Disk Cloning or Disk Backup/Restore ?
I want to migrate all Data from my Windows 10 System SSD (256GB) to a new SSD (500GB).
The Sysem disk contains 3 consecutive partitions (EFI,C:System(local), Recovery), EFI is the fist, Recovery the lastpartition, C: in the middle.
Currently I just make Disk Backup and Disk Restore operation from bootable USB stick (contains Aomei Backkupper SW).
Backup/Restore is very fast and has already proven to work in case of OS corruption.
The Sysem disk contains 3 consecutive partitions (EFI,C:System(local), Recovery), EFI is the fist, Recovery the lastpartition, C: in the middle.
Currently I just make Disk Backup and Disk Restore operation from bootable USB stick (contains Aomei Backkupper SW).
Backup/Restore is very fast and has already proven to work in case of OS corruption.
When I make now an upgrade to 500 GB and just Restore the current mage, I would expect large unused area at the end. Is it possible to change partition structure before restore ?. I would like to use the additional space for C: only, shifting the Recovery Partition to the end before restoring. Is Cloning a better alternative ?
Is a different brand of the disk of any importance when migrating.
Is a different brand of the disk of any importance when migrating.
Thanks.
Comments
Disk A/port 1 to another Disk B/port 2. Booting later from disk B/port2 should be possible.
Free Partition manager can then be used to adjust the new disk partitions on Disk B/port 2 when booting from DiskA/port 1.(the old disk with partition maneger on it). The only requirement is a free port for disc connection.
Partition Assistance on USB would be a perfect feature.
Do I need the Pro Version.? Currently C: partition is not the Last partition so it cannot just be expanded to the end of disk. Last partition on disk is/should be also on new disk Recovery partition (ca 500MB). So this partition should be repositioned to the end of disk, then C: expanded to the start of Recovery position without gap.
You only need to put the new drive in port 1, boot from the USB boot drive and restore your image, which should be located somewhere else in your PC or on an external drive. You can adjust the partition size as an option when doing the restore. You do not need the Pro version to do this.
So in case of my system disk I would expect that all partitions size (EFI, C:, Recovery) would be resized by a factor of two, when the new drive is twice the size of the old one. EFI would then have about 200MB and Recovery 1GB, which should be no problem I assume to use just the Standard version.
How do I get Partition assistance on bootable USB. ? Is there also an option to create, like contained in Backupper ?
I actually found a product WinPE which contained both tools and was able to generate a bootable USB. Unfortunately when starting Backupper and want to Backup the system disk, i found a problem, When I input chacter "y" character "z" is displayed ??. So I deleted WINPE. Seems to be not very well tested.
Sorry I have Pro so I wasn't aware of free restrictions. I would copy without resizing then just resize the partitions you want with PA. No need to resize, EFI partition or any other than C. I also have PA Pro so you might want to read about "differences" to be sure you will get what you need in the free version. https://www.disk-partition.com/download-home.html
Then instead of doing a disk restore, just restoring the partitions
Again, don't use expand to fit or it expand the EFI and MSR partitions as well. After restoring, just open disk management and expand C to fill the rest of the drive.
In case of a total crash of the OS disk, I would replace OS disk with a new larger SSD by using diskpart preparing all partitions (actually just increasing C Partition, this is possible using the shrink option when creating C: and then recovery partition), leaving the others the same size, position) from within Backupper on USB and then just restore the partitions EFI,MSR,C;RECOVERY.