Question cloned drive problem...

artscott

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Dec 12, 2017
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10,510
I cloned my C drive not realizing it would basically turn my 1TB into a 500GB..........also I did not realize something funky going on my computer was switching between these drives as I surfed and downloaded files. all was good of course until I shut down and restarted my computer.... anyway this has been happening for several months without me realizing it.

I need to migrate both drives to one........I have a 4 TB on the way..... but Can I simply copy one drive to the 4TB, then the other.......is there an automated way to not copy the duplicate files or will I need to manually tell it not to copy the duplicate files?

Thank In Advance.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I cloned my C drive not realizing it would basically turn my 1TB into a 500GB
Done properly, cloning does not do that.
Given the right tool, you can fix that before you clone.

Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.

Also, what are the specific drives in question here.

switching between these drives as I surfed and downloaded files
Thats a clone done improperly.
 
Couple of things:
  • If you used a generic cloning tool, it likely copied the partition as is. Unless there's another partition sitting after the C:\, you can usually expand it out.
  • Cloning tools may copy the partition's unique ID, and Windows doesn't like it when two partitions have the same unique ID. Normally it takes the other partition offline however.
As for this:
I need to migrate both drives to one........I have a 4 TB on the way..... but Can I simply copy one drive to the 4TB, then the other.......is there an automated way to not copy the duplicate files or will I need to manually tell it not to copy the duplicate files?
If you're trying to migrate two system partitions into one drive, clone one, change the partition to however you want, then copy data from the other. There are third-party tools to copy non-duplicate files over, but you can also just tell Windows to skip duplicate files, assuming they have the same path name.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I need to migrate both drives to one........I have a 4 TB on the way..... but Can I simply copy one drive to the 4TB, then the other.......is there an automated way to not copy the duplicate files or will I need to manually tell it not to copy the duplicate files?
If there are 2x OS's....trying to migrate both into ONE physical drive will result in problems.

You'll need to get ONE OS working right, migrate that.
Then, just copy the files from the other drive into the relevant places.
 

artscott

Honorable
Dec 12, 2017
12
0
10,510
Done properly, cloning does not do that.
Given the right tool, you can fix that before you clone.

Please show us a screencap of your Disk Management window.

Also, what are the specific drives in question here.


Thats a clone done improperly.
If there are 2x OS's....trying to migrate both into ONE physical drive will result in problems.

You'll need to get ONE OS working right, migrate that.
Then, just copy the files from the other drive into the relevant places.
yes....yes....yes......both drives have win 10 on them..... thank you.... there in lies the problem and the reason for the switching.......
Thank You so much.

Do you have recommendations on cloning tools for my future use? I think I created the clone with something like macarium or something it has been uninstalled as I did not like the spam I was getting mailed to me.
thanks again.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Do you have recommendations on cloning tools for my future use? I think I created the clone with something like macarium or something it has been uninstalled as I did not like the spam I was getting mailed to me.
thanks again.
Done correctly, Macrium Reflect works. I use it all the time, it is my go to tool.
After your initial clone, you should not have left the old OS still in there and working. This leads to issues.


Moving forward, you can't clone both drive+OS into one single installation.

Find whatever files do not exist in your proposed clone source, copy those into the Source, and then clone to this new drive.

-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------
 
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artscott

Honorable
Dec 12, 2017
12
0
10,510
Done correctly, Macrium Reflect works. I use it all the time, it is my go to tool.
After your initial clone, you should not have left the old OS still in there and working. This leads to issues.


Moving forward, you can't clone both drive+OS into one single installation.

Find whatever files do not exist in your proposed clone source, copy those into the Source, and then clone to this new drive.

-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------
Wholly crap.... thanks for the instructions and recommendations....Thanks again.
 

artscott

Honorable
Dec 12, 2017
12
0
10,510
Done correctly, Macrium Reflect works. I use it all the time, it is my go to tool.
After your initial clone, you should not have left the old OS still in there and working. This leads to issues.


Moving forward, you can't clone both drive+OS into one single installation.

Find whatever files do not exist in your proposed clone source, copy those into the Source, and then clone to this new drive.

-----------------------------
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
If you are cloning from a SATA drive to PCIe/NVMe, install the relevant driver for this new NVMe/PCIe drive.
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive

If you are going from a smaller drive to a larger, by default, the target partition size will be the same as the Source. You probably don't want that
You can manipulate the size of the partitions on the target (larger)drive
Click on "Cloned Partition Properties", and you can specifiy the resulting partition size, to even include the whole thing

Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD. This is not optional.
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe all partitions on it.
This will probably require the commandline diskpart function, and the clean command.

Ask questions if anything is unclear.
-----------------------------
Doing 3rd attempt.....but first on Macrium Reflect 8 home....where do i find the CLONED PARTITION PROPERTIES???

so far nothing ive done produces what i want.

Also i formatted the 1tb drive, and i thought the long format would remove ALL partitions....but it doesn't seem too.

Well crap....i was going to add photos of my steps so far but do not see a way to do that on my phone.

Do i need the paid version to do what i need??
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
To show pics here, upload your pic to imgur.com, post the link here.


For Macrium....Once you click on 'Clone this disk', it will open up two boxes.
One for Source, one for Destination.
Right under the Destination block, there is a link for "Cloned Partition Properties".

Lastly....Formatting within File Explorer only formats that which you can see there.
It does NOT format the whole drive.
Go into Disk Management, and delete all the partitions there.
 
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artscott

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Dec 12, 2017
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10,510
To show pics here, upload your pic to imgur.com, post the link here.


For Macrium....Once you click on 'Clone this disk', it will open up two boxes.
One for Source, one for Destination.
Right under the Destination block, there is a link for "Cloned Partition Properties".

Lastly....Formatting within File Explorer only formats that which you can see there.
It does NOT format the whole drive.
Go into Disk Management, and delete all the partitions there.
Thank you
 

artscott

Honorable
Dec 12, 2017
12
0
10,510
I got my drive cloned to a larger drive....went from adata 512gb to adata 1tb.

I could not for the life of me get Macrium Reflect 8 to work as I wanted.........however after a lengthy convo with Acronis I got it done with true image 2013.
My C drive is about 1gb shy of the full TB.

I will now be buying 2 2tb drives to run as C and the second one to have Acronis TI2013 clone weekly on Sunday Nights.

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE TIME SPENT TO HELP ME.

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