Fresh installation of Windows usually takes as much time as a 'clone to image' stored on USB HDD then restore image to 2nd machine via USB HDD.įor example if I have 10 Dell PC of same model and 10 Dell lappy of same model, I will do fresh install of 1 Dell PC & 1 Dell lappy then ensure they are not on Domain and using generic host name then clone to image to the other 9x.

If it is to a different make/model, I will always do a fresh installation. Then if you know win 7/10.you should not leave troubleshooting and recovery Windows. If you resize the partition using widows or windows applications (like partition resizer etc) you can 'force' the clone software like clonezilla to see the partition as a HDD or clone the partition as an image. You must understand that that there are different ways to resize partition or the HDD. In some cases, I've had to redo the bootsector using bootsect to get a proper boot. I still get failed clones, but not due to BSOD's but rather it seems I just have to run another clone and it usually works the second time around. On the second point, with the advent of Windows8/10 and the 'hardware reconfig' that it does when it detects new hardware, I'm seeing cloning being much more successful (as in no BSOD's). What do you use to safely resize a partition down to the amount of space being used? On point one, is it safe to resize a partition ? It's been a while since I've done it, and I remember there being some risks associated with it.

Macrium reflect cloning to larger drive