I was lucky to grab a recent image backup from a failing 1.5 TB drive. Can I restore it to a smaller drive if the available space on the original drive was well below 1TB?
This is the first time ive had to work with this particular image file. I have restored from backups before, just not this type of image. I figured I ask before attepting it.
Thanks.
It should theoretically work. Although I never attempted to do something like this.
In Windows 7, you can use the Disk Management applet of the Computer Management tool to attach, i.e. mount a VHD file. This also works with Vista’s backup images. Disk Management can be accessed by right clicking on “Computer” in the Start Menu and selecting “Manage”. In the Action Menu, you will find the “Attach VHD” option. This will mount the VHD file to a drive letter.
Then it will behave like a HDD. You can copy files in and out with ease.
IF you are still interested in cloning it, once it's mounted you should be able to use some kind of drive cloning software like say EaseUs to "clone" it over a physical disk. Serious software (like EaseUs) do allow you to fit the cloned image in a smaller drive if the data it contains can fit.
(example: the destination drive is a 500 GB HDD and the actual data in that 1.5 TB VHD is less than 500 GB)
You could also try:
1) Attach (mount) the vdh using Disk Management
2) Shrink it to a size less than the target HDD
3) Image the (shrunken) mounted drive with free Macrium Reflect
Tutorial:
Imaging with free Macrium
4) Download and burn the pe image restore ISO and burn the boot CD/DVD as described in the tutorial.
5) Restore to the new HDD
6) If the PC doesn't boot then make sure the partition is active and run the Repair option from the system repair boot CD 3 times, booting each time.
NOTE: This assumes you were able to make a valid image from your failing HDD.
I've seen posts suggesting you can't - maybe they were talking about v4.
I haven't tried it myself so it's good to know. Did you test it at a partition level or a whole of disk level?
10 minutes ago I did a test. I restored a 352 GB partition (201GB used) to free space on disk. I did it using drag/drop. Then I changed the destination partition properterties and made it smaller. Then I started the actual restore... and it started without problems. I just cancelled it, because it was only a test
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