Cloning to SSD: Boot and recovery partitions over 100GB

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Blue_Dragon360

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Dec 9, 2013
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I recently bought an SSD, and I am attempting to move the contents of my current drive to the new one.

After using Todo Backup to clone over the entire drive, the system partitions ("System Reserved" and "Recovery") end up being over 100GB in size on the new disk, taking up the space I need for storage.

The partitions in question are normally sized (<500MB) on my current HDD.

The current drive is 1TB, whereas the new SSD is 500GB. Note that the recovery partition is hidden by default, and since I have a homebuilt PC it came with the windows install (not the manufacturer). I assume it contains a copy of the operating system and repair tools, as I am unable to create rescue media when the partition is deleted (found this out the hard way).

I am using Windows 10 on a UEFI system.

In Todo Backup, I can press the "edit" link next to the SSD when cloning, but it only allows me to resize via a slider, which is highly inaccurate. I can't even see the size in megabytes.

Is there a method of cloning to a smaller SSD which retains the sizing of all partitions besides the main OS? Is there better software I could use?
 
Solution
A
Something obviously went awry with the Easeus disk-cloning operation, but it's difficult to tell precisely what caused this strange partitioning scheme on the destination drive.

Give it another shot, confirming that your input to the program is appropriate. There's no harm in repeating the disk-cloning operation.

Another option is that you might want to try another d-c program - Macrium Reflect - see
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx - it's also a freebie.

I use the Casper program for my d-c operations, however, it's a commercial program costing $49.99. There is a 15-day trial edition available at http://www.fssdev.com that you may want to give a try. We use the program virtually exclusively for our comprehensive backup...
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ArtPog

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Sep 17, 2014
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You're certain that the cloned System Reserved & Recovery partitions are each more than 100 GB on the destination drive and not 100 MEGABYTES?

Re: your 1 TB source HDD - indicate the size of each partition on that disk together with the amount of data residing in each partition.

Do the same for the newly-cloned 500 GB destination disk.
 
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Blue_Dragon360

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Dec 9, 2013
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Completely sure. They are way too big.

The source HDD:
3 partitions, System Reserved, Local Disk, and one with a hidden name (recovery partition).
System reserved uses 349MB/350MB allocated. Local disk is 138GB used out of 930GB. Recovery is 450MB allocated, it doesn't say how much is used.

On the SSD:
3 partitions, same layout. However, both System Reserved and the hidden recovery partition are 106GB with only 349MB used (system reserved). The main disk has 138GB used out of 300-something.

It's just the sizing of the partitions that's off.

I'm tempted to just copy over C: and let startup repair allow it to boot. Who needs a restore partition if you've got install disks?!
 
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ArtPog

Admirable
Sep 17, 2014
2,951
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8,965
Something obviously went awry with the Easeus disk-cloning operation, but it's difficult to tell precisely what caused this strange partitioning scheme on the destination drive.

Give it another shot, confirming that your input to the program is appropriate. There's no harm in repeating the disk-cloning operation.

Another option is that you might want to try another d-c program - Macrium Reflect - see
http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx - it's also a freebie.

I use the Casper program for my d-c operations, however, it's a commercial program costing $49.99. There is a 15-day trial edition available at http://www.fssdev.com that you may want to give a try. We use the program virtually exclusively for our comprehensive backup operations of our systems because of its great speed when the program is used routinely/frequently. Most users - I would guess you're one of them - are exclusively interested in a d-c program solely for the same purposes you have in mind and desire only a freely-available one. But you might want to check out the Casper program.

Your comment about "copy(ing) over C:" and undertaking some startup repair is certainly overkill and not a practical solution in my opinion. The cloning operation should work and will make life much more simpler for you.
 
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Solution
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Blue_Dragon360

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Dec 9, 2013
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I have already tried the clone 3 times, each resulting in the strange partitioning scheme. I am able to control the size of the partitions through Todo backup, but it has no accuracy and comes up with weird sizes in the end.

However, I did try my alternate idea. Instead of cloning the entire disk, I just cloned C, and used the startup repair disk to re-add the necessary startup files that weren't cloned. Currently, it boots and works perfectly, but without the "system reserved" or "recovery" partitions.

Do you think this is stable? If so, I believe I'll stick with this method. If not, I'll give Macrium a try!

Thank you for all the help! I appreciate it.
 
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ArtPog

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Sep 17, 2014
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Well as long as your "fix" appears to have resulted in a bootable, stable system and you're not experiencing any untoward problems, I think it's time to leave well enough alone. As a reasonable precaution, work with your system for a reasonable period of time before making any changes of consequence affecting your 1 TB former source HDD. If, for one reason or another, things don't work out with your new boot configuration, then you could contemplate another disk-cloning exercise with a different d-c program. Good luck...
 
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Blue_Dragon360

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Dec 9, 2013
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Will do. Thanks for your help!
 
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