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WIndows 10 HDD Clone to SSD


DD Copy and Convert Utility 

"dd" is a Unix\Linux utility for copying and converting disks, partitions, and images, etc..  It's installed in the base system of just about every Linux Distribution so getting a hold of it isn't hard. I chose Debian for my Live Linux environment from which I will execute dd from memory so the source disk wont be in use. You could also take out the HDD and use a Linux install on a second machine as you will be taking it out when you swap the drives anyway. But, using the Linux live image method saves us from having to have a second sata-to-usb cable and allows for portability so you could easily perform this on a client pc on site. Another benefit of using the live method is the system remains intact until we know we have a successful copy process. 
As a side note, this could also be performed from a Windows 10 installation on another PC using dd for windows provided by http://www.chrysocome.net/dd.

Command Syntax

    $ dd if = /dev/sda of = /dev/sdb

Where 'if' is the ‘in-file’ or source disk's Linux device file <Note: the primary hard disk during boot is generally going to be '/dev/sda' , the ‘a’ in ‘sda’ denoting the first disk, and assuming there are only two drives present the second would be '/dev/sdb'.

Debian GNU Linux

I like Debian because it's a clean, easy, popularized base that is well documented thanks to Ubuntu users as well as the extensive manual provided by the Distribution itself. dd is of-course installed by default. You can get the live image to burn to disk or image to a usb stick from here:


Task Summary:

1. Prepare the source drive.
2. Boot PC in which source drive is installed via usb/cd/dvd live Linux image 
3. Mount source drive
4. Mount new SSD
5. Use dd to clone the source drive to the destination drive
6. Finally, swap the old drive out with the new one and boot the new disk.
7. Finish up with undoing everything done in the preparation step.

Preparing the Image

Once you have the image you can use a disk imaging application to write it to usb or burn it to a cd or dvd depending on which image you chose. Burning it to cd or dvd is as easy in most cases as right-clicking on the file and choosing "burn to disk". To use a usb you can download the program etcher from here:

Check out the documentation if you need to, but the program couldn't be easier to use thanks to the logical layout of the applications ui.
Choose the image you downloaded, choose the right usb drive, and wait for it to do it's job then when it's finished your ready to boot into the Devian Linux live environment.

Preparing the Source Disk

One downside to using dd is it doesn't distinguish between used and used space it copies over it all. So, if you happened to have bought an SSD that is smaller than the original drive, or just to save time, we are going to shrink all the partitions we can on the drive to the smallest we can safely manage using 'diskmgmt' from the Windows 10 System itself.
Just hit the start button, type 'diskmgmt.msc', and hit 'Enter'.
Shrinking a partition is simple just right click on the partition you want, and choose 'Shrink Volume'. Just follow the system reduce the size to just above the amount of used disk space inside the partition. I gave mine a 10GB margin giving the system room to still run without any errors. This step greatly reduces the task time for this operation; cuts it almost in half. 

System Migration

Now the more technically charged part of the job. 

Boot from the usb/cd/dvd and once your desktop has loaded open a terminal emulator session 
enter: '$ fdisk -l'; This will list all the attached disks and their partitions. At this point the new drive hasn't been connected so there should ideally be only one hard disk and the usb device or cd drive listed. The hard disk, as I said earlier, should be '/dev/sda' and you will see the listed partitions, '/dev/sda1', '/dev/sda2', ...etc..

Now connect the new drive using an sata-to-usb chord. execute 'fdisk -l' again and look for the changes in output. You should now see '/dev/sdb' is present also.

Now your going to run dd:

                *$ dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb

    *You can get real specific with the command but it works like this on most setups.

When you can run the command with no errors, which you shouldn't have trouble at all, you are ready to switch out the disks and try booting from the new SSD. So far I've been successful with every task for which I used dd.

Finishing Up

Once you are booted into your WIndows 10 desktop, hit the Windows key and type "diskmgmt.msc" like before. This time you're going to right click and choose "Expand" volume. reclaim whatever space is unused on the disk.

And that's it. You've Successfully used disk cloning to move your WIndows 10 install to another disk.
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