From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On Sat, 1/10/2026 9:50 AM, Steve wrote:   
      
   >   
   > I needed to take a few days off. I found myself (just one day) waking up at   
   4 AM   
   > thinking about this and then not being able to get back to sleep. I just   
   started to   
   > reply to a few of your comments this morning.   
   >   
   > Here's the thing... when this computer was still pretty new, the original   
   hard drive   
   > started making some different noises. I feared it might fail and got advice   
   on what   
   > was a very dependable new hard drive. I settled on the Western Digital drive   
   that   
   > I have been using for maybe 12 years now.   
   >   
   > I bought that drive and transferred everything over and took out the   
   original drive.   
   >   
   > After all this time, I don't remember how I did it but it was super easy.   
   > I fully expected that switching over to the new SSD would also be super easy.   
   >   
   > Obviously that has not been the case.   
   > I'm not giving up. There are still more things I can try.   
      
   Early on in the life of your PC, you used a Factory Restore   
   of some sort, to unpack a fresh OS onto the disk. Perhaps   
   you were clever, and even used the "three DVD set" they make   
   you burn, which does the Factory Restore on anything. It is   
   my guess, that's how you did the "easy put-something-on-disk",   
   but you still needed to move your files across. That does not   
   count as cloning. But it does give a working OS.   
      
   > I used the drag and drop method and moved everything Macrium showed in the   
   original hard drive.   
      
   You picked the hard way. Good as a learning exercise.   
   Not good for sleeping at 4AM.   
      
   *******   
      
   Samsung Magician: Carry out the steps, tell it to copy C: (which is already in   
   the menu and   
                     cannot be prevented from being copied). I tested it. It is   
   actually doing   
                     the WBAdmin.exe algo for "copying ALL critical things". The   
   GUI lies about   
                     what it is copying. It copies everything needed to make   
   bootable media.   
                     I tested my clone (cloned a 256GB SSD to a 1TB SSD) and the   
   target disk booted.   
      
   Macrium Reflect Clone:  Drag and Drop style.   
     [HARDEST METHOD]      This typically results in boot failure, and can be   
   fixed with the   
                           Macrium Reflect Rescue CD (prepared inside the tool   
   you installed on C: ).   
      
   Macrium Reflect Clone:  The "dont-interfere-with-the-tool" method.   
                           The Macrium Reflect "Backup: Backup Windows" option,   
   shows you the   
                           tick boxes for a Critical Items operation. You can   
   cancel out of there   
                           and tick the *same* partitions while doing the "hands   
   off clone".   
      
   You picked the hardest method.   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)