Jump to content

Cloning Windows 7 to new HD


Recommended Posts

Anyone have any experience with cloning a windows 7 installation to a new disk? This one is slightly complicated in that the disk is in two partitions, and overall is 500Gb and I want to clone to only a 120Gb SSD. I only need the C: partition (D: is manufactuers recovery partition), however I'm not sure how to make sure the thing boots normally without cloning the entire disk, which isn't possible in this case...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

reduce the size using partition magic or something similar, then do a direct clone.

There's no issue doing a clone of the partition that I need, however as far as I understand cloning that partition itself directly to the new disk would not in itself make the new disk bootable? The only guaranteed way I know is to clone the entire disk block by block, and that is impossible due to space constraints even given partition resizing etc.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you have more than 120Gb of data on the 500Gb drive, so that you can't use partition magic to make it small enough to clone to the 120Gb?

Maybe you could clone the 500Gb to another 500Gb, then delete everything that you don't want to go onto the 120Gb SSD, then re-partition the new 500Gb to a smaller matching size, and then clone the remainder onto the SSD? (or likewise just move all the extra files to another drive as an archive, and delete them from the original which you will re-size)

I haven't cloned a Windows hard drive in a long time, but I own Acronis True Image software, and wonder if that might do the trick for you for moving down to a smaller drive. You could do some research into the new features of the 2012 version. http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/?mid=4284&lid=2&uid=108688

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.