Solved Can Macrium restore a backup image to a smaller partition ?

[DavidE]

Can Macrium restore a backup image to a smaller partition as long as there is enough space allocated for the space used ?

I transferred my Test Box triple boot OSs from a HD spinner to an SSD.
I had to make the OS partitions smaller for this transfer.
Macrium Reflect free recreated the SSD partition to the original HD size during the restore.
It didn't restore the image to the smaller SSD partition.
It deleted my 2nd pre-allocated partition so it could have a 120 GB partition to restore to.
The HD partition is 120 GB with ~20 GB of used space.
The SSD partition is 65 GB.

I ended up using Acronis, as it can restore to a smaller partition size.

Did I miss something when creating or restoring the Macrium image that would allow restoring to a smaller target size partition ?

 

[richc46]

Macrium must be restored to a larger or partition of equal size.
At least for the free version which I have.

 

[whs]

Sorry Rich, but that is not so. Macrium can restore to a smaller partition as long as the data fits. Have done that many times. Just drag the image to the partition.

 

[richc46]

You are the Macrium expert here and your information is appreciated.

 

[DavidE]

Sorry Rich, but that is not so. Macrium can restore to a smaller partition as long as the data fits. Have done that many times. Just drag the image to the partition.

Maybe that is the option I missed ...
I'll have to play with this to see if not doing that caused my issue.

 

[DavidE]

Sorry Rich, but that is not so. Macrium can restore to a smaller partition as long as the data fits. Have done that many times. Just drag the image to the partition.

Maybe that is the option I missed ...
I'll have to play with this to see if not doing that caused my issue.

I tested this by dragging the image and it does restore to a smaller target partition
Thanks Wolfgang for the tip!
Can't rep you right now

 

[richc46]

I gave rep for the both of us, he taught me too.

 

[whs]

No problem David. Rich was so kind to take care of the rep business.

 

[DavidE]

I found that after restoring the win 8.1 partition the alignment was wrong, the offset was 31 KB.
I used Macrium and Acronis to restore, same results with both programs.
Win 8.1 is the first partition and it's the active primary partition.
After I fixed the alignment Windows would not start up.
I used AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard and MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro to fix the alignment.
Same result with both, alignment is set correctly to 1024 KB, but Windows (all 3 OSs) won't boot.
I tried Repairing Windows 8.1, but it could not do the repair.
I eventually used the Win 7 x64 bootable disc to do a Repair.
That fixed it so all 3 OSs can boot.

I don't understand why Repairing with the Win 7 disc fixed the Win 8.1 Active/Boot partition, but it did.
Now that I know this, I expect I'll have to re-align and repair with Win 7 any time I restore the Win 8.1 OS.

Just passing this along in case anyone else runs into this issue and finds this thread.

 

[malvoglio]

What is "alignment"?

 

[DavidE]

What is "alignment"?

Here is a tutorial by whs that explains SSD alignment:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/113967-ssd-alignment.html

 

[whs]

David, you have to align before you restore the image. I use Partition Wizard..

 

[DavidE]

I did have it aligned before the restore.
I aligned it when I created the partitions.

 

[whs]

Then you probably 'dragged' the partitions from the image to freespace on the SSD. That maintained the HDD alignment.

 

[DavidE]

I don't have and didn't have any freespace on the SSD.
I pre allocated all partitions on the SSD, and checked alignment.
Seems it somehow kept the HDD alignment anyway ???

 

[whs]

If you follow the rules, it should work. Else what you can do is define a very small 100MB aligned partition at the beginning of the SSD and leave the rest freespace. Then restore into the freespace.

 

[DavidE]

I wondered about creating a small aligned partition as the first partition like you mentioned.
Thanks for letting me know that would work.
I'm even considering creating a "System Reserved" partition and move the BOOT code to there.
That would then be the first partition, aligned, probably 350 MB.

Depending how things play out I'll probably replace one of the Win 7 OSs with Win 10 when that goes live.

Anyway, if I did somehow copy the HDD alignment to the SSD, that shouldn't be a problem going forward, as long as I restore images that are created from the SSD (correctly aligned).

 

[whs]

Yeah, that would work. Once aligned, always aligned.

 

[Mark Phelps]

Just passing this along in case anyone else runs into this issue and finds this thread.

Also, I believe the Mintool Partition Wizard Boot CD has an "align" option. So, you could boot from that, choose align -- and fix this.