Reply to: Cloning larger HDD to smaller one

[Fred Bloggs]

Whenever I have migrated a cloned drive I have been able to download the SSD or HDD manufacturers version of Acronis True Image software. Works a treat. When you run the Acronis software it checks that you have a drive made by the firm whose website you downloaded it from installed. It doesn't have to be the target you are cloning to, but that's where I've always looked. For example, I've cloned a couple of HDDs to Crucial SSDs using Acronis True Image downloaded from Crucial. Works like a charm and is free. I recently cloned a 750gb Win 10 HDD to a 500gb Crucial SSD with no issues whatsoever.

[LondonManc]

Doesn't allow me to apply changes unless I buy it.

AYCOTBAC?

[sal]

GParted -- A free application for graphically managing disk
device partitions is the only partitioning/cloning tool you will ever need. Free and can do everything.

[Hobosapien]

Tried the system restore method. Created the image file on an external USB, booted with a repair DVD and tried to restore but is said the 280Gb drive was too small for the 58Gb backup image.

I'm guessing the hidden partitions (boot and recovery) were over 80GB if the Windows partition was 200GB (as per your opening post), so wouldn't fit within 280GB.

The create image process allows you to select which partitions to include in the image in terms of drive letters but think it always includes the hidden partitions, so a bit stuck. Deleting the recovery partition (if that was what caused the image to become too big to restore) before creating the image may have worked but would be a risk in that you are destroying data before having a working alternative.

A new bigger hard drive as they're cheap as chips is, as you found, one way of simplifying it all for a few quid.

[Pondlife]

That was a load of old bollox.

I couldn't get Macrorit to read the system drive as it kept giving me an error message that yielded no googleable results. It could be because it's a bug as the release on offer only came out a few days ago by the looks of things.

Tried the system restore method. Created the image file on an external USB, booted with a repair DVD and tried to restore but is said the 280Gb drive was too small for the 58Gb backup image.

So, bollox to it, ordered a new HDD and remirrored the System drive onto the 280Gb one and they can both stay there.

Cheers for all your input though folks. It was appreciated.

[gables]

Doesn't allow me to apply changes unless I buy it.

Bah... This make me glum.

Glummer, I'd have thought

[Hobosapien]

I did similar recently when moving to a bigger SSD, using the free tools available in W10.

Following will work if the new drive is larger than the partitions being moved.

1. Create Windows system image, which will include the essential boot partition, and any recovery partition. Also will give you option of creating a boot CD/USB.

2. Restore the image onto the new drive. (ensure old hard drive is unplugged to avoid mistakes of overwriting old drive until sure new one works ok. )

3. If the recovery partition placement interferes with ability to extend new primary partition to utilise rest of new disk space, delete it using 'diskpart' (presuming the recovery stuff is of no real use now using a different drive and have more up to date system image as a restorable backup).

https://social.technet.microsoft.com...w8itproinstall

4. W10 will auto register now they keep the key assigned to the hardware, which is unaffected by hard drive changes.

Only gotcha was making sure the image backup was on a network drive accessible via the Windows boot process. Ended up using a spare USB drive of suitable capacity.

[northernladuk]

Very doubtful at the moment fella.

Bah... This make me glum.

[Pondlife]

Pondy, slightly off topic but.. are you coming to the xmas do?

Very doubtful at the moment fella.

[BR14]

Migrate OS is only available in the paid versions

I used 'clone disk' to move my win10 to an SSD (had to copy stuff off to downsize it first, but it worked ok)

[Pondlife]

[Official] Macrorit Partition Managers | Bootable Portable Partition Manager

should do it

Migrate OS is only available in the paid versions

[gables]

Doesn't allow me to apply changes unless I buy it.

Thought that might be the case :-(

[BR14]

[Official] Macrorit Partition Managers | Bootable Portable Partition Manager

should do it

[northernladuk]

Doesn't allow me to apply changes unless I buy it.

Pondy, slightly off topic but.. are you coming to the xmas do?

[Pondlife]

Easus Partition manager? Can't be sure if the home\trial edition will do this or if it's a paid for option..

Doesn't allow me to apply changes unless I buy it.