Cloning to bigger HD

[ClarkF1]

Hi,

I'm thinking of getting a bigger HD and upgrading from my Kingston SSD.NOW to a Samsung EVO.

I was looking in Disk Management and saw this usual setup. If I cloned the disk to a bigger HD the curious 465MB would prevent me extending the C partition to the full size of the HD wouldn't it?

This is a PCS build.

 

[ubuysa]

What's in that 465MB partition? Is that a factory recovery partition by any chance? If it is, and you move it to different (logical) tracks/sectors on the new drive it's possible you might not be able to boot it.

If it were mine I'd make bootable install media (DVD or USB stick) from that factory recovery partition so you can do a factory reset without the factory recovery partition. Then I'd simply delete that partition and extend the C: partition to the size of the new drive.

Of course, it might not be a factory recovery partition, in which case you need to find out what's in there and whether you can move it. If it can be moved get the cloning software to place it at the end of the new drive and extend the C: partition to fill the gap. If you don't need what's in there then delete the partition.

TBH, if you're getting a new SSD I would advise a clean install of Windows onto the new SSD rather than trying to clone the existing one. A clean install will give you the most reliable, stable and compact system, whilst cloning the existing system will preserve all the garbage, orphan files and dross you've accumulated over the years.

 

[ClarkF1]

I have no idea. I can't even assign it a drive letter or do anything to it. In disk management the only option I get when I right click on it is "Help". Just under 400MB of it is in use.
I was wondering if it was something to do with the testing they do before they send it out.

It's amazing how much junk has been accumulated over the last year. Now that 1809 is finally out I'll do a new install.

I'm assuming the recovery partition is called Recovery.

I was checking out Macrium Reflect and you can choose which partitions to copy over so I could clone the first three (so I retain the recovery partition), expand the partition and then re-install Win 10. Sound good?

 

[ubuysa]

If this is a PCS built PC then it won't be a factory recovery partition because PCS don't use them. The 'Recovery' partition you can see is not a factory recovery partition, it's used by the Windows 'Reset' option to reinstall Windows without affecting your existing programs and data and that's not the same thing at all.

I have heard of some upgrades from Windows 7 and 8.1 that create a second Recovery partition if there wasn't enough disk space during the upgrade to extend the existing one. Perhaps this is what happened in the past and you now have an orphan partition? If this 450MB partition is an orphan Recovery partition (and my guess is that it is) you can safely delete it.

Macrium Reflect is an ideal tool to clone the exiting drive and you could indeed not select that partition. A clean install is by far the best way to go however, that will create the required UEFI/GPT partitions (inc Recovery) and you can then just ignore that orphan 450MB partition.

 

[Tony1044]

Isn't that the recovery partition that Windows 10 1803 adds? The one that was, for some people, erroneously getting a drive letter added?

 

[ubuysa]

Isn't that the recovery partition that Windows 10 1803 adds? The one that was, for some people, erroneously getting a drive letter added?

I believe it is. It seems to be the same issue as when upgrading from 7 or 8.1, if there's not enough space in the existing Recovery partition the upgrader creates a new Recovery partition but doesn't delete the old one. The upgrader then allocates a drive letter to every partition except the UEFI ones it created....

 

[ClarkF1]

Aha...managed to assign a drive letter in diskpart. It has a folder named recovery. Despite various attempts with permissions it says access denied. Last modified date is at the beginning of October which lines up with a failed attempt to install 1809

The other recovery partition matches the build period

 

[ubuysa]

Aha...managed to assign a drive letter in diskpart. It has a folder named recovery. Despite various attempts with permissions it says access denied. Last modified date is at the beginning of October which lines up with a failed attempt to install 1809

The other recovery partition matches the build period

Delete it then. It's pretty clearly an orphan recovery partition.