Question Formatting and/or Macrium Details?
Question Formatting and/or Macrium Details?
Hello
This concerns two topics that can sometimes be handled separately or together…
The way I format generally depends on what I’m doing—whether it’s creating a new System drive, setting up a Storage/General Use drive, or adding an external drive.
When I perform formatting for any of these, should I select a particular Partitioning or Formatting type to guarantee that I can:
- Clone or restore the whole System drive, or the entire Storage/General Use drive, or even just specific files/folders?
- Or only backup, clone, or restore certain files or folders using Macrium?
- And later add or modify partitions?
I usually skip partitioning and still want to know that I’ve done formatting so it remains an option.
I’m aware that internal drives should be NTFS, but I’m not sure whether Basic, Dynamic, or another type is required…
It’s hard for me to distinguish the differences between all types and locate complete information. Could you recommend a reliable guide or video?
I think Disk Management works well.
For reference, my setup includes:
- PCI-E 3/4 ports,
- an older HDD,
- an external SSD (typical WD products),
- and possibly a 2.5” internal SSD.
Could you let me know if there are special considerations for any of these drive types? I’m especially curious about the External SSD.
Also, a more detailed request:
I plan to format a new 2.5” internal SSD, install Windows 11, configure it as desired, and then clone the entire System drive so I can restore it on a different physical drive in a completely new PC.
Is it possible to transition from a 2.5” internal SSD to PCI-E or similar without issues?
Also, please check my previous discussion about cloning a Windows System Drive… with some complications?
Thank you for your assistance
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Detailed instructions for a successful clone process: