500G HD to 250G SSD, want to clone removing last 250G Partition; TI 2014
I have been buying Acronis products for years, and love them.
I just ran into my 1st prob:
- cloned 250 HD to 250 SSD: OK!
- cloned 250 SSD to new 250 SSD: OK!
- cloned 250 SSD to 500 HD: OK!
- Added a 250G partition @ end for scratch; called it x: (OK)
NOW want to clone 500G HD to 250G SSD, ignoring / eliminating X: e.g. C: D: E: => New C: D: E: (not even resized).
I tried both methods of eliminating X: (the option has 2 columns, one called "files and folders", I forget the other; but tried both.
The resulting 240G SSD still had an X; only 77MB (Corrected 11/28/14 from mistyped 77G) (Smallest NTFS allowed)
The system booted, but was unstable;
Windows error log said there is a problem with X:
Since EVERY Acronis clone I ever did (*) has worked perfectly, I guess I was surprised to have one I can not figure out.
I'm in a laptop; 2 bays, both can be HD; ThinkPad "ultrabay" swaps CD/DVD for HD bay; thus cannot boot CD AND have 2 physical HD/SSDs.
___ Unimportant history lesson___
(*) only prob ever was that copying C: didn't reproduce the MBR "or whatever" so had to PATCH the HD serial number to get Windows to validate the OS.
Thank you so much for such wonderful products!
P.S. I am having trouble with Windows Update / Windows Installer; I THINK my ultimate solution is to proceed FRESH installing Windows 8 onto the new SSD, then upgrading to 8.1, THEN imaging, THEN add my applications.
P.S. I found the article "somewhere" about crucial M500 drives needing a Firmware update; My older 2 SSDs may have been that (but worked perfectlly); the 2 new ones are M550 for which there currently is no Firmware update.
/Ward Christensen Inventor of Xmodem & BBSs
SUMMARY of my (long) original
C+D+E+X = 512G, HD - current
WANT C+D+E = 250G, SSD, new clone
C+D+E CAME from a 250G SSD, so are sized, they will fit, just "toss X:"
---- Interleaved replies to GroverH's EXCELLENT and MUCH APPRECIATED reply----
> A little information please.
> Is this transfer to a smaller SSD still pending?
yes
> Are you now using 2014 or 2015?
2014
> Used space of all partitons?
I think not relevant - NOT squeezing, just ignoring:
Source: |-C:-|-D:-|-E:-|------------X:----------------|
Destin: |-C:-|-D:-|-E:-|
"just Do not copy X, a scratch partition, I want NO part of it (even an X: minimal partition) after clone
> Because you are using 8.1, I will assume that your disk type is GPT? Is this correct.
I am using 8.0 (I wanted to image before trying the update). NOT GPT
> A screen capture of the Windows Disk Managerment graphical view might help
> What is your partition arrangement as viewed in Windows command line Diskpart?
Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 350 MB 1024 KB MS stuff
Partition 2 Primary 72 GB 351 MB C: Boot
Partition 3 Primary 73 GB 73 GB D:
Partition 0 Extended 319 GB 146 GB Extended for E: & X:
Partition 4 Logical 77 GB 146 GB E:
Partition 5 Logical 242 GB 223 GB X:
- AHA!!! I see a potential problem: C: D: OK, but E: is part of an extended partition, I'm wanting to ignore the 2nd partition (X:) in the extended partition!
- I'm thinking: If I can copy C: to its same size, with acronis (need the hidden stuff, registry, etc) THEN MANUALLY partition and copy D: & E:
- (Whine on) I am whining "if I had set up E: also as primary, my process might have worked!
> Used space of all partitons? (dup of above question)
> Have you tried the Recovery CD for the clone?
No, good idea... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ward: Try this? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> Are you sure this link is not relative?
> https://kb.acronis.com/content/45437
Not relevant, "2. The destination drive cannot be selected (grayed out)."
My target disk is selectable,
> Here are some general comments by Acronis
> https://kb.acronis.com/content/48386
It talks about cloning to smaller providing USED space (implying "on all partitions") is available on target
> https://forum.acronis.com/forum/60129
Talks GTP, I am not
> TrueImage has not been good about cloning or restoring a GPT style disk to a new disk and keeping the
> original partition sequence, when the target disk is a blank or unallocated disk.
Not GPT
> If you have a CD/DVD device, you should use the TI Bootable Recovery CD to perform either a clone or a restore. Target installed inside the computer in bay 1. Source disk in an external location such as an enclosure.
I specifically have TWO internal HD bays, thus the fastest best way I would think?
For ex, after cloning, I switch boot to include CLONE and remove old boot disk, to test clone.
Eventually I move the cloned disk to the "usual" disk and remove the disk bay and put my DVD drive back.
> Or, you can create an Acronis Bootable Flash drive so you could boot from the USB flash drive while having the target in bay 1 and source in bay2.
But Acronis specifically does the magic of setting up a little "DOS" environment that it automatically
boots to, thus being "so easy" (to clone to same or larger sizes, just can't get to do smaller)
Cloning is just that, an exact copy of the original. The problem is you don't want an exact copy of the original, you want a partial clone, which it True Image will not do. The best would be make a partition image backup of your current drive. Then boot from the Recovery CD and restore the partitions that you want (Including the Microsoft one). That will get it done.