So my current boot drive is running very low on space and I got a spare HDD that's bigger.
What's the best way to migrate/copy/clone the boot drive over so I don't have to set up and reinstall everything?
Macrium Reflect Free Edition is the standard recommendation. Good tool. No cost.
You'll have to decide between cloning or imaging. Different processes with the same result, assuming it works.
Macrium will do both.
Cloning probably "simpler", but anecdotally maybe not as high a success rate.
Imaging involves making an image file of the partitions on your boot drive and later restoring that file to some other drive. Usually thought of as a backup or disaster recovery thing.
On the other hand, cloning is a transfer of an existing system in real time, not a restoration, not a "backup". Typically done when all is well and you are just low on space.
If cloning fails, you can try imaging instead.
There's a learning curve with Macrium. Not insurmountable, but not a 5 minute study either.
Tutorials on this web site.
thanks i'll give it a try tomorrow, looks like a thing i can't do under an hour.
Also is this better/easier than using clonezilla?
How to Create a Bootable Clone of your Windows 10 Drive - Make Tech Easier
I have no personal experience with Clonezilla, but I notice the following quote at your link:
"Clonezilla’s lack of a GUI can make it challenging to navigate confidently."
Who needs unnecessary challenges for something that critical?
And you won't find a lot of people here with Clonezilla experience. Macrium is highly refined and about as intuitive as such an app can be.
You should make a Macrium "recovery disk" immediately after installing Macrium.
It's NOT needed if you clone if I recall correctly. Been a long time since I tried cloning.
It would be needed if you wanted to restore via imaging and your C drive had failed and would not boot your PC.
ok i'm having issues: when i did it the way like the first screen shot, every seems to work fine, but windows won't let me merge that empty volume with my primary partition.Attachment 153681.
With # 2, i did it manually by moving the main partition first (maximizing it until I have the exact space left for the 450 mb recovery partition, and then moving it). This way failed to clone.Attachment 153682
With # 3, i reversed the order of the partitions so that I can maximize main partition. everything worked, except that when I boot up, i get the windows 10 BSOD screen.Attachment 153683
What am i doing wrong?
Regarding your first attempt, you say "ok i'm having issues: when i did it the way like the first screen shot, every seems to work fine, but windows won't let me merge that empty volume with my primary partition."
How are you trying to "merge"??
I assume you are trying to add that gray 111 GB to the destination partition with the red bar showing 34.70 GB occupied. Correct?
Are you using Windows Disk Management to do that? I don't think it likes that situation because of that intervening partition with the blue bar showing only 373 MB used. If that blue partition weren't there, WDM could probably "merge" the 111 with the 34.70. It likes to work only on IMMEDIATELY ADJACENT areas--without anything else in the way.
So try another tool---Minitool Partition Wizard. It doesn't care about that intervening partition.
Or am I misunderstanding??
If that won't work, my only suggestion is to try imaging instead of cloning. I have very little cloning experience.
Use method #1 to clone. Keep the same layout as was on the original disk. The second partition is the Recovery Partition. Once you get the drive cloned and it is booting up properly, then you install and use MiniTool Partition Wizard free. Move the recovery partition to the end of the drive. The unallocated space then ends up next to the C: drive partition and then you can extend C: drive partition to fill it.
Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free
There are other ways of doing it with Macrium Reflect Free, but the above is just the simplest way.
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