Transfer System disk image to SSD

I have created a disk image of the system disk, C:\ with the disk image software in Win 10 backup. The system disk was 70GB with 40GB of files. When I tried to write the image to the SSD the Win 10 install software said the disk (120GB= 110GB) was too small. I reinstalled the windows disk booted and shrank the system disk to just under 60 GB and retried the process with the same result. System is Win 10 32 bit on an old Acer netbook.

I would like to be able to transfer the installed files to the SSD.
I have looked at the tutorials for creating a system image and also how to create hardware independent image for installing win 10

There are three partitions a small 100 Mb recovery, the Windows system partition and and a data partition. See the image

I only selected the windows partition and the recovery partition as I have the data backed up. I backed the file up to an external powered hard disk formatted as ntfs. Windows was able to see it but said it was too big. I shrunk it to what you see in the image above but it still said too big. On both occasions I only selected the windows and recovery partition.
The laptop belongs to my niece who is staying with us to attend uni so I don't have it all the time but should be able to fix it now on the weekend. It only has space for the one disk drive but she has plenty of storage on one drive and at home. I haven't used Windows much since my last Vista laptop. I use Ubuntu on my own computers although I have several versions of windows including 10 on virtual box.

I have looked at Macrium and Acronix but I am really looking for a simple way for a once only move of the OS from the hard disk to the 120GB Kingston SSD. I presume the anti piracy protection in Windows is the problem and the reason why people all seem to recommend alternative software solutions.

The message I get when I try and install the image is
The system image restore failed

Error details: The disk that is set as active in BIOS is too small to recover the original system disk. Replace the disk with a larger one and retry the restore operation. (0x80042407)

following is a copy of the setup for image creation

The bios lists the disk as Kingston and Windows shows Kingston SV300s37A 120G (disk 0) 111.79 GB as the disk to use in the disks to exclude screen so the 111.79 is the capacity as Windows sees it. I don't understand how it can't fit a 44GB image file.

Topgundcp,

There is a small problem with your procedure in Post #8.

Trevor Jones said:

The laptop belongs to my niece who is staying with us to attend uni so I don't have it all the time but should be able to fix it now on the weekend. It only has space for the one disk drive but she has plenty of storage on one drive and at home.

The only way the SSD could be Disk 1 and to use Macrium Reflect cloning is if it was connected to the laptop via a USB cable. If Trevor Jones had a SATA to USB adapter cable, that would be perfect and easy.

Trevor Jones,

Without a SATA to USB adapter cable to connect the SSD as an external drive to the laptop, you are going to have to make an image of the System Reserved and Windows partitions using Macrium Reflect. You will need a temp storage location to store the image file on that can be accessed from the Macrium Reflect Free rescue USB/DVD. Then using the Macrium Reflect Free rescue USB/DVD, restore the partitions from the image to the new SSD. Macrium Reflect free will take care of resizing the partition to fit on the smaller SSD for you.

If the laptop has only one USB port - once the Macrium Reflect Free USB boots, you can remove it and re-use the USB port for the storage device containing the image file if you need to.

topgundcp said:

@NavyLCDR
If you read his question carefully. He must have a USB port to connect the SSD to restore and that's when he got problem.

I disagree. I am not reading anything in his posts to indicate that he can connect the SSD and the laptop's old hard drive to the laptop at the same time. To do so would require a SATA to USB adapter that I see no indication in his posts that he has.

When most people create an image of a partition or hard drive it is stored on a separate drive or network location. When the need arises to restore that image to a new hard drive or new SSD they install the new hard drive or new SSD, boot from a recovery USB/DVD/CD, connect the external drive or network location and restore the image from it. This is what I believe the OP is trying to do.

However - without the OP telling us what capability/adapters he has, he has been provided with the two different methods to accomplish it.

NavyLCDR said:

I disagree. I am not reading anything in his posts to indicate that he can connect the SSD and the laptop's old hard drive to the laptop at the same time. To do so would require a SATA to USB adapter that I see no indication in his posts that he has.

When most people create an image of a partition or hard drive it is stored on a separate drive or network location. When the need arises to restore that image to a new hard drive or new SSD they install the new hard drive or new SSD, boot from a recovery USB/DVD/CD, connect the external drive or network location and restore the image from it. This is what I believe the OP is trying to do.

However - without the OP telling us what capability/adapters he has, he has been provided with the two different methods to accomplish it.

The Acer has 3x USB2.0 ports only 1 of these seems active for windows install or repair. I have been using the installed Win10 to create the disk image on the external usb then removing the hdd and swapping in the ssd and trying to restore the image.

I have downloaded Acronis free edition and created what I thought were installable images to select with windows repair, that is boot the computer with the windows 10 install usb in the usb port I and try and use the image I created on the powered usb drive. Win repair will not use the images. Acronis also created a boot image but I can not get the computer to boot from this in the usb drive.

I downloaded a copy of Macrium but it does not want to install. Part of the problem is I don't have access to the computer all the time, it is working ok with the hdd and she is using it for uni. Consequently I am using my ubuntu box for researching, downloading and posting here and only accessing her laptop when it is free.

I have downloaded a copy of Partition assistant recommended by one of your posts and will try that. Otherwise I have the option of installing the hdd and the ssd in my ubuntu box and trying to clone the hdd to the ssd using tools like gparted or disks in linux. I have migrated my ubuntu from hdd to ssd with no problems and never expected such a hassle. However I am sure part of the hassle is my lack of familiarity with windows and particularly win10. As I said previously it is almost 10 years since windows was my main operating system and things have changed a lot since vista. That was my reason for posting here and I must say I am very impressed with the site and the support. Thanks to all who have read and offered suggestions.

What was the problem with installing Macrium Reflect Free? Installing that, making a Macrium rescue DVD or USB flash drive to boot the computer from would be the easiest way of transferring an image to an external device and then back to the SSD once installed.

One of these adapters:
SATA 7 15 Pin 22Pin to USB 2 0 Adapter Cable for 2 5 HDD PC Hard Disk Drive US | eBay

would allow you to copy the partitions directly from the HDD to the SSD, but you would still need a program like Macrium Reflect Free or MiniTool Partition Wizard to do it. I like Macrium Reflect Free better because it has an utility to fix boot problems built into the Rescue drive.

Another option would be to make a MiniTool Partition Wizard USB or DVD by burning the ISO file - then you could connect both the SSD and HDD to your Linux computer and boot from the MiniTool Partition Wizard USB/DVD and copy the partitions over directly.

Using Windows built-in imaging will be the most difficult and troublesome method to use.

Also, did the new SSD come with it's own utilities to transfer the system over?