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XPS 8910, clone OEM NVME M.2 to larger SSD, now has unallocated space?
XPS 8910
Hi all,
Got past the cloning process, but should have read some suggestions here before I jumped in as the drives appear to be running on SCSI RAID? Anyway, the clone didn't work and had to work with Acronis to get it fixed up. It is running ok now but I would like to fix the partitions to move the allocated space to the C: partition.
I replaced a 500GB SSD with 1 TB and the way it cloned, I have 6 partitions, when the Dell OEM had 5, which included the image, etc. In a related post 3 years ago, someone said it was easy to fix the partitions without a specific partition tool. I am being told the partition needs to be adjacent to C: partition in order to expand C: into the unallocated space. Seems like a need a 3rd party partitioning software for this? I have used one several years ago. Am I missing something in Disk Management?
Lastly, to maintain the ability to use the Dell emergency imaging and whatever Dell has on the SSD, does the order of partitions make a difference? It also appears the Clone did not capture all of the name data for the partitions.
Used to be good at this stuff but haven't had to do it in quite a few years.
Thx DD
DD660
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September 1st, 2022 22:00
Thx for the replies. You guys offer a lot of great service. My bad, I followed the wrong approach when using an external USB device in the process. It wasn't the fault of the Acronis software. Ideally, it would have worked the way I did it if I had two internal m.2 slots but the XPS8910 only had the one. I was supposed to remove the existing C:\ NVME and put the new one in place with nothing on it. And put the orig C: NVME in the MVME usb device. They said once booted with the blank on onboard, the post process would have put on it what it needed as far as the SCSI/RAID drivers and the clone could begin. Of course, I would have had to boot the computer with a thumb drive with the minimal Acronis OS/Clone app and have adjusted the bios boot order.
Regarding the unallocated space, I used a partition tool which allowed me graphically to move the unallocated partition next to the C: OS partition and once adjacent to it I could them add the unallocated space to the C: OS partition. So all is good for now.
Vic384
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August 30th, 2022 17:00
@DD660 I believe you can move the unallocated space adjacent to the C partition so that you can expand the C partition using GParted Live. GParted Live can be found here: https://gparted.org/
Before attempting to use GParted you should probably create backup images of your partitions with something like Macrium Reflect Free Edition.
There is another way to accomplish expanding the C partition using Macrium Reflect Free Edition. Use Macrium to image each partition separately. Create Rescue Media using Macrium. Delete all the partitions on the SSD. Boot the Rescue Media. Restore each partition in order, and when you get to the OS partition, restore and expand that partition. Restore the remaining partitions.
You probably do not need or want to use the Dell emergency image partition. I believe that is the OEM partition to restore the original factory shipped configuration. Given the age of your computer, your OS has been upgraded many times since then, and restoring the factory image would mean having to reinstall all your applications and restoring your data. Instead of restoring the factory image you probably should install the latest version of Windows if Windows repair does not work.
Tesla1856
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August 30th, 2022 17:00
1. Many Dells come with drives set to RAID (instead of AHCI). When using Windows on system set that way, you have to use Intel-RST (or similar Intel VMD software) inside Windows.
2a. I stopped using Acronis years ago. Nothing should need to be "fixed up". Macrium Reflect is better.
2b. You can't . You would have to delete all those partitions after it, before you can get next to the C partition to re-size it.
3. After all is working (and you create one) your Macrium-Reflect (or Acronis) Image File is your backup. You don't need Dell Restore (or all those weird existing partitions).
4. Who knows (it's Acronis after all). Is this Windows-10 ? Anyway, all those Emergency Partitions are likely "unlinked" and un-usable by now.
Clones are weird (or don't you watch Sci-Fi)? Cloning (or re-Imaging) is more of a backup-tool (and back to same hardware). Using it for "easy migrations" to different hardware is usually glitchy and often doesn't turn-out well. These are the days of UEFI, AHCI, and SecureBoot.
I prefer AHCI-mode and NO Intel VMD, which requires a clean-install. If you want to know how to that, I can give you some tips.
Tesla1856
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August 30th, 2022 18:00
1. Exactly.
2. Correct. Or, just restore your most recent Macrium Reflect Image.