Image of old 20 GB HD to new 250 GB HD

I did an image of my old 20 GB boot drive because I had to replace the old HD with a new 250 GB one.

Is it possible to restore that image to the new HD though its size is greater than the old one? Will there be a full 250 GB partition holding the "old data" or will there be two partitions, a 20 GB with the "old data" plus a 230 GB free one?

 

The choice is yours.

 

If restoring an image, you want to do a "Partition Restore with Resizing".
The link below might be helpful. Check out the pdf file. You may not have the second partition as illustrated but it shows how to resize. As Xpilot stated, the choice is yours; or you may want to enlarge your system partition and have a large data partition.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=196961&page=2#32

 

TI lets you resize the partition you are restoring to. You might consider getting Gparted and creating additional partitions if you wish. I highly recommend a boot partition for windows and your programs and one or more partitions for data.

Google search to find Gparted, it is open source and very reliable, I have used it quite a bit.

 

To prevent any unfortunate complications

1.) format your new hard drive first to the full 250gb if you just want one partition (use the software cd that came with your new drive).
2.) next do an "image" backup of your c: system partition of your 20gb hard drive. (Do Not Make a Clone because that will copy the MBR of your old hard drive to your new drive "that will usually result in the new hard drive reading 20gb and require repairs to read the full size")
3.) When you restore an image to a new hard drive, true image allows you to expand the old 20gb partition to fill all the space on the new hard drive.
4.) An image backup of a system partition will be automatically bootable when restored on a new hard drive (no need to restored the MBR etc).

That's the easy way to do it.

 

Joneyjoe81,

Whilst your above method may work for you it is not the best way to proceed and indeed if the original drive had more than one partition or hidden OEM partitions it probably would not work.

1. There is no need to format the new drive before installing it. This would be taken care of by the restore process itself. It is also good practice to do the restore from the rescue CD.

2. I agree that restoring an image is preferable over cloning for a variety of reasons but not for the one you gave. It is perfectly possible to resize a drive as part of a restore or cloning process.

3. See 2 above.

4. This may be true in some limited circumstances, however restoring the MBR is a step that should always be done to a new or replacement bootable drive. That way always works. Maybe you are confusing the MBR with the partition table.

Xpilot

 

Xpilot,

Sorry to be picky but an exception is a Dell laptop with MediaDirect 1 or 2. When upgrading to a new larger HD by restoring an image to the new HD, the MBR and Track 0 must NOT be copied. Doing so will truncate the new HD to the size of the old HD.

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/mediadirect.htm (see HPA Problems When Upgrading Hard Disk at bottom of page)

 

Brian K

Thanks for pointing out the special case for some Dell laptops with Media Direct 1 or 2. I was not aware of their particular problems.

Xpilot

 

This thread is one of the most interesting that I've read. It's about the Dell HPA problem and its resolution.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=167401

 

Phew! Very interesting. I am glad that I have no Dell OEM istallations to deal with.

Xpilot

 

You said it. Given all the probs I've read about on diff forums for diff programs and those Dell hidden partitons, I can't imagine Dell as an alternative for a pc purchase. I mean, who needs the extra headaches?

 

Xpilot, fortunately Dell no longer use a HPA for MediaDirect.

shieber,

I don't think you would have any problems with the Dell partitions. I've had Dells for 10 years and can't see why anyone but the inexperienced would have a problem. They are just partitions. Nothing special.