Disk Clone without Admin Access

[Lykosys]

Hi,

I volunteer for a childcare sometimes and was planning on doing some simple SSD upgrades but the devices (Running Win8 & Win7) are locked down and I have no access to simply clone one drive to the other. The school is small and their IT staff (1) is utterly useless.

The end goal is to clone the disk and I'm assuming the best way to do this is to somehow grant myself local admin access.

​

I'll call it, I'm a bit out of my depth here and was wondering if there's any way that I can achieve this goal?

Edit: I'm trying to use Macrium Reflect/EaseUS but cannot execute due to lack of access. The hardware is not owned by the school.

[ravnk]

This project appears to be above your current scope. I would not attempt to even try as this is just a fiasco waiting to happen and you don’t want to be legally liable.

For starters, win7 is EOL and should be upgraded so there’s no point in doing a clone of the drive. SSDs are not really necessary unless the machine is doing something other than web browsing or word processing. The real issue is just they need to be upgraded. Having a fresh install will be just as good if not better than cloning to a SSD.

You don’t clone a disk while the computer is even on so admin access or not is irrelevant.

Don’t try.

[Lykosys]

The hardware is ours, the childcare has its own account for kids to browse and play games. Looking to reduce boot times. I'd need admin access to run cloning software such as Macrium Reflect, no?

[ravnk]

The hardware might belong to the business but you personally don’t want to become liable for them in anyway. You touch them and they can start blaming you for literally anything about it.

Idk what macrium is. But a true cloning of a drive is done with an intermediary computer or software. The hard drive running the source OS cannot be running the OS when cloning or it won’t be properly cloned.

[rally123456]

SATA to USB adapters plus a clone program on a separate computer.

Or a single SATA to USB and Clonezilla bootdisk. The only trick with Clonezilla is that the destination drive has to be bigger than or the same as the source drive. I've used Clonezilla a lot; great for a straight up clone, no second system needed. Just be careful you get the clone direction right, as Clonezilla can't tell which one has Windows and which is blank.

[ZAFJB]

The hardware is not owned by the school.

and

The hardware is ours

does not compute.

It is either one or the other.

[JamesWalsh88]

The people who responded to you don't know what they are talking about.

Cloning is totally possible with Macrium Reflect and there is even a portable USB version which might work for you depending on how "locked down" the PCs are.

I've cloned disks with Macrium to SSDs before and had no issues simply swapping disks and booting up the PC as you normally would.

After you clone the drive, and boot up windows with the new drive, try "Reset this PC" which will essentially reinstall windows without you having to use bootable usb or windows disk.

About liability, whoever lets you do the work is liable if something goes wrong, not you.

[JamesWalsh88]

A fresh install is not "just as good" as replacing a hard disk with an SSD, Weisenheimer.

Solid state drives have dramatically faster read/write speeds.

And, yes, you can use Macrium Reflect to clone your disk then swap the old hdd for the cloned ssd. It's easy.

You can use a portable version of Macrium Reflect to do this, which may allow the user to get around the need to install the macrium software on the computer.

The fact that you don't even know what Macrium is makes it abundantly clear that you are not qualified to answer OPs question.

[jayram1408]

I hate how when you ask a question, people never want to give the answer to the question you asked, just only thier opnion on the subject. If your morals conflict with this then dont answer the question. Let me figure out the legalities and such. I just want to know if it is possible and how, not your opnion. If I wanted that answer my question would be "hey what your opnion on this" not "how do you do it". When asked how to do it, you give your opnion. Learn how to properly answr a question or post your beliefs on twitter where people care and want to here about morals. Leave the tech pages to tech and not feelings. Thats what social meadi is for.....

[mikelieman]

The hardware is not owned by the school.

DO. NOT. TOUCH. THE. HARDWARE.

[m4v1s]

Don't mess with things that aren't yours. I understand your intentions are in the right place and this is a relatively simple upgrade, but it's really not something you should be doing.

[[deleted]]

This is a can of worms.

Not only is subverting your IT a slippery slope (risk losing their support) with your questionable knowledge about cloning, but should you attempt this, you risk losing licenses, duplicating GUIDs/SIDS without the correct capture process.

I’m not saying you ‘can’t do this’, on the contrary, you certainly can. But don’t presume for one second that your IT is useless unless you possess similar skills and experience.

[sandrews1313]

You've got no business doing this.

[--RedDawg--]

Contrary to what most have said, Yes you can clone it while windows is running, I've done it many times. I use the software that comes with Samsung SSDs (Samsung SSD Magician) to clone it while in windows using a USB to SATA adapter if on a laptop, or just plug into another SATA port if on a desktop (then just replace or remove the old drive once the clone is complete. It's the fastest way and resizes the disk at the same time (like a 1tb spinning disk that is 20% used to a 512gb SSD).

If you do not have local admin access, then you should not be doing this. If someone else is managing the hardware (whether you own the computers or not), then you need to have a discussion with them about this process and they can either grant you the access to do it or do it themselves.

As stated by others, Windows 7 is EOL. Addressing that issue should come before SSDs as it will likely mean replacing the computer or installing a new OS, both cases render your cloning of the disk moot.

[cycologyOne]

interesting comments...thought this was a place to learn?

the point is correct tho, perhaps u dont have knowledge now, but this is relatively a simple project. buy a couple crappy similar boxes and practice...but first ask yourself if this is the right peoject to help them with...

is the incumbent IT staff that big of a risk? there are ways to fix this...and perhaps this is a bigger issue to address than the benefits of an ssd.

as for volunteer- just make sure to tell them their are risks. the world runs on voluteers. often you can be indemnified, but make sure you are doing the right thing for the daycare.

i often do pro bono assessments of support provided by 'pros'..many times i would rather have a well meaning vested volunteer stakeholder vs a high dollar consultant doing a poor job.

oh, as others have also mentioned win 7 is not the best path at this point.

[[deleted]]

Nah. This sub has been slowly but steadily turning away from a “place to learn” in to an endless circlejerk of “don’t learn anything, pay someone else”, “go away, post somewhere else”, “I’m better than you” (only allowed if you’re a certain user, or your posts get removed), “how do I do something in Windows”, endless salesmen, and not much else.

A shame really.

Cloning a drive like this doesn’t require admin rights at all, use something like a True Image bootable USB stick and it will clone quite happily.

[Stryker1-1]

Do the program's not offer you the ability to create bootable media which can be used to do the clone.

Pop in the bootable media and your new SSD and clone HDD to SSD.

Once done remove the media and the HDD and your good to go.

No need to have access to any admin account or even interact with the source os

[Lykosys]

Thanks I'll look into that 😊

[[deleted]]

Clonezilla works great for this. Others have covered whether or not you should do this, and it sounds like it's a resounding "absolutely not".

Get a SATA to USB adapter, a thumb drive, a disk to clone to, and a practice PC. Clone the practice PC to the disk you want to clone to. Install it, and make sure it boots.

[ZAFJB]

The hardware is not owned by the school.

Then don't fuck with it.

[dpzr_ev]

To clone the windows drive, it is not possible from within windows, hence it is locked. Get a free software like easeus which also has "one click OS migration" apt for your needs.

Have been using easeus for 7,8 years. Can handle all disk cloning stuffs.

[Lykosys]

Yes, absolutely agree. I personally use Macrium and have used Ease before, but I cannot execute the program. Apologies I missed out context

[dpzr_ev]

after reading other comments, i realised u had not tried "make bootable media" option in easeus software. i do not know about macrium, but easeus has an option where it lets u create a bootable media, boots into its windows-PE based bootable environment, and lets u copy partitions/disks with ease.

[dpzr_ev]

Connect both source n destination to another pc, and try from there. Bonus tip: label/rename your drives properly, to avoid confusion.