Need some recommendations for windows cloning.

[em132]

I've often had issues with cloning using Windows software.

Booting from a "friendly" Linux live USB (e.g. Mint MATE) and using GParted to do direct partition copies always does the trick for me. It's actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. You just have to make sure to match up the partition serial numbers, otherwise the OS likely won't boot.

[sam_sam_sam]

You just have to make sure to match up the partition serial numbers, otherwise the OS likely won't boot.

Can you please explain this in more details about what you are talking about and how you do what you are taking about and what software are you referring to because I am looking for a solution for a couple of older computers that I want to install Windows 7 and make clone drives for them to be able to restore them when needed

[em132]

I use this simple tool, XXCLONE (Cool Tools -> Duplicate Vol. ID), to check if the volume IDs match, and do a copy (source to target) if they don't. You can do this within Windows. I'm sure other cloning software have a similar tool.

(BTW, partition serial number = "Volume ID")

[stj]

it's usually called the UUID

[sam_sam_sam]

EM132

I will give this a try “https://xxclone.en.lo4d.com/windows” and see how well it works on a HP elite 8300 that I have the recovery disk for but how I am going to test this software is to copy all of the files and reinstall them on another hard drive that has been formatted and see how well this works before I do this on the laptop that I am trying to restore with a brand new image because the original image got corrupted and was not recoverable so I just used a Window 7 install disk but it updated to Windows 10 which is not what I am wanting to use