Clone NVME to smaller external SSD for backup

So I have a 1024GB NVME and a 931GB SSD in a USB enclosure. I already have shrunk multiple partitions on the source disk to fit the target and moved the unallocated space to the rightmost location.

Now what open source software will let me clone all those partitions with the boot manager intact if I had to restore everything to a new NVME?

You should make a system image rather than a clone.

Many tools - Macrium Reflect, Aomeu Backupper Easeus Todo, Hasleo Backup Suite etc.

An image is like cloning the source drive but storing files in a compressed file (sort of like a zip file).

Then you boot from a usb Rescue drive and restore image to new nvme drive.

The tools above automatically handle partitions on new nvme. The SSD just needs to be a single NTFS partition.

Roughly speaking the image is 60% of actual data on source drive.

Also, both drives are 1TB, just that formatting reduces the capacity a bit, a guess would be the NVMe hasn't been formatted yet.

I use a 2-bay USB 3 drive dock for hardware cloning. It accepts 2 SATA 2.5" and 3.5" drives but it can't be connected to a computer for the cloning, have not had a problem. I have just come across a dock that accepts both SATA and NVMe drives, may have to get it when budget allows.

I have just come across a dock that accepts both SATA and NVMe

Click to expand...

I saw one in a video recntly about $75 I think.

SIW2 said:

I saw one in a video recntly about $75 I think.

Click to expand...

Probably same one, Sabrent. So far I've had no issues with other things of that brand.

HsRada18 said:

So I have a 1024GB NVME and a 931GB SSD in a USB enclosure. I already have shrunk multiple partitions on the source disk to fit the target and moved the unallocated space to the rightmost location.

Now what open source software will let me clone all those partitions with the boot manager intact if I had to restore everything to a new NVME?

Click to expand...

Happy New Year everyone.

Stand alone bootable version of Gparted -- simple

boot up
ensure new device is all empty space

then either copy and paste partitions (it's a graphical GUI) from old to new -- you can re-size at will -- larger or smaller too so long as the target partition is big enough to receive the source. Note the data from the source, target partition can be smaller than the defined size of the source - the data must be able to fit. That's the requirement.

(you can also start a terminal and use dd if you can handle linux. Otherwise the standard GUI of Gparted is identical to Windows partition managers).

Boot up gparted, hit enter at "Dont touch keymap", select the country code for your keyboard from the screen, and then at the next prompt just press enter and the GUI comes up like this




simple, free, effective, works on any file system including Windows ntfs partitions. Try it as a VM just to play with it for practice if you are unsure. On the VM create 2 "Virtual disks" and just mess around partitioning them for practice. Use the ISO as the boot device.

Get ISO from here :

create bootable USB with rufus etc.

After cloning / copying you can change the partition UUID's - it's in the drop down menu. This is useful if you want to boot from either device -- the boot manager needs to be able to pick the correct device -- otherwise you could get windows randomly deciding on what device to boot etc.

BTW I'm using several 2 TB nvme in small USB adapters not much bigger than a big "classic thumb drive. They work perfectly (both nvme and ssd formats are supported -- GiGmundo Dual Protocol M2 / SSD 10Gbps for NVMe 6 Gpps NGFF SATA UASP TRIM. Fits 2280/2260/2242/2230 sticks max capacity 8TB. Comes with adequate heat sink too -- and tool free -- simple to fit the card into.

@Berton -- these adapters shouldn't cost anything like £75 --- more like £19 I suspect. The sticks themselves too SSD (2 TB €49)


Cost at least when I bought the adapters from Amazon S.A.R.L (Luxembourg) € 19 I now have 4 of them.




Well worth the money, I've used them for Windows to go systems, other VM's with quite robust usage etc etc - not a problem. I've retired most of my old classic 2.5 inch SSD's now.

Cheers
jimbo