Cloning flash drive while preserving empty space

Question

I'm working with an industrial PC running Windows XP embedded. The PC has a 2GB compact flash memory which acts as main drive. I would like to clone the 2GB flash memory to a card with 8GB space. How is it possible to do this while preserving the empty space on the 8GB card? So far I only managed to clone the 2GB memory but at the cost of reducing the actual free space on the 8GB card. In fact, when cloning, 6GB end up in unallocated space. Is there a way to avoid it? The drive has a standard NTFS file system

Answer 1

You cannot simply do a block-for-block clone of a 2GB drive to an 8GB drive - doing so will also clone the partition table and prevent you from accessing the "extra" space.

You need to use a tool that is filesystem aware (like Ghost), or you can extend the partitions on the larger drive. This answer over on Super User covers similar ground (they're talking about going from a big drive to a small one, which requires shrinking partitions. Going to a small drive to a big one requires growing them instead).