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HOw to clone a smaller drive with True Image 2020

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I have a computer with a 256GB SSD and a 1TB hard drive.  The 256GB contains the operating system and all of my files. The hard drive has two partitions on it, but has no data in either partition. I would like to clone the 256GB SSD with a 1 TB SSD I have as a spare.  If I simply clone the 256 GB SSD with True Image 2020 onto the 1 TB SSD, can I replace the 256 GB SSD with the 1 TB SSD and retain the 1 TB capacity of the drive, or will the cloning process simply turn my 1 TB SSD into a 256 GB SSD?   Thanks.

Doug

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Doug, welcome to these public User Forums.

Personally, I would not recommend using cloning but instead to use Backup & Recovery for this migration from the smaller SSD to the larger one.

It is always recommended to make a full disk backup before using cloning, so doing the Recovery would be using that backup to restore the image to the new SSD, where if you boot the computer from the Acronis rescue media, then the original SSD can be safely removed and set aside in case you need it in the future as an easy recovery option.

You haven't mentioned what type of computer is involved here but if it is a laptop / notebook computer then see the following information related to cloning this type of PC.

Please see KB 56634: Acronis True Image: how to clone a disk - and review the step by step guide given there.

Note: the first section of the above KB document directs laptop users to KB 2931: How to clone a laptop hard drive - and has the following paragraph:

It is recommended to put the new drive in the laptop first, and connect the old drive via USB. Otherwise you will may not be able to boot from the new cloned drive, as Acronis True Image will apply a bootability fix to the new disk and adjust the boot settings of the target drive to boot from USB. If the new disk is inside the laptop, the boot settings will be automatically adjusted to boot from internal disk. As such, hard disk bays cannot be used for target disks. For example, if you have a target hard disk (i.e. the new disk to which you clone, and from which you intend to boot the machine) in a bay, and not physically inside the laptop, the target hard disk will be unbootable after the cloning.

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

If you do see unallocated space on the new drive after booting into Windows, then download a copy of the free MiniTool Partition Wizard software, install this in Windows, then use it to move the Recovery partition(s) to the end of the unallocated space on the drive, then resize the Windows partition to use the now available space.  Click on the Apply button to make the changes when done.
Note: this will probably also require a Windows restart to complete the changes. 

Thanks for that.  The computer is a desktop I have had for a couple of years but used very little.  My main computer was a laptop, (that died with a motherboard issue), so I used the SSD from the laptop to copy over all my data files onto the desktop through a usb port.  I was surprised I could see everything on the laptop ssd through the desktop computer file system.  Now that I have this spare SSD from the old laptop, I would like to put it to use in the desktop (the laptop SSD is quite new - I replaced the laptop hard drive with a SSD to improve performance and I used Acronis True Image 2020 to clone the laptop hard drive onto the laptop SSD).

Not sure if I fully understand what you are saying.  In creating the backup, what is the backup on - the old laptop SSD, or the 1 TB hard drive (with nothing on it, apart from two partitions) and then recover that backup to the old laptop SSD?

Thanks again.

Doug

Doug, ideally the Backup of the current working OS drive should be created and stored on a third external USB storage drive but if you have sufficient free space on your second internal drive then you can use that drive by storing the backup image in a new folder on that drive.
Note: the backup image must not be stored on any drive that will be the target for the recovery operation.

Ok, thanks.  What is the difference between cloning a drive and creating a backup image of a drive?  I always thought they were the same thing, but from what has been posted above, they appear to be different.  

Thanks.

Doug

Thanks.  I always thought cloning a drive and making a backup image were one and the same thing.  From what is described above, they are not - what are the differences between the two techniques?

Thanks,

Doug

Doug, please see the link in my signature for Difference between Backup and Disk Clone which has a lot of information about this subject.