drive snapshot

I made a Image with drive snapshot on a external drive. After that I had to refomat my c: drive not the one with the Image on. Now when I try to view that Image I get "unable to retieve necessary offset infomation" than It gives me the locatetion. Can someone tell me how can I fix It?

 

Drive Snapshot is AFAIK a partition imager, not a HD imager. You may have to recreate the partition structure on the HD you erased, I think there is a command using /mbr, better check the drive snapshot website to have the exact syntax. Their support is excellent too and they will certainly help you.

 

Have you tried to restore your image? Do you have a way to boot into a WinPE environment, such as UBCD4Win?

When imaging a C-drive/partition DS automatically backs up the MBR and Partition Table (although you must 'instruct DS' to restore them). Therefore, your chances are good that you will be able to restore your C-drive just as it was before it was formatted.

 

Merle, that simply isn't correct. DS can image an entire drive as easily (and just as reliably) as an individual partition.

 

Well, not really: I got several times in a situation where the HDD had partitions not recognized by Drive Snapshot and it wouldn't select them as source. Also, you can't select a whole HDD as source.

In such situations, or when partition placement is critical (for instance with special partitions such as Dell MediaDirect), a tool like HDClone is more useful.

 

Yes really Merle. Although I typically just backup my C-partition, on a couple of occaisions I have done a full backup of my entire drive (C & D) at one time.

Obviously if your hard drive consists of but one partition it's a no brainer, but if it's comprised of two partitions (C & D) here is how to image them (in one action) using DS' Windows GUI (the same idea is applicable to 3 or more partitions).

Select Backup Disk to File.
Holding down the control key highlight the C & D partitions.
Select the destination drive and directory.
Give the destination file the name $DISK ($DISK instructs DS that you are doing a multiple partition backup)!
That's it. DS will automatically create images of C & D assigning the appropriate drive letters.

Hth,
JA

 

Thanks for the tip Jo Ann , I never used this so far - but I certainly shall now !

However, I have in mind a situation where I think this will not be the solution.

Last year, I bought for my wife a Dell portable PC. It had several partitions pre-installed, something like :
1-DellUtility
2-DellREstore
3-Vista
4-Dell Media Direct

I wanted to create a 5th partition for data, but due to the already complicated layout, I absolutely wanted to backup the whole disk. I used 2 different image software : O&ODiskImage 3 and Image for Windows V2. After doing what I wanted, I realized the Dell was no longer booting on the special Dell Media Direct (DMD) Partition. The only solution proposed by Dell was reformat and reinstalling the whole HDD. Not an option, since I had 2 backups.

I started to restore the disk with O&O DI3 and then a bad surprise : no boot from DMD. Same thing with IFW2. After contacting their respective support, they told me that when restoring, the partitions could be placed at a slightly different position than the original, because of "alignment" mechanisms or something like that.

I came close to restoring the exact layout, at bit level, with Image For Linux using command line and special parameters but it still didn't work - took me over a week to try all configurations. I finally gave up and transformed the DMD partition into a data partition.

I am pretty sure that Drive Snapshot would have had the same problem, because it's partition oriented. Now, for such situation where one is "playing" with the partition structure, a global cloning tool (HDCLone or equivalent) is a better choice, especially when one encounters a non standard HDD layout.

Anyway, thanks a lot for the multi selection of partitions.

 

You're welcome Merle. Imho those special partitions which come pre-installed by Dell, HP, etc. soon become worthless after you get rid of the trial software that comes with the PC and install your preferred apps.

But in any case, I believe that DS would have recovered all of your partitions together with their total functionality providing that you would have chosen to restore the MBR and Partition Table.

 

JoAnn>I believe that DS would have recovered all of your partitions together with their total functionality providing that you would have chosen to restore the MBR and Partition Table<
-
Will this work to clone/migrate a Vista-32-bit WD160GB-5400rpm disk to a Hitachi 7K320 GB in a Thinkpad T61p ?

Grateful for any tips with DriveSnapshot to do so.

SKA

 

Am I to understand that the WD 160 drive resides in the Thinkpad T61P and you want to replace it with the Hitachi 320? Also, tell me about any partitioning of the WD 160.

Do you have an external drive to which you normally backup?

Do you already own a copy of DS?

Jo Ann

 

Maybe, but with the other tools, that have similar operation (MBR and PT restoration), this didn't work. The only way to be sure is to try again, but this time, I'll also have a full HD image, just in case....

Regarding the special partitions, Dell Media Direct enables to play CD and DVD without booting Vista, so it's somewhat useful, but too bad it is so badly non standard. All post on Dell forum related to this feature tell the same story, not a single person has been able to restore its functionality after partition modification, apart from reinitializing and reinstalling everything. One more reason to save time for something more important !

 

You've got that right...

Cheers,
JA

 

>Am I to understand that the WD 160 drive resides in the Thinkpad T61P and you want to replace it with the Hitachi 320? <
-> Yes . I do have an adapter for use with new disk to replace DVD drive, ie can have 2 drives in T61p, but somehow it does not see the 2nd drive

>Also, tell me about any partitioning of the WD 160.<
-> Can see 2 partitions in Cmptr-Mgmt-Storage- Disk Mgmt:

Disk 0 149.05 GB
Volume unmarked 6.71 GB ( service partition)
SW_Preload C: 142.34 GB (main partition)

>Do you have an external drive to which you normally backup?<
-> Yes one USB drive 7200 rpm 320 GB,also have external USB drive enclosure

>Do you already own a copy of DS?<
-> Sorry not yet. I'm asking q's first, b4 buying<grin>

SKA

 

SKA,

If it was my laptop I'd clone the HD. That way your IBM restore partition will still be functional. I assume you would like it to be functional. Remember, do a reverse clone with the old HD in a USB external enclosure and the new HD mounted internally. For software, I suggest the free "CopyWipe for DOS" from TeraByte Unlimited. Do a Straight Copy and resize the Vista partition at a later time. Or add a data partition later.

 

Brian K

Can DS autoresize all partitions from old disk (with intact partitions) onto new disk ? Or you suggest any other cloning sw ? I am apprehensive about Acronis -after reading posts here.

Not very keen to retain the IBM partition (I do have Vista 32-bit default recovery discs) . Prefer to have an imaging sw like DS for regular snapshots to external disk (USB/ eSATA)

I am considering a fresh install Vista 64-bit using Vista-32bit actvn files :
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=144783

Thanks !

SKA

 

CopyWipe freeware (www.terabyteunlimited.com) is excellent to do just that. Just don't use Wipe but copy

 

As Brian recommends, cloning is likely a better solution for your needs, so you might want to consider products other than DS (which does not do cloning).

But first things first; until your system recognizes the Hitachi drive you won't be able to clone your WD to it. Is your Hitachi formatted (NTFS)? - Go to: Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management >Storage > Disk Management. Is the Hitachi there as a "Foreign Disk"? If so, right-click on it and select Import Foreign Disk (and confirm).

 

Brian/ Jo Ann

Which cloning softwares you recommend for Vista 32-bit / 64-bit ?

SKA

 

See Post #14.

 

I use Acronis True Image whenever I want to clone a hard drive. Since you haven't yet bought DS, you may want to consider a product such as ATI, which does both cloning and imaging.

 

Hi Jo Ann, I just happened to corrupt my Vista system yesterday. I restored the system partition but my notebook still refused to start. I then remembered what you said about restoring the MBR with snapshot. I just used
'snapshot --restoreMBR HD<n> mybackup.sna' where <n> was the HD number assigned by snapshot after I had rebooted using a "bartCD", and it was repaired ! Thanks !

 

Merle, glad to hear that DS 'saved your day'. I have always found DS to be an extremely reliable program.

 

Yes ! The main reason I don't always recommend it to other people is that restoring a partition in use requires a boot device with a real GUI that is pretty difficult to build for a non expert.

 

Actually it's not necessary to build anything - one just needs to download and burn the free UBCD4Win (post #3 above), navigate to wherever snapshot.exe is located on their fixed or removable drive and run it.

 

Thanks. It seems hat UBCD4Win has changed. Previously it did require to build the iso using an original XP SP2, etc. I'll update mine with the new download. Now I just wish they provide also a way to build a bootable USB key, very useful for notebooks that don't have a CD built-in.