Windows system drive cloning - but without copying garbage data

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I am in the process of upgrading my computer to a larger SSD as Windows system drive.

My problem is that the old SSD has a very annoying trait of choosing some random old data to present for deleted sectors - and over time a lot of this has accumulated at the tail end of files that don't fill the last cluster completely. No matter what I tried so far to clean this up has done any good, the more I try the more old garbage the drive seems to pull out of its hidden storage pool - so much in fact that a blanket cloning of the drive is completely out of the question. I want this data gone for my upgrade.

Does anybody know some drive cloning software that copies only the actual content of the files and not entire sectors?

Nici Karl

Posted 2014-12-28T09:18:42.310

Reputation: 1

2What does this "garbage" data look like? How are you viewing? Is it in the form of random files, or are you using some kind of Hex editor to view the sectors on the disk? – misha256 – 2014-12-28T09:26:53.157

Answers

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I'm really not quite sure what the problem is your referencing and, to be honest, I wonder if you're suffering from a case of "A little knowledge...". Hard drives do accumulate dead data, but it's unlikely to be of any concern whatsoever while the file system is doing its job. Even less on on an SSD where seek times are essentially null.

Anyway, what you're after is pretty much the default anyway - you simply want a piece of software which does a file system aware file and partition copy - rather than a bit for bit forensic copy. The latter takes MUCH MUCH longer and so is rarely the standard.

CloneZilla should do what you need, but so should any consumer off the shelf cloning software.

Dan

Posted 2014-12-28T09:18:42.310

Reputation: 1 068

Sadly this did not work. Clonezilla faithfully duplicated all the garbage that was present - and now I have TWO SSDs with this information present. Arrrrgghhhh – Nici Karl – 2015-01-02T00:20:04.563

You need to define what you mean by "garbage" - at this point your questions is absolutely meaningless – Dan – 2015-01-02T11:47:49.707

@NiciKarl Just TRIM it then. – Michael Hampton – 2015-01-02T18:57:13.477

I mean the remnants of old files that accumulate in the tail slack of later created ones. I have been searching for a cloning program that gets rid of this but to no avail so far. Instead I got all the stuff that has accumulated on my old drive on the new one as well and this stuff is incredibly hard to get rid of. And unfortunately my system has managed to trap some highly sensitive data there that MUST be gone at all costs. TRIM does not help because these clusters belong to valid files so I'd not only delete the garbage but also valid content. – Nici Karl – 2015-01-02T20:50:04.360

@NiciKarl Yeah, this still makes no sense. A file sits between a header and a footer - everything else can be ignored or zeroed (And I find it highly unlikely that CloneZilla would copy it unless you did a bit for bit forensic copy). How are you viewing this data? – Dan – 2015-01-02T20:55:50.183

I'm using a tool called Disk investigator that lets me look at raw blocks. So nothing fancy, it's freely available to anyone looking for it. And since I can use it I have to assume that anyone with a serious interest in such hidden data also knows of this or similar programs. So far all clone programs I tested - even those which only copy files - do a full cluster copy, not just the used parts of the actual file. :( – Nici Karl – 2015-01-02T21:11:18.413

@NiciKarl Firstly, have you confirmed that these blocks contain proper data? Secondly, are you looking WITHIN files (i.e., a screenshot of that app shows that you can click a file and look at the contents?) because I'm still very much struggling to see how you've come to all of these conclusions about clusters etc. – Dan – 2015-01-02T21:32:37.133

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What's you're looking for it's a driver's backup and restore. Check there: Windows Driver Backup and Restore

climenole

Posted 2014-12-28T09:18:42.310

Reputation: 3 180

1No. This question is about drives, not drivers. – Daniel B – 2014-12-28T12:59:12.570

Asked: 2014-12-28T09:18:42.310

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Active: 2014-12-28T12:50:00.120