[SOLVED] Cloning to SSD with Macrium Reflect, unexpected partition, partitions to skip

[c050]

Laptop is ASUS K55VJ. An SSD (Kingston SSDNow A400 SA400S37 480GB ) is installed in laptop optical caddy. Now I want to clone the platter drive to the SSD.

Platter drive (C. & D: ) and SSD (E: ) looks like this in Disk Manager. What partitions to clone?

I watched this tutorial on how to clone with Macrium. Tutorial says to drag partitions in the same order. Fine, but can I skip partition(s) and still have it work?

I'd like to skip V (D: drive) but would then the last partition (Restore VI) still be functional? Partition I (EFI System Partition) I believe is required. Keeping partition II (Recovery), IV and VI would allow restoration to Win 8.0 and all original OEM software (AD 2012).

How Macrium sees the partitions.

Again, what if anything can be skipped?
3(128 MB), I remember was an unavoidable cylinder/sector alignment thing. 3 should be skippable. But if anything is hardcoded, maybe it isn't.

 

[TerryLaze]

Again, what if anything can be skipped?
3(128 MB), I remember was an unavoidable cylinder/sector alignment thing. 3 should be skippable. But if anything is hardcoded, maybe it isn't.

If you want to skip D but you are not sure if it will break recovery then just make a D partition (in the same place) of a few MB, as small as it let's you, that way you don't lose much space and if anything looks for a specifically numbered partition it will find it.

Or clone it without D and then just try if recovery works or not.

 

[britechguy]

One does want the Microsoft Recovery partition, but it's highly unlikely one would want the factory Restore partition if one takes full system image backups and has those available to restore from.

 

[USAFRet]

Previous discussion started here:
https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/clone-os-on-ssd.3522036/#post-21353006

 

[USAFRet]

As mentioned elsewhere, skip #6 and 7.
See what happens.

 

[c050]

One does want the Microsoft Recovery partition, but it's highly unlikely one would want the factory Restore partition if one takes full system image backups and has those available to restore from.

Indeed. Factory restore: Win 8.0. + OEM software AD 2012.

But Win 10 expects these partitions to exist. How messed up will the system become if I delete them? I would delete them after cloning using "AOMEI Partition Assistant" (for example).

 

[USAFRet]

Windows 10 does not care about the original Win8 OEM partition from the factory.
Plus, it is now useless since you've upgraded to Win 10.

 

[c050]

Windows 10 does not care about the original Win8 OEM partition from the factory.
Plus, it is now useless since you've upgraded to Win 10.

I can still Shift-Restart -> Reset PC to reinstall Win 8.0 which reads from these partitions. Unless they don't? I'm pretty sure they used too.
I vaguely remember years ago doing: Win 8.0 -> Win 8.1 -> Win 10.

I like having a recovery partition to be able to refresh Win 10. I read just yesterday that a requirement to reinstall Win 8 before upgrading to Win 10 has been scrapped. Maybe the recovery mechanism is clever enough nowadays to go straight to Win 10.

 

[britechguy]

The recovery mechanism for Windows 10 has always gone straight to Windows 10. There has never been a requirement to start at Windows 7/8/8.1 on systems that were upgraded.

You cannot reinstall Windows 8 absent having either the OEM Recovery partition or install media, but why would you want to?

 

[USAFRet]

I can still Shift-Restart -> Reset PC to reinstall Win 8.0 which reads from these partitions. Unless they don't? I'm pretty sure they used too.
I vaguely remember years ago doing: Win 8.0 -> Win 8.1 -> Win 10.

I like having a recovery partition to be able to refresh Win 10. I read just yesterday that a requirement to reinstall Win 8 before upgrading to Win 10 has been scrapped. Maybe the recovery mechanism is clever enough nowadays to go straight to Win 10.

The Windows 10 reset has nothing to do with the Factory Reset it came from the store with.
That is to return the system to as it was out of the box, with 8.1 and all the original bloatware.

If you were to run that Factory Reset, it knows nothing about Win 10. It WILL revert back to 8.1.

If your system has been upgraded from 8.1 to 10, there is zero need to install or recover 8.1 first and then try to upgrade again to 10.
Simply do a refresh or reinstall of Win10 on its own.

 

[c050]

In my case that would be Win 8.0 (not 8.1) + bloatware. Every description I find looks the same. Like this or this. They're both Factory Reset.

How would I manage (initiate) a Win 10 reset that isn't a factory Reset?

 

[USAFRet]

In my case that would be Win 8.0 (not 8.1) + bloatware. Every description I find looks the same. Like this or this. They're both Factory Reset.

How would I manage a Win 10 reset that isn't a factory Reset?

From within the working Windows instance:
Settings
Update & Security
Recovery
Reset this PC

Or, if things get bad enough and the system simply does not boot up, or you have a massive unrecoverable virus infection...a whole wipe and reinstall:

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

The original WIn 8 this system came with is now of no consequence. You absolutely do not need it.

Or...there should be a function for you to write that out to a USB or set of DVD's. The user manual should outline this.
This would have been used if your actual drive had died, and you needed to replace it.
A new blank drive would not have that factory recovery partition. Hence, the option for you to write that out to a USB or similar.

Again though...that old Win 8 is of no consequence. That partition is just taking up space.

 

[c050]

That was painless.
Dragged 1, 2 and 4 only. Silent. Faster. Everything works so far.

SSD 3GB/s in optical caddy, 6GB/s in regular harddrive position.