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cloning big hdd to smaller hdd?

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Hi,

Im trying to clone my older notebook drive which is 200gig but only 50gig is used, to
a new ssd drive 120gig. How do i go about mirror/clone this over?

Is it possible to shrink the current c drive of 200 gig to lets say 100gig as only 50 gig is used or any other suggestions how i can clone without having to reinstall everything again?

Regards
Ken

PS.im using Acronis True Image Home 2011 on a win7 64bit notebook.

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Item #1 at this link would be my recommendation. This is using the backup and restore method to create a replacement disk. This method is safer than using the Clone method.

http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29618

Hiya and thanks.

I read the pdf suggested but am unsure wich one to choose.

What i want to do it this.

Current drive: 750GIG in 2 partisions: C drive 200GIG 50GIG used - D: drive 550GIG but do not want to back that up or touch.

New drive SSD 120GIG: Want to clone/mirror the OS programs etc to this drive which should be 50GIG of the 200GIG drive.

Is there any of the suggestions how to do as simple as possible?

Regards
Ken

PS. The instructions on the pdf is also for TIH2012 where as i wrote im using TIH2011.

Have you checked your disk by looking at the disk via your Windows Disk Management graphical view?
As your OS is Win7, you may have non-lettered boot partition which is not visible when view only in Explorer. The view and information from the graphical view is very important. It will show the sequence of partitions and will show which partition is marked as the "active" partition.

In the link I provided, guide #1 is still valid and will still apply to version 2011. Your only option is to do the backup and restore feature as cloning is at disk level and you do not want to clone the total disk (to include D) which is what cloning would do.

Hi Grover,

Ok i looked now in the disk management.

The info is:
Disk 1 259GIG NTFS: Basic disk
Showing 2 partitions only. C and D in that order.
C says: System,Boot,Pagefile,Active,Crashdump,Primary Partition.

Is that all the info you need?

I did check that it has the 2048 value (from within TIH2011) which i assume is important when copying to a SSD drive.

Regards
Ken

This was the type of screen capture I was referencing. 

sites/default/files/mvp/user285/tuttle/tuttle-dm-new.gif

I was trying to confirm whether you had  a non-lettered partition as either the 1st or 2nd partition (as illustrated) but you have indicated that you do not have a non-lettered partition and that drive C is the active partition.

So, it would appear that your restore instructions would be:

1. Remove the old disk and attach the SSD in its place. Only other disk needed is the storage disk containing the backup file being restored.

2. Boot from the TI Bootable Media Recovery CD

3. When selecting what to restore, checkmark  only drive C system partition  from your backup file. Resizing the partition to consume all unallocated spade except for the "free space before" to contain the "1 mb" setting. Double check window to sure the size indicator is mb and not gb. Do NOT checkmark to restore track0/mbr as you are not restoring drive D.

4. On the next screen, select the SSD as the target disk and also select the "recover disk signature".

5. The summary screen should show what is about to occur. If  you are not sure and do not want to continue, you can click the CANCEL option to stop. If you click the PROCEED option, the restore will begin as indicated in the summary screen.

6. After a successful restore, shutdown and disconnect the storage disk and first boot with the SSD should be with only the SSD attached. You may have to check the boot selection to make sure the SSD is actually selected (rather than the DVD device).

7. These suggestions does not include any trim commands which may be needed as my guide was not specifically written for SSD's.

Hi Grover,

Thanks for taking the time its very cool of u!

I did everything as you wrote step by step from my backup of the c drive partition.

I do not see at your point 4. a "recover disk signature".

After recovery it said done and when i reboot i got bsod but so fast i couldent see what it said.
I popped win7 disc in and it said problem with missing startup items and i asked to repair.
After some time it came back and said it could not repair :(

Any idea whats stopping it from loading or am i missing something?

Regards
Ken

The point 4 is located in lower left corner on the same screen where the target disk SSD is selected. This screen is one screen prior to the summary screen. If that screen is bypassed, maybe you have an option where you can backup up one screen before clicking the proceed option.

Using the repair disk repairs only 1 problem per boot. If multiple problems, you will need to reboot several times and use the repair feature multiple times.

As for your current fix, my suggestion would be to repeat the attempts using the repair option.
If that fails, you can repeat the restore
1. Use the "add new disk" option and delete the existing partitions on the SSD so all space becomes unallocated with no partitions.
2. Then follow the same instructions as from the preceding post. Be sure that the system partition on the SSD is marked as active.
3. If another failure, try doing the DVD repair again a couple times.
4. If failure continues, maybe some of the other posters can provide help as I cannot provide any help with SSD's.

Hi there,

I am trying to do the same here, and having a few problems..

When I read the guide you've very kindly put together, it refers to the partitions as if they're active or not. I am not sure if I need to clone two partitions or not.

I have basically a 500GB HD I am trying to clone 177GB worth of data to a new OCZ 240GB SSD. I want the new SDD to be my main boot disk. The 177GB worth of data contains images and documents I have no place to put. I have another 80GB hard drive installed in the PC but that is almost used up.

I have partitioned off 100 GB from the 500 HD, and the capacity is 367GB. The Used space is 177GB, the free space is 190GB, plus there is a partition of 100GB.

But when I look at the disk management, my HD has three areas - 100MB of System Reserved space, 367.98 of Main Hard Drive, both of which are active, and then the partition of 100GB.

I have the Acronis 2012 True Image Home Plus Pack, and I understand cloning my whole HD to new SSD won't work, as it's clones the whole thing (500GB worth of data) to to 240GB SSD - is that right?

Please can you help explain what I need to do - I'm really struggling to work out how to copy over my system to new SSD...

Thanks very much..

Joe

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See post #12 below

Hi James,

OK - I have done point 2. I don't have a 100GB USB Drive though? I have an internal 80GB HD - Is that what you mean?

I've deleted the partition and left as unallocated..

How do I boot to the Acronis Rescue Media - is this via windows, or through using the disc when I startup the computer?...

The correct drive to clone from would be in the 2nd slot - how can I be certain I select this one to clone from to the new SSD?...

Thanks very much!

Joe

It's my intention to buy a new bigger (2TB) HD in any case, so before I attempt any of this I will create a backup...!

What happens if I bugger the clone up?!

Also, how can I avoid any errors during the clone process - I've read about some errors along the lines of "failed to read data from disk.....from sector XXXXX..." What causes this?

Sorry, I thought the 80GB drive was USB and I mistyped to size.

Revised my instructions as so:

Based on your disk layout, I would make the following recommendations.

1. Disconnect the 80GB drive.
2. Delete the entire empty 100GB partition on your original drive and leave the free space as unallocated.
3. Shut the system down and make the following connection adjustments to your drives.
4. Connect the SSD to the primary (1st channel) connector on your system board
5. Connect your current 500GB disk to the secondary (2nd channel) connector on your system board
6. Start your computer using the Acronis Rescue Media (bootable CD/DVD or USB flash drive) you created in 2012 or downloaded from your Acronis account.
7. Perform the clone, selecting your original 500GB drive as the source and the SSD as the target.

Be SURE to select the correct drive as the source for the clone. If you do this wrong you could clone the blank drive to your current one.

Acronis will automatically resize the partitions during the clone, but this should not cause you any problems. The 100MB System Partition is required to be on your drive and may be slightly smaller after the clone. Your OS partition will be downsized to fit the new SSD.

After the clone operation is finished, disconnect your original drive before booting the first time.

Boot the system up to see if things are working okay.

You can then add your original drive(s) back into your system. Repartiton and format the 500GB drive as you wish for future use.

Be sure to take a look Pat L's comment (near the end of the post) about optimizing the SSD after cloning.

To check for read errors on your drive before cloning (A good idea!), use Windows command line utility "chkdsk" with the following parameters:
type "chkdsk C: /r" without the quotes and then press enter. This will check your drive for errors and fix them, and also scan for bad sectors on the drive and mark them as bad if they exist. This may take a little while.

When cloning from the Acronis bootable Rescue Media, the source drive is only read from, not written to, so there should be no problems with the source drive after the clone (Unless you select the wrong drive to clone as the source).

The physical position of the drives in your computer do not matter, it is the location of where the cable is attached to your system board that determines which drive is Drive 0, Drive 1, Drive 2 etc. as determined by your BIOS at boot time. Check you system or system board owners manul to determine which connector is the first, second, etc. Be sure to connect your SSD to the 1st (or primary) connection and the 500GB drive to the 2nd (or secondary) connection before cloning, and then leave the SSD connected to the 1st (or primary) connection permanently.

Hi James,

Thanks so much for this post.

I have managed to successfully clone my HD and now running my pc off it - that was after correcting all the errors on the hd..

So thank you very much for this guide. I wouldn't have been able to do it without the pointers listed here and your help.

Best!

Joe

Joe,

Glad you are up and running, and you are welcome for any help I may have provided.

James

hi there

 

ok i see this in google search about my acronis only cloning from large hd to small.

 

just so you you know there is a serious error in coding that can prevent this

 

i am searching around the net for any work arounds but i just cloned a 150 to a 600 in as is mode after both the proportoinal and automatic failed after the boot

 

i have been a paid user for at least 10 years and i finally noticed this behavior since i have to have a span of times to notice back up behavior who does that more than necessaty

 

good luck and cloning is the only reason i bought this software so save your naysaying and bowing down to the company for someone else i am  a practical person who whants expidient things that do thier job not software you have to work around or make excuses for like windows

Richard, these forum topics you have posted these comments to are all very old (5 or more years so) and relate to old / obsolete versions of Acronis True Image.

For any users considering cloning, whether from larger drives to smaller drives or the opposite, or even doing a one to one clone, then the key advice is always make a full disk backup before attempting this type of action.

See topic: [IMPORTANT] CLONING - How NOT to do this!!! for further advice on this subject - this applies to any cloning action for any version of this product, not just ATIH 2017 (the forum section where the topic was posted).