Cloning a drive: Want to ensure Dell partition is also cloned

[xmfan]

I bought a refurb dell optiplex. upon turning on, it went through the process of installing windows 10 from scratch. All done. Looks like Dell provides a windows install onto one of the partitions on the hard drive.

Question: What would be the best approach in cloning a drive? I would like to preserve that 'Dell' Partition on the hard drive so in the event I need to reinstall windows 10, I can do it using that internal partition.
I read up that windows 10 has the capability to create an image and a boot disk. That should allow me to do a restore. If I use the built in Windows 10 tool, will the Dell partition also get imaged (then restored) ?


thank you !

 

[sebastiantombs]

Instead of worrying about that Dell partition and a Windows install from there if you ever need to reinstall Win10 you can use a thumb drive and the media creation tool to put the boot files on the thumb drive. The whole point of a clean install is to eliminate things like that Dell partition and the bloatware they like to add to Windows. An install from a thumb drive like that is about a fifteen minute process. Of course all the updates take a lot longer.

Alternately, you can create a bootable DVD, assuming there's a DVD drive, and download a full image of Windows onto it along with a boot partition.

I've used both methods and like the thumb drive. Neat. clean and fast. Of course the thumb drive method needs an internet connection to get all the needed files.

 

[Mike A.]

The Windows key is maintained in the BIOS. It will pick it up automatically as you likely saw when you did the new install. You don't need the Dell Recovery stuff. You can set up your own clean recovery in a variety of ways.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

Another option.... download clonezilla and create bootable disc (of clonezilla).

create image of entire drive. Be sure to have a spare drive available to save the created image to

 

[wittaj]

Yep, you should use the media creation tool and install a clean version of Windows without the bloatware right NOW. Do not use the version that loaded when you turned it on.

Last thing you want is to get BI all working and have a memory leak from the internal Intel graphics card and the Dell bloatware not let you install a different version. It happens all the time...look it up here, the Dell and HP drivers can sometimes not play nice and no way to fix it without starting over.

 

[NielK]

If you do want to clone a drive, I've found Macrium Reflect to be a rock solid backup/restore program that also does drive cloning. There is even a free version of it (link: Reflect Free Edition).

 

[xmfan]

@sebastiantombs. @Mike A. @SpacemanSpiff @wittaj @NielK
Thank you all for the great feedback. I went the route of getting a new drive. The nvme SSD drive 500GB was delivered today. Got it installed as well as reinstalled windows 10 pro from scratch.

All set with the windows OS, Dell drivers and firmware BIOS updates.

Next, I'm now shopping for a surveillance hard drive. I've posted that question in a new thread.

 

[TonyR]

After all the headaches endured and time spent installing DOS and Windows on PC's since '83, I have to say installing Win 10 from a flash drive using the MS Media Creation Tool is like a dream. What used to take an hour or more (if all went right) and having to swap a dozen floppies in/out now takes me usually 15 minutes.

The older I get the simpler I like for things to be and the flash drive method gets my vote for the most important innovation of the 21st century...well, maybe that's going too far, so let's say I really like it. And having the Product Key embedded in the BIOS is nice, too...remember when you had to call an 800 number on the phone and speak with a courteous but not native-English-speaking agent, tell her/him your code and then they'd give you an equally long number code to type in to activate Windows? What a PITA!

 

[TVille]

Trusting MS to allow you to install Windows from a simple download was difficult for me. I didn't believe it would work. But, It does! As others have said, works like c charm! I got a "new" eBay computer for BI, which probably had a clean Windows 10 Pro install on it. First thing I did, after confirming it booted and worked, was to reinstall Windows, to make sure it was clean. Simple, fairly fast. Painless. Did it again a month later when I got an SSD to replace the boot drive.

 

[SpacemanSpiff]

After all the headaches endured and time spent installing DOS and Windows on PC's since '83, I have to say installing Win 10 from a flash drive using the MS Media Creation Tool is like a dream. What used to take an hour or more (if all went right) and having to swap a dozen floppies in/out now takes me usually 15 minutes.
...

Trusty disk #7 from win 3.x! It got the most (ab)use due to it being used most often, always had 3 copies of it, tucked away. Amazing it had most all the drivers for printers and extra hardware on it. Then you pull out the stack of 35 disks for the office install.

Imaging utils wer not so much a need early on... format /s the new drive, and simply copy all the directories from one to the other

 

[sebastiantombs]

We were lucky I guess in the Win3.x through XP days. We had a corporate license and would build a model for each specific use, CAD, secretaries, human resources, yadda yadda, and stick them on a server. When we got a new machine, just download the model, reboot and go right to work. It did take time to build the models, but it was a one time effort. After that, maybe a half hour at worse to have a totally configured machine.