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Cloning to migrate OS to a smaller hard disk

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I am running Win7 on a 30Gb partition in a 500GB HDD.

I am assembling a new pc and plan to move the 500GB HDD to the new pc. However I like to keep a copy of the current OS and apps in the old pc.

I have a 150GB HDD that I am planning to leave in the old pc.

Can I clone the partition (with the OS) on the current 500GB HDD to the 150 GB HDD?
(There are 3 partitions on this HDD. I can delete the biggest partition and leave the HDD with 2 partitions totalling 80GB usage).

Thanks.

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Herbert,

Don't clone. Just backup your 30GB partition onto the other partition of the 500GB disk, validate your backup. Restart with the ATI recovery CD, restore the backup onto the 150 GB disk (watch out, this will erase the disk. If you don't want that, create a 30 GB partition on that disk before). Then unplug your 500 GB disk and reboot.

Remember that if you plug your 500 GB disk into the new computer, you will probably not have the right drivers to run it out of the box. You could use the Plus Pack of ATI to restore the same image you did onto the 30GB with the universal restore function. YOu will need the drivers of your new chipset to point ATI to them during that restore. Then you will run into activation, but if you have another license for Win 7, you will be OK.

Just trying to be cheeky. Wouldn't this means that I can actually run 2 Windows on different machines with only one license??

If your Windows license is an OEM version, the first activation on the first machine binds it to the machine. If you move it to another machine, the activation will not work and MS will not activate it for you.
If your license is retail, activation will probably not work automatically on the new machine, and you will have to call MS to activate it for you. This is a painless process. Once activated on the new machine, you are supposed to remove Windows from the other machine. I suppose, if you don't, activation issues will happen there, but I am not sure.