Solved Will Reflect's Recovery Disk See Brand New SSD?

starchase · Sep 29, 2023

I'm gonna upgrade my original SSD ( 128GB, M2, SATA3 solid-state drive supporting MLC, HP pt # 813146-001) for this 256GB drive (Micron 256GB M.2 2280 NGFF SSD (Solid State Drive) 3D NARD TLC SATA III (MTFDDAV256TBN). It should arrive Oct. 5. Just getting my ducks in a row with this question.

See my specs for the laptop I'm working with, the HP Spectre, born on 25 Feb 2012. I will have a Reflect image ready for it on the day it arrives, a full image of the current Adata drive. I have a good Reflect rescue disk that I've used recently to restore so I'm confident in using it.

I'm upgrading only to have more room on the laptop's drive, I just did a repair upgrade on the machine and after removing the unnecessaries I have 71 GB used and 47GB free. So since this Micron was only $22 on Amazon I knew it was time to swap out the SSD. Probably won't see performance improvement but the machine is working fine but I'll be grateful for the extra space.

Anyway . . . I plan on taking the new Micron out of the package when it arrives and immediately putting it into the Spectre. Then I'll boot the Rescue Disk and plug in the Corsair 1TB removable drive that contains the fresh image. My slight concern is that the Rescue Disk will see the new blank unformatted uninitiated drive. From everything I've researched, it should see it and Macrium should slap the fresh image onto the Micron without a problem and it should immediately boot up ready to do my bidding. Should the Rescue Disk see the new drive straight from the box? In the chance that it doesn't I have copied the DISKPART commands in order to try to initialize it:

Code:

diskpart
list disk
select disk n (n is number of the ssd that is having problems)
clean (be sure you have chosen right disk so you wipe correct drive)
convert gpt
create partition primary
format fs=ntfs quick
assign
exit

I don't know if all these Diskpart commands would be required. Any advice here is appreciated as I'm new to this command.

A Macrium Reflect forum discussion implies (but doesn't state outright) that my plan should succeed. And I don't want to buy an enclosure in which to put the old drive in order to clone it.

So how successful do you think I'll be, and that I won't even have to deal with DISKPART?

Bree · Sep 29, 2023

starchase said:
So how successful do you think I'll be, and that I won't even have to deal with DISKPART?

I expect you to be completely successful.

Being a SATA SSD then there should be no special drivers needed, as can sometimes be the case if it were an NVMe PCIe SSD. I've twice now restored Reflect images to brand new and unformatted SATA SSDs. Diskpart is not needed, Reflect will do all that for you.

starchase · Sep 29, 2023

Bree said:
I expect you to be completely successful.

Being a SATA SSD then there should be no special drivers needed, as can sometimes be the case if it were an NVMe PCIe SSD. I've twice now restored Reflect images to brand new and unformatted SATA SSDs. Diskpart is not needed, Reflect will do all that for you.

Thanks for the confirmation, I can breath a bit more easily.

zbook · Sep 30, 2023

starchase said:
HP Spectre, born on 25 Feb 2012.

Boot to the BIOS to view menu options for:
Legacy
UEFI
CSM

Restoring an image may allow Legacy / MBR > UEFI / GPT if available / desired.

Also if there is an orphaned recovery partition on the left of C: (older upgrades) then this may be able to be fixed by a clean install and restoring only C:

starchase · Sep 30, 2023

zbook said:
Boot to the BIOS to view menu options for:
Legacy
UEFI
CSM

Restoring an image may allow Legacy / MBR > UEFI / GPT if available / desired.

Also if there is an orphaned recovery partition on the left of C: (older upgrades) then this may be able to be fixed by a clean install and restoring only C:

I do have a UEFI bios, thanks.

logicmethod · Sep 30, 2023

Only time ive seen issues is with Dell's that have RAID on from the factory that use the INTEL RST drivers, you would then need to load that specific driver from your during your recovery boot usb, I did this with Reflect and had boot issues due to the raid and did the mbr fix with the the technician edition and bam I was up and running once again.

Ed Tittel · Oct 2, 2023

IMO: as long as the drive shows up as formatted and ready to access in Disk Management, you should be able to see and use it in MR. Sometimes, new drives do need to be formatted and set up before they can be accessed in apps; sometimes, they come pre-formatted from the factory. YMMV (actually, your mileage WILL vary). HTH,
--Ed--

starchase · Oct 2, 2023

Ed Tittel said:
IMO: as long as the drive shows up as formatted and ready to access in Disk Management, you should be able to see and use it in MR. Sometimes, new drives do need to be formatted and set up before they can be accessed in apps; sometimes, they come pre-formatted from the factory. YMMV (actually, your mileage WILL vary). HTH,
--Ed--

Thanks. The drive should arrive Oct. 4 so I will post an update. If the drive is not seen when I boot up with it in place in the laptop using the MR rescue disk I do have a copy of Mini Tools boot disk that should allow me to format/initialize the drive . I'm guessing Macrium Reflect's Rescue Disk won't help in that regard requiring the use of the Mini Tool boot.

Wannagofast · Oct 2, 2023

I secure erase my drive and restore Macrium Reflect backups to the unformatted space all the time.
I do this to switch back and forth between Windows 10 for daily use and 11 to see what's new with it.
I'm almost certain that the Rescue Disk will see the new blank unformatted uninitiated drive.
It's been a while since I've done it, but I think you can adjust the partition sizes during restore as well.

peace
wanna

starchase · Oct 2, 2023

Wannagofast said:
I secure erase my drive and restore Macrium Reflect backups to the unformatted space all the time.
I do this to switch back and forth between Windows 10 for daily use and 11 to see what's new with it.
I'm almost certain that the Rescue Disk will see the new blank unformatted uninitiated drive.
It's been a while since I've done it, but I think you can adjust the partition sizes during restore as well.

peace
wanna

aah, cool, if I can extend the partition to the entire 256 GB drive that would save me a step after I burn the image.

BamaInArk · Oct 2, 2023

From my experience doing similar to what you're planning on doing when I use MR to either Clone or restore an image onto a brand new drive it works fine without any extra steps preparing the new drive. I will point out however if installing a larger drive be careful when restoring the backed up image or you will restore a smaller drive size and end up with unformatted space on the new drive. When I say be careful I mean pay attention to the options available for restoring to a larger drive. Sometimes they are not obvious.

starchase · Oct 2, 2023

BamaInArk said:
From my experience doing similar to what you're planning on doing when I use MR to either Clone or restore an image onto a brand new drive it works fine without any extra steps preparing the new drive. I will point out however if installing a larger drive be careful when restoring the backed up image or you will restore a smaller drive size and end up with unformatted space on the new drive. When I say be careful I mean pay attention to the options available for restoring to a larger drive. Sometimes they are not obvious.

Thanks for the note. I pretty much had anticipated the end of the image restore process having an unformatted piece left over, as my current disk is 128GB and I'm replacing it with a 256GB drive. I anticipated running Mini Tool and either extending the C partition to fill the 256 GB after I successfully booted from the new drive. But as you and others have mentioned I might be able to do that in the image restore process, if I find the right button.

Bree · Oct 2, 2023

starchase said:
I pretty much had anticipated the end of the image restore process having an unformatted piece left over.... But as you and others have mentioned I might be able to do that in the image restore process, if I find the right button.

See the Reflect Knowledge base for how to resize partitions during the restore.

Modifying restored paritition properties - Knowledgebase 8.0 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

knowledgebase.macrium.com

starchase · Oct 2, 2023

Bree said:
See the Reflect Knowledge base for how to resize partitions during the restore.

Modifying restored paritition properties - Knowledgebase 8.0 - Macrium Reflect Knowledgebase

knowledgebase.macrium.com

Thanks for the link, now I know what to expect.

starchase · Oct 2, 2023

Looks like the procedure I need will be really simple. I'll just select "shrink or extend to fill the target disk" and I'll be good to go.

starchase · Oct 6, 2023

I might as well give an update as the 2 SSD's I ordered arrived today. The main upshot is that Macrium Reflect restored my image of the original drive perfectly. I had to complicate the procedure a bit by dropping the drive's retaining screw into the laptop and made it irretrievable, but it isn't rattling around so I'll leave well enough alone for now - I'd have to do a full disassembly to retrieve it!

The other "newbie" thing I did was to select the wrong image and restored it. But that just gave me a reason to try the whole procedure again and get things right. It took me 2 times to see that the "Shrink or extend . . " option was in the "Copy Partitions" button, and it worked flawlessly after I hit "Layout" and selected the far right partition and hit "float right" then selected the Windows partition and chose "fill space." That resulted n the correct (and final time I had to restore!) layout.

So thanks for all the ideas, it really helped! Pictures attached. Oh, and Reflect had no trouble in seeing the unformatted and unallocated drives.

John

Bree · Oct 6, 2023

starchase said:
I might as well give an update as the 2 SSD's I ordered arrived today. The main upshot is that Macrium Reflect restored my image of the original drive perfectly. I had to complicate the procedure a bit by dropping the drive's retaining screw into the laptop and made it irretrievable, but it isn't rattling around so I'll leave well enough alone for now - I'd have to do a full disassembly to retrieve it!
......So thanks for all the ideas, it really helped! Pictures attached. Oh, and Reflect had no trouble in seeing the unformatted and unallocated drives.
John

Well done. Here's another idea that may help.

Take a strong magnet and wipe it along the blade of a screwdriver until it becomes magnetised. Then see if you can manoeuvrer the lost screw to somewhere it is visible. Then pick it up with the tip of the screwdriver.

starchase · Oct 6, 2023

Bree said:
Well done. Here's another idea that may help.

Take a strong magnet and wipe it along the blade of a screwdriver until it becomes magnetised. Then see if you can manoeuvrer the lost screw to somewhere it is visible. Then pick it up with the tip of the screwdriver.

Great idea. But now I can't even see where it went.