I was upgrading my computer to a SSD drive that had a smaller capacity than my current one, and I thought it was going to be an easy process. Once I had the new SSD drive in place, I started Macrium Reflect FREE and then got a message stating that there was not enough space on the new disc. Searching the net, I found people suggesting that the Pro version had the capabilities, but I didn’t want to chance the purchase without knowing that this would work. Luckily, I found a way with the free version.

Ok, so here is how I managed to do it. I am not responsible for anything you do. This is just relaying my experience.

I cleared the recycle bin, got rid of all unneeded downloads, cleared all the browser caches, etc., to make the old disc as clear as possible.

I had purchased an external SATA hard drive box a while back. It uses 2 usb slots to power and read the drive.

Windows explorer would not immediately recognize the drive (Win 10, 64bit). I had to go into disk management to get it to show the disc. When I opened disc manager, it recognized that there was a disc that wasn’t initialized attached and it asked me if I wanted to initialize it. I said yes, and it automatically did whatever it needed to do. I then formatted the drive (it was used). The non-quick version of formatting a 240GB drive took hours!

After the format, windows showed the drive and it had two partitions on it.

I opened Macrium Reflect Free and it showed both drives. The original drive was at the top (C:). When I clicked “Clone this disc” (the one underneath the C: drive, not the new drive), I was presented with a box that showed the c: drive contents at the top and a box to choose where to clone it to. I chose the new drive, clicked on each of the partitions, hit delete partition for each one, and then tried. It stated that there was not enough space and nothing was done.

Here’s how I got it to work:

After you choose the new drive that you want to clone it to, and delete those partitions, Drag EACH OF THE PARTITIONS, ONE AT A TIME, to the new drive. But here’s the catch: drag all of the small partitions first, THEN MAKE SURE THE BIG PARTITION IS AT THE END!

As soon as I tried, I got the schedule screen, which meant that it was going to go through.

So, the trick is to put the biggest partition at the end, and make sure you have intelligent copy enabled, make sure the math is right and you don’t have more data than the new hard drive can hold-factor in the hidden partitions!

If the biggest partition is in the middle, Macrium Reflect Free wants to make enough space before adding the next partition.

If you were helped by this, let me know!