From: Hank@nospam.invalid   
      
   Graham J wrote on 12/19/2025 2:45 PM:   
   > Steve wrote:   
   >   
   > [snip]   
   >   
   >> So do I give up and consider the new ssd a waste of time and money?   
   >> Can anyone think of a work around to make this work?   
   >   
   > When I've done this I've bought the SSD from Crucial.  It came with a   
   > link to install Acronis True Image, for free.   
   >   
   > Installed Acronis.  Connected the SSD via a USB to SATA adapter. Acronis   
   > only finds the SSD when the USB cable is plugged into a front USB socket   
   > - this is on a OptiPlex 3020 Small Form Factor I5-4570.  So it's fussy!   
   >   
   > Run Acronis to clone the HDD to the SSD - completes OK.   
   >   
   > Remove HDD, fit SSD in its place.  Boot: works as expected.   
   >   
   > However, in the past I've tried repeating the process, and it fails.   
   > Acronis appears to require a factory formatted SSD which apparently   
   > contains a key to allow Acronis to work.  Without this key, it would be   
   > necessary to buy the Acronis software.   
   >   
      
   There's a half dozen image softwares that work just as well and are   
   free.  I use the free version of macrium reflect, but there are several   
   others. These programs don't care what brand the disk drives are, or   
   anything else for that matter.   
      
   I prefer booting a restore flash usb containing the imaging software (so   
   windows is not running), then taking an image of the source drive,   
   saving it on another usb drive. Then I switch out the drives, replacing   
   the old drive with the new one.  Then simply restore the saved image to   
   the new drive and reboot the computer.  Sometimes using the "clone"   
   function will cause a conflict because it will have the same disk   
   Identifier numbers. You can fix it, but it's one less step fiddling around.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)