Reliable Cloning Software for Mismatched Sizes

[Erick]

I do a lot of HDD to SSD upgrades where users have 1TB HDD's but only use 60GB of that space. As a result I find going with a smaller SSD to be a good option to save the customer a few dollars.

For years I've used Acronis True Image and just recently Macrium Reflect. When both work, they're great! When one doesn't I often times find that the other will.

However I'm running into some cases where neither will. In a pinch I'll re-size the partitions in EaseUS Partition Wiz and re-clone but sometimes that doesn't work either.

Is there anyone that makes a tool that's 100%? I feel like this has to be something that one software maker is addressing as a primary feature.

 

[Diggs]

I don't think I've ever had Macrium not work. It's the best I have found and pretty close to 100%.

 

[Metanis]

I don't think I've ever had Macrium not work. It's the best I have found and pretty close to 100%.

I agree, I like Macrium so much I've actually paid for it!

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@Erick , my problems with cloning almost always resolve down to drives with multiple "recovery" partitions (both Windows and OEM). I haven't found a good solution!

Part of the problem is that Microsoft keeps expanding how much data has to fit into the recovery partition. Win7 only required 100MB. Win10 can consume 1GB now if you've performed multiple "feature" updates. Microsoft accommodates this by creating a newer recovery partition at the end of the drive when the original is no longer large enough. Then it abandons the old one without deleting it. Throw in some OEM recovery and diagnostic partitions and it gets complicated since MBR disks could only have 4 primary partitions.

I've had some success using the mbr2gpt conversion tool when the motherboard has a UEFI bios so can boot to Windows Boot Manager on a GPT disk. But I've also eventually given up and just blown away all partitions and performed a clean Windows install on the new SSD and used Fab's to restore the user's data!

 

[MudRock]

Macrium I find can fail on occasion with no reason. Sometimes a bootsect/bootrec will fix; sometimes now. I used to use it almost exclusively, but when it wouldn't work, it just wouldn't work.

MiniTool Partition Wizard is what I use daily when I just want to clone, especially from HD to SSD, but anything works; It does great converting MBR to GPT with secureboot too.

I used to use Macrium first, then MiniTool if Macrium failed, at the recommendation of this group that Macrium always worked, but as time went on, I ended up just starting at MiniTool Partition Wizard. I mean, lets be fair, it was like 1 in 40-50 times it would fail, but was always an irritation.

 

[Erick]

Macrium I find can fail on occasion with no reason. Sometimes a bootsect/bootrec will fix; sometimes now. I used to use it almost exclusively, but when it wouldn't work, it just wouldn't work.

MiniTool Partition Wizard is what I use daily when I just want to clone, especially from HD to SSD, but anything works; It does great converting MBR to GPT with secureboot too.

I used to use Macrium first, then MiniTool if Macrium failed, at the recommendation of this group that Macrium always worked, but as time went on, I ended up just starting at MiniTool Partition Wizard. I mean, lets be fair, it was like 1 in 40-50 times it would fail, but was always an irritation.

It's funny, I had an absolute disastrous experience years ago with cloning with Partition Wizard and from then on only used it for resizing partitions.
Figured I'd give it another shot and sure enough, did the job great!!!

 

[MudRock]

It's funny, I had an absolute disastrous experience years ago with cloning with Partition Wizard and from then on only used it for resizing partitions.
Figured I'd give it another shot and sure enough, did the job great!!!

I guess having two tools to bounce between isn't a bad thing.

 

[britechguy]

There will always, absolutely always, be unexplainable "burps" with any piece of software that can range from only mildly annoying to complete failure.

My experience, in most cases, is that "the second time's the charm." Who knows why that once in several hundred blue moons first time was not.

 

[Diggs]

I guess I should have added that I always image before cloning and then copy the image to the new drive. ..and if the drive won't image because of wear or damage it gets cloned 1:1 to another drive using Linux ddrescue (GUI) which then gets imaged and then copied/cloned to the new SSD.

 

[britechguy]

I always image before cloning and then copy the image to the new drive.

I have to be missing something here. Based on this description it sounds to me like you're saying:
1. Take image using imaging software.
2. Clone to second drive (which I would have presumed would be the new drive, but apparently not)
3. Copy (and by that I take it as literal copy, not recover the image to) new drive, which would result in nothing more than a copy of the image.

How am I misinterpreting the initial statement, because I have to be.

I have been known to image a drive before cloning it if I suspect it may be on the way out. But not always because the amount of stress on the drive to take an image has never struck me as less than that imposed by cloning it to another drive. Either one could put it over the edge. But if I do a clone from one drive to a new drive, I instantly have a functional replacement for the first one - no further steps needed.

 

[NviGate Systems]

I think he is saying....

Before he even attempts to clone he creates a complete backup image and uses that to restore to the new drive.

Only if the drive is damaged does it get cloned for data recovery.

And that's how I do it too, I no longer clone. I do a complete image, then restore that image to a new drive. 99.95% success rate unless you are dealing with some sort of hardware issue.

Weird partition structure or partition types can and do mess up systems. So by backing them up to an image, you eliminate that error because the software doesn't have to calculate a value that may crash or give an illegal value. Or at least something like that.

Besides, having an image file of the customers old system is not bad, in fact that's a good way to reduce risk. Because you have more than one copy of the customers data. In theory at least.

 

[alexsmith2709]

I use Acronis or Macrium. I did have a strange issue recently that sounds like what @Metanis has described with another partition being at the end of the drive. Despite selecting the whole drive and wanting the automatic resize to the new smaller SSD the end partition wouldn't be included and the main windows partition would resize to whatever filled the drive.
I had to add each partition individually and manually resize the windows partition to whatever size allowed the last partition to be added and then it worked. I did all this within macrium so no need for any extra tools.

 

[Diggs]

To clarify - @NviGate Systems is correct. I always want a good image on my DAS (Direct Attached Storage = QNAP four HDD box running RAID 10) before anything. I used to have occasional failures with direct HDD cloning to a SSD using Macrium but never a failure using an image. If I can't get that image due to problems on the original HDD it goes on a Linux machine (DDRescue-GUI) and is cloned sector by sector to another HDD of the same size and geometry. That cloned drive is then imaged to the DAS and that image is used on the new smaller SSD while adjusting the main Windows partition size to accommodate the other partitions.

 

[Fred Claus]

Reflect is a great piece of kit.

 

[johnrobert]

I previosly used Acronis but not easy for for larger onto smaller then I discovered Macrium never went back