Question Disc image is three times the size it should be.

[Meropian]

Hey,
I'm sorry, I have the weirdest tech issues.
I am in the middle of replacing my hard drive. So I made a disk image of it, to restore from.
Problem, there was too much data on the drive, and the disk image was too big for the hard drive I had to store it on.
So I did the logical thing: deleted everything( Specifically everything that I could redownload anyway) until it was small enough.
So my problem...
The new disc image is the same size as before.
my hard drive currently has 300GB of data on it, so I expected about 400gb or data, and left another 100gb for it being unexpectedly too big.
but it's 970gb.
Why? It seems like it's still including the files I deleted in the backup, but I don't want it to do that. So how do I make it stop?

 

[USAFRet]

What size drive is this?
What tool did you use to make the 'image'?

Install either WinDirStat or WizTree

Run as Administrator, selecting only the drive in question.

Post a screencap here.

 

[Meropian]

What size drive is this?
What tool did you use to make the 'image'?

Install either WinDirStat or WizTree

Run as Administrator, selecting only the drive in question.

Post a screencap here.

I was using the tool included with iDrive.
I will get screenshots from one or more those two as soon as I get home.

 

[Meropian]

Here is a screenshot from WizTree. I forgot to mention, the old HD is 1TB, the backup drive is 500GB.

(I found some more stuff to delete, with wizree so I have even less that actually has to be transferred now.

 

[USAFRet]

OK, so its a 1TB drive, with 250-300GB actual used space.
I have no idea what your iDrive thing was doing.

Backing up 3 steps, what are you actually wanting to do?
Move the entirety of your C drive to a new drive?

If so, ignore this iDrive thing. There are better ways to do this.
Is this a desktop or laptop?
Does the current drive and OS work OK?

 

[Meropian]

Yeah, basically.

I was told a system image backup was the fastest way to migrate between hard-drives without losing anything (since I can't connect them directly), but if there's a better way, i can absolutely do that instead.

It is a desktop. My current hard drive is fine, I just happen to have accquired a better one. My OS is also fine.

 

[USAFRet]

I have no idea what that iDrive thing is wanting to do, but a direct clone from the old drive to the new drive should work.

This talks about HDD->SSD, but it works with a new HDD as well

-----------------------------
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)
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
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
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 as necessary.
Delete the 450MB Recovery Partition, here:
https://social.technet.microsoft.co...thy-efi-system-partition?forum=w8itproinstall

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

 

[Meropian]

I'm using an external HD as a go-between because I can't connect both drives at the same time.
I can't connect the external drive internally, and obviously I'll need to boot up at least once while the files are on the external drive to transfer them all back.
So how important is the 'so that the new drive is connected to the same port as the old one' part?

 

[USAFRet]

I'm using an external HD as a go-between because I can't connect both drives at the same time.
I can't connect the external drive internally, and obviously I'll need to boot up at least once while the files are on the external drive to transfer them all back.
So how important is the 'so that the new drive is connected to the same port as the old one' part?

Why can't both drives be connected at the same time?

Which specific drives and motherboard are we working with?

But there are ways to do it, no matter which drives we're talking about.
Let me know 'what', and we can move to 'how'.

 

[popatim]

You can use your windows install bootable flash drive to restore the image. IMO, it is not a bad thing have an image on a backup drive, esp if things go wrong later - then you have a real easy recovery.

 

[Meropian]

Sorry, Macrium has an 'image' function and I ended up deciding that despite some loss, it was easier to give up on a system restore, make the image, and manually copy things back to the new hd as I need them.

Since the other option is to try and fit two hard drives in a case into which they physically do not fit.

I suppose I could run with my case open and one drive sitting outside it, but... No.

What I'm gathering from your instructions is that the process I want (back up hard drive to external drive, then restore to new hard drive) is too complicated to actually do, and I need to transfer the data between the hard drives directly. And in the case of a hard drive failure, I am presumably fucked.

But yeah, I'm ok for now.

You can use your windows install bootable flash drive to restore the image. IMO, it is not a bad thing have an image on a backup drive, esp if things go wrong later - then you have a real easy recovery.

I don't have an image, though. At least not one I can restore that way. The iDrive one was inexplicably too large, and the Macrium one spits out an error if I try restoring it (which since I verified the disk, and can manually get files off it, I would assume means it's treating the new hard drive as 'dissimilar software' and wants me to get the paid version).

 

[popatim]

Reflect shouldn't. I restored images from HDD to Sata SSD's without any issues and others have done the same for NVME drives so those should work as well.

What error are you getting with Reflect.