How to restore clonezilla image to smaller drive

HOW TO RESTORE CLONEZILLA IMAGE TO SMALLER DRIVE INSTALL
HOW TO RESTORE CLONEZILLA IMAGE TO SMALLER DRIVE SOFTWARE
HOW TO RESTORE CLONEZILLA IMAGE TO SMALLER DRIVE WINDOWS 7
HOW TO RESTORE CLONEZILLA IMAGE TO SMALLER DRIVE FREE

I finally succeeded by following a guide by GroverH which uses TrueImage Home 2012 to do a partition by partition restore. This drive is actually a third generation clone from my original 160 GB laptop hard drive.

HOW TO RESTORE CLONEZILLA IMAGE TO SMALLER DRIVE WINDOWS 7

My 640 GB hard drive has 4 partitions: PQservice (9.7 GB, hidden, recovery for Vista), Windows 7 boot partition (100 MB, no-letter, system, boot), C: partition 40GB active, non-boot (Windows 7, programs, etc.), and D: data partition, approx 545 GB. I struggled with the same scenario for 2 weeks before I was able to successfully clone my Windows 7 installation. Both are more flexible, more forgiving, and have better support than Windows Backup. Instead, get a copy of Macrium Reflect or EaseUS Todo and use either to do your regular backups. About Windows BackupД«esides Microsoft warning us that they plan to stop supporting it, WindowsвЂ™ built-in backup program is just too limited in too many ways to be a reliable tool for scenarios like this. That only works, of course, if the drive hasnвЂ™t yet failed and youвЂ™re replacing it for other reasons.

HOW TO RESTORE CLONEZILLA IMAGE TO SMALLER DRIVE SOFTWARE

Back up this new, smaller partition using software that will resize the partition properly on restore.

Using partition management tools, resize the partition to something smaller than the size of the replacement drive.

If youвЂ™re not dealing with a drive failure, but still have the original working drive, IвЂ™d follow the same or similar steps without getting a replacement drive. ItвЂ™s a bit of a pain, but in theory it should work. Ideally, back it up with better software that will resize the partition properly on restore.

Using partition management tools - either Windows or third-party tools - resize the partition to something smaller than the size of the replacement drive.

Get another hard drive large enough to hold the backup image ideally the same size as the original disk or larger.

Thus, the solution becomes somewhat more complex. We need to restore the backup image if weвЂ™re going to restore at all, and Windows Backup isnвЂ™t going to help. The real problem here is that the failure has already happened, and the original disk is no longer available. Windows Backup is not one of those programs. Some programs restore that to a new drive as expected: theyвЂ™ll set up partitions on the new drive to the largest available, and then restore the data, as long as it fits. In the original question, while the image was of a 750GB drive, there was only 150GB of data on the drive. Some backup programs will вЂњdo the right thingвЂќ when restoring an existing image, as long as the amount of data on the image is less than the size of the new drive. Once you have the amount of data to be transferred down to something less than the capacity of the new drive, youвЂ™re at a point where you can start. (While often slower than installing a second internal disk, this is sometimes the only alternative, and generally much easier.)

Add an external disk, and move as much of your data to it as makes sense.

HOW TO RESTORE CLONEZILLA IMAGE TO SMALLER DRIVE INSTALL

Install a second drive and move as much of your data to it as makes sense, freeing up room on the primary drive.

HOW TO RESTORE CLONEZILLA IMAGE TO SMALLER DRIVE FREE

Remove applications you donвЂ™t use to free up space. Remove all temporary files, caches, and cruft that might be on the drive. In cases like that, a few more steps may be necessary: In the question, only 150GB of data was on that 750GB drive, so moving that data to a smaller 250GB SSD should be relatively easy.ДЇor most people, though, the first problem is that the original drive is filled to the brim, and the data that would simply need to be transferred exceeds the capacity of the replacement drive. Third-party backup or partition management tools might be required.

If that wonвЂ™t work you might need to resize the partition on the old drive to something smaller than the new before creating the image. Most backup programs will do the right thing when performing a restore and make everything fit. Create a backup image of the old drive, then restore it to the new one. Clean up, uninstall, or move things around to first make sure the amount of data on your old drive fits in the space offered by the new drive.

How to restore clonezilla image to smaller drive