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I have an ASUS X555 notebook with 1TB hard disk. The disk has 2 visible partitions and 3 more hidden, that seem to be some sort of backup/restore for the OS.

Now I want to clone the OS partition (C:\) and the 3 hidden ones to a new SSD to improve the notebook performance.

The OS is Windows 8.1 64bits and is occupying about 64GB on C:\ partition.

Is this possible? What recommendation regarding this can you give me?

I’m going to take out the original hard drive and attempt to make the whole process on a desktop PC.

I worried about those hidden partitions because I read here that the new notebooks have some sort of key inside the BIOS that can mess up the whole process.

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  • Use good cloning software, most ssd manufacturers have free cloning software that is downloadable and works well. It will only work with their brand of SSD. Good cloning software will get all partitions and boot properly when done. Bios key is not an issue when cloning.
    – Moab
    Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 16:38

1 Answer 1

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Use Windows Backup to create an entire partition image. This requires the same Windows 8 x64 OS to be present in SSD.

OK, here is the process.

  • Note down the used memory of OS partition. Hidden partitions could be smaller. Note down the order of partitions. Mostly C or 1st partition is OS and following that is boot/efiboot if you have one.
  • Get installation media of Windows 8 x64 either USB installation or DVD if your laptop has a DVD drive. Sorry if you don't have installation media, and this process won't work.
  • Remove the current hard disk from laptop and insert the ssd. Boot into Windows installation and create similar sized partitions with same order as that of 1TB disk. Install Windows 8. Install any copy of Windows 8 x64.
  • It is important to do the above step of partitioning in your laptop without changing any bios setting. Because your hard disk could be partitioned with GPT style and your Laptop could support UEFI. To prevent any mistakes, partitioning on the same laptop with same bios settings is recommended.
  • So, now you have installed Windows 8 on ssd. Remove the ssd and insert 1TB disk. Now you need to create Windows system image.
  • Open Control Panel, Backup and Restore. On the left side, click create system image. Select drives to be backed up. At minimum select the operating system drive and boot partition. The hidden recovery partitions may not be available for backup.
  • Proceed and select the location of backup. The location of the backup needs to be any partition other than those you want to backup. Since you don't have any free partitions on 1TB disk, you might need to connect USB hard disk or use Network Location.
  • And Backup. If you have boot or efiboot partition, you need to backup that as well. Or backup all those partitions that are selectable.
  • After backup, you will get the folder "WindowsImageBackup" in the path where backup is made. Use an administrator account and open the directory and view those files. If the "WindowsImageBackup" folder is not in accessible location, now copy it to some accessible location like USB hard disk or accessible Network Path.
  • Then remove 1TB hard disk and insert SSD. Now that you already have Windows 8 installed, boot into recovery environment. Go to control panel > recovery > restore from system image. It boots into recovery environment. Select system image recovery and select the system image u created earlier. It restores and boots into your new system.
  • Hidden partitions may not be backed up with this method. Use Linux method below to backup those. But chances are recovery process associated with them may not work with ssd, it may only work with 1TB disk with the current partition layout.

Backup Hidden Partitions:

  • Boot up a Linux live CD and use the command line dd to create disk images of corresponding partitions.

eg:

dd if=/dev/sdX1 of=image1.img bs=1M

where X corresponds to hard disk number. And 1 corresponds to partition number.

You can also backup using cloning software, it's your choice.

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  • 1)By "location of backup" are you referring to the new SSD? 2)After make the backup I must physically switch the drives and try to boot from the SSD? 3)In your last line, when you say "backup", are you talking about the hidden partitions or the whole process that you described?
    – E_Blue
    Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 17:49
  • I have explained the process in more detail. Location can be anywhere.
    – Bharat G
    Commented Aug 20, 2015 at 19:35

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