Windows 10: Restoring Windows 10 system image to an insignificantly smaller drive

I am fuming, so please excuse any inaccuracies or ranting language.I am attempting a basic system image restore on my Windows 10 Pro system, after my 2TB system drive stopped booting recently. I thought this would be a simple matter, since I have a system image backup from only a few days ago, and I have installed another 2TB drive in its place. Obviously this isn’t the case, since I wouldn’t be here if Windows didn’t decide to reject everything. Apparently, 2TB means slightly different things depending on the dumba$$ manufacturer's feelings one day, and it appears my original drive is 2048 GB

:)

 

how to restore a windows 10 system image to a smaller SSD

I need to restore a windows 10 system image to a smaller 512Gb SSD Drive.

Was previously running windows 10 on a Lenova notebook with a 750Gb HD partitioned in active ~250Gb C: with OP system, all programs and data. (Less than 200GB is being used.) The ~500Gb D: partition was used only to store ~25GB of obsolete data.

After my April 2018 update, I burned a ISO CD, then I also created a system repair disk and system image BU on a 1Tb External HD.(The external 1tb drive is not set as a bootable disk.

A week later, my HD failed completely. I installed a new 512Gb SSD.

Problem: A MS error says that I cannot restore the system image to a smaller drive.

Question: (1) How to restore the system image on the smaller drive; (2) is there 3rd party S/W that will enable me to reduce the size of the system image or restore it to the smaller drive.

You assistance will be sincerely appreciated.

Best regards,

David B.

L: *** Email address is removed for privacy ***

 

restore system image from command prompt, drive d: not seen by system restore

Hi,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.



To be able to help you with the appropriate troubleshooting steps, please reply with the following details:

• Are you trying to restore the system image or create a system image?
  
• Are you able to see the external drive in File Explorer?
  
• Could you please briefly explain the procedure that you are following to initiate a system image restore?
  

In the meantime, I suggest you to refer the articles on
How to: Create a system image in Windows 10 and

How to restore a Windows 10 system image to an existing or larger storage device created by Andre Da Costa.



Please reply with the detailed information, to help you in a better way.



Regards,

Nikhar Khare

Microsoft Community - Moderator

 

Restore system image to a smaller HDD

Most third-party image applications can restore to a smaller hard drive.