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Can I clone a 256GB SSD to a 240GB one, when only 93Gb is the used space of the first disk?

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I have a Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB SSD, used as system disk to a PC with UEFI BIOS. The actual space is 237GB, as shown in disk properties and it is formatted in NTFS. I want to replace it with a Patriot Burst SSD of 240GB.

At the moment the existing Sandisk Ultra Plus disk has 93.7GB used space and the rest 143GB is a free space. The Patriot Burst is a new unused disk.

Is cloning possible or I will meet any difficulties?

Thanks

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Panagiotis, if both of your SSD's will connect in the same way, i.e. both as SATA drives, then there should be no problem in cloning from your 256GB SSD to the slightly smaller 240GB SSD, especially given the low amount of actual used data.

I would recommend making a full disk & partitions backup of the original source SSD to an external backup drive purely as a safeguard against any problems.

If you are using ATI 2018 then you can do a live clone from the 256GB SSD to the 240GB SSD from within Windows using the ATI application assuming that you can connect the second SSD via a USB caddy or adapter.  This method uses the Microsoft VSS snapshot method in the same way that doing a backup in Windows does.

In risposta a di truwrikodrorow…

Thank so much, Steve, for your advice.

I intend to connect the target disk (Patriot Burst 240GB) the same way the source disk (Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB) is connected to the system, i.e. as a SATA drive on one of the M/B existing SATA connections. For your information, the PC comprises a Gigabyte GA-Z87-D3HP and an Intel i5-4690k "Devil's Canyon" CPU, and it operates on Windows 10 64-bit OS.

Backing up the source disk is certainly a safeguard, but it can be done any time, before or after the cloning. Anyway, I will certainly check if the PC operates correctly after cloning, by changing its booting from the M/B UEFI BIOS choices. If it does so, I will stay on the newly created disk (the Patriot Burst one) and I will remove the old Sandisk Ultra Plus from it to be used for other purpose.

Thanks again.

I would recommend making a full backup of the source drive before doing a clone of it - better to be safe than sorry in these circumstances.  We have seen too many users come to these forums where all has been lost when cloning due to a simple mistake or some other issue arising during the process that leaves both drives unbootable!

It is also not recommended to try to boot your computer into Windows with both cloned drives still attached - cloning also creates a duplicate drive signature which can confuse and perhaps cause corruption to Windows boot configuration data (due to causing a drive signature clash).

If your computer is UEFI for the BIOS and uses this mode for booting into Windows, then you should be selecting Windows Boot Manager as the primary boot device / source / priority in the BIOS settings.  Would recommend you check the settings for the working drive before starting on the clone. If you have a Legacy boot system, then the drive itself is selected for the boot device.

In risposta a di truwrikodrorow…

Thanks a lot, again, Steve.
I will follow your advice "by the book".

Cheers.

Like Steve, I recommend backing up before doing a clone. Things can go wrong during the clone, the most obvious of which is an unexpected power outage.

Ian