Disk to Disk Copy Different Sized Disks

cloud_dog

Hi

Looking for some techie help (unsurprisingly...)

Looking to replace a HDD on a laptop and was hoping to use my HDD docking station to do a disk-2-disk copy. My problem is that the laptop has a 1.5TB disk and they are rare(ish) so, was wondering if I can do a copy of 1.5TB to a 1TB? Or is this simply not possible due to sectors etc?

I suppose my fall back position would be to purchase a 2TB and let the copy structure it as 1.5TB drive.

Was looking for the cheapest option just to keep the laptop (old HDD) ticking over for a little while longer.

EveryWhere

You can, as long as there is less than 1TB of data on the drive. But you should move to an SSD. HDD are old hat and slow.

debitcardmayhem

Macrium reflect perhaps, but i would install a 1tb ssd in the lappy

cloud_dog

Hi

Thanks for the info.

The laptop is our child's and needs to keep functioning for a while longer (HDD making funny noises), as we will replace the laptop (probably next year before college) and, TBH, I really didn't want to get in to swapping HDD to SSD for this laptop and the associated re-build (did it for the OH which was fine).

Frozen_up_north

The clone function of Acronis True Image will clone a large operating system drive to a smaller one, obviously you can only clone providing you haven’t used more than the capacity on the smaller drive.

Such cloning is a quick way to install an SSD drive in place of a HDD. Check out the videos at: https://uk.crucial.com/

There are several threads on this forum explaining how to re-install an operating system on a new drive, which results in a clean install.

cloud_dog

Think I'll try a 1TB D-2-D copy and if I encounter issues I'll give Macrium a go.

EveryWhere

https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/clone-larger-hdd-to-smaller-ssd.html

But go for an SSD. That will improve the performance of the laptop considerably.

EveryWhere

cloud_dog wrote: »

Hi

Thanks for the info.

The laptop is our child's and needs to keep functioning for a while longer (HDD making funny noises), as we will replace the laptop (probably next year before college) and, TBH, I really didn't want to get in to swapping HDD to SSD for this laptop and the associated re-build (did it for the OH which was fine).

There is no "associated rebuild". You can clone from HDD to SSD.

cloud_dog

Hi

Thanks for everyone's comments, as usual very helpful.

The only reason I was going to stick with HDD instead of an SSD was in relation to cost. The reason for replacing the HDD is that it is starting to make a strange noise so I just wanted to 'do something' before a disk crash or similar. The laptop is approx 4 years old and would likely to benefit from replacing with new technology / laptop but is operating perfectly adequately; and it then comes down to pouring good money after bad.

I could replace the HDD with an SSD (HotUKDeals has 1TB WD SSD Blue for £92) and then possibly use that as a second drive when we eventually replace the laptop (assuming there is space). Pretty much did this for the OHs laptop although was able to swap out the old DVD tray for the second drive.

tronator

EveryWhere wrote: »

You can, as long as there is less than 1TB of data on the drive.

Don't do that. It's very likely that not all data is stored in the first TB of the disk. Your docking station will copy the raw data from one disk to the other and will just stop after 1TB.

cloud_dog

tronator wrote: »

Don't do that. It's very likely that not all data is stored in the first TB of the disk. Your docking station will copy the raw data from one disk to the other and will just stop after 1TB.

Ok, so possibly back to square one, or rather this means I need to use Macronium / Aconis / EaseUS rather than my phisical drive to drive copy (unless I found a 1.5TB drive).