Question 0MB Free Space after Cloning SSD ?

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Timizorzom

Timizorzom

Aug 31, 2023
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### Background

I have an SSD connected by SATA running my OS. It's 128GB and has been due for an upgrade for a while. A few days ago, I bought a 1TB SSD M2 and I've been trying to clone the OS to it.
Most programs I tried failed or were paid, but I remembered I tried (and gave up) cloning from my HDD to my SSD when I first got it and still had Clonezilla flashed to a memory stick. That worked, but there are caveats, the most predominant of which is that the maximum size of the 1TB SSD has now been reduced to 111GB.

I've been into disk management but that option is greyed out. I can extend the disk if I run the OS from the original SSD, however I have to change it from Offline to Online and doing so gives it a new ID and a new drive letter and I can't boot from it anymore.

I flashed windows recovery to a new memory stick and have been using the command prompt in that to use DiskPart and try to extend the drive without the original plugged in and without running the OS on the new one.

### And here is the root of the problem.

https://imgur.com/a/w2DvbUo

Disk 1 has 930GB max space, but it's partitions only take up 111GB space. There should be 820GB unallocated space but somehow there is 0MB free space.

**What's taking that space and how do I delete it?**

I tried the Samsung Magician but it was unable to clone the original disk due to an unexpected error. However it did say that the free space might be used in over provisioning, but failed when trying to release it.
 
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Can you show screenshot from Device Manager - disk drives, storage controllers sections expanded and
Windows Storage Spaces (Control Panel/Storage Spaces).

Try creating another partition on disk 1 with diskpart.

I think, you'll have to redo cloning.
Use either Macrium Reflect Free or Minitool Partition Wizard free.
Before cloning clean target drive and make sure it is displaying proper size in Disk Management.
 
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You can try installing Minitool Partition Free while you are booted from the new 1TB SSD and resizing the partition in that. It will get you to reboot and then boot into a minimal environment where it's able to extend the partition before rebooting again into Windows.

Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Wizard Free

As an all-in-one free partition manager and disk manager software, MiniTool Partition Wizard Free helps manage disk space safely on Windows 11/10/8/7.
www.partitionwizard.com www.partitionwizard.com
 
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SkyNetRising said:
Can you show screenshot from Device Manager - disk drives, storage controllers sections expanded and
Windows Storage Spaces (Control Panel/Storage Spaces).

I think, you'll have to redo cloning.
Use either Macrium Reflect Free or Minitool Partition Wizard free.
Before cloning clean target drive and make sure it is displaying proper size in Disk Management.
Click to expand...
https://imgur.com/a/w2DvbUo

I've added the images to the folder.
I've tried Macrium Reflect and the clone it created wasn't bootable. It didn't show up in the BIOS or in Windows System Configuration.

I am trying minitool now and it seems promising. I'll see what happens after a restart
 
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Timizorzom said:
I've tried Macrium Reflect and the clone it created wasn't bootable. It didn't show up in the BIOS or in Windows System Configuration.
Click to expand...
Bootloader is located on your 2TB disk.
Your clone source drive is not bootable. Also cloned result by itself will not be bootable.

Keep in mind - first boot using cloned drive has to be done with old source drive (111GB) disconnected.
Or else you'll have to redo cloning.

After cloning is done, add boot entry to new drive.
Execute from elevated command prompt
bcdboot e:\windows /f UEFI​
Resulting message should be "Boot files created successfully".
(assuming E: is drive letter for cloned OS partition, change to appropriate letter, if necessary)

If you want to make new drive bootable, then you have to clone 260MB EFI system partition also.
 
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Timizorzom said:
https://imgur.com/a/w2DvbUo

I've added the images to the folder.
I've tried Macrium Reflect and the clone it created wasn't bootable. It didn't show up in the BIOS or in Windows System Configuration.

I am trying minitool now and it seems promising. I'll see what happens after a restart
Click to expand...
To update on this, Minitool Wizard worked with extending the drive but the first restart after caused it to fail and windows repair to time out.
I'm currently running chkdsk /r c: on the CMD in recovery mode but it'll take another 5 hours to get results.

SkyNetRising has some interesting thoughts. I will try to action those.
 
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SkyNetRising said:
Bootloader is located on your 2TB disk.
Your clone source drive is not bootable. Also cloned result by itself will not be bootable.

Keep in mind - first boot using cloned drive has to be done with old source drive (111GB) disconnected.
Or else you'll have to redo cloning.

After cloning is done, add boot entry to new drive.
Execute from elevated command prompt
bcdboot e:\windows /f UEFI​
Resulting message should be "Boot files created successfully".
(assuming E: is drive letter for cloned OS partition, change to appropriate letter, if necessary)

If you want to make new drive bootable, then you have to clone 260MB EFI system partition also.
Click to expand...
I redid the clone and used the command bcdboot c:\windows /s e: /f uefi and got the message you said I should.

I disconnected the source SSD and rebooted and it failed. I shrank the volume by 260MB and cloned the 260MB partition and tried again. It failed in the same way and also I had to force shutdown because the shutdown button only logged me out...

https://imgur.com/a/jQGoYAi
View: https://imgur.com/a/jQGoYAi


Not sure what's going wrong
 
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I wiped the drive and tried again.

260MB at the front, 111GB at the back, extended during copying.
>bcdboot c:\windows /s e: /f uefi
Shutdown
Disconnect source
Reboot
Go through all the bootable devices in the BIOS till one doesn't boot into windows recovery mode
???
profit

As of writing this reply, everything indicates that previously experienced errors are not around. Hopefully nothing new crops up.

Hooray!
 
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Timizorzom said:
I redid the clone and used the command
bcdboot c:\windows /s e: /f uefi
and got the message you said I should.
Not sure what's going wrong
Click to expand...
Wrong command.
Use instead
bcdboot E:\windows /s H: /f UEFI

E: - drive letter for cloned OS partition on new drive.
H: - drive letter for bootloader - 260MB partition on new drive.
You have to assign drive letter H: to cloned bootloader first, before executing the command.

Note - cloned bootloader has to be of type EFI System. If it is a simple primary partition, then it is not bootable.
Show Screenshot from Disk Management, if it still doesn't work.
 
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SkyNetRising said:
Wrong command.
Use instead
bcdboot E:\windows /s H: /f UEFI

E: - drive letter for cloned OS partition on new drive.
H: - drive letter for bootloader - 260MB partition on new drive.
You have to assign drive letter H: to cloned bootloader first, before executing the command.

Note - cloned bootloader has to be of type EFI System. If it is a simple primary partition, then it is not bootable.
Show Screenshot from Disk Management, if it still doesn't work.
Click to expand...
Everything seems to be working now. I've disconnected the source drive and it's running from the new one.

Also the 260MB can't be given a drive letter by Disk Management.
https://imgur.com/xFVV7pA
View: https://imgur.com/xFVV7pA

Should I still run this command?
 
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