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Restore HD Backup to 500 GB EVO SSD

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I want to replace a 1 TB HD (UEFI Boot) in Dell Inspiron 3847 Desktop with a 500 GB Samsung EVO 6G SATA SSD. The existing 1 TB HD has over 700 GB Free Space. 

I plan on using ATI 2020 to perform a Full Disk backup image of the HD to my USB 3 external hard drive.

After the above, my plan is to boot from my USB Recovery thumb drive, made from ATI 2020 and restore the image from the external usb drive to the SSD connected to the same Sata port 0 as the old hard drive was.

 My OP system is Windows 10, 1909 - Backup Software ATI 2020, Bld 25700

Do you see any issues with my plan ? Will the smaller SSD possibly create a problem or will ATI2020 automatically size the partition ?

Added C_Boot Drive structure 

Thank you so much for your help.

I see I’m still classified as Beginner after 9 years on this forum. Oh well, maybe it’s my age and going round again lol.

Bill

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Bill, your plan should be fine with a couple of suggestions for tweaks.

First, make sure you understand how to boot your ATI 2020 Rescue Media in UEFI mode to match the EFI System partition shown in your disk image.

Next, make the full disk backup of the original 1TB disk using the rescue media rather than from the Windows ATI GUI - this will avoid any issues later that can be caused by restoring copies of the ATI ProgramData folders then continuing a backup task which then complains that it can't find the file that you previously restored from!!

You could also circumvent any partition resizing issues by reducing the size of your main C: partition to around 400GB from the current size of 922GB shown in the image, leaving the freed space as unallocated on the disk.  Download a copy of the free MiniTool Partition Wizard software to do the resizing more easily than using Windows Disk Management.

I have always used Backup & Recovery to migrate to a new drive.

The steps in outline are as follows:

  1. Create the Acronis Rescue Media (use the Simple option for WinPE)
  2. Test booting your PC from the rescue media, ensuring you understand how to boot in UEFI mode and can 'see' your current drive and an external backup drive to hold a full disk backup image.
  3. Make a new full Disk backup of the working drive to an external drive as a one-off backup action.
  4. Shutdown the PC, remove the current drive and install the new one.
  5. Boot from the Acronis Rescue Media with your backup drive connected.
  6. Recover the Backup from step 3. to the new drive.
  7. Check the Log messages before exiting from the rescue media (all logs are lost on exit) to check all is OK.
  8. If all ok, disconnect the external drive, remove the rescue media and restart the PC normally from the new drive.
  9. When you have confirmed all is ok with the new drive, make a new backup again to include any new device drivers installed for the new drive.

See KB 63226: Acronis True Image 2020: how to create bootable media and KB 59877: Acronis True Image: how to distinguish between UEFI and Legacy BIOS boot modes of Acronis Bootable Media

KB 63295: Acronis True Image 2020: How to restore your computer with WinPE-based or WinRE-based media

Steve,

Thanks so much for the way you outlined the procedure. Although I hesitate to mess with the existing drive by trying to adjust the partition size unless I have to. If I do, I’d probably restore to an expendable 1 TB HD (get a 5400 cheap one) and use that to mess with.

What do you think the chances are that it will work without changing the size of the existing drive ?

Thanks again,

Bill

Bill, I would love to tell you that the restore should work smoothly without any further issues but I cannot guarantee this as have seen too many users reporting issues when moving to smaller drives.  The majority of issues arise when cloning is being used rather than Backup & Restore, as cloning is more sensitive to issues.

I would suggest just going for it per my outline without making any partition size changes and saving those actions for if you do hit any bumps in the road.  Testing with a spare drive is always a good safe way to try things out.

Steve,

Will try it and let you know.

Thanks,

Bill

Steve,

Worked fine and didn't need to shrink the partition after all. I guess TI2020 was smart enough to do that.

Couldn't find any logs, other than the simple "succeeded" ones when booted from the rescue media, but I did copy the operations from the screen. Will post them here in the body and will also attach the layout of the new SSD after the restore.

Thanks again. Its knowledgeable people like yourself that makes Acronis, over the years,  a good tool

Bill

Aug. 24, 2020
Replace 1 TB HD with Smaller Samsung 860 EVO 500 Gig SSD

Acronis Prompt:  Select Items to Recover ……
Disk 1  I Checked Disk 1 & All Below Were then Checked
                                                                  Capacity         Used           Type
                NTFS (OS)(C:)          PRI         922.1GB        73.55GB              
                FAT32 (DIAGS)(H:)   PRI         40MB            4.000MB
               Track 0                                                                                Track 0
                EFI Sys Partition      PRI         500MB          31.23MB      FAT32
                Recovery Partition   PRI         490MB          279.3MB      FS: NTFS 0x27 (Windows RE Hidden…)
                Recovery Partition   PRI         511MB          453.3MB                        " 
                Recovery Partition   PRI         7.790GB       7.041GB                        "                                                                                                              
 Next, “Analyzing Partition C:”

Then I Selected
Disk 1 - Not Initialized 465GB Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB

Number of Operations 9
1. Clearing Disk
                Hard Disk 1

2. Clearing Disk
                Hard Disk 1

3. Copying & Merging  Partitions
                Hard Disk 1
                Drive Letter --->-
                File Sys FAT32
                Vol Label  ESP
                Size  500MB 500MB ->500MB

4. Copying & Merging  Partitions
                Hard Disk 1
                Drive Letter H:  H: -> H:
                File Sys FAT32
                Vol Label  DIAGS
                Size  40MB 40MB ->40MB

5. Copying & Merging  Partitions
                Hard Disk 1
                Drive Letter -,--->-
                File Sys NTFS
                Vol Label  WINRETOOLS
                Size  500MB 490MB ->490MB

 

6. Copying & Merging  Partitions
                Hard Disk 1
                Drive Letter C:  G: -> G:
                File Sys NTFS
                Vol Label  OS
                Size  922.1GB 922.1GB ->456.3GB

7. Copying & Merging  Partitions
                Hard Disk 1
                Drive Letter -, --->-
                File Sys:                NTFS
                Vol Label:  No Entry
                Size:  511MB 511MB ->511MB

8. Copying & Merging  Partitions
                Hard Disk 1
                Drive Letter -, --->-
                File Sys: NTFS
                Vol Label  PBR Image
                Size  7.790GB 7.793GB ->7.793GB

9. Recovering MBR
                Hard Disk 1

Options:  (Did not select any)
Recover Files with Original Security Settings
Validate Backup archive before recovery
Reboot Computer Automatically if needed

PROCEED  at  (2:10PM)
…… Recovering, then after approx 35 Mins,  Succeeded at 2:45 PM

Checked Log – “Succeeded”

Shutdown,  Removed Acronis Recovery Media & Ext HD with the backup,

Restarted System
 So Far, No Problems !!

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