Okay I am about to clone a '250GB Samsung 840 Evo' SSD (with OS on (Win. 8.1)) to another identical '250GB Samsung 840 Evo' using a dual docking station that has a clone feature. The docking station is the 'Coltech CE-606CU3'.
The reason I am doing this is because I have just built a new system which powers off randomly as trying to boot (approx. 1/10 times). I have tested RAM, changed PSU, made sure drive has latest firmware, updated BIOS and checked through the BIOS settings (amongst other things). I have also checked the health of the drive with 'Samsung Magician' (software that comes with the drive) and 'CrystalDiskInfo' which both say it is fine. When I disconnect the drive though the problem ceases. In both cases (connected/disconnected) the mobo successfully posts. For these reasons I have determined that it is probably the drive so have sent off for a replacement (from Amazon). As I don't want have to re-install and re-build the OS again (as this would be the third time) I was just going to clone it (using the docking station) to the new drive before I sent it back.
The instructions for the docking station are also less than helpful. They are a little fold out leaflet that say 'press clone button to clone' and 'make sure the target drive is the same or larger than source drive' with little else. I have not been able to find any online manuals for it either.
Which leads me on to my question, do I need to initialize or format the drive before cloning?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Full system specifications:
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-Z87M-D3H Socket 1150
CPU: Intel Core i5 4670 3.40GHz Socket 1150
RAM: 2×4 GB Corsair Vengeance
Storage: 250 GB Samsung 840 Evo SSD
PSU: Corsair CX430M
OS: Win. 8.1
Case: Cooler Master Silencio 352 Matte
The reason I am doing this is because I have just built a new system which powers off randomly as trying to boot (approx. 1/10 times). I have tested RAM, changed PSU, made sure drive has latest firmware, updated BIOS and checked through the BIOS settings (amongst other things). I have also checked the health of the drive with 'Samsung Magician' (software that comes with the drive) and 'CrystalDiskInfo' which both say it is fine. When I disconnect the drive though the problem ceases. In both cases (connected/disconnected) the mobo successfully posts. For these reasons I have determined that it is probably the drive so have sent off for a replacement (from Amazon). As I don't want have to re-install and re-build the OS again (as this would be the third time) I was just going to clone it (using the docking station) to the new drive before I sent it back.
The instructions for the docking station are also less than helpful. They are a little fold out leaflet that say 'press clone button to clone' and 'make sure the target drive is the same or larger than source drive' with little else. I have not been able to find any online manuals for it either.
Which leads me on to my question, do I need to initialize or format the drive before cloning?
Any help would be much appreciated.
Full system specifications:
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-Z87M-D3H Socket 1150
CPU: Intel Core i5 4670 3.40GHz Socket 1150
RAM: 2×4 GB Corsair Vengeance
Storage: 250 GB Samsung 840 Evo SSD
PSU: Corsair CX430M
OS: Win. 8.1
Case: Cooler Master Silencio 352 Matte