How-to Guide: Clonezilla Clone Larger Disk to Smaller Disk

Why use Clonezilla to clone larger disk to smaller disk?

As an open-source free software, Clonezilla can be used to clone or backup hard drive. Since it works with most of the operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux, and Chrome OS) largely used in the company or home, many people are willing to use Clonezilla, especially when they want to upgrade hard drive with a new one.

The Clonezilla disk to disk clone feature can help you clone hard drive to another without reinstalling Windows and programs, but it requires the target drive to be equal to or larger than the original one. However, with the excellent performance and increasingly affordable price of SSDs, many users would choose to clone larger HDD to smaller SSD.

How to make Clonezilla clone to smaller drive possible

Officially, Clonezilla requires the target drive to be equal to or larger than the source drive. So the only way to get Clonezilla copy to a smaller disk is to shrink the original drive to fit the target drive first. Let's learn how to clone larger drive to smaller one using Clonezilla step by step.

AOMEI Backupper

To clone larger drive to smaller drive directly without shrinking disk, try an easier alternative - AOMEI Backupper Professional. It take care of the capacity issues. Learn more >>

Free Download
Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7

Part 1: Shrink the source partition

Step 1. Right click on the Start menu and select Disk Management to open it. If you are running Linux system, you can boot your computer from GParted media.

Step 2. In the Disk Management window, right click the source partition, select Shrink Volume and follow the wizard to shrink the partition.

Part 2: Clonezilla HDD to SSD smaller

Step 1. When you get that done, reboot to Clonezilla. Then, select the source disk and destination disk.

Step 2. Choose EXPERT mode and enable the “-icds” option. You need to also choose the option"Resize partitional table proportionally" in one of the following menus.

Step 3. Configure other Clonezilla options if needed and then type in “y” to confirm and start the clone.

This should allow you to clone larger drive to smaller drive using Clonezilla without receiving errors, like the "Clonezilla destination disk is too small", "Clonezilla failed to create a partition table on this disk", and more.

However, the whole process is quite cumbersome. You may still encounter the Clonezilla failed to clone issue due to bad sectors. Thus, we strongly recommend you use an easier alternative in the next part.

Easier - Clone larger to smaller drive using AOMEI Backupper

Compared to Clonezilla, AOMEI Backupper Professional has a user-friendly GUI interface and can clone hard drive to another one in Windows 11/10/8/7 within a few clicks. It comes with an intelligent clone feature that can clone only used sectors on a hard drive, making it easier to clone larger hard drive to smaller drive.

AOMEI Backupper

Easy Hard Drive and SSD Cloning Software

• 3 cloning options- Disk Clone, System Clone, and Partition Clone.

• Disk types - Clone HDDs/SSDs and MBR/GPT disks.

• Bootable clone - migrate the operating system, system files, drivers, etc., required to start a Windows.

• Disk brands and interface: Clone all brands of hard drives or SSDs with SATA/NVMe, PCIe, AHCI, etc., interface. Cloning Windows 10 to NVMe offers the best performance of any drive.

• Peak performance: Make use of 4k alignment technology to align and optimize the performance of SSDs and maximize their lifespan.

Free Download
Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7

100% Secure

4 steps to clone larger disk to smaller disk

Now, download and install AOMEI Backupper to clone larger HDD to smaller SSD in 4 simple steps:

Step 1. Run AOMEI Backupper after installing. At the main interface, click Clone and then select Disk Clone.

Step 2. Select the source disk, and click Next to continue.

Step 3. Select your new hard drive or SSD as the destination to clone the source drive to. Then, click Next to continue.

Step 4. Check the operation summary and click Start Clone. Opt for the SSD Alignment feature if you are cloning hard drive to SSD to boost the performance.

In a short while, AOMEI Backupper will complete the cloning process. Therefore, you do not have to do such tricks to make Clonezilla clone disk to smaller disk if you try AOMEI Backupper.

Recommended feature

Clone Hard Drives or SSDs on Any Computer

AOMEI Backupper has a "Create Portable Version" feature that can create a portable version of it on a USB drive. You can then connect it to any computer to clone the disk. Learn More >>

Boot from the cloned drive

To boot your computer from the cloned disk, you can unplug the old hard drive, install the new drive there and then start your computer.

You can also keep the old disk installed, restart your computer, and continuously press a specific key (usually F2, F8, F12, Del) to enter BIOS Setup. Then, go to the Boot tab to set the cloned disk as a first boot device. At last, save changes and exit the BIOS.

Conclusion

To let Clonezilla clone to smaller disk, you need to shrink the source partition to fit the destination partition. Or you can just try AOMEI Backupper to achieve the goal easily. It supports all kinds of disk clones, for example, clone large HDD to smaller SSD, clone NVMe SSD, etc.

You can also create a bootable disk to boot your computer when a disaster happens. If you want to protect unlimited computers within your company, you can pick AOMEI Backupper Technician or TechPlus edition. With the inbuilt AOMEI Image Deploy tool, you are also allowed to deploy/restore system image to multiple computers over network. Go for AOMEI Backupper right now!

Clonezilla clone HDD to smaller SSD FAQs