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Upgrading x230 from hdd to ssd.

X230-X280, X390 Series
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onespeedbiker
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Upgrading x230 from hdd to ssd.

#1 Post by onespeedbiker » Fri Aug 30, 2019 6:47 pm

What is it about the X230? My first try was to clone my hdd to a sdd with Partition Master but the ssd would not boot (using f12 boot menu). I then put the hdd in a USB exterior case and the sdd in the laptop; for a moment it looked like the USB hdd was going to boot, but then I got a blue screen and it shut off. Well heck. I bought the X230 recently as refurbished, meaning there is little to noting on the hdd, so I figured I'd create a USB recovery media and recover to the ssd. Nope, received some error message about the boot/bcd. Then came the successful install. I had heard recovery media often does not work with USB 3 and I had installed the recovery files on a 3.0 USB; further the X230 does not have a 2.0 USB that I know of (I tried the yellow plug and received the same error), so, I remade the recovery media on a 2.0 USB (fit on a 16gb USB), I booted the USB and after some error messages, it asked if i wanted to boot from the USB. I clicked yes and the recovery on the ssd was successful and Windows 7 booted when it was finished; all that was needed was to set it up again. From the error messages at the beginning of the boot with the 2.0 USB, I believe the issue has something to do with the boot manager. The X230 has a docking station available that has a DVD port; both of which I have ordered. My guess is using recovery DVD's would probably be much less problematic, but it would have been nice if the cloning had worked.

axur-delmeria
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Re: Upgrading x230 from hdd to ssd.

#2 Post by axur-delmeria » Sat Aug 31, 2019 2:18 am

I've done a bit of cloning, and IIRC I boot from a USB flash disk (I use Linux-based cloning software), put the SSD in the laptop, and the HDD in a USB 3.0 enclosure. Another method is to use a desktop PC and connect both HDD and SSD to SATA (instead of USB), and clone from there.
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onespeedbiker
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Re: Upgrading x230 from hdd to ssd.

#3 Post by onespeedbiker » Sat Aug 31, 2019 10:01 am

As I explained, I tried the first way and could not get the OS hdd to boot as an exterior USB hdd. The error was it could not find the boot information which was present but for some reason the X230 was blind to it. As I as discussed, I had no problem cloning the ssd from my X230, the problem was the subsequent cloned ssd would not boot. I figure it is either something in the boot manager or the cloning software; easeUS Partition Master.

axur-delmeria
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Re: Upgrading x230 from hdd to ssd.

#4 Post by axur-delmeria » Sat Aug 31, 2019 8:02 pm

Have your tried other cloning software?
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onespeedbiker
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Re: Upgrading x230 from hdd to ssd.

#5 Post by onespeedbiker » Sat Aug 31, 2019 11:28 pm

Thanks for your continued interest. That would have been my next step had the second recovery USB had not worked. Also the docking station and DVD units arrived today, so I would have also tried recovery disks, as they seem to be less trouble then USBs. OTOH, I may try to use another program and clone the hard drive, just to see if it's Partition Master or not that failed.

ajkula66
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Re: Upgrading x230 from hdd to ssd.

#6 Post by ajkula66 » Sun Sep 01, 2019 12:49 am

I'm not a fan of cloning - especially from HDD to SSD - but when one must do it, Clonezilla is my weapon of choice.
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Re: Upgrading x230 from hdd to ssd.

#7 Post by jdhurst » Sun Sep 01, 2019 6:05 am

I have an X230 spare machine. To change the hard drive (no SSD), I had to use the Docking Station and DVD. My USB DVD player would not work.

My X230 is still running fine with Windows 10 1903 pre-release (future Windows)

axur-delmeria
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Re: Upgrading x230 from hdd to ssd.

#8 Post by axur-delmeria » Sun Sep 01, 2019 9:01 am

ajkula66 wrote:
Sun Sep 01, 2019 12:49 am
I'm not a fan of cloning - especially from HDD to SSD - but when one must do it, Clonezilla is my weapon of choice.
Same here. I have a somewhat recent version of Clonezilla in my external SSD with Debian 9.0 installed. I used it the other day, but did the reverse: clone an SSD to HDD. :lol:
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Re: Upgrading x230 from hdd to ssd.

#9 Post by w0qj » Sun Sep 01, 2019 10:41 am

We also have the X230 with Win7 Home 64-bit.
(It was a 500 GB 2.5" SATA SSD, if you are interested to know).

We have successfully upgraded from HDD>>SSD using the X230 Product Recovery DVD set.
It went very smoothly!

We also prefer to do a fresh reinstall, and not cloning.
ymmv.

Good luck!
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skx
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Re: Upgrading x230 from hdd to ssd.

#10 Post by skx » Tue Sep 03, 2019 9:17 am

It´s best to clone the whole drive and not just a specific partition.
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JPOESQ
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Re: Upgrading x230 from hdd to ssd.

#11 Post by JPOESQ » Wed Sep 04, 2019 8:29 am

Macrium is my favorite cloning software. I’ve used it to switch to SSD for the X230 and multiple M93p tiny desktops.
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onespeedbiker
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Re: Upgrading x230 from hdd to ssd.

#12 Post by onespeedbiker » Thu Sep 12, 2019 10:15 am

I'm pretty sure the cloning failure had to do with EaseUS Partition Master cloning utility. I downloaded a trail version of EaseUS TODO Backup and it cloned a booting version of the X230 hardrive (ssd->hdd).

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Re: Upgrading x230 from hdd to ssd.

#13 Post by Dragunov » Mon Sep 16, 2019 12:26 pm

ajkula66 wrote:
Sun Sep 01, 2019 12:49 am
I'm not a fan of cloning - especially from HDD to SSD - but when one must do it, Clonezilla is my weapon of choice.
I use Macrium Reflect.

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