Linux software, steps to migrate Windows from big drive to small drive?

[postcd]

Hello, i have mentioned some ways that failed and one that worked here:
https://hardforum.com/threads/migra...fferent-smaller-drive.2010090/post-1045254513
Now I am in similar situation 500GB HDD Windows 8 to 128GB SSD asking You if you know any method/tutorial on how to do the task using Linux tools without relying on proprietary paid Windows software?

Here https://steampunkworkshop.com/quickest-way-clone-windows-and-windows-server-disk-gparted/ is suggested to dd source drive to destination drive for a minute (to copy boot record..) and then delete partitions in gparted and copy them manually (but how).

Someone said to shrink source drive partition and then clone (somehow), i would prefer not to touch source drive setup (not to break anything), but if you are sure it will not break any data i may try it, but what to do next?

Is there any tutorial or a commands you would suggest?

 

[Algrim]

If the data you’re trying to clone onto the smaller drive is larger than your smaller drive there’s nothing simple you can do to accomplish this. If the data is less than 128 GB dd should do the trick. There’s a very interesting thread on this here:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/435694/can-i-dd-a-larger-drive-to-a-smaller-one

When I used dd to clone a drive I used Kali Linux, not Ubuntu as shown in this thread. Either work as you’ll need to ensure that neither of your drives are being used as a live file system while all of this happens.

The note about shrinking your partition is because you can’t guarantee that all of the data you need to copy is stored at the beginning of the disk. If you have data scattered around the disk, even if less than 128 GB, you run the risk of that data not being copied over. All dd does is copy a disk block from one disk to another and if the disk blocks you are trying to copy are beyond 128 GB on your source disk, dd will happily and without warning discard the data beyond your destination drive.

If you want to do this non-destructively to the source drive and if you happen to have a spare 500 GB or larger hard drive around, dd the source to the spare disk, remove the original 500 GB drive from the system, gparted the new source drive so that all the data is on a 128 GB partition and then copy new source disk to destination SSD.

Also, it occurs to me a long time ago that Windows supported a disk optimizer. You could run this optimizer which theoretically ensure all the data is at the front of the drive and then dd source to destination.

I hope any of this helps you.

 

[Vermillion]

Hello, i have mentioned some ways that failed and one that worked here:
https://hardforum.com/threads/migra...fferent-smaller-drive.2010090/post-1045254513
Now I am in similar situation 500GB HDD Windows 8 to 128GB SSD asking You if you know any method/tutorial on how to do the task using Linux tools without relying on proprietary paid Windows software?

Here https://steampunkworkshop.com/quickest-way-clone-windows-and-windows-server-disk-gparted/ is suggested to dd source drive to destination drive for a minute (to copy boot record..) and then delete partitions in gparted and copy them manually (but how).

Someone said to shrink source drive partition and then clone (somehow), i would prefer not to touch source drive setup (not to break anything), but if you are sure it will not break any data i may try it, but what to do next?

Is there any tutorial or a commands you would suggest?

Why do you have to use Linux? Last I checked the built-in Windows disk management tool can resize a disk for you...

 

[teletechtodd]

I've always used mini tool partition manager for this but latest versions don't do it. You'll need to find and v10? copy but once you install it's easy!
Graphical interface shows the drive partitions which you can resize or physically move on the disk. Just shrink your partitions down to the needed size, reboot and use the same software to clone to the new drive, then expand the main partition again

 

[Executioner]

I've always resized partitions using Macrium Reflect using their "clone" option. You did not mention how much space you are currently using on your 500GB drive.

 

[xx0xx]

I second the Macrium Reflect option. Unless things have changed, the free version provided adequate functionality to clone things and is more flexible with differing drive sizes/etc than something like clonezilla