Exact clone of o/s drive
Hi all...new here so excuse any social gaffes!
I'm trying to make an exact (and fully operational) clone of my main SSD, but keep encountering problems. My system is Acer 772g, Win8.1 running on a Crucial MX100 512GB SSD. The intended destination for the clone is also a Crucial MX100 512GB SSD. However, when I try and make a clone of my primary drive, the software keeps telling me that there is inadequate room on the destination drive - which makes no sense at all. What am I doing wrong, and how do I create an exact clone of my main SSD, including all the hidden "Recovery" partitions?
Thanks in advance.
Comments
Have you tried to edit the partitions on the destination disk?
You can also try making a disk backup (on an external drive) and then restore to the new SSD.
Hi, and thanks for your suggestions. Unfortunately editing the partitions on the destination disk isn't an option, as any alteration to the partition sizes or locations prevents the recovery partitions from working and the system from booting up. If I create a disk image on another drive (obviously a bigger drive than the source to prevent additional problems), won't restoring to a 512GB SSD cause the same problems as before? I've also tried cloning only the "C" drive (ie: no hidden recovery partitions) to another drive, but it won't boot up and I can't work out how to make the destination drive bootable.
I guess your Win8.1 is UEFI? Then your drives should both be GPT otherwise it doesn't boot. Cloning only the C: partition won't work because you need the system/EFI partition as well.
Best try is Disk (or System) Backup and Restore but you can also try a system clone (only available on Lynx Bootable media in the free version)
IMHO The recovery partition from the manufacturer you don't need per se if you are able to make a clone or a backup. And you can always download Win8 installable media from the MS-site.
Yes, my Win8.1 is indeed UEFI. So far, I've made an image of the whole of my main drive and tomorrow I'll try and restore the image to my other MX100 SSD and see if that will work. I'm not too worried about the recovery partitions as the important stuff is actually on the "C" drive; I am hoping that the restored system will be bootable. However,I'll also try your suggestion of the Lynx Bootable media as well. Thanks for your input; as you have probably gathered, I'm rather new to all this!