copy partition problem

I'm using DD 10 build 2160 under Vista.

I'm trying to create a copy of the Vista partition onto a USB-connected HDD.

Vista occupies 15GB in a 112GB partition on my laptop. For the copy operation, I selected as a target an unallocated space on the HDD which is 143GB wide. The position of this unallocated space is roughly 90GB beyond occupied disk space.

The selection is accepted by DD but the NEXT box remains grayed out.

 

What do you mean by "90GB beyond occupied space"?

Is the USB partitioned like this?
[partition ?? GB][90GB unallocated][Copy Vista partition here]
or is it like this
[partition ?? GB][Copy Vista partition here]

Have you tried creating a partition on the USB drive and copying to that instead of using unallocated space?

Are you doing the copy while in Vista or are you booting from the rescue cd?

 

USB disk is structured as follows
[several partitions occupying a total of 90 GB][Unallocated space of 143 GB]. I want to make a copy of the Vista partition in the unallocated space.

I did not try yet to copy to an empty partition as I have always proceeded successfully this way with DD. By the way, it's only the Vista partition which is giving me trouble. The process works with any other of my laptop partitions.

The hang-up occurs while working under Vista or when using the bootable Acronis Loader CD.

 

How many other partitions are on the USB hard drive and what type (primary or logical)?

What format are the other partitions that copy correctly on the laptop drive?

Perhaps you're running into a primary partition problem. You can only have four primary partitions on a drive or three (or less) primary and multiple logicals.

I tried this on my Vista computer and it always proceeds. If there was any problem with primary/logical partitions then I get an error message.

Does DD ask what partition you want to take space from?
It always asks me unless the entire drive is unallocated.

 

The DD copy operation requires that the target be unallocated space. It doesn't work if you try to copy onto an empty partition. I could do a simple Windows Explorer copy but then, I wouldn't pick up the boot record and would stall with the active files.

On the USB drive there are 3 primary and 3 logical NTFS partitions pertaining to other systems I backed up. That's probably why it won't copy. I had in mind that I could go up to 4 primary and you say that the max is 3 when there are also logical partitions alongside. I'll try using a blank USB disk.

I get no error message. DD accepts my selection of the unallocated space and nothing happens, the NEXT button remains grayed.

 

It does not appear to be a DD problem after all.

It's more related to Vista as the partition is locked. I tried to resize it with DD and no DD window with the ribbon representing the partition occupied space popped up. I tried to split it and I obtained an error message telling me the Vista partition's size could not be changed.

I'll have to investigate on how to unlock that partition.

 

Have you tried to copy the Vista partition while booted from the DD rescue cd?

 

I used Acronis Loader. Problem is identical.

I managed to shrink the partition down to 66GB, no more, using Vista Disk Management. Vista occupies about 17GB.

When I try to use Acronis at this stage and select the Vista partition, there is a white cross against a red-filled circle which appears just above the partition letter C:

 

DD ususally does that when it doesn't completely recognize the partition or it thinks something is wrong with it. Was the red circle there before or only after your resized the partition?

Have you run chkdsk /r on the partition to check for any errors?

Are there any bad sectors in the partition?