Partition / Clone help please ASUS GL552VW-DH74

[eoniverse]

Bought a 'refurb' off Amazon.

Problem is whoever owned it before me completely messed up the HDD's.

The 128GB m.2 is completely unallocated and the 1TB HDD is partitioned into OS and Data (There is also a small Recovery and a small UEFI on the spindle drive)....so multiple partitions

What I want to do is make the m.2 primary (by cloning) for everything except Data. I'll allocate the 1TB spindle for data in Windows afterwards when everything is working (There is currently nothing on the 'Data' partition that needs saving). I have no idea if that 'Recovery' label currently actually has recovery files in it and don't trust that it does.

I have no idea how to clone a larger 1TB 'spindle HDD with multiple partitions onto a smaller SSD manually. The OS portion is smaller than the ssd and I'm thinking that's all I need (???) I always had the software that came with the SSD do it for me, so this is a first

Can anyone share any step by step advise? Or point me in the direction of the disk software I can use.? I am pretty sure I know how to access the BIOS and Windows disk management to at least make the ssd a master and the primary boot.

Thanks in advance.

 

[OlyAR15]

Why bother cloning? Just wipe the drives and do a fresh install of the OS. You can choose which drive will be the system drive during installation. Even better, just unplug the mechanical HD, then install the OS. Once the OS is installed, plug the drive back in and use disk management to delete the partitions and create a single partition.

 

[C1]

You can do what you want using the clone capability of True Image. If you should go that route then use a TI boot disk.

Ensure that DvD/CD is primary boot device and SSD is next boot device.

Clone the necessary OS partition(s) from the spinner to the SSD using the TI boot disk - clone option. TI will resize the target partition as necessary or allow you to manually set target partition size/layout.

You will then use free nLite to fix the boot partition on the SSD (ie, point to the correct device/location from which to boot).

If you dont want to use the nLite and you have your Windows OS disk, then after clone to the SSD, just use the MS OS installation disk to do a repair of the OS that resides on the SSD. That should fix the boot new sector on the SSD as well as keep your the original OS (that has been transferred to SSD) intact/unmodified (except for any repaired files which were deemed needing repair or replacement; you want to do this repair if the installation sees that it is required).

 

[eoniverse]

I want to bother with cloning because I do not have Windows 10 to install on it if I wipe it out.

I'm still running 7 on my main rig along with a 'tweaked' 8.1 on a dual boot. No copy of 10. (Don't like the idea of not having complete control of my OS....and I want 10 to become mature before I consider migrating to it....but THAT is a subject for another thread.)

 

[eoniverse]

Got it done....mostly. The SSD is cloned. But it did come over as two partitions. OS and Data. Thinking I'll either merge them or resize them. Undecided. Time to also make a backup, then optimise the SSD, then update backup and wipe the HDD.

Thanks to all who advised.

 

[John Connor]

Be sure to check your SSD with AS SSD and make sure AHCI is on and the drive is aligned properly.