Does Clonezilla remove everything in the old disk when restoring?

[ShadowMario3]

My new laptop is arriving tomorrow, but it has a 500 GB hard drive. My current one has a 1 TB hard drive, so naturally, I'd want to swap the hard drive so the 1 TB is in the new laptop (current hard drive only has around 250 GB used). Here's how I'll be going at it:

1. Backup old laptop's 1 TB (only 1/4th full) hard drive to my external hard drive.
2. Backup new laptop's 500 GB (will basically be new, except for basic things I install) hard drive to same external hard drive (in different folder of course).
3. Swap the hard drives in both laptops.

Once I do step 3, do I need to format both hard drives before restoring the correct images into them, or will Clonezilla do that for me automatically? Just wondering, since it might be a bit of a hassle to temporarily load the Windows 7 boot disk just to quick format the drives. Thanks for the help.

 

[Kari]

I do not know Clonezilla other than for its reputation but as a general rule, all mirroring and imaging software replace the content of target drive when image is restored, removing the old content and replacing it with the image. I believe this is the case with Clonezilla, too, so you should have no issues there.

However, assuming both laptops have the native pre-installed OEM Windows 7 you will get activation issues as the OEM Windows is meant to be used and run only on original hardware. In any case you will have to reactivate. As you chosen method keeps the machine SID it might be impossible to activate both Windows after the swap.

I would do this a bit differently. This is my recommendation, other members might tell you about other, maybe better alternatives:

• Create the mirror images as planned on both laptops. This is just a security measure in case the below does not for some reason work for you
• Generalize both Windows setups as told in this tutorial. Method One is for your scenario, in step 6 simply swap the HDDs
• After first boot of both laptops with new HDDs check that all drivers are installed, reinstall missing ones
• After a reboot after last driver installation try to activate both Windows using the product key from respective COA sticker
• If automatic activation fails try the phone activation alternative

Worst case scenario: you need to reinstall Windows on one or both laptops. If this will happen you should have no issues in activating a fresh install with your COA product keys.

Kari

 

[Kaktussoft]

@Kari: Actually he wants swap contents of both harddisks. Also swap harddisks.

So actually it's just a disk upgrade.... no activation needed.

 

[Kaktussoft]

I advise you to do "diskpart clean" (not clean all) after succesfull backup. But check if restore dvd software can see the external!

Best software to use is Macrium Reflect Free. Use the winpe version. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html

WINPE ISO:
Here is the link to my Skydrive site.

Here is an alternate link from FileSwap (courtesy of Gary - Britton30)

 

[Kari]

Yes, reading it through one more time I can see I misunderstood it first. I understood he wants to use original images on both HDDs after the swap.

 

[DavidE]

I would also check to make sure there are not hidden partitions that could be an issue after swapping HD's.
Make sure the OEM recovery disc's are created for each laptop.
Posting screenshots of Disk Management might help here.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

 

[ShadowMario3]

Thanks for the help everyone! I have used Clonezilla to move the data from my current/old laptop's first 250 GB to the 1 TB hard drive it has now. The reason I'm asking is because when I restored the image to the 1 TB hard drive, it was already blank, so I wouldn't know if the data would be completely erased or not. I didn't have any problems with the move either, other than needing to update the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver.

Here's a picture of how the Disk Management looks:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20940460/Old Laptop Disk Management.png

 

[Kaktussoft]

Thanks for the help everyone! I have used Clonezilla to move the data from my current/old laptop's first 250 GB to the 1 TB hard drive it has now. The reason I'm asking is because when I restored the image to the 1 TB hard drive, it was already blank, so I wouldn't know if the data would be completely erased or not. I didn't have any problems with the move either, other than needing to update the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver.

Here's a picture of how the Disk Management looks:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20940460/Old Laptop Disk Management.png

Why is first 12GB unpartioned?

If you did a clone and swapped the drives.... all should be the same.
old laptop=>same data as before
new laptop=>same data as before.
So no need to update Rapid Storage Technology driver

Did it boot without boot errors after swap?

 

[Kaktussoft]

Did you save and restore partitions? Or did you do save whole disk and restore whole disk?

 

[ShadowMario3]

I think it the 12 GB partition is something Acer did. I don't recall ever having access to that part. I saved and restored the whole disk.

 

[Kaktussoft]

I think it the 12 GB partition is something Acer did. I don't recall ever having access to that part. I saved and restored the whole disk.

How did you clone large disk to smaller disk? Impossibel with special tricks in clonezilla?'

12GB was always unpartitioned? Do you want to use that space as well?

 

[ShadowMario3]

I think it the 12 GB partition is something Acer did. I don't recall ever having access to that part. I saved and restored the whole disk.

How did you clone large disk to smaller disk? Impossibel with special tricks in clonezilla?'

12GB was always unpartitioned? Do you want to use that space as well?

Well, the first time was imaging a 250 GB hard drive and putting that image into a 1 TB one. For my 1 TB to 500 GB deal, I thought if the data was small enough (the 1 TB only has around 245 GB used), I would be able to restore the image on the 500 GB hard drive. Is that not the case?

As for the 12 GB, yeah, it always was, and it has around 11 GB used for something. I never needed it though.

 

[Kaktussoft]

I think it the 12 GB partition is something Acer did. I don't recall ever having access to that part. I saved and restored the whole disk.

How did you clone large disk to smaller disk? Impossibel with special tricks in clonezilla?'

12GB was always unpartitioned? Do you want to use that space as well?

Well, the first time was imaging a 250 GB hard drive and putting that image into a 1 TB one. For my 1 TB to 500 GB deal, I thought if the data was small enough (the 1 TB only has around 245 GB used), I would be able to restore the image on the 500 GB hard drive. Is that not the case?

As for the 12 GB, yeah, it always was, and it has around 11 GB used for something. I never needed it though.

Indeed it's not unpartitioned at all (I read it wrong!) . It's a partition to return to "factory install".

You can't install a large disk to a small disk easy with clonezilla. I'll send you a link in 10 minutes how to do it.

After restoring the small image to 1GB disk, you got a lot of unloacted space(?) Did you extend it?

 

[Kaktussoft]

You made an disk image of a large disk. Now you want to restore on small disk..... that's impossible!

 

[ShadowMario3]

How did you clone large disk to smaller disk? Impossibel with special tricks in clonezilla?'

12GB was always unpartitioned? Do you want to use that space as well?

Well, the first time was imaging a 250 GB hard drive and putting that image into a 1 TB one. For my 1 TB to 500 GB deal, I thought if the data was small enough (the 1 TB only has around 245 GB used), I would be able to restore the image on the 500 GB hard drive. Is that not the case?

As for the 12 GB, yeah, it always was, and it has around 11 GB used for something. I never needed it though.

Indeed it's not unpartitioned at all (I read it wrong!) . It's a partition to return to "factory install".

You can't install a large disk to a small disk easy with clonezilla. I'll send you a link in 10 minutes how to do it.

After restoring the small image to 1GB disk, you got a lot of unloacted space(?) Did you extend it?

After the image to the 1 TB disk, there was unallocated space, and I had to extend it. I don't think I'm copying the entire disk though, just the data that's on it, which is roughly 240 GB of data. According to this link, it's possible with Clonezilla:

How to: Clone a large disk onto a smaller SSD - Overclockers Forums

Edit: Seems that tutorial is saying that I should shrink the drive. Guess I'll do that after the current backup is finished.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Maybe -r switch does the trick?
Clonezilla - Advanced Mode

 

[Kaktussoft]

Well, the first time was imaging a 250 GB hard drive and putting that image into a 1 TB one. For my 1 TB to 500 GB deal, I thought if the data was small enough (the 1 TB only has around 245 GB used), I would be able to restore the image on the 500 GB hard drive. Is that not the case?

As for the 12 GB, yeah, it always was, and it has around 11 GB used for something. I never needed it though.

Indeed it's not unpartitioned at all (I read it wrong!) . It's a partition to return to "factory install".

You can't install a large disk to a small disk easy with clonezilla. I'll send you a link in 10 minutes how to do it.

After restoring the small image to 1GB disk, you got a lot of unloacted space(?) Did you extend it?

After the image to the 1 TB disk, there was unallocated space, and I had to extend it. I don't think I'm copying the entire disk though, just the data that's on it, which is roughly 240 GB of data. According to this link, it's possible with Clonezilla:

How to: Clone a large disk onto a smaller SSD - Overclockers Forums

In that link: 5) Shrink your existing drive to fit on the SSD
So you had to shrink the partitions BEFORE imaging. So lots of unallocated space at end of physical disk.
clonezilla clones data (not free space) and NOT the unallocate space.

See it as a 1 to 1 copy (except unallocated space).

 

[ShadowMario3]

Indeed it's not unpartitioned at all (I read it wrong!) . It's a partition to return to "factory install".

You can't install a large disk to a small disk easy with clonezilla. I'll send you a link in 10 minutes how to do it.

After restoring the small image to 1GB disk, you got a lot of unloacted space(?) Did you extend it?

After the image to the 1 TB disk, there was unallocated space, and I had to extend it. I don't think I'm copying the entire disk though, just the data that's on it, which is roughly 240 GB of data. According to this link, it's possible with Clonezilla:

How to: Clone a large disk onto a smaller SSD - Overclockers Forums

In that link: 5) Shrink your existing drive to fit on the SSD
So you had to shrink the partitions BEFORE imaging. So lots of unallocated space at end of physical disk.
clonezilla clones data (not free space) and NOT the unallocate space.

See it as a 1 to 1 copy (except unallocated space).

Yeah, I got that part. After the current backup, I'll shrink the drive, then do another backup overnight, then finally swap the drives.