Steps to cloning a smaller to a larger GPT drive
I successfully cloned a 2TB drive to a 4TB drive using True Image 2015 on a Windows 8.1 system and lost the extra 2TB disk space on the larger drive.
What are the necessary steps to avoid losing the extra space on my larger drive when backing up your C drive in Windows 8.1 with True Image 2015?
I searched through this forum, but only found info for MBR drives, not GPT drives.
Thanks,
R Nadeau


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I had already read the information in the link that you indicated and successfully cloned my boot C drive on my Windows 8.1 system.
The problem is not about CLONING a drive in general, it's specifically cloning a SMALLER drive to a LARGER one that is a GPT drive (not an MBR drive) and not losing the extra space on the larger drive. More specifically I cloned a 2TB to 4TB GPT drive in Windows 8.1 and it turns the 4TB drive into a 2TB drive thereby losing half of it's capacity. I need the correct steps to transfer the contents of the boot drive for my PC that gives me access to the entire 4TB space on the larger drive even though the original drive is just 2TB.
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When you performed the clone procedure in the Mode selection did you choose As Is? If yes this could be the problem. When cloning from a smaller to a larger drive the Proportional Mode should be selected. This creates a proportionally size adjusted clone to larger drive.
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Thanks Enchantech.
I'll try to find that option in the Clone menu and redo the clone.
Much appreciated.
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It is a required step in the clone process so you should not have any problem finding it. Mode should appear on the left side pane of the clone window.
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Used proportional mode to clone my hard drive as you suggested. Btw, proportional mode is only available when you choose manual rather than automatic cloning in True Image 2015.
Formatted the destination disk to GPT before cloning, but the final destination disk after cloning is limited to 2 TB even though it's a 4 TB drive; I'm assuming that that is because the original drive is a 2TB MBR drive. I don't see a way of recuperating the lost 2 TB of drive space in Windows 8.1.
It's a shame to lose half of the drive space and there's no way of re-partitioning the drive with disk management after cloning. An MBR drive remains MBR without re-formatting the drive and losing all the information as far as I can see.
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You are correct the 2TB drive beibg MBR is the cause of the situation you have at hand. You are also correct that TI 2015 will not convert MBR to GPT without reformat and data loss. Cloning a disk produces an exact bit fir bit copy of the source drive so with your source disk being an MBR format that's what you get from a clone.
There are third party tools capable of converting MBR disks to GPT and vice versa without data loss however. Not all tools support such conversion on system disks however. One such tool that I am Aware of that is capable of doing this on data as well as system disks is AOMEI Partition Assistant.
I am providing 2 links that talk about this conversion in Method 3 of the first link. I would think you could use this tool to convert the cloned partition to a GPT format and then format the remaining space as GPT making all space available. Have a look.
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/convert-mbr-to-gpt-disk
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/aomei-partition-assistant-home-edition-re…
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