HP 6300 SSD cloning to smaller SDD (256GB =>250GB)

[Bojan2]

I have HP Compaq 6300 with original SSD.

I would like to clone existing SSD (W'7 Pro) to slightly smaller drive, and eventually upgrade to W'10, and have them both in the same machine.

By shrinking C: partition by 8GB and using Clonezilla for cloning, the process went OK but I was left with ~4.6GB of unallocated space at the top of the drive.

The recovery partition (100MB) appears to be unmovable by W'7 manager and it is in the way of  doing it neat (if that is important at all..).

My questions are:

- Is the location of mentioned Recovery partition on SSD important at all?

- Can it be moved (and how) to the top of the new CCD and would it retain functionality after moving?

Thank you in advance and best regards,

Bojan

[Bill_To]

Greetings @Bojan2 

Welcome back to the Forum.

You might be able to move and merge the unallocated disk space at the beginning of the system drive into the C: Windows partition using a Pro (licensed) version of partitioning software.

I am fairly certain the (hidden) 100 MB EFI system disk partition containing BCD files needs to be in a specific disk location to talk to the BIOS.

Windows Disk Management can't do this.

So, I would purchase licensed partitioning software, or live with the unallocated disk space on the new disk, or back up data and then do a clean Windows installation if you want the missing 4.6 GBs.

Regards

[Bojan2]

Hi Bil,

Thank you for the quick reply.

I was thinking that maybe this partition (100MB at the top of the SSD) is not really needed (unless something goes terribly wrong in the future so factory setup must be restored... but then I will have the clone for replacement anyway so...).

In other words, would it be right to just clone the System, OS partition (C:) and Recovery (D:)  on the clone and forget about that 100MB (highlighted) ?

Thank again and best regards,

Bojan

 

[Bill_To]

Greetings @Bojan2 

My pleasure.

I don't see 4.6 GBs of unallocated space on Disk 0 in your Disk Management image.

I also don't see a Windows Recovery partition in your Disk 0 image. You have a HP Recovery Partition which may provide Windows Recovery options.

You do have two 100 MB partitions. I don't know why your PC has two 100 MB partitions.

I don't have a HP PC. That being said, here is an image of my Disk 0 partition.

Depress and hold down the "Shift key" while doing a Windows restart to see if you can get to the Windows recovery environment.

Regards

[Bojan2]

Hi @Bill_To

The image I posted earlier shows the drive I wanted to clone (original SSD).

Below is the image of both (original and cloned one (after applying https://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html , it reduced the unalocated space to 2.39GB)). 

I updated the cloned one to w'10, and it worked OK, but after attempt to have both online, there was a problem - w'10 wouldn't boot any more and W'7 also refused, but after disk check it is ok now.

Thanks and regards,

Bojan

 

[Bill_To]

Greetings @Bojan2 

My pleas

You might be able to move the 98 MB partition to the right, 

This would place the unallocated space next to the 8.65 GB partition. 

Did you want a 8.65 GB partition? If no, Dump this partition. Now you should have about 11.04 GB of unallocated space next to the 221.65 GB partition.

You should be able to expand the 221.65 GB partition using the 11.04 GBs of unallocated space.

Regards

[Bojan2]

I tried that but 98MB partition can't be moved at all (actually when I click on it , the only menu item shown is "Help", and it seems it is fixed.

Also, now I believe the clone (98MB) was damaged because on the source drive it was 100MB and it became 98MB after Clonezilla shrunk it (proportionally, by option "-k1").

However, it didn't seem to matter, because both drives worked (and if ONLY one of them was online).

In my next attempt, I  will try to omit that un-named 100MB partition and see  if it's needed at all. 

And, I can always get rid of HP_Recovery partition later.

[Bill_To · Accepted solution]

Greetings @Bojan2 

You would have to try to move the 98 MB partition using disk partitioning software. Windows Disk Management can't do this.

I would not try to remove the 100 MB partition. It should be a system partition required to load Windows.

I would not eliminate the HP Recovery partition. It should have the Windows Recovery environment needed to troubleshoot Windows problems. I guess this partition also contains HP troubleshooting options.

Regards

[Bojan2]

Well, if that's the case (everything needed to stay on cloned drive as it is), then I will have to use a larger drive for clone..