Samsung 840 SSD, cloning

There are two threads in the Norton Ghost forum where members used the included Samsung Data Migration Software to clone their HDs to Samsung 840 SSDs. The clones were successful, Win7 booted and appeared to function properly. But not entirely properly.

Norton Ghost 15 couldn't see the partitions on the SSD. The Windows 7 backup/restore software had issues creating system images.

In both cases the partinfo showed...

When these errors were corrected with BootIt BM, Ghost 15 and Windows 7 backup/restore worked correctly. Has anyone seen similar problems with this software?

 

Hi BK. I tried cloning my HD to a Samsung 840 Pro Series SSD with no success either. I had a different error to the one you mentioned (cant remember what type, sorry) so i used IFW "COPY" feature. It worked perfectly! Just remember to select the "Align Partitions on 2048 sectors" option in the settings tab and select the top three options as follows after you select the destination drive

 

carfal,

Interesting. I've never used the Samsung Data Migration Software but last weekend a friend asked me to clone his laptop 60 GB HD to a 256 GB Samsung 840 SSD. Like you I used IFW (but image/restore method) with success.

 

Using IFW, I have also restored from an image successfully (an image taken from a SSD and restored to the same SSD). However from your description it looks like you've successfully restored an image taken from a normal HD to a SSD.

This is good to know.

 

With laptops (single HD) I prefer image/restore. Others like a reverse clone procedure where the new drive is internal and the old drive is in a USB enclosure. Ideally the new drive should be seen in its correct geometry when the restore or clone is performed. That is, inside the laptop. In both cases IFW is run from a boot disk.

In your screenshot you have "Update Boot Partition". Can you check something for me? Open IFW and click Settings. In the Settings area (top left) do you have a tick in "Automatic Boot Partition Update "? Or no tick? Just curious.

 

Yes it is ticked.



I think i know where your going with this. It may not be necessary to tick the 3 options i mentioned? Next time i restore I'll give it a try. Could be a while though....my system is running sweet.

EDIT: I dont have it ticked here but the last time i restored my computer, the image was from my current SSD so i had also ticked "Assume same target system" but when i did the "COPY" method this was not ticked.

EDIT2: When you tick the "Assume same target system", the "Validate Geometry before use" is ungreyed and remains ticked as well.

 

Mine is ticked too. I misread this section of the userguide...

We were restoring partition images and not full drive images so the option box should have been present.

Boot.ini is not present in OS after WinXP. Update Boot Partition only applies if you have a computer with a System Reserved Partition and Win 7 or 8. If your booting files are in the OS partition then the option doesn't apply. The geometry choice can be used if you are working with two different computers...

 

Thanks for doing the research on all of that. It's appreciated.