How to shrink HD size to fit SSD size before cloning HD to SSD

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popomama

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Dec 2, 2015
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Hi,
I am trying to upgrade my T530 from HD(450GB) to SSD(240GB). Before I clone my HD to SSD, I planned to resize the current drive partition to be smaller than SSD size. So I cleaned up my HD(C drive), and it now has less than 100GB used. When I tried to use partition manager to shrink C drive, it says the available space for shrink is only 40GB. I don't understand why this is the case as there are more than 350GB free space on my HD.

Would you help to explain and how I should proceed? Thanks.
 
Solution
Boogieman_WD
I honestly don't know what could be causing that limitation in your case. You could try defragmenting the drive and try to shrink it's partition again after that. Perhaps there are files which can't be moved by shrinking the data and thus limiting the maximum size you can shrink the partition with. If that doesn't work, as I've mentioned earlier, give the suggested tutorial from my previous post a try and you should end up with a partition on your destination drive, which is no larger than the cloned data (as @ArtPog mentnioned as well).
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

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Jul 31, 2014
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Hey there, popomama. Welcome to the community! :)

So your hard drive has only one partition, which is the C: drive? Would you please post a screenshot of what you see in Disk Management about the drive and when you try to shrink it (you can use imgur.com to upload the image)? I know you've mentioned that you've cleaned up the drive, but if you still have important data on it, which you can't afford to lose - now should be the time to back it up.
Now, you can check out this tutorial: http://lifehacker.com/5837543/how-to-migrate-to-a-solid-state-drive-without-reinstalling-windows. The good thing is that you've already done most of the suggestions there and you're left with the cloning procedure. I think that the method described there doesn't require you to shrink the C: drive as long as the data on it is less than the SSD's actual storage capacity, so you can give it a try.

Hope that helps. Please let me know how everything goes, I'll be sure to check the thread for your answer.
Boogieman_WD
 
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ArtPog

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Sep 17, 2014
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I'm going to assume that the reason you desire to shrink your present 450 GB HDD (boot drive) to a size smaller than your 240 GB SSD which you're planning to use as your new boot drive is because of your intended disk-cloning operation. Possibly you're under the impression that because the size of the source disk (your 450 GB HDD) is greater than the size of the destination SSD (240 GB) this is necessary before undertaking the disk-cloning operation. Is my assumption correct? If so, read on...

You've indicated your source disk now contains total data of some 100 GB - well below the disk-space of your destination drive. That being the case there should be no problem in cloning the total contents of your source disk over to the destination drive. Depending upon the cloning program you use the cloned SSD will usually contain a single partition containing the total contents of your source disk. In some cases the cloning program will create a partition only sufficient in size to contain those contents and the remainder of the disk-space would be unallocated. If that were the case it's a simple process to utilize Disk Management to extend the created partition (volume) to encompass the total disk-space of the destination disk.

It's assumed that your source disk as it now stands boots without problems and similarly functions problem-free. Make sure that is so before you undertake a disk-cloning operation.
 
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ArtPog

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Sep 17, 2014
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I'm going to assume that the reason you desire to shrink your present 450 GB HDD (boot drive) to a size smaller than your 240 GB SSD which you're planning to use as your new boot drive is because of your intended disk-cloning operation. Possibly you're under the impression that because the size of the source disk (your 450 GB HDD) is greater than the size of the destination SSD (240 GB) this is necessary before undertaking the disk-cloning operation. Is my assumption correct? If so, read on...

You've indicated your source disk now contains total data of some 100 GB - well below the disk-space of your destination drive. That being the case there should be no problem in cloning the total contents of your source disk over to the destination drive. Depending upon the cloning program you use the cloned SSD will usually contain a single partition containing the total contents of your source disk. In some cases the cloning program will create a partition only sufficient in size to contain those contents and the remainder of the disk-space would be unallocated. If that were the case it's a simple process to utilize Disk Management to extend the created partition (volume) to encompass the total disk-space of the destination disk.

It's assumed that your source disk as it now stands boots without problems and similarly functions problem-free. Make sure that is so before you undertake a disk-cloning operation.
 
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popomama

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Dec 2, 2015
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Hi Boogieman,

Thanks for the response. Please see the screenshots of my T530 when running DiskManager to shrink C drive.
ZXso1g.png



 
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popomama

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Dec 2, 2015
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Thank you ArtPog.
I will try.


 
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

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Jul 31, 2014
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I honestly don't know what could be causing that limitation in your case. You could try defragmenting the drive and try to shrink it's partition again after that. Perhaps there are files which can't be moved by shrinking the data and thus limiting the maximum size you can shrink the partition with. If that doesn't work, as I've mentioned earlier, give the suggested tutorial from my previous post a try and you should end up with a partition on your destination drive, which is no larger than the cloned data (as @ArtPog mentnioned as well).
 
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