New Macrium Reflect Updates

Almighty1 said:

Thanks Word Man, I read the page before I asked the question earlier. I basically did copy selected partitions. I see what you mean by dragging the partitions one by one but if I made the 2nd partition use all the remaining available space on the new drive, wouldn't that cause a issue with the 3rd partition as there won't be any space for it or will it shrink the size of the 2nd partition so the 3rd partition will fit? ...

Making the 2nd partition use ALL of the remaining space was not what I was suggesting. Resize it to take up all but (450 MB + 394.18 GB = ) 394.62 GB, which leaves room at end of the drive to drag both partitions 3 and 4 down into the end of the disk map. You simply were blocked in the screenshot of your post # 298 by having placed partition 3 in the destination prematurely, hence the 279.01 GB maximum size constraint placed on partition 2. You should be able to size partition 2 as high as 1.45-1.46 TB and still have space left for partitions 3 and 4. If you don't clone partition 4 over (looks empty as you say) then you have even more expansion room for partition 2.

Almighty1 said:

... Also, I noticed 10240 didn't create a recovery partition during the upgrade from Win7 or the in-place repair installs. Only 10586 created the recovery partition, am I correct that the Windows installer will basically shrink the C: partition down and use that space for the new recovery partition?

I'm going to guess that the 10240 upgrade probably put it's WinRE in your first partition. Based on the 10586 upgrade appearing to have carved out its WinRE at the end of C: drive, any further upgrades will just use the same chunk whether you do away with partition 3 or not. You can always confirm which partition is your active WinRE partition by running "reagentc /info" from an elevated (admin) command prompt.

Thanks Word Man! Before you responded, when I made the 2nd partition use all of the remaining space, I couldn't drag the third partition down but after I changed the 2nd partition so there is 450MB of free space, dragging worked and it copied everything in 1 hour and 38 minutes using Forensic Sector Copying mode while in Windows 10, I turned off my internet connection so that nothing new would write to the original drive. This is what it looks like now...



As far as 10240, the first partition shows as follows when I explore with MiniTool Partition Wizard which doesn't look like anything other than ASUS Express Gate, ASUS Express Gate Util and System Volume Information was touched, it doesn't even have the Recovery folder which I noticed is what's on partition 3:





Partition 3 is the active WinRE partition, is there any advantage to the WinRE partition vs doing the clean install method with the ISO unless the WinRE partition keeps apps, data and settings, it seems like WinRE won't do much. Partition 1 I can understand as it basically will put everything the ASUS Laptop to factory shipping status with Windows 7 Home Edition.



After the cloning, I booted into the bios to make sure AHCI was turned on, then I booted into Windows once which was blazing fast and did the winsat formal, turned the internet back on and then rebooted again. The results are more than awesome... From the start of Windows 10 booting to the lock screen, it took 13 seconds instead of the 2 minutes it used to take on the 2.5" 7200RPM Western Digital 750GB spinner. Logging into Windows and loading everything was extremely fast too. My Google Chrome which has 100 tabs used to take a a few minutes to load but took only 30 seconds with the SSD's!
One other thing I observed is that Windows Store updates for apps are now instant for download and install, it used to lag in the download and then the install, I actually managed to update and installed 5 apps on my 6Mbps/768kbps ADSL connection in 1 minute!



One thing I noticed is that in 10240 RTM, Windows Store would download and install the updates automatically but with 10586.x, it seems like I have to click on download all before it would download and install even though I have update apps automatically turned on in Windows Store.

In any case, I would like to take this time to thank the following people:

@Cliff S for getting me to current times with upgrading to SSD as I never knew SSD came in such large capacities and it does make a night and day difference! Also for mentioning to use Macrium Reflect!

@simrick, @Kyhi, @OldMike65, @Word Man for all the help with Macrium Reflect and MiniTools Partition Wizard!

You're welcome! (But, I didn't do anything...)

Good job, Almightly1 ! You read pretty excited and I'm glad to have been a part along with the rest of the members that got you sorted!

1) I noticed an EFI folder on your partition 1 and, although your disk is set up MBR, makes me wonder if your original ASUS setup was an EFI boot, possibly GPT disk and then you converted it?

2) That partition 3 as WinRE gives you access to Win10 advanced boot and some recovery options. Some hate them and delete them, relying on imaging for all rescue activities. I keep it as it's pretty small compared to the rest of the disk real estate, and your disk covers about 4 times as much ground as mine does.


Enjoy!

simrick said:

You're welcome! (But, I didn't do anything...)

Actually, you were answering all the questions when Cliff S was still sleeping... LOL

OldMike65 said:

I feel the same as simrick. But, I think Word Man deserves MOST of the credit in helping you Almighty1 Also very glad to see your problem fixed.

You still helped regardless!

Thanks Word Man.... I actually forgot about Samsung Magician until after my post above which seems for the Over Provisioning claims to optimize the performance and lifespan of the SSD which it recommended 10% of the OS (C:) partition for a new partition, not sure if I really need to lose 190GB just for that or can I get away with a smaller size.

I think the original ASUS bios never had any UEFI when I first started using the system. The updated bios in 2012 had UEFI but only for booting and nothing else, it doesn't have the secure boot so I never touched or converted the drive as I was trying to keep everything stock.

So now, the drive looks like this:

Vincent, wait until you try Linux(current Ubuntu based distros already have trim activated) on the SSD

@Cliff S, will be upgrading my FreeBSD -current setup to SSD and will compile the entire OS from src and see how long it takes! LOL.

Just curious, are you using the Over Provisioning on your drives too? Do I really need to give it 190GB since that seems like a big amount.