I'm currently running Zorin OS Pro 16.3 and it's very stable. Like a lot of people on here, I'm very excited for Zorin OS 17. I hope the Zorin Group does deliver an upgrade path from 16 to 17. I think this is what I'm going to do when 17 is released:
Purchase an SSD the same size or larger than the one I have in my computer.
Clone my current Zorin OS Pro 16.3 to the new SSD
Remove the new SSD
Run the Zorin OS 17 upgrade
This will allow me to have a backup of Zorin OS 16.3 in case the upgrade has problems. I could then do a complete new install of 17 and start reconfiguring everything to my liking. I have all my important stuff backed up to my NAS. But I've done a lot of tweaking and I like the way I have 16.3 configured. Everything works great! Zorin OS Pro is rock solid.
My question is - What cloning software would any one recommend to do a complete hard drive (SSD) copy?
If you don't already have one, create a Zorin OS BootUSB:
Boot to the Zorin OS BootUSB so none of the drives are mounted.
Start the Disks application, select the old hard drive in your computer.
At upper-right, select the '3 vertical dots' button, then select 'Create Disk Image', then select somewhere to save it that's large enough to hold the .IMG file it'll create (it'll be the same size as your old hard drive's capacity).
Once that's done, in Disks, select your new SSD drive, at upper-right select the '3 vertical dots' button, then select 'Restore Disk Image', then select the .IMG file you'd just created.
Once that's done, the new SSD has the same exact contents as your old drive.
Or you could save yourself some time and money. Deploy a Zorin Pro 16.3 virtual box/vmware Virtual Machine. Take a snapshot of it. Upgrade the VM once 17 has been released and if everything goes well, update your actual desktop. No need to spend the extra cash.