W 10 going to be Win 11

I have a laptop that I added a 500 G ssd and I still have the original "blank" mechanical HDD. Without buying software for a 1 time job, I need help in cloning from the SSD back to the HDD. Wast of time putting an SSD in here as too old. Magician cant do anything of value with it. I want to be able to recover and use the SSD elswhere!!

needlenoses said:

Wast of time putting an SSD in here as too old.

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Absolutely NOT (a waste of time). Can be stunning to see how much difference an SSD can make to an aged device, no matter how old.
Throw in a clean install : WH-O-O-O-O-SH!!!!

But, if you must .... options

• Macrium Reflect : clone (Meh!) or Image then Restore (this one, my choice)
• AOMEI Backupper - Image > Restore

EDIT : If the SSD is already installed and it's running slow, chances are it's the condition, and age/version, of the currently installed OS.
E.g. Got hold of an old Dell laptop with 2GB memory, Unusably slow with spinning HDD and Win 7 (which I think was a fatally flawed in-situ upgrade from Vista). Win 10 +SSD >>> absolutely perfect for word processing, email, internet, watching vids, etc. So much so, I think it will be worth upgrading to 4GB RAM

idgat said:

Absolutely NOT (a waste of time). Can be stunning to see how much difference an SSD can make to an aged device, no matter how old.
Throw in a clean install : WH-O-O-O-O-SH!!!!

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I agree wholeheartedly. I have a couple of machines somewhere in the 12 year old range and another about 10 years old. I popped SSDs into all of them and it has made a HUGE difference. It actually makes those machines somewhat usable, even with only 4GB RAM.

No, they are not speed demons, but way better than with rotating media (yuck!).

I know what you are saying; installed this SSD a couple of years back and noted no difference at all after migration. Did run Samsung Magician and set it to max performance but again no change after reboot.. I only use the laptop when traveling and when troubleshooting issues like this.
Couldn't find a free functional copy of Macrium (not yet) . Would likely be a one-time job. I have a 2T SSD, 1T SSD, 4 g HHD and a 4g usb 3 drive running. I have a lot of stuff but mostly speed of HHD drives is fine.

needlenoses said:

Couldn't find a free functional copy of Macrium (not yet) .

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Download from majorgeeks

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition 8.1.7469 / 8.0.7279

Note all download options will install v8.0.7279.

MisterEd said:

Note all download options will install v8.0.7279.

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Yeh, majorgeeks have been a version or two behind for a while now, but Reflect will prompt for an update on first use. Meh!

Downloaded it once already before I got this PG; my download was a 32 bit copy and won't work of course.
Will try it again later tonight. Hopefully I will get the correct version; I thought that doing this work on the drives would be a simple thing. Thanks.

needlenoses said:

my download was a 32 bit copy and won't work of course.

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majorgeeks offer 64 bit version as well

Had another issue crop up on my desktop which is a priority; so will have to come back to this problem. ASAP. But I did find the 64 bit version so I will have something to try. Thanks to all and please don't go away yet on mad!!

You can download it still from the Macrium Reflect site.

Ok here I go just started the clone process hope I did it right. Target drive is empty.
Will let you know.

So far so good; cloning ran into the early hours this morning. Did the drive swop on this laptop (won't clean the SSD yet) and booted it up. Took a while the first time but fine now. Starting to go through everything and test. So far my VPN log in wasn't happy but an easy fix. Will keep you all helpful people posted just for a couple of days. Thanks again!!

If you hardly see a difference between an SSD and the original disk (except at loading times), then you have 2GB RAM or less. Try upgrading your RAM, if possible, at least to 4GB. It will be MUCH faster with the SSD and 4GB RAM or higher.

Not in this case!! A low powered old Laptop that I used while motor homing down in Arizona and California. Use it rarely now.

Download Hard Disk Sentinel and check the disk health. If lower than 95% consider replacing it. You can also disable most useless startup applications and non-Microsoft services to speedup the system. Most of the these are application updaters. You can manually check for updates. To do that press Win+R to open a Run window and then type msconfig Also disabling transparency, animations and fades speedups the system. Go to Settings, Accessibility, Visual or Settings, System, Info, Advanced System Settings, Performance tab.

spapakons said:

If lower than 95% consider replacing it.

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You would replace an SSD when 95% of its life is still remaining?

I did test this drive with Samsung magician and was told it was fine. And I do still have the SSD loaded so can pop it back in at anytime to do more work on it. I did not notice that the laptop was any slower when HDD was re-installed after the migration. high performance was selected on the SSD.

The difference in performance is not great if you have 2GB RAM or lower because the computer slows down due to lack of RAM. However even a little performance boost is welcome.

spapakons said:

The difference in performance is not great if you have 2GB RAM or lower because the computer slows down due to lack of RAM. However even a little performance boost is welcome.

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You may be right but if the OP's happy with what they accomplished that's all that matters