User’s Guide
ADATA®
SSD Migration Software
(Version 1.0)
© 2023 ADATA Technology Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
Revision History
Date Revision Description
2023/05/24 1.0 Initial release
© 2023 ADATA Technology Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
Contents
Overview ................................................................................ 3
System Requirements ..................................................................................... 3
SSD Migration Introduction ................................................. 4
SSD Migration User Interface .......................................................................... 4
Clone ...................................................................................... 5
Backup ................................................................................... 9
Recovery .............................................................................. 13
Q&A ...................................................................................... 17
Limitations ........................................................................... 20
© 2023 ADATA Technology Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
Overview
ADATA SSD Migration is designed for cloning a disk including its operating system to a new
ADATA SSD. SSD Migration also features disaster recovery which can back up current system
drives to image files. Users can restore this image to another new ADATA SSD or current SSD
if the previous system crashes or becomes corrupted.
NOTE: Please follow the instructions in this user manual to prevent data loss caused
by improper operation. ADATA bears no responsibility for loss of data.
NOTE: Destination must be an ADATA SSD, otherwise clone/recovery cannot start.
System Requirements
Item Minimum Requirement
Processor Intel Core i3 series or equivalent CPU
Memory 4 GB RAM
Free Disk Space 20 MB available hard disk space
Recommend
Windows 10 (1903 or above)
Operating System
Windows Access
Administrator privileges are required
permission
Package Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable
Package .NET Framework 4.8
File System FAT32、NTFS、exFAT
Power Status Power: Turn Off Sleep Mode
© 2023 ADATA Technology Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
SSD Migration Introduction
SSD Migration provides several functions to allow users to clone or backup SSD data. It can
clone the current system disk to a brand new ADATA SSD seamlessly. It also supports current
system backup to image files and storage of this image to a specified location. If current
system crashes or is corrupted, users can recover the system to a new SDD using the
previously backed up image files.
SSD Migration User Interface
When SSD Migration is launched, this utility presents 3 sections. Clone, Backup, Recovery.
1. Clone:
Users can clone current system to new ADATA SSD.
2. Backup:
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All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
Users can back-up current system to image files and store them in a safe location.
3. Recover:
Users can recover system to another ADATA SSD by using the image files which were
backed up by SSD Migration.
Clone
This section explains how to use the Clone function to clone current system to a new ADATA
SSD (Destination Disk). This function clones operating system (OS), programs, and data. After
cloning is complete, shutdown the system and replace current disk with new SSD and boot to
new SSD.
SSD Migration Clone conditions:
If Destination Disk size is smaller than your current disk size:
1. If system drive (C:\) size is smaller than destination SSD:
SSD Migration will only clone system drive(C:\) to destination SSD.
2. If system drive (C:\) size is larger than destination SSD and used space is smaller than
destination SSD:
SSD Migration utilizes “shrink source disk” to clone system drive(C:\) to destination SSD.
3. If system drive (C:\) size is larger than destination SSD and used space is larger than
destination SSD:
SSD Migration does not support this configuration.
If Destination Disk size is larger or equivalent to your current disk size:
SSD Migration will clone the complete disk to new ADATA SSD
Please complete the following process to start Clone
1. Connect new ADATA SSD (Destination) to your computer.
SSD Migration clone function supports the following configurations:
1. Onboard SATA to Onboard SATA
2. Onboard SATA to USB/SATA adapter
3. Onboard PCIe(M.2) to Onboard PCIe(M.2)
4. Onboard PCIe(M.2) to USB/PCIe adapter
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All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
2. Please close all programs before starting SSD Migration.
3. Launch SSD Migration.
4. If there is more than one internal SSD or external SSD, they will be listed in the Destination
drop-down list. Click Refresh to refresh Destination drop-down list if user installs an external
USB SSD.
5. Select a Destination Disk from the Destination drop-down list.
6. “Shrink Source Disk” appears if the size of system drive (C:\) is larger than the size of
destination disk. User must check this option to allow “shrink source disk” operation during
cloning.
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All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
7. Click Start to start clone process. User must confirm the subsequent notifications before clone
process will start.
8. During cloning, process bar shows the percentage of clone completion. Time shows the length
of time of the clone process.
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All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
9. Clone Completed. User must click Shut Down to power off the computer. Replace the original
disk with the destination SSD and power ON the computer.
NOTE: Only one disk (Original or cloned destination) can be booted. DO NOT boot
original disk with installed cloned destination or boot cloned destination with original disk.
One disk will be set to offline due to signature collision. If user sets it to online, its boot
section will be destroyed.
NOTE: Destination must be an ADATA SSD, otherwise Start Button cannot be clicked.
© 2023 ADATA Technology Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
Backup
This section allows users to run SSD Migration Backup. User can back up the current system
drive to image files and store image files in a safe location. If current system crashes or is
corrupted, users can use image files to recover original system status.
Backup to image conditions:
1. “Enable to recover to small capacity disk” is checked:
This function will shrink current system drive and back up current disk to image files. If the
size of recovered destination disk is smaller than backed up disk, ADATA SSD Migration will
recover the OS system (C:\) to the destination disk only.
2. “Enable to recover to small capacity disk” is NOT checked:
This function will back up the current system disk without shrinking the system drive. User
must use equivalent or larger sized disk to perform recovery.
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All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
Please complete the following process to start Backup
1. Connect external storage media to store backup image files
NOTE: SSD Migration does not support backup and storage to system disk.
2. Please close all programs before starting SSD Migration.
3. Launch SSD Migration Application
4. On the sidebar, click Backup.
5. Check “Enable to recover to small capacity disk” (Please refer to Backup to image
conditions)
6. Click Destination folder to define stored image location and image name.
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All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
NOTE: SSD Migration will generate 2 files after completing the back up process IMAGE.img
and IMAGE_partition.img. User must use these 2 files to run Recovery; file naming must
follow the format XXX.img and XXX_partition.img.
7. Click Start and click OK to start “shrink source disk.”
8. Backup process and backup completed message.
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All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
9. Store backed up files in a safe location.
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© 2023 ADATA Technology Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
Recovery
This section allows users to run SSD Migration Recovery. If user’s system crashed or is
corrupted, user can install SSD Migration on another computer and recover backed up images
to a new disk or corrupted disk as an alternative boot disk. Then install recovered disk to original
computer and reboot to recovered disk.
SSD Migration Recovery conditions:
If the backed up image checked “Enable recover to small capacity disk:” the size of
Recovered SSD must be equivalent or larger than backed up original disk.
If the backed up image checked “Enable recover to small capacity disk:” when the size of
Recovered SSD is smaller than backed-up original disk, Recovery will only recover system
drive to disk.
If the backed up image checked “Enable recover to small capacity disk:” when the size of
Recovered SSD is equivalent or larger than backed-up original disk, Recovery will recover
the complete drive to disk.
Please complete the following process to start Recovery
1. Find another computer and install SSD Migration.
2. Connect external storage media containing backed up image files.
NOTE: SSD Migration does not support back up and storage to system disk.
SSD Migration supports recovery for the following configurations:
1. Image which was back-up from Onboard SATA and recover to Onboard SATA
2. Image which was back-up from Onboard SATA and recover to USB/SATA adapter
3. Image which was back-up from Onboard PCIe(M.2) and recover to Onboard PCIe(M.2)
4. Image which was back-up from Onboard PCIe(M.2) and recover to USB/PCIe adapter
3. Launch SSD Migration Application
4. On the sidebar, click Recovery.
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All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
5. If Destination drop down list does not contain the disk which the user wishes to recover,
user can click Refresh to reset Source disk image location and click Destination drop-down
list again.
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All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
6. Click Source folder to select which image files user wishes to recover. (2 files are required
for recovery process)
7. Click Start.
I. If recovered size of destination is smaller than original backed up disk and user
checked “Enable to recover to small capacity disk,” Recovery will recover the OS
system (C:\) to destination disk and will display the following message.
II. If recovered size of destination is smaller than initial backed up disk and user did NOT
check “Enable to recover to small capacity disk,” Recovery will indicate insufficient
Destination Disk space.
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© 2023 ADATA Technology Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
8. Recovery process: a message will notify user that Recovery only recovered system drive
to destination disk.
9. After recovery process is completed, please replace original disk with recovered disk and boot
with recovered disk.
NOTE: Destination must be ADATA SSD, otherwise Start Button cannot be clicked.
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© 2023 ADATA Technology Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
Q&A
1. After running Clone or Backup, I do not see my source disk which was shrunk if I check
“Shrink Source Disk” or “Enable to recover to small capacity disk.”
Answer: Shrinking occurred during Clone or Backup process, source disk recovers its original
configuration after Clone or Backup process is completed.
2. Why is my destination disk shown as OFFLINE after running clone or recovery?
Answer: After Clone is completed, the Windows signature of the destination disk and current disk
will be the same. Microsoft Windows will set destination disk to OFFLINE to avoid conflict. Please
shut down the system and replace current disk with cloned disk and boot with cloned disk. If you
set the destination disk to online in the current system, the destination boot area may be disrupted.
3. After booting to cloned SSD or recovered SSD, I discovered an unallocated partition in disk
management.
Answer: 1. During clone or backup/recover, if destination size is larger than source disk: SSD
Migration will clone the original partition configuration to destination, extra space will be set as
unallocated. 2. During clone or backup/recover, if destination size is smaller than source disk: due
to destination size being smaller than the source disk, SSD Migration will evaluate the system
partition and set 100MB to 400MB of extra space as unallocated. Users can use a 3 rd party partition
tool to move this partition.
4. The process bar shows 100% but time remaining continue to count down during Clone,
Backup, and Recovery.
Answer: Due to certain file resize computations, the process bar may not be precise. Please
wait for clone completed message popup.
5. Why should I check “Shrink Source Disk” or “Enable to recover to small capacity disk?” Are
there any benefits?
Answer: When cloning from a large disk to a small disk, “Shrink Source Disk” must be checked,
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All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
otherwise user cannot run cloning. For recovering to a smaller disk, “Enable to recover to small
capacity disk” must be checked or you will only be able to recover to an equivalent or larger disk.
The performance of “Shrink Source Disk and Enable to recover to small capacity disk” is better
than tradition clone/recovery. We suggest you use this feature.
6. After running back-up, 2 files were generated in the storage location.
Answer: The image names will be user naming.img and user naming_partition.img. If user
changes one file name, both file names must be changed (XXX.img and XXX_partition.img).
7. Can I clone SATA disk to PCIe(M.2) or PCIe(M.2) to SATA?
Answer: Due to disparate Windows SATA & PCIe drivers, drives may not boot after a clone
operation using this configuration.
8. What does the Refresh button do?
Answer: In the Clone section, the Refresh button resets the Destination drop-down list. If user
connects an external SSD after launching SSD Migration, please click Refresh to reset the list. In
the Recovery section, the Refresh button resets Destination drop-down list and source image
location.
9. Why does SSD Migration shows this message after clicking Start?
Answer: Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable is required. Please install x64 or x86
Redistributable package and launch SSD Migration.
10. What .NET Framework version does SSD Migration use?
Answer: .NET Framework 4.8 is required to execute SSD Migration.
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© 2023 ADATA Technology Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
11. Does SSD Migration clone data that is modified after clicking Start to clone?
Answer: SSD Migration only clones the current system before clicking Start. If user modifies files
after clicking Start, these modifications will not be cloned to destination disk.
12. What is the clone and backup/recovery speed?
Answer: SSD Migration clone and backup/recovery operation is dependent on a number of
factors such as CPU/memory, onboard SATA/PCIe, and external USB 2.0/3.0 status.
SSD Migration uses computer resources to clone and perform backup/recovery, please make sure
all drivers have been installed such as the VGA driver.
13. Can I clone or backup/recover different hardware configurations, such as IDE=>AHCI or
AHCI=>IDE?
Answer: No, SSD Migration only supports clone or backup/recovery of drives in the same
controller mode (IDE=>IDE, AHCI=>AHCI). SSD Migration only supports IDE and AHCI modes.
14. Does SSD Migration support cloning of multi boot systems?
Answer: No, it does not support multi boot systems.
15. Why does my destination disk partition contain allocation location after cloning or recovery?
Answer: For better performance, SSD Migration uses windows shrink function to perform cloning
and recovery. User can right click volume C and select Extend Volume to extend volume to original
size in disk management after boot from destination disk.
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© 2023 ADATA Technology Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
Limitations
SSD Migration will not properly support a Source Drive that has been converted to a
dynamic disk.
If you have installed 3rd party recovery software on your computer, SSD Migration may not
function properly.
Please install the correct driver (VGA) before running SSD Migration clone and
backup/recovery.
Clone/Recovery function: Only system drive (C:\) can be cloned/recovered to destination
disk. Recovery partition does not clone to destination disk if the size of destination disk is
smaller than the size of source disk.
SSD Migration only supports cloning and backup of a Source disk with an installed
operating system.
SSD Migration does not support encrypted disks.
After cloning or backup/recovery of the source disk to the destination disk, their data sizes
may be different due to certain page files and hibernation files.
SSD Migration does not support the cloning or backup of multiple operating systems.
If the computer enters sleep mode during cloning or backup/recovery, please close SSD
Migration and re-run clone or backup/recovery. Please turn off sleep mode during cloning or
backup/recovery.
SSD Migration only supports cloning/backup of operating systems that have followed
normal installation processes.
After using shrink function to clone or “Enable recover to small capacity disk” to
backup/recover, the destination disk will be of a different size when compared to the original
disk. User can use Extend volume in disk management to extend the disk to the correct
volume.
1. Clone to smaller disk:
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Destination disk after cloning:
Use Extend Volume to extend Drive C:
2. Backup image which checked “enable recover to small capacity disk:”
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Destination disk after recovery:
Use Extend Volume to extend Drive C:
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© 2023 ADATA Technology Co., Ltd.
All rights reserved. All trademarks, logos and product names are the property of their respective owners.
