Cloning from SSHD Hybrid Drive (ST2000DX001-1CM164) to Samsung EVO 870 SSD

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This a long post but I thought the details would be helpful and cut down on the back and forth. I think (hope) it’ll be worth it for those interested in cloning.

Tried using Macrium Reflect 8 to clone my 7+ yr SSHD hybrid 2TB ST2000DX001-1CM164 drive ( 2TB, SATA 6GB/s 64MB Cache Solid State hybrid [SSD is only 8GB]) partitions (from 1-6, [no 4]) to new 2TB Samsung EVO 870.

Clone worked until the last (recovery) partition and showed Clone Failed Error 9, (cyclic redundancy failure [possibly related to Read failed – 23 error]). (I checked Macrium forums but they won’t let me post unless I have a paid product- didn’t see anything helpful there for this type of drive)

So I removed the “failed” partition from the Samsung EVO and used Samsung Migration directly. It cloned the 870 with 3 of the partitions including the main C: system drive. After setting the EVO as boot drive, it started up and has worked flawlessly.

I had originally intended to then clone the older HDD from the SSD and keep it internally as a replacement just-in-case drive along my usual regular image backup. I thought the hybrid SSD contained the boot files, etc. but the specs just show it listed with the 64MB cache.

I don’t know how the SSD on the hybrid worked without being a separate partition (or possibly just hidden) but perhaps it was part of the last (recovery) partition that was not cloned with Reflect. I can only conjecture that Samsung’s migration software eliminated the SSD partition since the EVO is a full SSD; and also not sure why one other partition (simply listed as OEM) was not included in the clone; based on how the Migration clone to SSD actually ended up, it seems unnecessary. The other two successfully cloned partitions were a 1GB recovery partition, and a 260MB EFI partition. The C: main partition is virtually identical to the orginal and works great, starts faster, much less lag.

So I was still wondering how to partition the hybrid drive from the EVO, when I noticed a lot of activity on the still active hybrid on startup. It seemed to settle down for a couple days, but now 5–6 days after the clone, I compared some folders and created a text file in my C: user/name/documents folder and found it duplicated in my user/documents/name folder on the hybrid drive. Likewise with some deletions I’d made to a particular folder: a complete match! Shortcuts to major apps/drives so far all work the same as with the new system EVO.

So it seems I’ve got a working self-updating ready-made clone already. Of course, I won’t be sure until I reset it as the system drive and fire it up but except for some minor changes, it’s the same drive as before, so no reason it wouldn’t work.

Lenovo K450e (circa Oct-Nov 2014); 4790 i7, with 32GB, Nvidia Geforce GTX 750TI. It’s been a solid work computer; the drive was just slowing down too much after 7+ years and it was time. The system as is won’t upgrade (normally) to Win 11 so I just wanted to have a few more years with it. Except for the lag from the hybrid drive, it’s essentially been a flawless workhorse. I have lots of external drives for multimedia, etc., so the drive is generally around 45% full, max.

I’d appreciate any feedback/comments on the clone I ended up with; the apparent unintended consequence of getting an incrementally updated working clone without trying; or is there something I’m missing that might cause problems down the road.

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Don’t clone.
Make a full image backup and create an MR bootable recovery USB.
Swap the disks around – new in, old out.
Boot from the recovery USB and restore the image. Remember to align the SSD.

If you can’t make an image due to CRC errors, try with MiniTool ShadowMaker free.

cheers, Paul

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Thanks Paul (now you’ve been thanked 3731 times) , but it’s already done.
My questions relate to the process as it exists now, what the implications of the changed partitions are, why the old drive is basically forming a real-time incremental backup of everything I do, etc.
I understand you probably don’t like cloning but several thousand clones later, I do—usually. What you’re offering is a double-imaging process which is way longer and more tedious than this needs to be. I was looking for an explanation if anyone has one for the specific questions related to my cloning from a particular hybrid to the SSD in question.
Anyone else willing to take this on?

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I was commenting on the failure to clone due to CRC errors. These means the disk is bad and about to die so getting a good copy is imperative.
I would attempt to wipe that disk and then junk it.

There is no SSD partition on a hybrid disk. The disk uses the SSD section as a cache to speed up the disk without intervention by Windows.
Cloning such a disk will quickly bypass the SSD cache and read direct from disk.

You have 3 partitions on the SSD because that is how Windows is set up by the OEM.
The small partition is the EFI boot.
The larger recovery is the files needed to revert to new.
The rest is the Windows installation on C drive – Windows OS, data etc.

I don’t understand how you think you have an updating clone.
Imaging is much better as it uses less disk space and allows multiple images / other backups as well.
(Again, I would not use the original disk, it is due to fail soon)

cheers, Paul

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I replied to this post yesterday and included a screen of my chkdsk results (no issues) but it seems to have disappeared. Moderator: Is there any record in the database?

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Sorry. I can find no record or it.
It’s not in the list of your past postings.
It’s not in either the Trash or the Spam folder.

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PK Cano: Thanks for checking!

BBearen:
Thanks for the additional info on the SSHD.  I read your other post and see that you used Windows Image for that. So do I for my regular backups. However, they’re not smaller than the used bytes on my drive. So don’t really know what you’re referring to when you say they’re much smaller than clones. My backups are virtually equal to the target drive—the same size as a clone. Perhaps your reference to Windows image was only for the other post? Are you using something else to make smaller (compressed?) images?  I was thinking of using Reflect or EaseUs next time around.

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David Byer wrote:

BBearen: Thanks for the additional info on the SSHD. I read your other post and see that you used Windows Image for that. So do I for my regular backups. However, they’re not smaller than the used bytes on my drive. So don’t really know what you’re referring to when you say they’re much smaller than clones.

You misread my reply.  The post I linked was “August 1, 2020 TeraByte Unlimited released an update, v3.41, for Image for Windows. It’s a free download for licensed users of 3.xx versions. A single license for home use allows installation on up to 5 PC’s, as always. I’ve been using TeraByte’s imaging software through its various evolutions for two decades, now, with not a single failure nor complaint.”

I did not use (and never have) Windows Image.  Image for Windows uses compression for the drive images it creates.  My OS partition is 100 GB, of which 37.9GB is used.  My OS drive image is 26.02GB, a 31.3% reduction in size.  Image for Windows offers compression options of “none” as well as nine different compression levels.  I use “Enhanced Speed A” (which is default) for quicker operation and, as noted, a 31.3% reduction in size.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

1 user thanked author for this post.

satrow

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I used to use Acronis but after ver 18 they made the utility a one shop cure everything.  You can buy Acronis 18 or earlier on Ebay – make a backup CD or whatever mode you can boot out of and either do the cloning out of the alternative media or the actual program whichever works for you

Also there are the duplicators that do sector by sector backup

Did this at work and at home and never had a failure

1 user thanked author for this post.

dmbyer

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Hi Rosie,

I used to use Acronis  a lot too.
But this is a very specific issue related to cloning from a hybrid to an SSD.
Simply looking for an explanation of why the Samsung software chose to clone the way it did, by leaving out two partitions; why the clone still works perfectly anyway; and why the old I hybrid drive—still plugged in—is copying files in parallel to the newly cloned drive.

Take care

 

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I bought a pair of 1TB Seagate SSHD’s in January, 2015 for my dual boot. Five and a half years later, when one of the SSHD’s gave me a hint of its age, and SSD prices started to come down, I transitioned to SSD’s.  The details are in this post.

As far as Windows is concerned, an SSHD is just another HDD. Windows does not see the SSD cache; the firmware in the drive and NTFS takes care of everything on that end of things.  Basically, Windows says to the drive, “Write this file”, and the drive says to Windows, “Got it.”  Later, when Windows says,  “Read this file to me”, the drive says, “Here it is.”

Bottom line is that I used drive images to make a painless transfer from SSHD’s to SSD’s. I don’t use cloning, preferring the smaller size of drive images. I can put several sets of drive images in the same space a single clone would take up.

Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.

We were all once "Average Users".

Computer Specs

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