Ways of Cloning a Drive?

[DemonDragonJ]

I think it depends on how you use the system.

Check the endurance (drive writes per day) and see if that helps with the decision. Lightly used systems will be ok with the cheaper drives, while heavily used systems might need that extra endurance.

I actually purchased the Samsung drive, because it was discounted, and there was also a promotional code for Cyber Monday, which was too good of a deal to miss. I now have the drive, so I need to wait until I have the free time to perform the operation. This will be for the computer that still has a hard drive, and I shall later purchase a second drive to replace the lower-capacity drive that is currently in my own computer.

I am thinking about using a USB-to-SATA adapter for this procedure, which I imagine has its own software; what can anyone say about that?

[DemonDragonJ]

I ultimately used Macrium Reflect, and it worked flawlessly; the new drive is exactly like the old one, but noticeably faster; the motherboard has only a SATA 2 (3 gbps) interface, but it is still more than sufficiently fast for my mother, who uses the computer primarily to check her e-mail, browse the internet, and perform occasional word processing.

Now that I have seen how effective this software is, I shall eventually use it to upgrade my own computer's 256 GB Samsung 840 pro to a 512 GB Samsung 850 pro, the same model to which I upgraded the other computer.