A little issue with partition after cloning old SSD into New one | Linus Tech Tips | Page 1

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 5:34 PM

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As you can see on the image i cloned my old SSD (that was 118gb) into my new SSD (1Tb) and i would like to merge the unallocated 812gb into the other 118gb but i cant do it cause they are not adjacent.

unkempt harbor Jul 5, 2023, 5:36 PM

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i think it would be easiest to make it as a 2nd partition

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you can murge them i believe

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 5:36 PM

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wdym exactly make it as a 2nd partition, u mean create the volume ?

unkempt harbor Jul 5, 2023, 5:37 PM

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yes you can do it seperately

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or if you right click the 118gb partition there may be an option to increase the size

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 5:37 PM

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i have the extend option yes

unkempt harbor Jul 5, 2023, 5:37 PM

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can you do that

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 5:37 PM

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but here is the prompt when i try to do that

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unkempt harbor Jul 5, 2023, 5:37 PM

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yes it did that for me

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 5:38 PM

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am not sure i should press ok

unkempt harbor Jul 5, 2023, 5:38 PM

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me either

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you can always just have it as a second partition

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 5:38 PM

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oh

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it will show up as a different drive on file explorer ?

unkempt harbor Jul 5, 2023, 5:39 PM

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yes

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 5:39 PM

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oh interesting

unkempt harbor Jul 5, 2023, 5:39 PM

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this is one of the reasons cloning is not recommended

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 5:39 PM

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it wont suffer from any performance/stability issue ?

unkempt harbor Jul 5, 2023, 5:39 PM

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not that i know of

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 5:39 PM

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unkempt harbor this is one of the reasons cloning is not recommended

how so ?

unkempt harbor Jul 5, 2023, 5:39 PM

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its just not the best idea usually

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it can cause problems with some situations

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 5:40 PM

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it took me less than 20mn, its better than having to reinstall everything with a clean install and reinstall all programs/drivers

unkempt harbor Jul 5, 2023, 5:40 PM

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yea

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 5:41 PM

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so its fine to use it as a seperate partition and just leave the other one with 118gb as the system partition i guess

unkempt harbor Jul 5, 2023, 5:41 PM

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you will just have to select to install onto that seperate partition if you want something on there

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like on an install it defaults to c:\ you will just have to put the new letter of the partition

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 5:42 PM

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great !!!

unkempt harbor Jul 5, 2023, 5:42 PM

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like for software / games

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 5:42 PM

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that works too, that way i dont have to mix the system partition with the other one, its actually a much better idea !

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Thx 😉

unkempt harbor Jul 5, 2023, 5:42 PM

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should work fine without any problems

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 5:43 PM

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nice ! thanks for the help ! now i can safely format the old SSD i cloned from

unkempt harbor Jul 5, 2023, 5:43 PM

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just make sure u have all ur data

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 5:43 PM

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oh yeah right

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how can i compare two drives after cloning them if they have the exact same files ?

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nevermind i will take care of it

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thx for your time

unkempt harbor Jul 5, 2023, 5:44 PM

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ok

dull torrent Jul 5, 2023, 5:54 PM

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Worth keeping in mind, about separate partitions like this, is that you may end up missing out on usable space if one of the partitions is near-full and you need to install something else on it.

Ex: You've used up 110 of 118 GB of your windows partition, and one of your programs installed on it wants to apply a 10GB update... even though your second partition might have 300GB free, the first partition is full and you can't apply the update.

dull torrent Jul 5, 2023, 5:55 PM

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desert spear

This is just telling you, essentially, that you can't dual-boot from the drive after this. Your existing windows installation will still work fine.

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 6:01 PM

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dull torrent This is just telling you, essentially, that you can't dual-boot from the drive a...

wait u lost me there, what do u mean by dual boot from the drive

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because the partitions are not adjacent i thought it would create some issues

dull torrent Jul 5, 2023, 6:02 PM

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Dual boot meaning install linux or a second windows instance on the same drive (you're not doing that here)

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Ah yeah I just noticed you have a recovery partition between them

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This is one reason why I tell people not to clone drives, especially windows installs

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 6:03 PM

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dull torrent Dual boot meaning install linux or a second windows instance on the same drive (...

oh ! so its safe to actually press ok there in that case? all i wanted is to merge both to have one big 1tb partition

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 6:03 PM

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dull torrent This is one reason why I tell people not to clone drives, especially windows ins...

why ? i dont understand

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whats the recov partition for in that case?

dull torrent Jul 5, 2023, 6:03 PM

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If I were you (and this is more time consuming, so I don't blame you for not wanting to) I'd re-install windows completely fresh, and manually copy over any specific files you want, and just keep the old boot drive as a backup

dull torrent Jul 5, 2023, 6:04 PM

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desert spear why ? i dont understand

The fact you're here in tech-support trying to fix your poorly-partitioned cloned mess, that's why

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 6:05 PM

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haha, i mean it was really smooth for the most part to be fair, i was just a bit confused regarding the merging of both the cloned partition and the unallocated space

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more specifically that prompt

dull torrent Jul 5, 2023, 6:05 PM

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There are a few other reasons too, as it can cause instabilities in the OS. Sometimes it works just fine, sometimes it doesn't

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 6:05 PM

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i see

dull torrent Jul 5, 2023, 6:06 PM

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desert spear more specifically that prompt

The prompt does not apply to you, you can click OK.
But, again, personally I would ditch this all and reinstall windows fresh. You'll have a better time in the long run

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 6:06 PM

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dull torrent The prompt does not apply to you, you can click OK. But, again, personally I wou...

better time in terms of what more specifically, am genuinely curious.

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program/game performance ?

dull torrent Jul 5, 2023, 6:08 PM

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A fresh install means no bloatware/weird settings/background services are copied over. Games may run a bit smoother since you don't have any extra shit running aside from what you install.
Some folks have bootup issues in the long-term as well

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You can use https://ninite.com/ to bulk-install apps to speed up the setup process

Ninite - Install or Update Multiple Apps at Once

The easiest, fastest way to update or install software. Ninite downloads and installs programs automatically in the background.

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 6:09 PM

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oh interesting

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to be fair, i dont really mind doing it, am just worried about all the appdata files/settings and all the different programs compatibility with my other drives

dull torrent Jul 5, 2023, 6:10 PM

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I highly doubt that'll break anything

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 6:11 PM

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the appdata folder is very important for all my programs i dont want to loose all that, am not sure i can simply copypaste it in the fresh system

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and everything just starts working as it was

dull torrent Jul 5, 2023, 6:12 PM

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Did you install programs on drives other than your boot SSD?

dull torrent Jul 5, 2023, 6:13 PM

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desert spear the appdata folder is very important for all my programs i dont want to loose al...

The whole point is that you don't do that, and instead reinstall the programs

desert spear Jul 5, 2023, 6:14 PM

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i would have to reset them up entirely and reinstall all the different modules/extensions ... thats a huge timesink i dont have time to for now, but i will 100% consider it and do it once i encounter any form of unstability with the current setup i have now with the cloned partition.

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@dull torrent but i appreciate the advice, i will keep that in mind and use ninite once i have to.

#A little issue with partition after cloning old SSD into New one