Question Clone HDD SO partition to a SSD

[Andrei97]

I got a 300GB HDD with 2 partitions (respectively around 135GB and 140GB). The first partition cointains the Win 7 SO and a couple of programs, the second is just personal data. I wish to clone the first partition only (the one with the SO and the programs) to a 240GB SSD.


I made a couple of attempts using Clonezilla:

I created an image of the first partition (+ the "system reserved" 100MB partition that shows up as well, it is right to select that too, I guess?), but when I try to restore the image to the SSD drive it doesnt work: "sda2 missing or kernel too old" or something like that... Am I doing something wrong? Is it possible to do that?


If it's not clear, of course I put the image of the partition into a 2nd HDD, and then tried to restore the image from there to the SSD.


Thanks for the help!

 

[SkyNetRising]

Use Macrium Reflect instead or Minitool Partition Wizard Free.
Can you show screenshot from Disk Management?

 

[Andrei97]

Use Macrium Reflect instead or Minitool Partition Wizard Free.
Can you show screenshot from Disk Management?

Sure! But the names are in Italian.

Just a moment, I gotta Upload the image... Somewhere before posting, I didn't know that

 

[Andrei97]

Still, not sure if the first partition (the 100mb "reserved to the system" one) has to be cloned as well

 

[Andrei97]

Oh well, I forgot to answer you statement.
The HDD is from my father's PC, his PSU has 1 SATA cable only and we couldn't buy an adapter to use one of the Molexes as the SSD's supply;

Since those programs only allow to clone the SO they're installed on, and we couldn't run his Win7 on my PC cause of the drivers conflict, the only chance was Clonezilla...

Sorry for these complications. We will look for an adapter eventually!

 

[SkyNetRising]

SSD must be cleaned before cloning (all space unallocated).
Delete partition S: , then perform cloning.

And yes - 100MB partition has to be cloned as well. After cloning mark cloned 100MB partition as active (or it will not be bootable otherwise).

 

[Andrei97]

Alritgh! I'll give it a try unallocating it, I'll let you know! Thanks!

 

[Andrei97]

Try to clone main partition instead of system reserved partition may be you are trying to clone system partition (i.e.99 mb) which is not possible it can only be created with a particular system when you install OS on it.

I'll try that as well, right now I'm trying to restore the image in the unallocated SSD, the problem is that Clonezilla sees that when it scans the devices but it looks like it doesn't let that be the destination of the image... It keeps choosing the 1TB drive as a destination, I can't even choose the destination disk, I'll try with the "disk restore" instead of "partition restore" at this point. Thanks btw!

 

[SkyNetRising]

you are trying to clone system partition (i.e.99 mb) which is not possible it can only be created with a particular system when you install OS on it.

Not true. System partition can be cloned like any other partition. The partition contains bootloader. If it is not cloned, result is not bootable.

 

[Andrei97]

Not

SSD must be cleaned before cloning (all space unallocated).
Delete partition S: , then perform cloning.

And yes - 100MB partition has to be cloned as well. After cloning mark cloned 100MB partition as active (or it will not be bootable otherwise).

Not working with an unallocated space, it can see the SSD but it doesn't consider that as a destination target. I didn't try by command line because I can't really find any guide for it...

 

[SkyNetRising]

Did you try with Macrium Reflect or
Minitool Partition Wizard Free?

 

[Andrei97]

I'll not be able to till until I get an adapter for Molex 4 PIN to SATA: the HDD with the SO is from my father's PC which has only 1 SATA cable, so I can't run windows 7 in my PC and those programs only clone the system they are installed on

 

[SkyNetRising]

Minitool Partition Wizard free can clone any partition (not necessary OS partition). I think Macrium can do that too.

BTW - what is "SO" in your text? Operating System would be OS.

 

[Andrei97]

I tried MiniTool but it didn't let me choose the source disk to be honest 🤔

Yeah sorry, in Italian is "system operating", my bad!

Anyway, Clonezilla lets me copy one partition of the HDD in the SSD with no problem... What about copying the partition of the OS (didn't fall for it this time) without the mbr (cause Clonezilla doesn't let me more than one), then trying to restore the MBR with something like EaseUS?

 

[SkyNetRising]

I tried MiniTool but it didn't let me choose the source disk to be honest

Select partition and choose copy.

 

[Andrei97]

Select partition and choose copy.

I'll try that one in some minutes, will it work fine with a simple copy and paste of the mbr+OS partitions?

 

[SkyNetRising]

You don't have to do anything with MBR. Just make sure target drive has same partition style as source drive before cloning (MBR in this case).
Copy required partitions, set bootloader partition to active and
boot only with cloned drive connected. That's it.

 

[Andrei97]

It's copying, I'll let you know once it finishes!

 

[Andrei97]

Alright, that's the result of the copy! above with the disk management of windows, on the bottom with MiniTool. Should it be fine? I just copied the disk in the SSD, then I deleted the 3rd unecessary partition from the SSD

 

[SkyNetRising]

Yes. Looks good.

 

[Andrei97]

I tried the SSD in my PC and windows 7 gives the same mistake that the old HDD gives (the one caused by the drivers): windows starts to load, blue screen for a second and reboot, it makes me think the copy is fine and went well!

The problem is that on my father's PC the SSD does NOT appear in the BIOS (DEL Key) but it actually DOES in the "Choose boot device" option (F10 Key) and when I try to load that it just goes to a black screen with a "j" and a cursor, I can't press anything and nothing happens... The HDD keeps load windows with no problem instead.
Is it possible that the Mobo has problems with the SSD? It's a pretty old one

 

[SkyNetRising]

Is OS on pc, where you did the cloning the same windows 7 or a different windows version?

If it is windows 7, then put cloned drive back in there and execute from elevated command prompt:

bcdboot i:\windows /s e:​

(e: - bootloader partition on new drive, i: - windows partition on new drive)

Then put the drive into your fathers' pc. Go into BIOS and fix boot sequence, so new drive is first in boot order.

 

[Andrei97]

I did the cloning on my PC with windows 10.
I cloned the HDD with windows 7 inside, into an empty SSD. The cloned SSD (as well as the HDD) wont work in my PC because windows 7 has the driver for my father's PCs, not for mine. It should be working in my father's PC cause the HDD does, and as a cloned SSD It's supposed to work the same way. But it doesn't. Can I do that procedure in my PC as well?

Btw I wanted to thank you a huge lot for the help, you're spending a big amount of your time with my problem, I couldn't say thank you enough, really. You're awesome!

 

[SkyNetRising]

With windows 10 this would not work.
Then you have to get windows 7 installation media, boot from it, go into command prompt and execute bcdboot command.
Note - in windows installation environment drive letters will be different and it will be necessary to manually assign drive letter to bootloader partition. That can be done using diskpart.

 

[Andrei97]

So I can make a flash usb bootable for windows 7 system and execute the command you showed me before, after assgning the letters to the bootloader partition. Is it right?