Can Clonezilla Clone to a Smaller Drive? Check Quick Answer

I want to clone the root partition from one hard disk and restore the image to another. The source partition is 117 gigabytes, but contains only 12 gigabytes of data, and the target drive is 60 gigabytes. Can I use Clonezilla to clone a large partition to a small one?

You can use Clonezilla to clone a smaller drive to a larger drive. But doing this requires you to shrink the source disk in advance. That is because Clonezilla documentation states that the target partition must be the same or larger than that of the source partition.

Look at how to Clonezilla to smaller disk:

Step 1. Shrink the source partition or disk.

• Press the "Windows + R" keys together to open the Run dialogue. In the box, enter "diskmgmt.msc" and click "OK" to open Disk Management (DM).
• On the DM interface, right-click the source partition you want to shrink, select "Shrink Volume…", and follow the on-screen instructions to finish the steps.

Step 2. Create a Clonezilla bootable USB.

• Go to the Clonezilla download page: https://clonezilla.org/downloads/download.php?branch=stable. Select the "CPU architecture" and "file type" (you can choose AMD64 or ISO), and click "Download".
• Prepare a USB and connect it to your computer to make a bootable USB drive.

Step 3. Use Clonezilla clone a smaller drive.

• Connect the cloned Clonezilla USB drive to your computer and boot your PC.
• This will lead your PC to the BIOS interface. Change the boot order to the Clonezilla USB drive.
• In the following interface, select "Other modes of Clonezilla live" and "To RAM" to release the boot partition.
• Choose a language and keyboard. Select "Start Clonezilla".
• Select "device-device work directly from a disk or partition to a disk or partition", "Expert mode: Choose your own options", and "disk_to_local_disk local_disk_to_local_disk_clone" one by one.
• Choose the source disk and destination disk.
• Activate the "-icds" option and press the "Enter" key to skip checking the target disk size before creating the partition table.
• Choose "Create partition table proportionally".
• Enter Y to start cloning.

However, some users may report that Clonezilla is not working or has failed to clone bad sectors. You can use one Clonezilla alternative, the best disk cloning software: EaseUS Disk Copy.

You can clone a smaller drive to a larger drive without shrinking and creating a bootable Clonezilla USB drive.

Let's see how to clone smaller drive to larger drive in easy steps:

Step 1. Download, install, and launch this disk cloning software on your computer.

Step 2. Go to "Disk Mode" and select the source and target drive.

Step 3. Check the disk layout of the two drives. Choose one way among "Autofit the disk", "Copy as the source", or "Edit disk layout" to manage your target drive.

Step 4. Click "Proceed" to start cloning.

🔗Related Article: How to Clone Hard Drive to SSD with Clonezilla & Alternative