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

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...I am not sure but I think GeneO is right, at least logically! How is it possible to restore an image of a larger partition to an SSD that is smaller than that partition?...

It depends on the kind of image that was made. One kind of image takes a "picture" of every sector on the partition. Those have to be restored to an equal sized or larger partition.

Another kind only images the sectors that have data on them. These can be restored to a smaller partition as long as it is large enough to hold the data that was on the original partition. For example, you have a 100GB partition that has 25GB of data on it. If the image you make only images the sectors that have data on it, you should be able to restore it to a smaller partition, say 50GB, with room to spare.

 

[GeneO]

He did backup/restore with Macrium Reflect. It can drag and drop and restore to smaller partition.

And it didn't work.

 

[GeneO]

...I am not sure but I think GeneO is right, at least logically! How is it possible to restore an image of a larger partition to an SSD that is smaller than that partition?...

It depends on the kind of image that was made. One kind of image takes a "picture" of every sector on the partition. Those have to be restored to an equal sized or larger partition.

Another kind only images the sectors that have data on them. These can be restored to a smaller partition as long as it is large enough to hold the data that was on the original partition. For example, you have a 100GB partition that has 25GB of data on it. If the image you make only images the sectors that have data on it, you should be able to restore it to a smaller partition, say 50GB, with room to spare.

And do you think or know that that works with Macrium? Not in my experience.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...I am not sure but I think GeneO is right, at least logically! How is it possible to restore an image of a larger partition to an SSD that is smaller than that partition?...

It depends on the kind of image that was made. One kind of image takes a "picture" of every sector on the partition. Those have to be restored to an equal sized or larger partition.

Another kind only images the sectors that have data on them. These can be restored to a smaller partition as long as it is large enough to hold the data that was on the original partition. For example, you have a 100GB partition that has 25GB of data on it. If the image you make only images the sectors that have data on it, you should be able to restore it to a smaller partition, say 50GB, with room to spare.

And do you think or know that that works with Macrium? Not in my experience.

It's been working for me. This is the setting I use when I make an image of my C: and boot partitions:



I restored my C: and boot partitions multiple times. While I've yet to restore to a smaller partition that is still larger than the occupied portion of the original partition, I see no reason why it couldn't.

 

[SIW2]

And do you think or know that that works with Macrium? Not in my experience.

It works fine with macrium if you have an intelligent sector image. Most imaging programs do the same, Aomei, Paragon, etc. I have done it numerous times. I never use drag and drop.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...I never use drag and drop.

I use Macrium Reflect's Win PE recovery program to restore.

 

[SIW2]

Probably safest.

 

[GeneO]

I've always used Macrium intelligent sector for imaging and PE for restore and couldn't restore the partition image to a smaller SSD. I had to pare it down. Hmmm... But it has been a while since I did that.

 

[anne1982]

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 .

Anyone knows how can I backup the Firefox only then restore it to the new system?

 

[SIW2]

Just copy and paste C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla and C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Mozilla

 

[mjf]

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)

 

[anne1982]

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)

Hello MJF,

Thanks for your reply. It didn't work for me because I am trying to restore an image of a large disk to a smaller one. In this video they are restoring an image of 127 GB partition to 1 TB disk.

 

[SIW2]

@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.

 

[Victor S]

Shrink the partition on your hard drive to less than the size of the SSD.
Take another image and use that restore to your SSD.

 

[whs]

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.

 

[Kaktussoft]

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

 

[anne1982]

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.

Hello WHS,

Great advice! I wish I knew this a week ago! Then I wouldn't have lost so much time and energy trying to do this job. Indeed, I used an older image and it went perfect. Within 30 minutes I was ready with it. Now the computer is working fine but still I have 2 questions I hope somebody can give me the answers:

1. I am getting the following messages which I didn't get before:


Asus - Intel
P7P55 LX
Press Del to run Setup, Press TAB to display Bios Messages

This message is staying about 30 seconds then followed automatically by the following message:

Scan devices...
No any device exist!

followed by 3 Pieps

Then another message followed:

American Megatrend
CPU Fan Error
Press F1 to resume.

In this case I must press the F1 in order to go further.



The second question is:


How can I let Windows 7 save my Download and My Documents in another HD (not in the same SSD).



Many thanks to all of you for trying to help me solving this problem.


Best regards,


Anne

 

[whs]

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.