Clone only content of one drive

aspri · Nov 21, 2013

So basically I'm having this SSD coming soon and I'll look to clone only one drive of HDD, one partition where I've the Win7 installed. Is that possible? If yes which free software can make this.

yoji · Nov 21, 2013

Yes...its possible

Try

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Its good and free

aspri · Nov 21, 2013

yoji :

Thanks for your answer, I'll try it as soon as I have the SSD. I still have one question. Once done, I'll want the SSD to be primary (Boot partition), is that made automatically?

giantbucket · Nov 21, 2013

if your current Win7 partition is smaller than the SSD you will use, then Win7 has its own built-in "make system image" functionality. it's 3-4 steps compared to some 3rd-party program which is likely only 1-2 steps, but it's fully native and works 100%.

regardless of HOW you set up your new SSD, once it's done you will likely need to go into BIOS and tell it which drive to boot from, and make sure you're pointing it to the SSD and not to the (old) HDD.

yoji · Nov 21, 2013

giantbucket :

Not sure that's true.. if I recall - I had a failing 320GB Hard drive and so bought a 500GB replacement.. and windows 7 native Image/restore process would not work - complaining that the target was not the same size (yes.. I know .. its bigger.. but it still refused to complete)..
That's experience is what drove me to find Macrim reflect.. which did the job without complaint..
Cheers

EDIT: correction.. I was moving a 600Gb partition.. with 320GB of data to a 500GB HDD.. and it would not do it.. so giantbucket correct.. as long as partition is smaller than your SSd you should be OK (though I would still go with Macrim reflect)

aspri · Nov 21, 2013

Great, sounds good but where can I find the Win7 built-in clone software?

EDIT: I forgot to mention that the partition is about 90 Gb and the SSD will be 120 Gb.

yoji · Nov 21, 2013

Its just an option as part of the backup solution in Win 7

(use Macrim.. its easier and easier to find :wahoo:

)

Cheers

aspri · Nov 21, 2013

yoji :

Ok yoji, I'll try what you've adviced me and post feedback

giantbucket · Nov 21, 2013

for the Win7 native solution, go:

Control Panel - System And Security - Backup And Restore - left side Create System Image.

this system image can be on the larger partition that has all of your data files. just let Win make its own directory and DO NOT CHANGE THE DIRECTORY NAME. then create a repair disk (left side probably under Create System Image), reboot using repair disk, step through process that says you want to restore from an image, load SATA drivers so that Win can actually FIND the image on your SATA HDD, and follow the prompts.

once you've gone through all that, set up the machine to automatically make weekly or monthly system images (just like in step 1), so that down the road you can recover easily.

I let mine keep a history of images, which goes back several months, so that I can recover to what I had last week, or last month, or seven months ago (however much it can store until it runs out of space)

aspri · Nov 25, 2013

Ok guys so finally I received the HDD/SSD caddy, i had trouble at the beginning for the SSD to be recognized; tried to replace HDD by SSD; finally I saw that i didn't plug well the SSD XD
Now I'm cloning the partition with Win7 to the SSD, 100 Gb and it's almost to 25% done, I used Macrium Reflect which is indeed very easy to use.

EDIT: Ok the SSD is not bootable. Tried the repair tool with the install CD but it didn't work. I guess I'll do a clean install. Unfortunately.

aspri · Nov 27, 2013

hiwen :

Well I installed Win7 on the SSD then all programs. "Do a system clone"? Hmm seems like I've missed something. Is this feature in Aomei backupper?

giantbucket · Nov 27, 2013

Um, why didn't you use the native windows solution? I've used it a few times and even though it's a bit more involved, it works perfectly each time.

aspri · Nov 28, 2013

giantbucket :

Well since the SSD didn't boot to Wind7 after the cloning process, I didn't want to lose too much time on it. This is why I didn't bother to try.

giantbucket · Nov 28, 2013

Sorry, I meant why didn't you use it in the first place instead of that third-party Macrium thing? It would have given you the best odds since as I said it's native. Boggles the mind why people use third-party stuff when native stuff is already there.

It's like people looking for a free PDF reader.... and they're ignoring Adobe!

yoji · Nov 28, 2013

giantbucket :

FYI.. the built in is NOT great.. it will do really simple stuff OK.. but if "drive" is bigger than target.. your stuffed..
and although OP did not specific exactly- often a HDD will be bigger than SSD..
It certainly does not say "you only got 200GB data on your 500Gb drive - so sure I can image it across to your 240GB SSD"..
And I used "Drive" as basic tool even stores that (even if you only doing a partition) and if "Drive" is bigger than target. it bombs out. (this was Vista. don't think it changed for Win7)
I use Macrim reflect and it had none of these issues.. as long as Data was less than target it worked a treat.
I not sure why OP having issues.. I suspect pilot error..

Cheers

aspri · Nov 28, 2013

yoji :

I'll explain it, I wanted to clone a partition from the HDD to SSD that contained THE OS + PROGRAMS.
Now, I thought that cloning it would make the SSD work as a primary, but of course I forgot about the boot partition or I don't know what that made the HDD bootable. In fact the cloning process succeeded but as the SSD wouldn't boot I couldn't use it so I had to make an install from CD. Hope that explained my issue and sorry for poor language (english isn't my mother tongue).

yoji · Nov 28, 2013

aspri :

OK - thanks (Your English is excellent.. much better that my <insert any language other than English>)
So your original partition had OS on it. which means I guess it was a bootable partition.
So as long as you selected the option. Reflect should have made the SSD bootable.
Once complete.. did you leave both drives connected? (i.e. your SSD and the original?) in which case you may have had to select which partition to boot to in BIOS.
If you removed the old drive and Just left SSD connected.. it might/should have booted? did you try that?

Cheers

giantbucket · Nov 28, 2013

seems at this point he already has a working Win7 with installed programs, so either way we're beating a dead horse (or a horse that's already happily winning the race, or insert any random metaphor here)

for future folks - use the Win7 function that does all of this automatically.

oh, and here's the funky thing - most people who decide to swap from HDD to SSD are techies, and techies should know enough to keep their OS on a reasonably small dedicated OS partition. but the bulk of the blame should go on the commercial system builders who don't do this very simple step, and just leave Win7+everything on one gargantuan 750G or 1T drive, letting it spread out like an oil-slick.

yoji · Nov 28, 2013

giantbucket :

Think you need scroll up.. I responded on the (significant) shortcomings of the built in tool.
Cheers

aspri · Nov 28, 2013

Well I'm the faultive because I didn't watch out for any option to make the SSD bootable. I'll try to keep that in mind next time I do something like this. Maybe an admin could close the thread because I have the SSD running.
Thanks guys for your help

giantbucket · Nov 28, 2013

yoji :

you should scroll up too, cuz your solution ALSO had a shortcoming!

native solution wins as long as 1 condition is met (drive sizes), and 3rd-party solutions are a "go" as long as the user does a bit of homework on settings.

bottom line - OP has his system running and our views are moot.

yoji · Nov 28, 2013

giantbucket :

Ahem.. I am not convinced it a shortcoming in the solution.. perhaps more so in the application of the solution.

If I recall - default settings would work..

But I do recall the pain I went through with the native solution. I had to discover each of those shortcomings by painful experience.. only finding out it didn't work once the whole image had been created... then doing it all again when I had shrunk partitions to smaller than target drive. .reimage.. and STILL not work :fou:

So I did feel I had to pick you up on your point
"for future folks - use the Win7 function that does all of this automatically."

Perhaps you the guy who writes MS help files? Make it sound so easy and painless... when the reality is so different.

Anyway.. its done to death now..
Been fun
Cheers

giantbucket · Nov 28, 2013

I actually hate MS most of the time, but use what's available and always give native solutions the priority. maybe dabbling in Linux for a year conditioned me to expect the odd hiccup or three and work through them.

anyhoo,
Cheers!

onto the next thread....

Clone only content of one drive

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