Problem restoring image of an old HD to new SSD using Macrium Reflect

anne1982 said:

How is it possible to restore an image of a larger partition to an SSD that is smaller than that partition?

It is with free and paid Macrium Reflect. A nice feature.
Drag and drop provided the image fits the new partition.
v5: How to restore a backup image (Restore, v5)

@mjf,

We have already posted that all popular 3rd party imaging programs can do it. Done it myself numerous times. Only just now with the free version of Aomei backupper.

Hard to tell what the problem is for anne.

If the used space on the imaged drive is smaller than the target drive, then I don't know what the problem is there.

1. There is no problem to restore a large partition to a smaller partition as long as the data fits.

2. I think Ann lost her bootmgr along the way (even if C says active). It would be helpful if we could see a picture of Disk Management of the old HDD.

3. Drag and drop is the usual way withing the Macrium restore window. It keeps the alignment. Problem here is that the C partition coming from the HDD is probably not properly aligned in the first place.

4. Here is what you have to do. Get your system on the HDD back up and running. Launch an elevated command prompt (run as admin) and run these commands:

Diskpart
List disk
Select disk n (where n is the number that was given for your SSD in List disk)
Clean
Create partition primary align=1024
Format fs=ntfs quick
Active
Exit

The restore the image to this partition.

5. There is no need to disconnect the HDD during the restore. That is only required if you make a brand new installation of the OS from an installation DVD.

IMPORTANT: If your bootmgr on the HDD is not on C, then we'll have to make other arrangements. But we can see that only after you posted a picture of Disk Management of the old (HDD) system.

anne1982 said:

Tried again with AOMEI Backupper using Disk backup/partition backup (With Intelligent sector backup) but it didn’t work . Even shrink the drive first with EaseUS Partition then make the backup didn’t help. I think what left is only to reinstall Windows 7 (clean installation) and all programs one by one from the very beginning! It is primitive but it is the only way left .

Why did it fail? Any errors while performing the backup? Any errors while performing the restore?
Normally it's quite easy

I am glad my little procedure helped. As to your questions:

Your first problem seems to be a hardware problem in the box. The CPU fan does not work properly. Maybe the inside is stuffed with lint. If this is a laptop, use a compressed air can (available at Home Depot) and blow thru the vents. If it is a desktop, open the box and give it a good cleanup - careful though and take all power off and after all power is disconnected press the start key for 30 seconds to get the static electricity out. It could also be that the CPU fan is not seated correctly. That you have to carefully investigate.

The second question is easy. Just make a folder on the HDD and store the documents there. Same for the downloads. The documents folder you can add to the library. Right click on the folder and INCLUDE it into the documents library. Give that folder a slightly different name to avoid confusion - e.g. 'Documents HDD' or whatever.