System Restore: To different size drive?

[DixyFlat]

Hello!

Thanks for taking the time to read my question.

I have been backing up a 2TB drive using the Windows 7 backup and it seems to be creating an image as part of the backup. Does anyone know if I can restore this image to a different size drive if the amount of data that is being backed up is not greater than the new drive size? Or is it similar to an iso image, which I believe has to go to the same size drive.

The reason is I want to get rid of the 2TB drive with the OS on it and add a raid array that would be approximately 600GB in size, but I don't want to do a full install of Windows, etc. so I would like to use the backup to install it to the raid array. I assume, in theory, this is possible because the array is handled through the bios.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[whs]

Also, make sure that the disk that you're restoring the backup to is the same size or larger than the disk that you backed up.

Source:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Restore-your-computer-from-a-system-image-backup

Note: You will have to make a clone - e.g. with Acronis.

 

[mjf]

WHS
will Macrium imaging do the job?

 

[whs]

Not the free Macrium. But the Macrium pro (paid) has a cloning function. But you can get a free Acronis or Paragon that should be able to do that.

Free Backup Software: Paragon Backup & Recovery Free Advanced Edition - Overview

This is a quote from the right side of the link:

Restore with Shrink to restore a backup image to a free block of smaller size taking into account only the amount of actual data of the image

 

[mjf]

This is what I am planning to do for myself.
I have an existing 1TB HDD paritioned as shown.
I routinely use MS system imaging for Disk0 to include:
100 MB system reserved, active (Default)
c: 457GB OS, applications etc. (Default)
I understand (and have seen guidelines) to show that basically all I need to do is take a new 1TB disk out of the box (unformatted etc), replace existing disk 0 with the new and restore using the standard procedure.
I also keep Macrium images as a fallback if the Windows images let me down (although I've restored successfully before with the inbuilt windows image).

Nowif I (like the OP) wanted to do the same thing but with a smaller replacement disk then I understood that I could shrink c: prior to MS imaging like has been discussed by others on this forum. Make sure the new partition size is compatible with the new disk and procede as above.
Now if I used Macrium (free) imaging I thought it was happy to restore to a smaller partition thus avoiding the need to shrink c:.

This does not use "cloning" software. What have I got wrong here???

 

[Lemur]

You can image your drive with Macrium free. I have and use the free version.
Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

 

[pparks1]

You can image your drive with Macrium free. I have and use the free version.
Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

Correct, but to change it to a different drive size and configuration you cannot simply image. You must clone it. Slightly different terminology and not available in the free version.

 

[mjf]

Correct, but to change it to a different drive size and configuration you cannot simply image. You must clone it. Slightly different terminology and not available in the free version.

So in your opinion would my approach to replacing my 1TB drive not work (using MS imaging)?
and
What is cloning adding that is different?

 

[Lemur]

To Clone or Image That is the Question

 

[gregrocker]

I don't believe you can clone or reimage to RAID or to a pre-partitioned HD - it must be unallocated space.

 

[mjf]

Thanks lemur
As I read basically you can achieve the same result. Again as I read it cloning is generally disk to disk without the need to use a 3rd storage disk and the imaging processes.

This example may be of interest to the OP (I can't personally vouch for it but it looks reasonable)
Moving Windows 7 Install from larger disk to a smaller one

The bottom line is you can apparently use either imaging or cloning to to replace your HDD with everything the image would have restored to the old HDD. Some extra steps if your going from a larger to a smaller HDD but even that can be done with imaging.
But as whs alludes to you may need (his) other suggested software if your starting point is an image made from a larger partition than the partition you want to restore to.

 

[whs]

I guess with proper precaution and preparation one can use imaging to transport a system to a smaller drive. But you have to really know what you are doing. The straight forward way would be cloning. Then the cloning program will do it for you.