Cloning Windows 8.1 (with Acronis)

[Aunnix]

Hello Everyone,

My company is closing down the office I work in and they told me that I can have all of the old PCs (mostly XPs...) to do what I want with... However, there are 2 HP computers that are pretty good still. They are running Windows 8.1 with 12gb of ram and a 2tb hard drive. On to the question...

I have to mail the hard drives of these computers back to the company as they want to make sure there is no sensitive information out there. So, in order to keep the HP computers running, I'd like to clone the hard drives and reformat them. The computers show 2 partitions - 10gb "recovery" and then 1.8tb C:... So, my questions are:

1. Can I clone the 2tb HP hard drive to a smaller drive (250gb)? Out of the 2tb available, it appears less than 50gb are being used including the 10gb recovery partition...

2. How would I go about cloning the partitions? Could I just clone the "recovery" partition to a hard drive and be able to restore the pc back factory defaults?

Basically, I'm just wanting to know what the steps would be in order to clone the HP hard drives so I can send the original hard drives to my company and keep the HP computers running to use at home. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[pjmartin]

Clone the whole disk the and the new disk will also be partitioned.

 

[Neal__]

If they are giving you the hardware for free, I feel its only fair that you respect their wishes to wipe the HDD. Theres no point in wiping it if you've made a copy?

Just plug a new HDD in and install windows 8 again from a usb stick or DVD, 8 should already have basic drivers for most of the hardware. Run windows update, and if there's any drivers missing, google them.

you shouldn't need the recovery partition all drivers will be on the HP website.

Once you're done, Back up with acronis, just in case you need to wipe it again.

 

[Aunnix]

Clone the whole disk the and the new disk will also be partitioned.

Ok cool. I was hoping this would work this way..

Any idea about going from a 2TB hdd down to a 1TB hdd? Is this possible?

 

[Aunnix]

If they are giving you the hardware for free, I feel its only fair that you respect their wishes to wipe the HDD. Theres no point in wiping it if you've made a copy?

Just plug a new HDD in and install windows 8 again from a usb stick or DVD, 8 should already have basic drivers for most of the hardware. Run windows update, and if there's any drivers missing, google them.

you shouldn't need the recovery partition all drivers will be on the HP website.

Once you're done, Back up with acronis, just in case you need to wipe it again.

They are giving me the HP PC, but want the HDD mailed to them. So, my plan is to clone the HP's original 2TB to a 1TB hard drive... install the 1TB into the PC and restore it back to factory default to "wipe" the company files from it then mail them the original 2TB hard drive (such a shame to waste all that storage space though, haha). I have no windows disc to be able to reformat the drive without the "hidden" recovery partition.. They PC didn't come with the OS, hence my cloning.

 

[Aunnix]

So, Acronis 2012 doesn't seem to work with Windows 8.1 (of course, with my luck...) as I get an error that says "Check Secure Boot configuration" or something to that extent. I'm reading all over the place about how it may harm the booting of devices if I disable this option and also, it appears it is can be quite a hassle to re-enable the Secure Boot...

I have found an option within Windows 8.1, called "System Image Backup" (https://www.winhelp.us/system-image-backup-in-windows-8-1.html) and was wondering if this would work for me. Basically, it creates a backup image (similar to Acronis I'm assuming) and gives me an image to "restore" from... What I am wondering, is if I can create this image and save it on a flash drive (or external hard drive) then install the new hard drive and restore the image that is on the USB drive?

Anyone have any experience with this utility/program??