Macrium Reflect Free 7.2.3906 questions...

I am running Windows 10 Pro Version 1803 (MS hasn't offered me
the update to 1809). My desktop has a 1 TB SATA drive that has
only about 101 GB of capacity used, with little prospect of
needing much more. (I'm not big on pictures or movies or other
space eaters.) I just bought a 480 GB SSD drive that I want to
replace the SATA drive with.

Using Macrium Reflect Free 7.2.3906, can I simply attach the new
SSD drive to my desktop, then clone the SATA drive to the SSD
drive, remove the SATA drive, and then boot from the new SSD? Or
is that too simple?

If I left both drives in the desktop after cloning, would a boot
offer me a choice between the two every time?

Thanks in advance for your help.

On 12/9/2018 11:45 PM, Kirk Bubul wrote:
I am running Windows 10 Pro Version 1803 (MS hasn't offered me
the update to 1809). My desktop has a 1 TB SATA drive that has
only about 101 GB of capacity used, with little prospect of
needing much more. (I'm not big on pictures or movies or other
space eaters.) I just bought a 480 GB SSD drive that I want to
replace the SATA drive with.

Using Macrium Reflect Free 7.2.3906, can I simply attach the new
SSD drive to my desktop, then clone the SATA drive to the SSD
drive, remove the SATA drive, and then boot from the new SSD? Or
is that too simple?

If I left both drives in the desktop after cloning, would a boot
offer me a choice between the two every time?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I'd use the migration tool that came with the drive.

Kirk Bubul wrote:
I am running Windows 10 Pro Version 1803 (MS hasn't offered me
the update to 1809). My desktop has a 1 TB SATA drive that has
only about 101 GB of capacity used, with little prospect of
needing much more. (I'm not big on pictures or movies or other
space eaters.) I just bought a 480 GB SSD drive that I want to
replace the SATA drive with.

Using Macrium Reflect Free 7.2.3906, can I simply attach the new
SSD drive to my desktop, then clone the SATA drive to the SSD
drive, remove the SATA drive, and then boot from the new SSD? Or
is that too simple?

If I left both drives in the desktop after cloning, would a boot
offer me a choice between the two every time?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Since you're cloning the existing drive (with it's installed
copy of Macrium already on the drive), the transfer of that
image to the SSD should not present a problem.

Macrium changes the DiskID at around offset 1B8 in the MBR,
changes other identifiers, edits the BCD so the new
identifiers are used there too. It tends to do this when you
clone an entire drive. If you insist on doing stuff one
partition at a time, this can "suspend" the extra features
of that sort. (Since Macrium doesn't know what you're trying
to do at that point.)

After the whole drive is cloned, with both drives connected, all you'd
need is to enter the BIOS and set up the boot order.

In lieu of doing that, the popup boot key (F8 on an Asus
motherboard), the boot menu there will list all the
devices, and you can cursor down and select one of them.
The boot menu kinda has a defacto industry standard for
appearance, with navy blue rectangular frame outline
around the menu, that tends to look the same on all
platforms.

The popup boot is great for agile booting.
But a PITA if a disk is receiving a Win10 Upgrade
(and will be rebooting three times, just as you
want to go to the kitchen and make a snack).
There will be some situations, where either making
a static selection in the BIOS pages themselves
is advised. Or unplugging the drive you don't want
to be a boot candidate, also solves the problem.

Paul