Shrink system volume on XP: Can't clone drive?

[samjones4]

I have a 400 GB NTFS system partition, with only 180GB used. I need to clone this to a SSD. When I used backup exec system recovery 2011 and selected to Clone Drive, it refused to clone to a smaller HD.

I have used backup exec restore anywhere successfully, but never to downsize an HD. Is it possible the restore anywhere will do it even when the built in clone HD refuses?

Suggestions?

Thanks!

[Andreas_Horlach]

I recommend creating a backup of the XP machine and restoring it to the smaller drive as opposed to using the clone feature. When you restore the image to the smaller drive, you can choose to delete the existing partition(s) on that drive if they exist, and if the resize is possible, the option to resize smaller will be available.

[criley]

I assume you are talking about the 'Copy My Hard Drive' option?

One thing to consider is the following (taken from the admin guide):

You can copy a larger hard drive to a smaller hard drive. The data on the drive that is copied must be at least 1/16th smaller in size than the total size of the new drive.

[samjones4]

1/16 smaller.... ouch! For a 240 gb target drive, that means I can only have 15gb of source data!  (IOW, 1/16 means it is basically not possible to use copy drive at all to downsize...)

[samjones4]

Andy,

Thanks! 

Can I be confident that as long as the data will fit, that this should work?

(The system is in use all day, so I only get very few oppties to work on it... I am trying to work it out before I spend all my access time exploring...)

Thanks!

[criley]

I think you have read that wrong.

If your target drive is 240GB, the data on your source drive cannot exceed 225GB (15/16 of 240GB).