Disk too small?


  1. Posts : 4
    Windows 10
       #1

    Disk too small?


    So I have a Sony VAIO laptop. It came with Windows 7 and I was able to successfully upgrade to Windows 10. I wanted to then upgrade the HD from a 5400 drive to an SSD. Old one was 580 or so GB, new one is 480 GB.

    First step I tried was to clone the original drive using Macrium. That didn't work due to what I assume were errors (broken pipe) on the original drive. Then I thought, well I can just do a fresh installation, which would be nicer IMO.

    I deleted the partitions that Macrium had started to create, then I created a USB restore disk. I swapped the old drive for the new SSD. Launched into bios and enabled boot from external device. So then when I'm launched into the recovery software I select "recover from a drive" and it says "Unable to recover your PC. System drive is too small".

    I tried going into diskpart and creating a primary partition and even formatting it and setting it active. Nothing seems to work. The BIOS and diskpart both recognize the HD.

    Thanks in advance.
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 16,325
    W10Prox64
       #2

    ksidewinder said:
    So I have a Sony VAIO laptop. It came with Windows 7 and I was able to successfully upgrade to Windows 10. I wanted to then upgrade the HD from a 5400 drive to an SSD. Old one was 580 or so GB, new one is 480 GB.

    First step I tried was to clone the original drive using Macrium. That didn't work due to what I assume were errors (broken pipe) on the original drive. Then I thought, well I can just do a fresh installation, which would be nicer IMO.

    I deleted the partitions that Macrium had started to create, then I created a USB restore disk. I swapped the old drive for the new SSD. Launched into bios and enabled boot from external device. So then when I'm launched into the recovery software I select "recover from a drive" and it says "Unable to recover your PC. System drive is too small".

    I tried going into diskpart and creating a primary partition and even formatting it and setting it active. Nothing seems to work. The BIOS and diskpart both recognize the HD.

    Thanks in advance.
    Hi and welcome to Tenforums.

    How much used space do you have on the original drive?

    You should be making an "image", not a clone. You are moving from a spinner to a SSD. Macrium will set the alignment and trim on the SSD if you use image and not clone.

    I would make sure that you are using less than 400GB of that spinner. Then I would make an image; then swap out the spinner for the SSD. Boot into the Macrium recovery environment and restore the image to your SSD.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #3

    I used MiniTool Partition Wizard Free to clone my HDD to a new SSD. The hard drive was a 240GB hard drive with only about 80gb used and the SSD was 120GB. I downloaded the bootable ISO of MiniTool Partition Wizard and made a USB. I also have a USB adapter cable to plug a laptop hdd or SSD into a USB port. I booted from the USB stick into MiniTool Partition Wizard, then plugged the SSD into the USB port via the adapter cable. Copied the HDD partitions to the SSD, shrinking the OS partition in the process. Then I removed the HDD from the computer and installed the SSD, but got a boot error. I booted the Macrium Reflect Free Rescue USB stick and ran the fix Windows startup errors wizard which fixed my boot problem and all was good.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 4
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #4

    simrick said:
    Hi and welcome to Tenforums.

    How much used space do you have on the original drive?

    You should be making an "image", not a clone. You are moving from a spinner to a SSD. Macrium will set the alignment and trim on the SSD if you use image and not clone.

    I would make sure that you are using less than 400GB of that spinner. Then I would make an image; then swap out the spinner for the SSD. Boot into the Macrium recovery environment and restore the image to your SSD.
    I have about 200 GB free on the spinner. So if I make an image of the spinner, where do I store that image? Do I need a 3rd HD for that?
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 4
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #5

    NavyLCDR said:
    I used MiniTool Partition Wizard Free to clone my HDD to a new SSD. The hard drive was a 240GB hard drive with only about 80gb used and the SSD was 120GB. I downloaded the bootable ISO of MiniTool Partition Wizard and made a USB. I also have a USB adapter cable to plug a laptop hdd or SSD into a USB port. I booted from the USB stick into MiniTool Partition Wizard, then plugged the SSD into the USB port via the adapter cable. Copied the HDD partitions to the SSD, shrinking the OS partition in the process. Then I removed the HDD from the computer and installed the SSD, but got a boot error. I booted the Macrium Reflect Free Rescue USB stick and ran the fix Windows startup errors wizard which fixed my boot problem and all was good.
    Ill give this a shot too thanks.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 15,441
    Windows10
       #6

    ksidewinder said:
    I have about 200 GB free on the spinner. So if I make an image of the spinner, where do I store that image? Do I need a 3rd HD for that?
    You can shrink existing partition on hdd and create a new one just to hold the image so long as you can shrink it enough.

    Note: ok for temporary use, but not long term in case disk fails.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 4
    Windows 10
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Wanted to let everyone know that MiniTool partition bootable CD worked great. I first tried copying and resizing the partitions. Don't do this. Nothing could rebuild the MBR correctly. MiniTool and Macrium couldn't fix it.

    Then I did it again with MiniTool but this time using the "migrate to SSD" wizard. Worked perfect. It resized the partitions automatically and I didn't even need to run Macrium. It just booted perfectly first time. TRIM was even enabled.

    Thanks to everybody who chipped in.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 16,325
    W10Prox64
       #8

    ksidewinder said:
    Wanted to let everyone know that MiniTool partition bootable CD worked great. I first tried copying and resizing the partitions. Don't do this. Nothing could rebuild the MBR correctly. MiniTool and Macrium couldn't fix it.

    Then I did it again with MiniTool but this time using the "migrate to SSD" wizard. Worked perfect. It resized the partitions automatically and I didn't even need to run Macrium. It just booted perfectly first time. TRIM was even enabled.

    Thanks to everybody who chipped in.
    Good news! Thanks for letting us know.
      My Computer


 

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