Solved Cloning smaller to larger drive

Since NVMe's are getting cheaper I'm swapping my existing 1TB for a 2TB. If I clone the disk (Windows 11) will I be able to expand the new drive? Current drive has three additional partitions, one fat32, one NTFS (UEFI boot?) and one unallocated space, all under 700mb. Viewing in partition softwarte the order is C:\, fat323, unallocated and NTFS.

tmarsh said:

Since NVMe's are getting cheaper I'm swapping my existing 1TB for a 2TB. If I clone the disk (Windows 11) will I be able to expand the new drive? Current drive has three additional partitions, one fat32, one NTFS (UEFI boot?) and one unallocated space, all under 700mb. Viewing in partition softwarte the order is C:\, fat323, unallocated and NTFS.

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I think Macrium in Clone disk option allows you to expand the partition on the destination drive. Otherwise any decent stand alone partition manager should work if you don't have Macrium - or even your current backup and restore software if you have any.

If you don't have any partition manager download the Free GPARTED iso, create a bootable USB stick with rufus and then expand the partition after it's been cloned from the source disk.


Although Linux based (debian) the GUI is almost identical to typical Windows partition managers and can handle all Windows file types so you should have zero trouble in using it.



Cheers
jimbo

Thanks, I have Paragon so should be OK. What I'm wondering is how I can expand it if the other 3 are "in front" of C?

Check your options in cloning a system disk in Paragon, [It's been some time since I've used it], the options should be available to reorder the existing partitions during the clone operation manually, if it is not a default option

You can restore a macrium image and Macrium can resize your partitions.
You can specify partition size while "staging" the clone/image restore. Steps 4 and 5 of this KB article shows how to do that. The article is about cloning, but an image restore works the same way except the option in question is called "Restored Partition Properties" rather than "Cloned Partition Properties". The trick is that when you open the clone/restore wizard, rather than clicking "Copy selected partitions" or just clicking Next, drag each partition from the Source area down to the Destination area one at a time, working left to right. When you drag down a partition you want to resize, click on it in the Destination area and select "Cloned/Restored Partition Properties", then specify the desired custom new size. You can specify it in terms of actual partition size or in terms of how much free space you want left after that partition. The latter option is handy if for example you want to resize your C partition but there are additional partitions later in your disk that you also need to drag down. In that case, calculate the total sizes of the remaining partitions after your C drive and specify that as the amount to leave free. After you've specified a new size, continue along dragging down any additional partitions, and then run the clone/restore.

Thanks for the detailed replies, I've downloaded Reflect so will have a go with that. I'm assuming I can forget about the unallocated but will need the fat32 and NTFS in order to boot? I have previously dual-booted Linux so I think that's why there are two.

I just did this last week.

Used Macrium, cloned disk, drag the partitions down onto the new drive leaving the C drive till last, then you'll see the option just above the drive that says fill dive

tmarsh said:

Thanks for the detailed replies, I've downloaded Reflect so will have a go with that. I'm assuming I can forget about the unallocated but will need the fat32 and NTFS in order to boot? I have previously dual-booted Linux so I think that's why there are two.

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The minimum you need to boot Windows, are the C:\ (Windows) partition and the 100MB EFI System partition.
If you plan to use Macrium all the time... you don't really need the Recovery partition(s) anymore.











NOTE: Whatever you're doing, keep in mind that today is Patch Tuesday.
The Windows Update(s) will be available at 1pm New York time (10am California time).

tmarsh said:

Thanks, I have Paragon so should be OK. What I'm wondering is how I can expand it if the other 3 are "in front" of C?


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There is probably a way to rearange and resize the partitions somewehere in paragon options. Long time ago I did some testing for them and I am pretty sure it could be done back then.

tmarsh said:

Thanks, I have Paragon so should be OK. What I'm wondering is how I can expand it if the other 3 are "in front" of C?


View attachment 59732

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Thanks for all the advice. I used Reflect with no problems, did as instructed and up and running straightaway. Thanks again.

Don't forget to mark this thread solved.