New BootIT Bare Metal Version out...

"Version 1.02b made available on June 14, 2011"

Haven't got the change log yet, but wanted to get the word out.

 

BootIt Bare Metal 1.02b Changes:

 

There seems to be a bug in this. Under Partition Work->Actions, the "Create" and "Format" options are greyed out for HPFS/NTFS partitions. I can format a partition to a different fs such as FAT32, but not to NTFS. Dos anyone else see this?

 

wat0114,

No bug. It has always been like this. There are various flavours of NTFS and it is best to let the OS do NTFS formatting (from Disk Management). BootIt just sets the partition up but omits the final format.

You might say that PM and Acronis DD can format a NTFS partition. Well try installing Win7 into an Acronis DD created NTFS partition and see what happens. Win7 won't install.

 

Thanks for setting the record straight on this Brian. It just seems odd to omit the option to format what must be the most commonly used file system out there, so it's a bit inconvenient to do so afterwards with Windows or a boot disk such as GParted or Partition Wizard. IFW and BootIt BM does seem to be, from what I've seen so far, a nice partitioning and backup/recovery product.

 

No, you shouldn't use them either. Only format NTFS from the OS. If you have created a NTFS partition with GParted etc, format the partition again in Disk Management.

I know I'm biased towards BootIt but I've created partitions with GParted and Partition Wizard and the partition alignment hasn't been what it should be.

 

So that's why I've often seen inexplicable instances of free space between partitions I've created with those products?? Brian, I think you've answered this mystery for me! So you are saying, basically, use BootIt BM to create the partitions (because it does it reliably) and Windows to format? I bought the package deal of IFW and BootIt BM because I've seen positive endorsements on it from reputable Wilders folks such as you

 

Exactly.

I've bought two Bundles as I have 6 computers. Great value for money. My interest at present is doing auto image/restores with BM and scripting. On my test computer I'd probably do 10 restores/day. The entire drive restores (up to 8 partitions in each restore) take 1 to 4 minutes (XP is 1 minute, Ubuntu and Win7 are 4 minutes) but only 10 seconds of my personal time.

I just type

runtbs xp.tbs

and an 8 partition restore happens.

 

Those are impressive times. I had a brief look at the scripting feature but maybe some other time when I'm a little more ambitious and not quite as intimidated by it

Thanks for your help on the partition queries.

 

It is just the basic OS. Only 1 or 2 apps are installed.

I think you are on the right track by avoiding automation until you are on top of the manual procedures.

 

I agree. Somehow I messed up the Linux partitions last night trying an image backup and re-install. I ended up up with a too small partition for the /home image so it won't restore Oh well...live and learn, I guess. It's not such a big deal, though, because Linux is only an occasional, sideline venture for me

 

wat0114,

I'm not sure I understand. Do you want some help in resizing your partitions so that it will work or have you sorted it out?

 

Thank you for your offer of help Brain, but I've already increased the Windows partition size, and created a slightly smaller extended partition for the Linux /swap, /home and /root individual partitions. I'll re-install openSUSE on these partitions.

 

Nice.

I found this in the Knowledge Base. It only applies if you have BootIt installed on the HD.

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=282

 

Thanks again! I don't have BootIt installed on the hd, so I'll just start anew, focusing on the new extended partition for the openSUSE install, then try again on backing it up. taking a different approach.

 

wat0114,

I don't know your setup but it sounds like a test computer. The easy way to backup is to create an Entire Drive image. Restoring the image restores all the partitions at the same time. Of course if you have partitions that you don't want backed up they can be excluded from the image. Create a Single File image and restore the Single File image.

 

It's a production, home computer, but when I created the Linux images, I did so by selecting all three partitions, then selected multiple images, or whatever that option is called (can't remember), then when I restored them, I first restored the swap, then the root, both successfully, then the /home, the latter of which couldn't complete because the error message alluded to something about could not shrink the partition, then I tried Clonezilla, and it alerted to the target being too small, so this is why I concluded the remaining space was a bit too small (only tens of bytes) for the home to restore to. In between all this, I messed around trying to fix things with GParted, so maybe it compounded the problem by introducing slivers of unformatted partitions in-between the legitimate ones.

Hope this makes some sense.