Restore to Smaller HD than Image Made From

I know this sounds weird...but....Computer 1, XP Pro, single C drive, capacity 55G, used space 44G.

Computer 2 (newer), XP Home, single C drive, capacity 40G, used 25G.

Computer 2 will not boot. Msgs about corrupted profile, see administrator, etc.

I would love to Image Computer 1 C drive and transfer only a portion of the image to Computer 2. I tried it, used Acronis Startup CD to get started, put the image containing external HD into Computer 2 and pressed proceed. It would not let me have a full install (I guess obviously) because the drive is smaller than the image.

Question: is there any way to make a partial image of my working C drive Computer 1, so that when restored, will give me a running C drive Computer 2?

Help is certainly appreciated.

Ken

 

You can of course image particular folders and restore those.
But creating a 'partial image' of a working primary active partition is not possible.

 

Well, I think there might be a couple of ways to get you what you want.

You could make a full image backup of the drive. Then move out the stuff you don't want from the original disk and then do another and thus smaller backup and then restore the first image tothe firts drive and use the smaller inmage for the smaller drive.

Or edit unwanted files out of the whole disk image before you restore it to another, smaller drive--just don't edit out the system files ;-) .

Those methods would work, wouldn't they?

 

Hello Ken,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are very sorry for the delay with the response.

Please be aware that the most probable reason why the restored operating system does not boot is that 'Computer 2' has hardware configuration different from that of 'Computer 1'. We therefore recommend that you prepare Windows for transferring using Microsoft System Preparation Tool (Sysprep) as it is described in this FAQ article. However, please note that even in case of using Sysprep we cannot guarantee the successful transferring of the operating system to a computer with the hardware configuration different from that of the original machine. The point is that sysprep allows replacing drivers only for Plug-and-Play devices (sound cards, network adapters, video cards etc.). As for system HAL and boot device driver, they must be identical in the source and target computers (see Microsoft Knowledge Base articles 302577 and 216915).

If you want to be completely sure that the restored operating system will boot and function normally then we recommend that you use Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation in conjunction with Acronis Universal Restore for your purposes. Acronis Universal Restore technology provides an efficient solution for hardware-independent system restoration by replacing the crucial HAL and hard disk controller drivers. Please read more information on how to use Acronis Universal Restore in Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation User's Guide.

We also recommend that you download and install the free trial version of Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation to see how the software works on your particular software\hardware configuration.

If you want to obtain the free trial version of Acronis Universal Restore then please submit a request for technical support using Ask a question before you purchase Acronis software link. Explain your wish to obtain the free trial version of Acronis Universal and provide the link to this thread in your request.

Please also note that all currently available Acronis True Image versions allow resizing partitons upon the image restoration procedure. You can find more information on how to change the size of partitions during the image restoration process in the repspective Acronis True Image version User's Guide. We recommend that you create and afterwards restore the image of the entire 'Computer 1' hard drive or at least re-create the same partition layout on the destination disk as it was on the original hard drive (the sizes of partitions can in fact be different but the quantity should be the same). We also recommend that you restore your system to the partition of the same number it was originally residing on. Otherwise, you will most likely need to make the appropriate changes to your boot.ini file or encounter problems described in these previous threads: auto logoff problem, Re: Mr.

If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

Thank you.
--
Alexey Popov

 

I tried to restore an 160MB image (32MB used) to a 80MB HD.

Win XP Pro did however not work, the systems boots but apparently the user information is lost og corrupted... the Logon screen appears just fine, but there are no users to logon to.

I can not boot to the original Drive, As i installed a new Mother Board - but I managed to make the system boon on an other HD and this is where I then restored the Old image (160MB).

Since I have no systems working, I am in a bit of a spot... and I need to know if there is a tool that will resize the existing image/HD thus so I can restore the old OS to my working HD?

Regards Per

I wonder why my older HD worked with the new Mother Board, but I geuess that is was "luck" or something.

 

Just read the artikle on sysprep, I wonder if I can run the sysprep thing on A harddisk that is not installed on the original computer....?

I can still reinstalle the original Mother Board sysprep, image, install again etc. etc - but I would rather NOT

Added:
I just read that my Aconis 8.0 will claim unused space off the HD, and thus I can resize the original drive - when I boot from the resque (sp?) CD. Woth a try as I still have the original Image. (Not 160 but actually 207GB, with 160GB unused)

Regards Per

 

Hello Asset2,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

Yes, Microsoft System Preparation Tool (Sysprep) might help to solve this issue.

Yes, you can do so however please note that as Alexey mentioned above Sysprep allows replacing drivers only for Plug-and-Play devices (sound cards, network adapters, video cards etc.). So the prepared Windows system will have the "old" information about motherboard, processor version and another hardware (of the computer where the hard drive is installed). And, therefore, the restored system may prove unbootable.

If you are going to transfer the system to a different hardware I would recommend that you use Acronis True Image 9.1 Workstation in conjunction with Acronis Universal Restore for your purposes.

Please note that during the restoration process you can resize the restored partition on the destanation drive.

EDIT: Please also note that such issue ("Logon screen appears just fine, but there are no users to logon to") may arise if the partition layout on the destination hard drive is different from that of the disk this particular image was originally taken from. We therefore recommend that you re-create the same partition layout on the destination disk as it was on the original hard drive (the sizes of partitions can in fact be different but the quantity should be the same). We also recommend that you restore your system to the partition of the same number it was originally residing on. Otherwise, you will need to make the appropriate changes to your boot.ini file. Please see these previous threads for details: auto logoff problem, Re: Mr.

Thank you.
--
Aleksandr Isakov