I use the Macrium boot disk to boot on the new computer. Once Macrium boots I use the image from the old computer to restore to the new computer. You may not need it but I would backup the drivers on the new computer just in case some drivers don't install. I'll look up the guide on how to backup drivers and post back.

Fishmill said:

You can.

And you would be very foolish to do so.

It might boot...or not.

Even if it did, you'd likely be faced with issues over time.....and then you'd have to wonder "Gee, this problem could be because I did not do a clean install. Maybe I was stupid to do that".

Windows does not like to wake up in a new hardware world.

Suit yourself; no one knows what level of problems you might encounter.

Click to expand...

You are so wrong. Windows 10 and 11 are very forgiving when it come to transferring the OS from an old computer to a new computer. I wouldn't be surprised to find that the success rate is around 99.9%.

Here's the link on how to backup drivers. Backup and Restore Device Drivers in Windows 11 Tutorial

I have one of these, works great!

I also use a USB Dual-Drive Dock for hardware cloning 3.5" and 2.5" SSD and HDD SATA-connection drives in any combination. I have not yet decided whether I need to get a dock that can handle a SATA drive and an NVMe drive just yet.
Hardware cloning = no connection to any computer during the process.

Berton said:

I have not yet decided whether I need to get a dock that can handle a SATA drive and an NVMe drive just yet.

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You will as soon as you encounter today's computers (speaking as a tech). 95% of brand new have NVME OS drives, both laptops and desktops.

Porthos said:

You will as soon as you encounter today's computers (speaking as a tech). 95% of brand new have NVME OS drives, both laptops and desktops.

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I have an m.2 option on my board, but I use all Samsung 850 Pro ssd drives, and I swap around OS's to much to use an M.2. I don't play any games, so the cloning dock works great for my personal needs. Unless you're playing games, or running CAD programs, you won't even notice any difference in the speed of an M.2 and a regular "good" ssd drive like a Samsung.

I have an m.2 option on my board

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m.2 slot is Gen2 x2 on that motherboard.

so a gen3 nvme would give something in this ballpark in m.2 gen2 x2 slot





After bios update to at least version 2.40 I expect you should be able to get gen3 x4 bandwidth with a pcie>nvme adapter.
The adapters are cheap.

a gen 3 nvme should give something in this ballpark in a pcie gen3 x4




Your mobo seems to have 3 PCIe 3.0 x16 slots.


In spite of the impressive nvme speed tests, it doesn't feel much different from a sata ssd for general pottering around but you will notice it for some things.

Unfortunately all ssd prices have increased dramatically over the past few weeks. Could be worth doing if and when those prices come down to sensible levels.

Porthos said:

You will as soon as you encounter today's computers (speaking as a tech). 95% of brand new have NVME OS drives, both laptops and desktops.

Click to expand...

Already have such computers, Notebook from Oct. '21 256GB, Desktop from Apr. '22 512GB and a cheapo Notebook 2 months ago 128GB [bought for particular purpose].

Just to reiterate on my post, I'm not at all saying my samsung 980 m.2 drive on my PCIe card is not fast, again we all enjoy our PC's differently. I have OS's on ssd's back to XP Pro, Win 7, 8, 8.1 LTSC, LTSB, 10, 11 and some server's OS's, I like to swap around drives, so this is why I don't use my m.2 drive much on the PCIe card. I don't know about others booting with two different OS's, but I tried it a couple times with my m.2 plugged in, and it corrupted my m.2 with 11 Pro on it. Maybe I'm weird, I have been called worse, it's just I have a lot of time on my hands being semi-retired, and I enjoy being an adventurous old geek.