How to Clone HDD to SSD in Lenovo Laptop (Bootable)
User Case
How do I clone HDD to SSD in Lenovo laptop?
You're trying to clone your original hard drive to a new SSD on your Lenovo G500, but it's not booting from the SSD. This is likely because the SSD is not set as the primary boot device in the BIOS or UEFI settings. To clone the HDD to SSD, you'll need to use a disk cloning software like Acronis True Image, EaseUS Todo Backup, or Macrium Reflect. These programs will create an exact copy of your original hard drive on the new SSD. After cloning, you'll need to enter the BIOS or UEFI settings and set the SSD as the primary boot device. This will allow your laptop to boot from the SSD instead of the original hard drive.
- Question from Reddit
The most common reason for this issue is that the boot order wasn't changed after cloning, or the disk cloning software failed to clone all the necessary data to boot Windows.
To ensure a secure and reliable clone HDD to SSD process, I recommend using a trustworthy software. Before starting, prepare the necessary steps, including detailed settings and follow-up configurations, to guarantee a successful transfer with secure boot enabled.
Procedure to clone Lenovo HDD to SSD
Cloning a hard drive is a direct way to copy OS and files to a Solid State Drive (SSD), and it's also useful for migration. I'll show you how to clone a disk in a Lenovo laptop based on two situations, which will be covered in the following steps.
Situation 1: laptop has more than one drive bay.
You can install the SSD alongside the old HDD, and use disk clone software to directly migrate all the data from HDD to SSD, then either replace HDD with SSD or keep SSD for OS and HDD for storage.
Sistutaion 2: laptop has only one drive bay.
To migrate your data from a traditional hard drive (HDD) to a solid-state drive (SSD), you can connect the SSD to your computer via a USB cable, then use disk clone software to create a copy of the HDD's contents on the SSD. Once the cloning process is complete, you can remove the internal HDD and replace it with the newly cloned SSD, effectively upgrading your storage to a faster and more efficient SSD.
Effecient and reliable disk cloning software
You can use Qiling Disk Master Professional to clone your Lenovo HDD to SSD, which can help you transfer your data and ensure a smooth security boot process. This software is designed to make the cloning process easy and quick, and it's a great option for those looking to upgrade their storage.
It has some significant advantages when cloning disk:
- Clone disks of different size: It's supported to clone larger HDD to smaller SSD, or clone SSD to larger SSD.
- Clone regardless of partition style or firmware: This software fully supports cloning MBR and GPT system disks.
- Edit partitions: To adjust the partition size and drive letter on the target disk, you can use the software to assign unallocated space on a larger disk and resolve cloned hard drive showing wrong size issues.
- SSD Alignment: Aligning the target SSD can improve its performance and extend its service life by ensuring that data is written and read from the correct locations on the drive, reducing wear and tear, and minimizing the risk of data loss.
- Sector By Sector Clone: Clone all sectors of a hard drive, including blank and logically bad sectors, to a target disk with equal or larger capacity.
To migrate a hard disk drive (HDD) to a solid state drive (SSD) on a Lenovo laptop, you can use these features to ensure a successful boot. These features will help you migrate your HDD to SSD and make sure your Lenovo laptop can boot successfully.
Preparations for Lenovo hard drive replacement
Example:
To use the 256 GB m.2 SSD as the boot drive on your ThinkPad T450s, you can install it in the 42mm m.2 socket, which is intended for a small-capacity cache SSD, and then configure the system to use it as the primary drive. This will give you a fast and efficient boot drive, while still allowing you to use the 2.5 inch bay for a larger hard drive or SSD if needed.
Preparations:
- The target SSD to receive the data.
- A screwdriver that fits the screws.
- Download and install Qiling Disk Master Professional.
Steps to install SSD in Lenovo:
To access the BIOS, restart your laptop and go to Config > Power > Disable built-in battery, then press F10 to save the changes and exit. This will turn the laptop off.
Remove the battery and pry the bottom off, then locate the M.2 slot (usually hidden under a plastic flap) and slide the M.2 SSD into it.
Steps to clone Lenovo laptop HDD to SSD
Here are the steps to clone a HDD to an SSD in one paragraph:
1. Launch Qiling Disk Master. Click Disk Clone at the main page of Clone. To clone only OS, click System Clone instead.
2. Select Lenovo HDD as the source disk and click Next. Then choose the new SSD as the target drive and click Next. If the new SSD has important data, back it up first.
3. Enable SSD Alignment to optimize SSD performance and click Proceed to execute the task.
Steps to backup HDD and restore to SSD on Lenovo laptop
In addition to disk cloning, you can also try creating a full image of the HDD, then restore it to the SSD.
To create a disk image with Qiling Disk Master:
Launch Qiling Disk Master, click Backup > Disk Backup, then click Disks to select the Lenovo hard drive, choose a destination to store the image and click Proceed.
To restore image to SSD with Qiling Disk Master:
To restore the entire disk, go to the Backup and recovery tab, select either Task or Image File, locate the backup image, and choose Restore the entire disk. Select the connected SSD as the destination, then click Next and Proceed.
Tips:
- If you only want to transfer the operating system, use System Backup to create a system image.
- If your Lenovo laptop won't boot, you can create a bootable media to boot the laptop and perform backup and restore operations in a pre-OS environment called WinPE.
How to boot the Lenovo PC from the target SSD
If your Lenovo laptop only has one slot, you can simply shut down the PC, remove the existing HDD, and install the SSD in its place.
If you have multiple slots, you can keep the HDD as a secondary storage. To do this, you'll need to restart your PC, enter the BIOS by pressing a specific key, change the SSD as the first boot option, save the settings by pressing F10, and then check if your Lenovo computer will boot from the SSD.
If you're planning to reuse the old HDD, you can also wipe the old HDD with the Disk Wipe feature of Qiling Disk Master.
Wrapping things up
To ensure your SSD is bootable, consider cloning your Lenovo laptop's HDD to the SSD if your laptop has multiple drive bays, or backing up the HDD to the SSD if there's only one drive bay. Cloning is a more straightforward process than backup and restore, and using the "Disk Clone" or "System Clone" feature can make it even easier.
To protect unlimited computers within your company, you can use Qiling Disk Master Technician, which allows you to deploy/restore system image files on multiple client-side computers over a network using its built-in Qiling Image Deploy tool.
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