Restoring image to a smaller HDD ?

It looks like TI just takes an image of the actual data on a HDD so I suppose in theory that the following is possible...

Take an image of an HDD that say has a physical size of 20GB but the operating system and data only take up 3GB, end up with an image file that is around 2.5GB. Restore this image to an HDD with a physical size of 5GB.

... will the above work ?.

Thanks

 

Hello Fatboy40,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

It is possible to restore an image to a smaller hard drive. A hard drive should be at least the same size as the uncompressed image data.

Thank you.
--
Irina Shirokova

 

Thank you Irina

 

Hello Fatboy40,

If you have any questions concerning our software, please feel free to ask us.

Thank you.
--
Irina Shirokova

 

I backed up a large image file, and was able to compress it to 7gb. When i tried to restore it to the drive which has 160gb it was greyed statingt that there unsufficient space because the partition was 321gb. How do i backup the partition so its not soo large.

 

Hello kingpino,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

First of all, please be aware that the compression level has no effect to what you want to perform as after you restore the image the actual data will be of the same size as it was originally.

Please also note that Acronis True Image allows you to restore a partition image to any partition as long as the amount of actual data imaged fits the size of the destination partition. The procedure of resizing partition(s) during the image restoration is described in section 6.3.8 of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home User's Guide.

There are three reasons why you can not change the size of partition upon it's restoration:

1.) There were some file system errors on the imaged partition and therefore Acronis True Image created a raw sector-by-sector image of this partition. Such partitions can not be resized during the image restoration process as their file system is unknown to Acronis True Image (please see this previous thread for details).

However, it does not appear to be the case as the size of the resulting image would be the same as the size of the imaged partition independently of the amount of the actual data this partition contains. In your case the size of the image would be 321 GB while in fact it is about 7 GB.

2.) You try to restore the entire hard drive rather than a single partition.

This is the most probable reason why you encounter this problem. The point is that Acronis True Image does not allow resizing partitions when the entire hard drive is being restored. It only allows changing the size of partitions when they are being restored separately. To do so you need to check the box near the partition name and not near the hard drive's name (see the screen shot in section 6.3.4 of the above mentioned User's Guide). If you want to restore several partitions at once then you should pass all steps of the Restore Data Wizard and choose the "Yes, I want to restore another partition or hard disk drive" option (see section 6.3.10 of the above mentioned User's Guide for further details).

3.) The destination hard drive has some file system errors or bad blocks\sectors.

We recommend that you check each partition of the destination hard drive by Windows utility in order to exclude this possibility:

- For Windows 9x please use Windows menu Start\Run then enter the command "scandskw" and test all drives;

- For Windows XP please use Windows menu Start\Run, then enter the command "chkdsk c: /r" "chkdsk d: /r" for every partition of your hard drive.

If nothing of the above helps then please provide us with the following information:

- Create Acronis Report as it is described in Acronis Help Post;

Please keep the destination hard drive connected while creating a report.

- What exact version and build number of Acronis True Image do you use?

You can find the full version name and build number by going to Help -> About... menu in the main program window.

- Where do you store this particular image archive?

- Does the problem appear both when you try to restore the image using Acronis True Image from under Windows and when your computer is booted from Acronis True Image Bootable Rescue CD?

- Use digital camera to make a shots of your consequent steps taken during the attempt to restore the partition.

Please submit a request for technical support. Provide the files and information collected in your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with the solution.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov