6 replies to this topic

[Jeremy in SC]

I recently moved to  a Dell Inspiron 13-7359 with 250gb SSD, running Windows 10 fully up to date.  I have created a partition (MiniTool Partition Wizard) on which I place all my data to make it easier to find, backup, and transition to new computer. 

 

PROBLEM: The partition I created is the 5th partition and it is a Primary drive.  Macrium Reflect Free will not let me clone my SSD saying it has too many Primary drives.  Neither MiniTool Partition Wizard nor AOMEI Partition tool will give me the option to change to a Logical drive.  I think this has something to do with the fact that it is a GPT not MBR drive and the partition tools don't see the problem with having more than 4 primaries.  Macrium does see a problem. 

 

How do I change it to a Logical drive?  Is there another program that will let me clone the SSD?

 

Thanks!

[paws]

5 partitions on a 250Gig drive seems rather a lot.... is there a reason for that or did I misunderstand the situation?

Regards

paws

[Jeremy in SC]

 

The SSD already had 4 partitions when I created D:.  I like keeping all my data on a separate partition.  This makes it easier to find data, back it up, and migrate it to a new computer when the time comes.  If I have to, I guess I'll create a folder for data on the C: drive. 

 

Jeremy

[paws]

Ok,
understood...

 

Have you considered taking an image of the partitions you need rather than attempting a clone? as this may do the trick for you and will enable a good recovery in the event of dire trouble, and without any hassle.
 
As an alternative the free version of Driveclone9 may do what you want

Oops, I see its up to version 11 now!

http://www.farstone....drive-clone.php

Regards

paws

[terry1966]

what version of macrium reflect free are you using? i know older versions wouldn't clone a gpt drive but you shouldn't have a problem with newer versions.

 

you can't change a gpt primary partition to a logical partition. not even sure you can have a logical partition using the gpt partition table (probably can but brains not working to good at moment.),

but if it was mbr you were using, first you'd create an extended partition with one of the 4 available primary partition spaces (so if you already had 4 primary partitions, you'd have to delete one) and format that as an extended partition, then once you did that you'd then be able to create logical partitions on the extended partition.

 

better explanation of partitions :- https://www.partitio...nvertpartition/

 

Edited by terry1966, 26 January 2017 - 11:34 AM.

[Jeremy in SC]

Paws,

 

I have imaged the drive.  Since I have space on my external hard drive, I thought I'd do a clone.  This would give me access to the data as well as preserving it.

 

Terry,

 

Macrium Free Edition, 64 bit    Software 6.3, Build 1665.  Says no updates available. 

 

 

I have since encountered another problem which may actually lead to a solution.  In addition to backing up to external  HDDs (2, kept in separate locations) I have in the last few days been looking at cloud storage with Microsoft's OneDrive.  I was in hopes that the local OneDrive folder would merely be a placeholder location with a list of other folders/files to sync with the cloud.  Alas, that is not the case.  If I want to have my data syncing to the OneDrive cloud, I will need to put it in the local OneDrive folder, or have it duplicated there.  So, it looks as if I will be merging partitions and locating my data in the local OneDrive folder.  What I hate about that is burying the data three additional levels.  I currently have it this way:

 

D:MY DATA.

 

Now it will be:

 

C:>Users>Name>OneDrive>MY DATA.

 

Now I guess I'm off to move my data, merge the partitions, reset my backups since the primary location has changed, and then backup and sync.  I think I better hook up an Ethernet cable when I cloud sync.  Wifi could take a while. 

 

Thanks for the suggestions!  If you have any further thought, please share. 

 

Jeremy

[terry1966]

 

Since I have space on my external hard drive, I thought I'd do a clone. This would give me access to the data as well as preserving it.

think the reason you were having problems cloning it is because you were doing something wrong or trying to do something that just isn't possible.

macrium free v6 supports gpt drives, so can clone a gpt drive to a new drive, but it sounds like you wanted to clone a whole drive into a partition or empty space on your data drive, not sure this can be done. at least i've never tried it.

 

i'd only clone a drive when i was migrating everything to a new drive, usually from a hd to a ssd or from a ssd to a larger or faster ssd to do a straight swap of the drives, then formatting the old drive and using it for other purposes like data or backups.

 

in my opinion your images are the best way to do backups, besides taking less space they can also be used to put everything back in case of drive failure to a new drive. you should also be able to read the data from the images like you want.

 

macrium free features compared to paid versions. :- http://www.macrium.c...eflectfree.aspx

 

cloning vs imaging :-

http://www.pcworld.c...vs-imaging.html

http://knowledgebase...ing and cloning

 

browsing the backup image :- http://kb.macrium.co...ticle50080.aspx

 

don't backup to the cloud myself, but you should be able to move the one drive folder to your data partition if you desire so it's located at D:OneDrive>MY DATA. or D:MY DATA>OneDrive :- http://www.howtogeek...-in-windows-10/

 

 

just to add, depending on your upload speed to your isp,and the quality of your wifi connection then using ethernet instead of wifi might not make any difference to the time needed to backup to the cloud.

 

for example my download speed is 16Mbs but my upload speed is only 1Mbs from my isp.

now my ethernet is a 100 Mbs connection and my wifi is 54 Mbs connection (or more depending on signal strength, 802.11n) so as you can see both can transfer data faster than the upload and download speeds of my isp connection which means there is no noticeable difference in time taken to upload or download files whichever one i use, ethernet or wifi.

 

links explaining wifi speeds :-

https://www.lifewire...-network-816543

https://www.cnet.com...t-is-heres-why/

 

just as an example at an upload speed of 1Mbs it would take somewhere in the region of 46 hours or nearly 2 days to upload 20GB of data to the cloud.

taken from this table :- https://www.zen.co.u...transfer-times/

Edited by terry1966, 27 January 2017 - 09:55 AM.