Clone drive C: (500 GB HDD - 2 partitions) onto 125 GB SSD ?

AOMEI Std only offers clone a partition with AOMEI PRO
- in AOMEI Std the feature is disabled and flagged with PRO icon

AOMEI Knowledge Base is outdated and does no show clone partition at all.

Q1: Short of deleting second data partition on the 500GB - HDD is there any way to clone the C partition. ?
Macrium help pages are all expressed for Reflect PRO and their products comparison webpage only states
'Partition Imageing", but no mention of limits with Free Macrium
Q2: Will Free Macrium clone just partition #0 (ie, C;\) ?

The cost of AOMEI here is au$75+ ...
- a lot cheaper than Macrioum Reflect
AOMEI is an excellent program, in the long run it will save me $$ over years, but just at the moment money is tight.

Thank you, (maybe I have answered my own question already ) ... just hoping for a miracle.

Just use free (standard) aomei backupper to make an image of C. Then restore that image onto the other disk.

Aomei Backupper Version 4.04 now, it works very well. The free version does not include system cloning - as @bawdgiggle said.

I've successfully cloned notebook HDDs to SSDs twice with Macrium Reflect. I've also cloned a variety of data drives to new backup drives many times. The only times (two or three) I ran into a problem was if there was something corrupted on the source drive.

I've also tested using Macrium Reflect to clone single partitions only without any problems. It is also possible to clone from a larger drive to a smaller one as long as the smaller drive has room for everything on the larger drive. For example, if you have a 500GB drive with only 100GB of space being used and you want to clone to a 250GB drive, Macrium Reflect is capable of doing so as long as it is still set to the default Intelligent Sector Copy.

I don't know why it would be considered better practice to image and restore instead of "straight-across" cloning. Why should one have to spend double the time and, if there isn't room for the image on the source drive, have to use an intermediary drive when cloning works just as well, is faster, and is easier.

Of course, there are times when imaging is better than cloning. It is far more suitable for backing up System files (OS and programs) than cloning, especially since images are more compact, taking up less space on a drive, allowing you to keep multiple images on a drive. Keeping multiple clones is nowhere nearly as easy or practical. Cloning is best for onetime replication of a drive onto another drive.

Image or clone - whatever suits you.
I don't own a notebook but don't many just have space for one SSD/HDD?
Even on a desktop PC you need to connect the destination drive then swap it back to the source position. One advantage in using an imaging approach is that if something goes wrong you still have a working disconnected source drive before performing the system image restore.

mjf said:

Image or clone - whatever suits you.
I don't own a notebook but don't many just have space for one SSD/HDD?
Even on a desktop PC you need to connect the destination drive then swap it back to the source position. One advantage in using an imaging approach is that if something goes wrong you still have a working disconnected source drive before performing the system image restore.

This isn't rocket science (thank God since I'm no rocket scientist). Cloning is easy and doesn't touch the source drive other than to read it so there is no danger. When I cloned the HDDs in my notebooks (both notebooks are single drive wonders) to SSDs, I just plugged the SSD into a dock connected to a USB port on the notebook, did a simple format so Macrium Reflect could find it, then made the clone. All the drive letters on the clone were changed, including the System Reserved, C:, and recovery partitions but, when I removed the HDD from each notebook, replaced it with the SSD, then rebooted, the System Reserved and the recovery partitions no longer had a drive letter and the OS partition had reverted to C:. Only the data partition kept the changed drive letter and that was quick and easy to change back to what it was on the HDD.

I've got a couple of docking stations and have used them for cloning and backups including (many) system images.
Some people with notebooks/laptops may not be inclined to buy a dock or other sata to usb converter but do have at least one external backup drive. I'm sure many are also comfortable with making routine system images. In this case all they need is to buy the replacement SSD or HDD. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's better practice though except when your OS drives fails unexpectedly.

LadyF, one of several reasons I prefer full imaging over cloning is that cloning eliminates any existing MFT content on the target just as it begins the cloning operation. Full imaging doesn't care what is already on the target backup HD just as long as there is enough byte-space for the upcoming full image.

The new SSD is not recognized by WinExp - Computer



But it is listed in Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management.
- as disk 3 (SSD) is not initialized.



When Computer Management -> Storage -> Disk Management is opened this popup appears.



Do I need to format the SSD ?
- if so MBR or GPT ?

Would I make an image (file) of source HDD C:\ drive
.... logically save to an external USB media.
... swap the raw SSD into the laptop
... and then "somehow" add/insert/restore the saved image onto the raw SSD ?

Reducing the source HDD to one partition would make cloning the HDD to the SSD simpler,
but I would like to learn how to add an image to an empty SSD (drive) ... if it can be done ?
@Lady Fitzgerald. In another thread you described imaging the system (well outlined), now I cannot find your post.

Thank you :)