Advice Request Your suggestions for cloning an HDD to SSD + installation

[oldschool]

Recent Intel updates to my laptop may have affected my startup and login times. I had used Windows Update Assistant to move to 2004 but used Aomei Backupper Standard to revert to 1909 and I'm still seeing these reduced times. My system is a Lenovo L340 laptop i3 (8th Gen) 8145U 8GB RAM 1TBHDD. I have a 256GB SSD from my last laptop that I'd like to clone and switch into my laptop. I know I can clone with Aomei but I'm a bit hesitant about installation. I definitely don't want a bricked laptop as it's my only machine.

Your tips on performing the clone and installation help are much appreciated. Thanks in advance to all geeks and tweakers for your help.

 

[SumTingWong]

BACKUP EVERYTHING ON THE OLD DRIVE BEFORE CLONING just in case cloning doesn't go well. Format your new drive. If your laptop doesn't have second storage drive slot then you will need a usb to sata adapter. Cross your fingers during cloning. After cloning, disconnect the old drive then plug in the new drive. Go into the BIOS to make sure it does detect the new drive boot manager then exit out the bios then cross your fingers Windows does boot from the new clone drive.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

I wouldn't clone. Tried it once and had not much success with it. A fresh install on that SSD is the best option.
Save files you need from your old installation on an USB stick or an external HDD.
If needed there are USB to SATA cables to copy content of the "old" HDD.

 

[CyberTech]

Well you dont have to worry you need a external hdd (backup) and a flash drive (macrium boot)

first of all, backup a system image from 1TB HDD with Macrium free or Aomei you like? put backup .file to external HDD so after this remove HDD and put the SSD in then use macrium boot via USB chose restore image from external hdd restore image to the SSD...

 

[oldschool]

A fresh install on that SSD is the best option.

I'm not sure how to go about this ... in which order?

After cloning, disconnect the old drive then plug in the new drive. Go into the BIOS to make sure it does detect the new drive boot manager then exit out the bios then cross your fingers Windows does boot from the new clone drive.

This is the part I'm not crazy about doing in case I brick the system.

This How to clone HDD to smaller SSD makes it sound easy. But is it this simple?

 

[shmu26]

1 Do you have a Microsoft account? Your poor startup times might possibly be caused by settings that are synced to and from your user account, so they plague you and follow you around even after a system image restore. You could test it by making a new user account, it should be a local account, and see how it performs.

2 I am a big fan of cloning. I have cloned my desktop to my wife's laptop, my wife's old laptop to her new laptop, my old desktop to my new desktop, without bricking the computer or any noticeable degradation in performance. Yes, drivers do need to be installed manually sometimes, but that is doable. Maybe I am lucky or something, but I like cloning!

If needed, I run the Macrium Reflect boot repair tool from a flash drive, in order to teach BIOS how to find Windows.

 

[oldschool]

Do you have a Microsoft account? Your poor startup times might possibly be caused by settings that are synced to and from your user account, so they plague you and follow you around even after a system image restore.

No M$ account. Poor start times started with recent Intel updates ...

in order to teach BIOS how to find Windows.

This is the part I'm not clear on so I would prefer step-by-step instruction.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

No M$ account. Poor start times started with recent Intel updates ...


This is the part I'm not clear on so I would prefer step-by-step instruction.

See the manual of your laptop
I think this one:

https://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/l340_series_ug_en_201902.pdf

On page 27:

 

[shmu26]

No M$ account. Poor start times started with recent Intel updates ...


This is the part I'm not clear on so I would prefer step-by-step instruction.

I don't know about AOMEI because I haven't used it enough, but the guys who wrote the Macrium Reflect boot repair tool did a good job. Just make a live flash drive with MR and let it do the job for you. You can do the same thing yourself by running a few command lines, but why bother?

The long and lazy way is like this: do a fresh installation of Windows, you don't even need to go through setting up your user account and all that nonesense. Just do the initial installation. Now, BIOS knows how to shake hands with Windows.
Then clone onto the new disk. BIOS will still recognize Windows, as long as you clone it to the beginning of the disk, like normal.

 

[shmu26]

No M$ account. Poor start times started with recent Intel updates ...

but you can still try creating a new user account and see how it performs. If it is good, use it. User accounts get corrupted quite often. Easier to create a new user account than to reinstall Windows.

 

[cryogent]

I know maybe is not related to your issue, I was experience in the past a slow boot on my pc and is was related to lan settings, I have a static ip but my DNS settings caused the boot delay....so I switched back to dhcp, force lan to assign new ip, flush DNS, reboot 3 times and switch back to static ip. Something to look up before that is to check Boot Performance Monitoring in Event Viewer for ID 100 to 110.

 

[mkoundo]

hey @oldschool, you may find this video handy.

the cloning is demonstrated with macrium reflect free and bios boot order changes are also shown. Its done on a dell, but should be similar on your laptop:

 

[CyberTech]

That YT link hope it would works!

 

[oldschool]

Thanks folks for your suggestions. It appears my laptop has no easy access to hard drive, or anything else for that matter because it's low-end, so I'm putting this idea on the back burner for now.

 

[shmu26]

Recent Intel updates to my laptop may have affected my startup and login times.

I got a big Intel update for the integrated graphics, and afterward that, I heard my fans working harder than ever. There must be something terribly wrong with the update. I restored a system image, and also uninstalled the Intel driver assistant, which pushed this unfortunate update on me.

 

[oldschool]

I got a big Intel update for the integrated graphics, and afterward that, I heard my fans working harder than ever. There must be something terribly wrong with the update. I restored a system image, and also uninstalled the Intel driver assistant, which pushed this unfortunate update on me.

Indeed, my system isn't slow but it is noticeable on start and login. It just takes time loading. And this after I used my 1909 image. I uninstalled Lenovo.modern.imcontroller driver, which is related to its Vantage app which I had uninstalled previously. These issues are all to prepare machines for 2004 and my guess is it's going to take time for M$ and Intel to iron this out. Or not.

 

[mkoundo]

also worth checking that your laptop model has been checked as 2004 ready:

Dell and Lenovo publish list of tested devices compatible with Windows 10 version 2004 - gHacks Tech News

PC manufacturers Dell and Lenovo have published compatibility lists for Microsoft's latest feature update, Windows 10 version 2004 or the May 2020 Update.

www.ghacks.net

 

[mkoundo]

*** For future reference***

Latest video on cloning your windows drive to a smaller OR larger drive with macrium reflect free.
Shows how to keep the partitions in the same order as on the original drive.