# Can I restore an SSD image to a normal hard drive disk



## BloodTotal (Dec 25, 2012)

Originally I was thinking of doing 2 SSDs in raid 1, but then I thought that I could just backup my ssd to an image every once in a while, and in case of failure, I could just restore that image to another ssd. 

But can I restore that image to a normal harddrive?


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## cadaveca (Dec 25, 2012)

BloodTotal said:


> Originally I was thinking of doing 2 SSDs in raid 1, but then I thought that I could just backup my ssd to an image every once in a while, and in case of failure, I could just restore that image to another ssd.
> 
> But can I restore that image to a normal harddrive?



Yes, without any problems, too. I do the same all the time.

If you have a Western Digital or Seagate HDD(even a WD USB external), you can get a copy of Acronis for free from the drive maker's website that will make cloning the drives really easy.


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## Jstn7477 (Dec 25, 2012)

The idea is sound, but beware if you restore to a hard drive and want to go back to SSDs that are smaller than that hard drive will prevent you from cloning from the drive back to the SSDs even if the total size of the partitions is small enough to fit onto the SSDs. I ran into that when my 120GB SSD died, used a fresh install on a hard drive for a month and wanted to drop the 90GB system image onto my 240GB SSD. Still haven't found a workaround for that.


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## Norton (Dec 25, 2012)

Jstn7477 said:


> The idea is sound, but beware if you restore to a hard drive and want to go back to SSDs that are smaller than that hard drive will prevent you from cloning from the drive back to the SSDs even if the total size of the partitions is small enough to fit onto the SSDs. I ran into that when my 120GB SSD died, used a fresh install on a hard drive for a month and wanted to drop the 90GB system image onto my 240GB SSD. Still haven't found a workaround for that.



I believe you can do that with Acronis True Image. I used the free version from Western Digital to clone a laptop drive over to a larger laptop drive.


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## lyndonguitar (Dec 25, 2012)

Norton said:


> I believe you can do that with Acronis True Image. I used the free version from Western Digital to clone a laptop drive over to a larger laptop drive.



Yes you can do this. I've also used Acronis and I cloned my 160GB to my 500GB. and when I upgraded I cloned that same OS installation in the 500GB to a 1TB drive.

I'm sure SSDs will work too


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## Jstn7477 (Dec 25, 2012)

What I was saying was the reverse, cloning a 500GB drive with 90GB of actual data to a 240GB SSD. Can't restore a 90GB system image made by Windows to my 240GB SSD because I installed Windows on a 500GB HDD.


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## lyndonguitar (Dec 25, 2012)

Jstn7477 said:


> What I was saying was the reverse, cloning a 500GB drive with 90GB of actual data to a 240GB SSD. Can't restore a 90GB system image made by Windows to my 240GB SSD because I installed Windows on a 500GB HDD.



partition the files on the 500GB into two drives. so there will be two partitions, 150GB(OS and files) and 350GB(empty).

then clone the 150GB to the 240GB SSD


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## BloodTotal (Dec 25, 2012)

I just want all of my data to be backed up in case of something going wrong. I want to have an ssd as my main drive for the speed it offers. If I make an image of the ssd, that means I can have a backup of that ssd, and I can even have a working backup on another drive, if I restore it to that drive, and boot from it. So this effectively keeps all my programs and stuff working in case something goes wrong with the ssd. Furthermore, I can save documents on 2 drives when I'm working on something, and I can somehow configure a game to save to two places, or just code a program to copy the save games folder to another drive every bootup or every day at a certain time. I would effectively have two copies of everything on the ssd. Much cheaper than RAID 1. What do you think?

what do you all think of this?



lyndonguitar said:


> partition the files on the 500GB into two drives. so there will be two partitions, 150GB(OS and files) and 350GB(empty).
> 
> then clone the 150GB to the 240GB SSD



Have you tried this before?


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## lyndonguitar (Dec 25, 2012)

BloodTotal said:


> Have you tried this before?



nope, but theoretically it should work. someone correct me if i'm wrong

partition the files on the 500GB into two drives. so there will be two partitions, 150GB(OS and files) and 350GB(empty). = this works

then clone the 150GB to the 240GB SSD = this works

EDIT: I'm using Jstn7477's post as a basis


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## OneMoar (Dec 25, 2012)

Windows imaging wont Acronis Will


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## BloodTotal (Dec 25, 2012)

I wonder if there are any drawbacks with using Acronis. Corrupt files. Maybe other issues. 

Have any of you experienced any?


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## Bo$$ (Dec 25, 2012)

I used Paragon from moving from a small to a large SSD went great without a hitch


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