I’m trying to clone a 1TB windows system HD to a 512MB SSD. I’m running Balena Etcher v 1.7.9 64 bit on Ubuntu 20.04. I’ve reduced the size of the working partition on the 1TB drive so both partitions are only 426MB, much smaller than the 512MB SSD will hold. The remainder of the 1TB HD is unformatted. So there are two partitions left. They boot and run fine in their reduced size, which is small enough to fit on the 512MB disk.
Balena Etcher gives me an error message that the SSD is too small and refuses to do the very doable job. I’ve already copied both partitions to the SSD with GParted, which won’t boot, but both partitions fit with room left over. Why does Balena Etcher not know this is a doable job and just clone it properly? I think that needs to be fixed.
I also think a good idea would to if cloning a large drive to a smaller one, and if the partitions have enough unused space, for Balena Etcher to notify, then offer to reduce the size of the partition(s?) so they would work, keeping in mind that the Windows or Linux primary partition can’t have its beginning moved on the drive or additional steps will have to be taken to render it bootable again.