Cloning only the boot partition to another HDD / SSD, instead of the whole disk
Hi there,
I like to clone not a whole harddisk, but just the boot partition of it to a smaller SSD, which is bigger in size than the boot partition of the source harddisk, but smaller than the whole source harddisk.
I tried with clone, but it would not allow me to specify the destination disk, as the destination SSD is smaller than the (complete) source disk.
I tried with backup. It worked - but although I made a full sector-by-sector backup it got written to a .tib-file instead of cloning the bootable partition. Do I first have to make an intermediate step to backup to a disk 2 and recover afterwards to my destination SSD (disk 3) ?
I run Win7 64 bit.
Kind regards, Michael


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Hi Steve,
Thanks for your detailed answer from which I learnt:
I have to follow the 2-steps-approach:
1) backup bootable W7 partition to any other internal disk, 2) restore backup to the smaller SSD - luckily I have a laptop with two drives.
In step 1) I do NOT have to perform a sector-by-sector backup, but it is not forbidden to copy everything on the partition, except the empty space, the hibernation file and pagefile.sys.
In step 2) I remove the original HDD from bay 1 and replace it by the SSD. In bay 2 the HDD with the backup will be placed. Further more I have my Acronis memory stick by the hand.
Now we come to the point. You wrote >> restore using the bootable media from your backup drive to the SSD <<. My question is: how do I make the HDD partition of the intermediate disk bootable ? i) by copying the backup into an empty partition, which was made bootable before, e.g. using an empty primary partition of a HDD for that purpose or ii) by setting it to bootable during the creation of the backup. To be honest I do not know how to do this ! I'm almost 100% sure that there is nowhere in the dialogue an option to make the backup bootable.
I have a MBR system.
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Hi Steve,
One more idea.
Can I just copy the .tib-file that I created this morning to an another empty primary partition. Afterwards re-format my SSDs primary partition, set it active and recover afterwards from the .tib-file to empty primary partition of my SSD ?
Or, do I have to backup to that intermediate HDD and to recover from that tib-file to the SSDs primary partition ?
Still most important - how do I make the backup bootable ??
Kr., Michael
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Hello Michael,
You need to create the bootable rescue media on either DVD or USB memory stick - see KB Document: https://kb.acronis.com/acronis-true-image-2016/bootable-media for guidance on how to do this.
Once you have created the bootable media, test that you can start your system using it.
See post: Great Acronis "How-To" Videos and other Acronis Resources for some further help guidance & videos.
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Hi Steve,
I read the user guide in between.
It said bootable option is only given to external media and formatted in FAT16 or FAT32, which is antique.
I backed-up from my 2nd internal drive, to the 1st internal from - of course I could do it vice versa as well, because the 2nd drive is removable, thus external. Perhaps than I get offered the make backup bootable option. But restricting it to FAT16 or FAT32 is a bit outdated (max file size = 4 GB), my outlook.pst files have currently 8-9 GB.
Let me know if I can somehow also get my intermediate HDD partition bootable.
Kr., Michael
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I have already a tested version of a bootable USB memory stick created !!, that's no problem.
The SSD needs to get the restored backup from the intermediate HDD partition - this SSD needs to get bootable !!
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Michael, the FAT16/32 bootable limitation is only for the bootable rescue media (Acronis bootable UsB flash drives instead of using a disk).
When restoring disks or partitions, whatever the source was formatted as (typically NTFS in most cases for the OS, although the Windows MBR or EFI boot volume is typically still FAT32 just for that small partition, but that's a default Windows created parition too and not something you want to mess around with as it should be left alone).
Long story short, if you want to move your OS from one drive to another, still do a "full disk" backup of the original drive, but do not do sector-by-sector. By not peforming a sector-by-sector backup, this willl then only backup the "used" data on the drive. As long as that used space is less than the total amount of your new drive, you can restore that full image to any disk you want and it will be bootable in the same system.
Here's the caveat on retoring an OS image to an "external" drive - it will never boot on external media (by default). The OS needs to be reported to the bios as an internal SATA connection for Windows to allow it to boot. If you tried to install Windows directly to an external hard drive, it wouldn't even give you the option to use that disk as an install location.
There are, of course, 3rd party tools that can allow this to be accomplished, but Acronis is not one of them as it is only for backup and restoring and not for creating unoffocial Windows-to-go drives like some other backup applications do.
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Michael, please see the following KB document which has a step by step guide to doing what you want to do.
57982: Acronis True Image 2016: Restoring to a Drive with a Single Partition
Please note that the FAT16 or FAT32 only applies to USB memory sticks being used for Rescue/Recovery bootable media - it does not apply to your SSD drive.
Your external (or second internal) drive with your backup image file (.TIB) does not need to be bootable - only the Rescue media on DVD or USB memory stick is required to be bootable.
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Hi Steve,
My problem got solved !
It was a mechanical problem. My SSD is just 7mm thick, my HDD 9.5mm. So when I moved the SSD into the disk slot it didn't connect, because the connectors where located 2.5mm higher. After I improvised with a piece of folded magazine which I moved under it, the SSD was able to fit into the connectors and it became visible in the restore view.
I successfully restored in the meantime the backup of my primary partition to the SSDs primary partition. I was even able to start into Windows 7 64bit.
Now I'm about to backup my program partition D (just the downloaded executables, documentation, keys etc.) from my old HDD, to recover it to the future program partition of my new SSD.
After that I will be done.
Thanks in any case for you support. I can recommmend Acronis True Image to everyone, it's a very mature, reliable, user friendly tool with great support from companpy experts.
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Hello Michael, thank you for letting us know that the main problem is solved and congratulations on perservering with the efforts to achieve this. Improvision is often a good learning method in these situations - nothing wrong with some folded magazine but please ensure that nothing gets too hot that could cause a fire!
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$2 adapter
https://m.cdw.com/shop/products/EDGE-7mm-to-9.5mm-SSD-Spacer-Adapter-fo…
ebay has them too.
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