Which partition tool will best suit these jobs

[Bill Shannon]

I amgoing to clone my drive C win 10 22h2 and replace the drive I also need to clone same drive win 10 for my new win 11 computer and during the process I will need to change the registeration number. which tool is easy and will clone all 4 partitions I have on drive c recovery, os. primary partition and another primary partition that I would love to also remove. I last used partiom magic version 7 or 8 with win 7 so I'm a bit out of the loop. Thankyou I have these options at my finger tips.

• EaseUS Todo Backup
• Acronis True Image
• Clonezilla
• Macrium Reflect
• Paragon Drive Copy Professional
• AOMEI Backupper
• MiniTool Partition Wizard
• Active@ Disk Image
• Iperius Backup
• Symantec Ghost Solution Suite
• DriveImage XML
• O&O Disk Image

 

[Bighorn]

I use none on your list, for several years I've done hardware cloning. I use an Eaxer USB 3 Drive Dock, dual bays for 2.5" and 3.5" SATA drives, both HDD and SSD. It cannot be connected to any computer for the cloning, does a byte for byte copy. It clones a Source drive to a same-size or larger-size Destination drive, mostly used when putting in a larger drive.

And I've not done drives that were intended to go into a different computer as that may mess up the Activation since essentially will be working with new computers/different motherboards.

For Symantec, I've pretty much stayed away from that brand after they got involved with Norton and started doing away with some programs I found useful but their replacements not so much. I have Macrium Reflect on a couple of older computers and it appears to do good backups.

 

[Bill Shannon]

I just did it with Todo was easy but it will be very interecting how the drives run when I put them in the new computer and also when I put a new drive in this one. any suggestions on how to install the right drivers might need to do wa recovery online pretty much as soon as I start it. I need the software so my other win 10 key will work had it about 6-7 years got both discs at the same time so they should be compatable. guess I better look up how to change windows key next and change it. I guess with drivers I could get some and just dump them in the directory or could boot of the win 10 disc I have it should have the adequate drivers to start up the other computer.

 

[Bighorn]

guess I better look up how to change windows key next and change

For that look in System [right-click of the Start button], will be a place where that can be done. Only problem I've had with doing it [going from Home to Pro] is the key has to come from either OEM or Retail. OEM computers that come with Win8 and later have the key built-in, most likely in the BIOS and hard to retrieve it but there are Windows-based programs available that can. The Windows software can distinguish between Home and Pro [haven't worked with Enterprise and Education to know about them].

OEM is designed to stay with the brand and only that computer it came with, the Retail can be used on a Replacement computer, but not both at the same time. Some branded versions can be used only with the same brand hardware, my first experience some time ago with that was trying to use a Dell WinXP disc with an HP machine.

One thing I like with the hardware clone is it does not care about files that can't be otherwise copied, gets them without any nagging/prompting, makes simple copying a lot easier. I do a file/error checking in File Explorer first.

 

[Bill Shannon]

I have a new 2004 win 10 with sticker and code so should be ok I'll just use the repair disc I have and change licence number if not I'll start from scratch. also bought another number online so I have 2 new numbers to choose from. gotta do it soon before win 10 service is gone

 

[Bighorn]

gotta do it soon before win 10 service is gone

Win10 version is 22H2 which probably is the last major Upgrade but there should continue to be updates to that, especially for security features/issues. EOL/End Of Life for Win10 has been announced by Microsoft as Oct. 14, 2025.

 

[yodap]

Minitool free version (my go to for a long time) stripped cloning after version10. Currently 12.7.
Paid version only after that.
Search for version ten and you can find it. It’s fully functional.

 

[Bill Shannon]

Todo I paid for a year. should have paid the lifetime. if it works well I might start repairing computers again been 20 years since I was repairing them and win 10 has made everyone lazy including me especially. I had fun last night and bought another hdd so I will have plenty of drives. shame hdds arent more easily recognised I use different size drives to identify which drive is my boot drive.

 

[Bighorn]

shame hdds arent more easily recognised I use different size drives to identify which drive is my boot drive.

I do the USB Thumb drives nearly the same to show their capacity in File Explorer and its predecessor Windows Explorer, same for the old File Manager [that can be run in Win10/11]. For both Internal and External drives Device Manager, Disk Drives should show some information such as model name and number.

 

[The Shadow 2023]

Since 1997, I've used Nothing but Ghost for all my drive backups and Cloning. Never fails.
Today, I run the old DOS Version of Ghost 11.5, run from either a bootable Flash Drive, CD or SD Memory Card.
It will back up any version of Windows, Server, Linux or even a data disk with no OS at all.

In fact, I'm running Windows 11/Pro/64, 22H2 on this PC. But Windows was actually installed on a totally different PC, and this 500GB SSD is a clone off of that PC. Once the SSD was installed on this desktop PC, it took only a few minutes for it to settle in and make itself at home. It carried with it, all my programs and data files from the parent PC. That saved me a lot of legwork.

I find Windows 11, like several versions before it, to be very flexible about where it lives. Windows itself has installed most of the drivers for this new PC. It even identified my Epson printer, but for best operation I've installed the full support package, from Epson. The only commonality between the parent PC and this one, is the AMD processor. All other hardware is different.

As for HD partitioning, etc., I have used the Mini Tool and EaseUS partitioning software, depending on just what operation I need to do. Not every Partitioning Software does all operations equally well.
Some programs that I've tried in the past, have failed miserably to meet my needs and specifications.

Good Luck,
Shadow

 

[Bill Shannon]

This todo can get you in trouble trying to clone 3 drives onto one hdd without partitioning first doesn't work then you need to wipe the drive clean with rescue. what a pain then they want a ridiclous prie for partition software which in my mind should have been in todo cloning and backup software I hate been milked. so I went back to storage mananger and created 3 partitions on my 8tb drive then just coppied the files across from my f,g,h drives. I only needed the clone software for my c drive and partions which did clone across sucessfully this is why I thought the clone tool could merg 3 hdd onto one drive which it cannot do. very unprofessional. For a while I thought my brand new 8tb drive was destinfor the bin had I not wiped it never used rescue before it worked well but the clone software should have been capable of removing partitions it created.

 

[Bill Shannon]

Since 1997, I've used Nothing but Ghost for all my drive backups and Cloning. Never fails.
Today, I run the old DOS Version of Ghost 11.5, run from either a bootable Flash Drive, CD or SD Memory Card.
It will back up any version of Windows, Server, Linux or even a data disk with no OS at all.

In fact, I'm running Windows 11/Pro/64, 22H2 on this PC. But Windows was actually installed on a totally different PC, and this 500GB SSD is a clone off of that PC. Once the SSD was installed on this desktop PC, it took only a few minutes for it to settle in and make itself at home. It carried with it, all my programs and data files from the parent PC. That saved me a lot of legwork.

I find Windows 11, like several versions before it, to be very flexible about where it lives. Windows itself has installed most of the drivers for this new PC. It even identified my Epson printer, but for best operation I've installed the full support package, from Epson. The only commonality between the parent PC and this one, is the AMD processor. All other hardware is different.

As for HD partitioning, etc., I have used the Mini Tool and EaseUS partitioning software, depending on just what operation I need to do. Not every Partitioning Software does all operations equally well.
Some programs that I've tried in the past, have failed miserably to meet my needs and specifications.

Good Luck,
Shadow

cloning the system and putting it in another machine did you need to change the license number if yes was it in system in the control panel that you changed it. --- will a win 10 pro product key get my win 11 home upgraded to win 11 pro?

 

[Bighorn]

will a win 10 pro product key get my win 11 home upgraded to win 11 pro

It did for going from Win10 Home to Win10 Pro several times, don't know of any reason it shouldn't also work with Win11.

did you need to change the license number if yes was it in system in the control panel that you changed it

Usually the Win10, Win11 and older Win8/8.1 OEM installs have the code in the BIOS and it gets picked up during the initial install. If manually changing the key look in System [right-click of the Start button], can also check activation there.