Drive Cloning -- One Partition To Another

kbronski

Member
Member
Messages
60
So, in my disk management I have a few partitions. I have, in order from left to right, a Windows 7 partition, a shared data partition, and a Windows 8 partition. Well, the shared data partition is only 110GB, and it's almost full. That said, the Windows 8 partition was 380GB. So, I shrank the Windows 8 partition to 280GB, thus allowing 100GB unallocated. I made a new partition there too, and I want to clone the Windows 8 partition to the new one, (kind of a roundabout way of moving my OS to a new partition, so I can add more space to my shared data partition). Is this necessarily a good idea? Can I actually do it?

Do I just copy all the files over, or do I legitimately clone it?



HERE IS A VISUAL


BEFORE
||SYSTEM RESERVED||WINDOWS 7||SHARED DATA||WINDOWS 8||

NOW
||SYSTEM RESERVED||WINDOWS 7||SHARED DATA||WINDOWS 8||BLANK PARTITION||


WHAT I WANT TO DO
||SYSTEM RESERVED||WINDOWS 7||SHARED DATA||BLANK PARTITION||WINDOWS 8||
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Professional x64
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Me? Model number... seven? two?
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-5820k
    Motherboard
    ASUS X99-A
    Memory
    16GB Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4-2400 (4x4GB)
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA Geforce GTX 970 SC
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 850 EVO 250GB x2; Seagate Barracuda 3.5" 7200RPM 2TB; Toshiba 2.5" 750GB 5400RPM
    PSU
    Corsair RM750
    Case
    Fractal Design Define R5
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15
    Other Info
    Yup, it's a computer!
I wouldn't use anything else other than Acronis to alter partitions. Others may be alright, some others definitely not alright, but Acronis is tested and known well.

I would use Clonezilla to clone to the new partition. I'd also make sure the new partition is a Primary one.

You can use EasyBCD to add the new entry for the "new" operating system.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8250 x86 + 7 SP1 x86 + Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x86
    CPU
    P4 3.4 GHz HT
    Motherboard
    MSI-7211
    Memory
    OCZ 2 GB DDR @ 400 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    HIS AGP HD 3850 Turbo Ice-Q
    Sound Card
    MOTU Traveler firewire interface
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer x223w
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    WD Caviar Black 1 TB Sata II, WD 400 GB Sata I, WD 120 GB Sata I
    PSU
    300W generic
    Case
    Cybertron
    Keyboard
    Logitech Classic Keyboard 200, Dell RT7D20
    Mouse
    Logitech M510
    Internet Speed
    2 MByte/sec Down, 250 KByte/sec Up
You should be able to achieve what you need but you need to be careful. The boot manager stores information on how to boot windows based on partition. If the partition that stores the Windows files changes and the boot manager remains unchanged, you won't be able to start Windows. However, as you want to effectively keep the overall partition structure the same - after merging the unallocated space with your shared data partition - you should be ok.

If it were me, I'd use one of the free partition managers to manage the change. There are quite a few of these applications available, here's a couple:

Easus Partition Manager
Partition Wizard
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 x64 Ultimate/Windows 8.1/Linux
    CPU
    FX-8350
    Motherboard
    GA-990XA-UD3
    Memory
    16GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD7860
    Sound Card
    Xonar Essence STX
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Benq
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Various
    PSU
    Corsair HX 850W
    Case
    Corsair Obsidian
    Cooling
    Thermalright
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech
    Internet Speed
    50/50
    Browser
    firefox
Well, I sadly announce the project took a rather harsh nosedive. When I formally made the new partition, it changed ALL of my partitions to simple volumes and I thus lost the ability to boot from the Windows 8 partition. This was before I read the replies to this topic, of course, and as such, I freaked out and deleted both the new partition and the Windows 8 partition.

The good news is that I've successfully added a TON of storage space to my data partition. The downside is that all of my partitions are still showing as simple volumes and I'm not sure how to fix it.

I may end up just properly backing everything up and then completely reformatting my hard drive. It could use a few thorough wipes anyway.


That said, I have a 500GB portable HDD that's fully partitionable. In fact, I have a free 80GB free partition on it right now, I think, and my C drive (the one with my OS and programs) is only showing 72.9GB used.

Would it be possible just to clone my C drive over to my portable HDD, and then clone it back later using a third-party computer?
I have a SATA-to-USB adapter, so I could pull my internal HDD and hook it up to someone else's computer to successfully clone it all back.

This is what I'm thinking:
Step 1
||MY LAPTOP||--->||PORTABLE HDD||

Step 2
||INTERNAL HDD||<---||(third party laptop for data transfer)||<---||PORTABLE HDD||


I'd just wipe my internal HDD and reformat the whole thing (no partitions). That way I'd be sure to have it show up as the C drive (and thus bootable). From there, I could add my shared data partition, and Windows 8 Parition, and just install 8 on that partition (so it would show up as E drive in boot manager again; no problems, right?)

Is this logical and doable, or am I blowing smoke?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 Professional x64
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Me? Model number... seven? two?
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-5820k
    Motherboard
    ASUS X99-A
    Memory
    16GB Kingston HyperX Fury DDR4-2400 (4x4GB)
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA Geforce GTX 970 SC
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 850 EVO 250GB x2; Seagate Barracuda 3.5" 7200RPM 2TB; Toshiba 2.5" 750GB 5400RPM
    PSU
    Corsair RM750
    Case
    Fractal Design Define R5
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15
    Other Info
    Yup, it's a computer!
Sorry to hear about it...

It seems that your disk is dynamic when all you really need is basic.

Informative link: Basic and Dynamic Disks
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8250 x86 + 7 SP1 x86 + Ubuntu 12.04 LTS x86
    CPU
    P4 3.4 GHz HT
    Motherboard
    MSI-7211
    Memory
    OCZ 2 GB DDR @ 400 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    HIS AGP HD 3850 Turbo Ice-Q
    Sound Card
    MOTU Traveler firewire interface
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer x223w
    Screen Resolution
    1680x1050
    Hard Drives
    WD Caviar Black 1 TB Sata II, WD 400 GB Sata I, WD 120 GB Sata I
    PSU
    300W generic
    Case
    Cybertron
    Keyboard
    Logitech Classic Keyboard 200, Dell RT7D20
    Mouse
    Logitech M510
    Internet Speed
    2 MByte/sec Down, 250 KByte/sec Up

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 7 x64 Ultimate/Windows 8.1/Linux
    CPU
    FX-8350
    Motherboard
    GA-990XA-UD3
    Memory
    16GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD7860
    Sound Card
    Xonar Essence STX
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Benq
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Various
    PSU
    Corsair HX 850W
    Case
    Corsair Obsidian
    Cooling
    Thermalright
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech
    Internet Speed
    50/50
    Browser
    firefox
Back
Top