Last time I tried cloning a drive it failed miserably and I was stuck doing everything manually and took forever

  • Nate@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    I used to work at Staples as a tech supervisor and did a ton of data transfers but hated their software. I also didn’t quite trust these third-party utilities (although I’m sure they’re fine), so I made this guide on using GNU tools (specifically gParted) to clone a drive safely, as well as getting it to boot back into Windows afterwards (you do need a Windows install disk. I always carried around a Ventoy with both Ubuntu and Windows on it). It was designed for my not-very-techy techs to be able to follow (Staples’ tech program is a joke)

    This is probably a bit more complicated than the other listed methods, but I personally trust it way more. If you have some linux experience that’s great, otherwise this is a decent way to start building some!

    I’ve only ever had one data transfer catastrophically fail, which was a computer that had a 64 eMMC + an unused 512GB SSD. I cloned the data from the 64 eMMC to the SSD, and it booted fine, I called the customer in and showed them that everything was in the same spot, then I wiped the 64 eMMC and hid it to reduce confusion. Apparently, it was still linking to old files on the eMMC, despite booting off of and showing the SSD as the C: drive. Every other clone I had done I had taken out the old drive first, but obviously I couldn’t on the one that was soldered to the board. Left me with a borked windows install, that even though all the data was there, and Windows would boot, opening anything caused an error that was nowhere to be found on Google. (Worst of all, I borked it right in front of them which was quite embarrassing)