Has anyone successfully cloned a Windows 10 HD?

[fppilot 4,360]

I have spent two full days trying to protect the honestly meager time I have invested in a migration from a Windows 7 HD to a  reliable Windows 10 system. I have fought a myriad of small and subjective issues in doing so, but despite the failings of Microsoft and Saitek, I navigated, with a handful of work arounds, to to a seemingly usable Win 10 and FSX system. 

 

My ability with Seagate (Acronis provided) Disc Wizard to clone a reliably boot-able reserve hard disk to fall back on to protect the countless hours I have invested in the installations and configurations pertaining to flight simulation has been crucial. It is paramount to my maintenance of my system. Period.

 

I have with my Windows 7 system been 100% successful in creating a sequence of two reliable boot-able clone backups, one at 30 days and one at 60 days, which I rotate into and out of my system to protect my investment. 

 

With Windows 10, I have been zero percent (0%) successful in creating a reliable boot-able clone to fall back on should I encounter a serious issue with my primary drive. I estimate I have spent about 20 hours in frustration. I upgraded to the full Acronis Total Image software and my efforts there resulted in the same failures.

 

Anyone else have success?

[fppilot 4,360]

Silence is golden. Late this afternoon I remounted my 7/31/15 Windows 7 system clone and that is what I will use. Cloning success is key to me. Also the continued lack of problem-solving Saitek drivers was a significant factor.

 

I have beefs with the way the new Edge browser handled my bookmark imports, and with the limited ability to tastefully tailor Win 10 desktop themes. Most notably application title bar and text colors. All of the title bar color options are so dark the black text isn't readable! I'm sure someone will provide tweaks to provide more options. You know, Microsoft must be jealous of Apple in regard to "jailbreaking"!

[wwdavis 44]

I have cloned 3 of my windows 10 hard drives for backups. I use Casper.  No problem.  All came out great.

[fppilot 4,360]

 

 

I have cloned 3 of my windows 10 hard drives for backups. I use Casper.  No problem.  All came out great.

 

Do you have to mount the clone to the same cable the source HD was connected to in order to get it to work?

[wwdavis 44]

I have SATA cables for the drives on my computer.The cloned drive will work on the computer the drive was cloned from and can operate sucessfully when connected to any unused SATA cable that is available on that computer. It does not have to be connected to the same cable the failed drive was attached to.   

[greggerm 312]

Clonezilla - free, functional, and perfect for this. Note that I don't "clone" my drives by the strict sense of the word, but I do image them.

 

I boot Clonezilla off a USB drive, and I use Clonezilla to create an image file onto one of my internal storage drives. I've got my standard Windows 7 build image, a "virgin" Windows 10 with no customizations at all, and another Windows 10 image with some essential applications and customizations. 

 

I've bounced back and forth between my Windows 7 and Windows 10 builds more times than I can count. I've also "reset" Windows from a highly customized production build back to an earlier version after I borked up some things.

 

It's not a "pretty" app, but it has been 100% reliable for me.

[sluggy 3]

Windows Home Server 2011 has had no dramas backing up a 4x SSD, 1 HDD Win10 Pro x64 each night.

 

I love my server. :wub:

 

Cheers, SLuggy

[Simmer2050 28]

I use  acronis as well, its ok, cloud backup which I took 1 year subscription is crap , too slow.

 

Acronis cloud too slow for even incremental backup of p3d folder, not  even the system.

 

 

Thanks for heads up regards possible issues with acronis on win10, aside from cloud failings, it works great on most other stuff.

[fppilot 4,360]

I downloaded the free version of AOEMI Partition Assistant and successfully cloned my Win 10 system HD on the first try. Don't know what the issue is with Acronis Total Image 2015 on my system.  Invested way too much time in trying to get it to work. Have requested a refund.

 

Over the past four years I have successfully used Seagate DiscWizard (mini version of Acronis) to clone my Windows 7 system drive.  Been using V 11, which is five years old. I had trouble with later versions of DiscWizard and thought perhaps the full Acronis TI would overcome the issues.  It did not.

[Jetman67 517]

I use farstone total recovery pro to image win10, works great

[fppilot 4,360]

 

 

've bounced back and forth between my Windows 7 and Windows 10 builds more times than I can count. I've also "reset" Windows from a highly customized production build back to an earlier version after I borked up some things.

 

Back and forth here a lot. Insecurity on my part. That and Saitek's huge fumble! My latest is that now that I know I can successfully clone, my internet security suite is stalling during its update. More hair pulling, and another sequence of pull the HD and put the Windows 7 HD back in place.  At least I am fortunate enough to have a case with slide in cold-swap HD bays.

 

I have never since the first version of Windows had a smooth upgrade over a previous version. This might be the best of those experiences, but I sense MS is messing with us a bit due to "our" overwhelming dissatisfaction with the UI of Windows 8. 

[Bobsk8 12,677]

I don't have windows 10, but I do use macrium Reflect on my windows 7 and it is foolproof and has saved files that I would have lost several times. It works with windows 10.   http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

[CyberMike 18]

dd from Ubuntu, as easy as it gets.

[fppilot 4,360]

My latest is that now that I know I can successfully clone, my internet security suite is stalling during its update.

 

 

So did some research tonight and read up on Windows 10's enhanced Windows Defender. Removed my 3rd party internet security suite this evening and let Defender take over. Now after 10 days of hair pulling, much getting a reliable FSX under Windows 10, my migration seems to be stable.  Except for villain Saitek! And the boot time with Hybrid Shutdown has been cut more than in half!

 

Should I have said that?

[outlaw2001it 0]

I don't have windows 10, but I do use macrium Reflect on my windows 7 and it is foolproof and has saved files that I would have lost several times. It works with windows 10.   http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Have to totally agree. Been using Macrium Reflect on my rig, and wife's laptop for many years...no problems what so ever. Macrium Reflect free version is great, as it does everything that the paid version does...minus a few it would be nice to have options. Using the free version on my media center computer, have the paid version on my rig, and wife's laptop.

Going back to the Macrium Reflect...not only does it clone/image hard drives/partitions (Full/Differential/Incremental)...it also gives you chance to schedule backups.

Hope that this helped.

                                             Take Care

                                                   J.R.