Clone partition

Truffle_Snuffler

I have an old laptop which I'm trying to speed up. I'm thinking of fitting an SSD drive. At the moment, my old HD has Windows on one partition & Linux Mint on another. This was done as Windows had slowed to the point where it was virtually unusable (it's a old machine with a Celeron 1.6 Ghz processor but it's just used for a bit of internet surfing & emails)



I'd like to dump the Windows & just clone the Linux partition onto the new SSD. Would the SSD come with software to do this or will I have to use something like G-parted? Is it just a case of plugging the new drive into something like an external USB caddy (which I've already got) then selecting the correct partition & copying it over? Thanks.

Neil_Jones

For technical reasons I won't bore you with its not normally possible just to clone a particular partition; the boot manager (for Windows and/or Linux) will be expecting certain things in certain places and will refuse to boot either installation.

It may be far more beneficial just to get an SSD, stick it in the laptop, install Linux Mint as a new installation and then put the old drive in a USB caddy to copy any data over.

Frozen_up_north

I’ve cloned Windows HDD drives to SSD drives using Acronis, which is a free restricted use download when buying an SSD from Crucial UK. I think it copies the whole drive “as is” to the SSD. You can clone to a smaller drive, provided there is sufficient space, eg 90GB used on a 340GB HDD will clone to a 250GB SSD.

On the Crucial web site there is a compatibility check utility that can be useful to ensure you get something that will fit.

Ask Crucial about cloning the Linux partition. They have a live “chat” on their web page: https://uk.crucial.com/

steviebuk

Or try Macriun reflect. The free version lets you clone the drive as is. Then pop in the ssd once done. Once in just set Linux as the main boot. You should then be able to get rid of Windows. I don't know Linux enough to know where to set it as the main boot though but I'm sure it will be possible.

Truffle_Snuffler

Thanks for the replies & apologies for the delay in getting back to you.
Looks like the easiest way will be to just install a new Linux OS. There's not much on the old drive that I need to save/transfer but I just thought that cloning the partition might be easier than setting up the email accounts & PWs etc.

Norman_Castle

Truffle_Snuffler wrote: »

I just thought that cloning the partition might be easier than setting up the email accounts & PWs etc.

In firefox and I expect other browsers you can save and transfer your profile which includes passwords and settings.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/back-and-restore-information-firefox-profiles


Google how to move your browsers profile.

Neil_Jones

Any browser that uses profiles (Firefox, Chrome, Opera to name but three and their derivatives) can be transferred to and from other installations on the same operating platform (ie Windows).

If you're going from Windows to Linux or vice versa, you shouldn't just copy the entire profile:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1235832#answer-1160540

While Linux has a much smaller number of illegal filename characters compared to Windows, its also case sensitive, so 'FRED' is not the same as 'Fred' or 'fred' as it would be under Windows.
https://stackoverflow.com/a/31976060