Best software to clone windows 7 drive to a smaller drive.

[alohaman]

I don't have large enough disk, if i could clone without the contents of the user folder it would be great.

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Also it would be a nice bonus if it could boot. I am using the same exact model and configuration of computer.

 

[SIW2]

you can try winntsetup

click local windows installations



select Copy Windows Installation




select the source os,

select the active/esp partition on the target disk (boot drive)

select the target windows partition





click the little notepad button and add any exclusions to wimscript.ini



then off you go

 

[alohaman]

i did this with paragon hard disk manager but it ended up not working because the drive had already been in so many computers and had tons of drivers not needed. it ran for a bit then died.

 

[mulambo]

I just did that a week ago with Easus Todo Backup, it copies automatically the drive/partition (unlike Easus Partition Master) but it also gives "exact sectors copy" (if you have same size or bigger drive as clone). It kinda worked but some programs I installed didn't recognize the "new computer" (meaning maybe that they didn't recognize the new drive). Of course, first startup takes a little bit more as usual (probably because Windows has to update itself about the new hard drive on which is being installed on... yes, technically when you clone a drive with an OS on, such OS takes a bit recognizing his "new home" iykwim). Depending on the drive, a 500GB drive to a 320GB one took me a couple of hours (both SATA connected).

 

[alohaman]

I never had any issues with programs with paragon, but maybe i don't have any expensive programs on there.