How to make a clone of what's on your HD

I upgraded a couple of my PC's to 500GB SSD's (well worth doing - speeds them up amazingly).

I used Macrium reflect free .

I plugged the SSD's in to existing PC using one of these cables:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00GHJJPEK/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1.

Cloned the HDD in the PC onto the SSD.

Then once done , I turned off the PC and simply swapped in the SSD for the existing HDD.

Turned it back on and it just worked .

SSD I picked was this one . https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00P73B1E4/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Lots of how to guides for Macrium on the net - I used this one.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/7363/macrium-reflect-is-a-free-and-easy-to-use-backup-utility/

Wow. Such a lot for me to learn! Thanks everyone for your replies. I'm drawn towards making an image, not a clone. Macrium Reflect free looks good. The howtogeek guide looks like something I could use safely but the Samsung SSD is a bit expensive for me and if I stick to simply imaging my hard drive I don't need it. I'm thinking of using a 64GB memory stick for my image, assuming that the unused parts of my hard drive don't need copying to it and that a degree of compression takes place during the copying. Is this correct? The heads up ref Acronis and EaseUS are worth while for me, too. Your description of it all is very helpful Apelike. Special thanks for that. Can I assume that when decompressing an average sized file so as to read it the decompression doesn't take noticeably long, is that correct?

Yes is compresses and decompresses on the fly.

If you have around 70GB free space on the drive you could do a test run first and save it. You can then see how long it takes and how big the image is.

My guess is it will take around 20-30 minutes and the resulting image will be around 45GB in size.

Reflect also has the option to make a Reflect boot disk which you should also do.

Yes I will make a Reflect boot disc too because of your advice and also because it sounds to me like an image cannot be used to boot from so I would need a boot disc. Have I got that right? Could I use a flash memory stick instead of a disc? Do you happen to know the reason why an image disc disc can't be used as a boot disc, apelike? Just out of interest. I do understand that you have recommended me to make both an image disc and a reboot disc and this latest question is only asked out of interest.