Cloning Windows Partition only from 2 Partitions Setup

[Rigo]

Hello Folks,
The drive is partitioned into 2 - Windows (Win 10) UEFI + Data partition.
I want to clone out Windows partition to SSD then expand the data partition over the whole original drive.
Can it be done for a functional Windows SSD?
Which tool would you use?
Any contribution highly appreciated
Mucho gracias

 

[NviGate Systems]

Any of the free or pay cloning programs should be able to clone the partition for Windows to the SSD. You will need to partition the SSD, as you are cloning a partition, not the whole drive. In DiskPart you can do the following replacing X with the SSD's ID.

select disk x
convert gpt
create part EFI size=128
format quick fs=fat32
assign letter a
create part MSR size=128
create part primary
format quick fs=NTFS
assign letter C

Now, some cloning programs prefer to copy partition to free space, others you can specify an existing partition. If it complains about no free space, just go back and delete the NTFS partition and it should work. Once the partition is copied, you need to run this command changing x to the windows partition on the SSD.

bcdboot x:\windows /s a: /f UEFI

Now, there is a second method of doing this that takes a little longer but is reliable and works even when changing BIOS/EFI. You can image the Windows partition using dism, create the partition as above then apply the disk image to the new partition.

It's slower as you need to image the partition locally then apply it back, so you are reading/writing the data twice, but you won't get caught by the typical snags or bugs that some cloning apps have. Post if you wants the commands for the slow way.

 

[Diggs]

I thought you could use Macrium and just drag the old partition you want to a new drive and adjust the partition properties to expand to the whole drive.

 

[NviGate Systems]

But you still need to make room at least for the EFI partition.

Partition cloning tends to get a bit messy. I don't know why but many programs seem to have issues, especially when dealing with EFI. They typically want to do all or none.

 

[NJW]

Partition cloning tends to get a bit messy. I don't know why but many programs seem to have issues, especially when dealing with EFI. They typically want to do all or none.

This. At the very least, manually splitting the installation to two disks will require updating the EFI partition information. In my experience, even cloning an EFI system to a new disk requires some command-line repair love to get to a bootable state because UUIDs (disk and partitions) change.

 

[Rigo]

Post if you wants the commands for the slow way

Yes please, I like pain when it enlarges my brain
Will try the short way as well
Someone said one of the things that can never be stolen from you is what you've learnt

 

[Rigo]

In my experience, even cloning an EFI system to a new disk requires some command-line repair love to get to a bootable state

I haven't found it a problem myself when cloning the entire drive to another one.
It's when splitting it that I haven't been able to get it right.

 

[Rigo]

I thought you could use Macrium

I did try Macrium but the result didn't work. Though not by dragging as you suggest but I can't see what difference that would make

 

[Rigo]

They typically want to do all or none.

That's where I got stuck a number of times and led me to enquire the community's wisdom

 

[mikeroq]

I don't know the sizes of your disks, or partitions, or space used.

Typically I just clone the disk with say Paragon, Macrium, or EaseUS. Depending on the size either I would just clone the whole thing and modify later or if the target drive was smaller I would just clone over all the partitions minus the data one.

Then after cloning I would modify the partition layout/size as necessary.

Never had a problem.

 

[Rigo]

I don't know the sizes of your disks, or partitions, or space used.

Typically I just clone the disk with say Paragon, Macrium, or EaseUS. Depending on the size either I would just clone the whole thing and modify later or if the target drive was smaller I would just clone over all the partitions minus the data one.

Then after cloning I would modify the partition layout/size as necessary.

Never had a problem.

Yeah, the SSD is smaller than the combined content of the 2 partitions on the spinner.
Otherwise your procedure should not be a problem.

 

[labtech]

Paragon has been good to me, too.
What brands and capacities are the two drives? Spinner and new SSD?
Have you tried Samsung's Data Migration tool?

 

[Rigo]

Paragon has been good to me, too.
What brands and capacities are the two drives? Spinner and new SSD?
Have you tried Samsung's Data Migration tool?

* SSD - Samsung 250GB
* WD 1TB
C: 300GB/180GB used
D: 600GB or so/320GB used
I ended doing it the rough way through 1TB SSD.
Not really elegant and efficient but effective