How to clone a larger disk to a smaller one

Hello Everyone

I have a 6 year old laptop which is slowing down and I have purchased an SSD to install in it. The original hard drive (a spinning drive) is 2 TB but there is only 170GB used on it. The new SSD is only 1 TB. I download a free app (AOMEI backupper) and it stops insisting a pay for the pro version before it will proceed. I am assuming that it is because only the pro version has the capability to clone a larger drive to a smaller drive. I only want to clone the system and my files totalling the 170 GB, so there is plenty of room on the new 1 TB SSD. Do I first have to resize the Windows partition to make it smaller? I have read what seem like conflicting information on the web. Can anyone steer me in right direction?

I appreciate any help.

Bob

The free aomei backupper does partition or disk clone, system clone is in the paid versions.

free version disk genius is excellent for os migration ( which means the same as system clone)
DiskGenius: Data Recovery, Partition Manager, Backup & Disk Utilities




If you come across a situation where you need/want to exclude files/folders from a "clone", winntsetup can do that.
In winntsetup it is called wincopy.

I think I have somehow really messed something up trying these software suggestions. None of them work (most still want you to buy something) and after trying the Samsung suggestion the computer does not even recognise the SSD. When connected, it was showing up as drive :H now nothing. I just received this drive in the post today. I am not sure what has happened because none of the operations actually started. I cancelled (just closed the screen which wanted me to purchase something.) Any ideas how to restore this thing?

Any help is appreciated.

Bob

spunk said:

When you clone a Source Drive to the Destination drive, it wipes the Destination drive to prepare it for the clone.
If you can still get into Windows, with the new SSD connected, press the Windows key +X and choose Disk Management. Here, in the lower pane it should show your SSD. It should say the file system is Unallocated Space. You can leave it this way if you still planning on Cloning. If you want to use it for Storage, you can Right click the space and Create a New Simple Volume, Format it and give it a drive letter.

Cloning a larger Disk to a smaller Disk is an advanced step and software app makers like to save that for people who buy their software. Try this: Easily Clone Larger Drive to Smaller Drive in Windows 10, 8, 7

Thank you so much for your kind help. After a lot of sweating and angst I got it sorted. I believe my issue was that the whole disk was unallocated and the Samsung software seemed to have been trying to install Samsung firmware on the drive and it is not a Samsung drive. It turns out that the DiskGenius software that was recommended did in fact work and I got my 2TB cloned to a 1TB with little issue. It's installed into the laptop and working as expected, though it is not quite as fast as I expected to be.

Thank you again for your help.

Bob

Yes, you'll need to resize the Windows partition to fit on the smaller SSD before cloning it. Some cloning tools may require you to do this manually, but others may do it automatically. You can use the built-in Disk Management tool in Windows to resize the partition, or you can use a third-party partition manager such as MiniTool Partition Wizard. Keep in mind that resizing partitions can be a delicate process, so it's recommended to backup your data before proceeding.
If you're not comfortable with resizing the partition, you can consider transferring your data and files to an external hard drive, reinstalling Windows on the new SSD, and then moving the data back. This will ensure that the new SSD has a clean installation of Windows and the necessary partitions, without the risk of data loss or partition resizing issues.