Can I restore a bootable partition image to a single partition?

I have a computer with a single HD with 2 partitions. The OS (XP Pro, SP2) and all application programs are on the C: partition (the boot partition), and data are on the D: partition. I have backed up the C: partition to an external HD using TrueImage 9.0 Home. If the OS or an application develops some problem and I want to restore only the C: partition (the OS and all programs) from an earlier image backup of the C: partition, so the the OS boots and the programs run as usual, can I do this while leaving the D: partition (on the same physical HD) intact? In other words, if I do not check "delete all partitions on the selected drive" in the TrueImage backup process, can I still restore the image at the single partition level so all programs and the OS run, without disturbing the other partition(s) on the same physical HD? Or do I need to install a second physical HD to use this backup procedure?

 

You can backup the desired partition and restore it without doing anything to the other partitions present on the drive.

 

Hi jorge7

I believe what you are planning to do should work, but before trying it 'live' I think you should find a way to test the ability to boot from the restored image. This is what I have been trying to do, see my thread https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=146618 and I hope you are more successful than I have been so far.

I have sent a message to Acronis support, asking them to take a look at my thread, but unfortunately they do seem to take a long time replying to the problems raised on this forum. I will keep an eye on your thread in case you find a solution that will also solve my problem. Good luck.

 

Let's continue this discussion in your thread.

 

Thanks for your encouraging responses. Since no one who has replied so far is saying you have made this exact configuration work, I guess I will try it out on a spare computer to see if (and how well) it actually works. I will let you know what I find. If anyone has actually succeeded in restoring the boot / applications drive to a partition on a larger HD while leaving other partitions undisturbed, I would be interested in hearing about your experience / tips for success / problems heads ups. Thanks.

 

jorge7,

The "delete all partitions on the selected drive" option surprises me. Have you been trying to Clone Disk or invoking Snap Restore or One-click Restore? In a disk/partition restore (from a previously created and stored image) that option does not appear (not to me, at least) and this is the technique you should use to achieve your goal.

Cloning is meant for one-time transfer of the whole disk contents to a new (larger) drive, not for (more or less frequent) restoring to a previous state after an OS crash, an infection or to get rid of all the garbage after a negative software test. Snap Restore and One-click Restore (at least one of theese two) deletes the partitions that are not included in the image (!), so they are lethal for D: if you are on to restoring only C:. Read the User's Guide before using these special functions of TI. Or, better still, just forget about them. My strategy is the same as the one want to set up and I'm quite happy with the image/restore functions only.

 

I did not reply to your initial post because I felt that seekforever had covered it.

I have restored C on a number of occasions without disturbing the other two partitions on my master disk.

 

Hi again jorge7,

It's evident that I didn't refresh the page before posting my previous one, so I missed post #5 of yours.

Restoring the C: partition to the original drive is as simple as doing a partition restore of C: without including (and without disturbing either) the other partitions.

Restoring the C: partition to a new drive has and additional requirement, namely, that the new destination drive have the same number of partitions as the original drive had at the moment the image of C: was taken. That's because the imaged Windows installation holds the information about the other partitions present and it should therefore be restored to an equivalent layout to work well.

You can establish the required conditions two ways:

- either by partitioning the new drive into as many partitions as were present on the old one at the time of creating the image of C: (only their number is important, their size is irrelevant) and then restoring C: (and then possibly also D: and E: from maybe older images), or

- by keeping on storage an old image of the whole disk (created with Disk 1 checked) and first restoring that one (Disk 1 checked on restore too) to establish the proper layout, followed by a second restore of C: only, this one from a fresh image of C:.

 

Thanks, Seekforever, Mark3, and bVolk,
So as I understand what you are telling me, I can restore only the C: (boot) drive to a multipartition single HD with data on the other partitions, and the computer will boot from C: and run all the programs exactly as before, without reinstalling anything and without disturbing any of the data on D:, E: and other partitions on the same HD?
Has anyone done this and seen it work?
Thanks.
jorge7

 

Of course jorge7,

We are doing it all the time. It's standard procedure, no problems at all. As long as you are restoring C: to the original drive and you didn't change the number of partitions after the image you are restoring has been created. After an infection, for instance, or to mop up after testing a program, or if Windows crashed.

 

Thanks, bVolk. We will go ahead and try it out on one machine before we use that setup on the other 10 machines in our office.
jorge7