How To Clone A Large SSD To A Smaller SSD?

My current bootable Drive is a Samsung 256 Gb SSD Drive and I also have an older OCZ 60 Gb SSD Drive. Both are hooked up inside the same computer and are bootable. The Samsung is the C:\ drive and the OCZ shows up as the G:\ drive.

This is on Windows 7 64-bit. I upgraded the OCZ to the Samsung via a clone amount a year ago to increase the capacity. The Samsung 256 Gb SSD is showing only showing 54.4 Gb used, and the OCZ shows a capacity of 55.7 Gb.

So I should have just enough room on the smaller OCZ to clone the Samsung to it as a backup. How would I go about doing this and is there any freeware to do it?

Thanks.

 

You could easily use a standard mechanical HDD for backup images. Also, you can use the old drive for installed programs or games by changing their destination during install.

Frankly, it's kind of a waste of an SSD...

 

I happen to also have a 1 TB HDD on the same computer with enough room for a backup. But what I really wanna do is make a snapshot of the Sammsung on the OCZ and have the OCZ instantly ready to take over if the Sammy ever failed.

 

The possibility of it failing is there, but unlikely for quite some time. My current OCZ Vertex has 624 days of power on time and it's still in "perfect" condition according to HD Sentinel.

If you want to you could just refresh a cloned image every so often to the SSD, but I would not keep both identical copies of an operating system attached to the same machine at the same time because the UUID is not the same and you could possibly get your license key blacklisted.

Programs like Acronis will re-size the partitions for you, but not having enough free space will shorten the life of the drive.

 

Well, I can see where my knowledge is lacking here. What is UUID and what does blacklisting a license key mean? I figured since the Samsung is only using 54.4 Gb, then that would fit on the OCZ. I don't actually use the OCZ day-to-day, so I figured I could use it as a bootable backup. If the Samsung ever crashed, then I could just go into the BIOS, set the OCZ as the first bootable drive, re-boot, and then I'd be back in business, no?

 

You will need a Win 7 install disk (same version as OS) and your key.

The way I would approach it is:
1. Create a System Image of Win7 and save on the 1TB HDD,
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/4241/how-to-create-a-system-image-in-windows-7/
2. Restore that system image using the install disc Recovery Console - System Image Recovery function
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/start-the-windows-7-recovery-environment/

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/system-image-recovery-in-windows-7-8/

You will have to make sure you are choosing the different SSD (60GB unit) when using the System Image Recovery function. Sometimes you can have issues with HDD Prioritising when both have OS installed and it will prompt for the boot drive each time.

I agree with "the mekanic" and would just store a system image on the 1TB HDD as the process I have highlighted will find that image on the HDD and restore it to the SSD (60GB - if it deems that is enough space!!) if the 256GB SSD fails - that is it will find it on a storage HDD even if the OS becomes corrupted.

 

Thanks for the replies.

So basically, it's better to make an image file instead of a bootable replica of the Samsung SSD? Will this mean I'll have a 54.4 Gb file that would just sit there saved on the HDD until (if) I need it? And this would be a file type ending in ".iso"?

I currently have both SSDs bootable with the same Windows 7, but the OCZ is old from back when I upgraded to the Samsung. The OCZ is basically an old snapshot from about a year ago. Will having the same Windows 7 on 2 different SSDs cause me some problem down the road as far as that blacklisting thing is concerned (which, I don't even understand what that means)?

 

I have a SSD (OS) and a HDD (DATA) - every 2-3months I take a "snapshot" System Image of my system and store it on the HDD.

Each time it "overwrites" the previous image and I have my latest copy in a folder named by windows called WindowsImageBackup which is not an .iso but contains the backup image file (numerous files for the OS structure) - more like an unpacked ISO. If the SSD ever fails I can replace that unit and then follow the System Image Recovery process and restore my system.

IMHO this is the best way to go.

P.s. I was previously on HDD only but wanted to install a SSD and use that for the OS and critical programs which I was able to do using the above process.