Restoring image of small drive to large drive??

Hello, I have many image files that I have created of my system over time using True Image 2009. My hard drive is getting full, and I want to upgrade to a larger capacity drive.

Anyway, when I connect the new larger hard drive and restore one of my images to it, it works perfect with the exception of one problem. My old drive is 120 gig, and my new drive is 500 gig. I end up with a 120 gig operating system drive, and the remainder of the larger drive has to be formatted. Thus, I end up with two partitions. I want one partition on the drive of the full amount.

Is there any way to do this?? I know I can use the clone feature, but that makes all my stored image files worthless. Because anytime I restore from one of my image files, it is going to end up exactly the way I describe above.

Is there any way to restore one of my image files created from my smaller hard drive, to the larger hard drive, and expand the partition to the full 500 gigs?

I sure hope so!!

Thanks!

 

You can adjust the size of the partition being restored on one of the screens in the Restore Wizard. See Section 6.3.7 in the TI User Guide.

 

Oh, I see the setting!! If you don't check MBR, it allows you to set the size of the partition. Is this correct??

Also, is there any pitfalls as far as restoring an image file created from one drive, and restoring it to a new larger drive? It seems to work fine. The only thing I noticed was Windows installing new drivers for the new drive after rebooting from the restore.

 

Shouldn't be any pitfalls. Windows popping up with installs for a new drive is normal.

Personally, I'm not sure about what you see or don't see when restoring the MBR since I never do it. The MBR doesn't have to be restored when restoring an image if the MBR is OK.

 

If you select 2 or more partitions or the MBR + one or more partitions to restore, you don't get the option to resize the partition. You have to restore one partition at a time if you want to resize.

 

Read all the posts in this link.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=241099

 

The whole 'Restore Disk Signature' throws a monkey wrench in things. So you are supposed to 'Restore Disk Signature' if you recover the archive of the entire hard drive to a new hard drive.....which is what I am doing. The problem is, you have to have MBR checked to get the 'Restore Disk Signature' to show up. If I do that, then I don't get the option to re size the partition during the restore.

I guess if I have to, I will just do a complete re-install of everything and start over. I guess TI has its limitations.

 

I have never restored a disk signature or even worried about it. OTOH, I don't use any TI scheduled tasks or anything else that might care what disk they are fooling with by looking at the signature.

Why not restore the C partition and resize it and see where it takes you or do you know you really need the same disk signature?

 

I don't ever use scheduled tasks either. I know I put a new hard drive in my sons system and restored his latest image and everything has been fine. His was a smaller drive than the original so I didn't have to worry about re-sizing the partition. His original drive was not full, and the new smaller drive was still larger than the data he had on the old drive.

 

Let's not get too confused here.

1. Have you looked in Windows disk management graphical display to see if you have any hidden or diagnostic partitions. The people responding to your questions need to know this in order to provide a correct response.

I understand that you want the C partition to have everything but I am unsure whether you have checked the Windows Disk Management option to confirm the absence or presence of other partitions. Many users look at Windows Explorer and only see the C drive and assume (sometimes wrongly) they have only one partition. Looking at Windows Disk Management graphical display can confirm the content of your system disk.​

1a. When you select the archive to be restored, are the partitions listed the same as those listed in the Windows Disk Management graphical display?

2. You can check mark the Track 0/mbr plus the Disk signature (to a new disk) and perform a restore of these two functions only. The disk signature is not a requirement for Windows but is getting to be more of a requirement for other software. For example, TI uses it for its scheduling. Plus, vendors such as Adobe (and others) are using it in their programs for identification. Restoring the disk signature to a new disk should not hurt and may prevent some problems depending upon what software you have installed.

3. After you have performed the restore in item 2, then you can go back to the beginning of the TI restore option and reselect the proper backup archive. Your backup archive will list one or more partitions but the number of partitions listed should match the Disk Management display. You should tick all the partitions listed (except do not tick track 0/mbr) in your backup archive so all we be restored.

If you have multiple partitions to restore, all can be restored and resized in one pass. If you have only the C partition, then you can assign all unallocated space to it. However, if you do have any hidden or diagnostic partitions, then allocate the same amount of space to them as original.

Once you have a better understanding of what steps are needed, you can successfully restore your system and a complete re-install is not necessary.

 

I do not have any hidden or diagnostic partitions. I was just in disk management to format a new larger storage drive. I installed windows myself, so I know I used the entire hard drive as one partition.

I have a C drive that is a single partition that is the total size of the hard drive (120 gigs). I want to restore this partition from a TI image file to a new larger 500 gig drive, and have the end result be a C drive that is one partition that is 500 gigs.

That's it......no other partitions to worry about.

 

Thank you for the confirmation. Then you can bootup from the TI Rescue CD and perform a restore of C only and resize accordingly. You can always restore the Track 0 and or disk signature later if there is a need. At this point, it can be delayed or may not be necessary.

 

So I simply go through the steps and make sure MBR is NOT checked correct? Because that is the only way to get the re-size option to show.

It's not necessary to restore the MBR anyway if nothing is wrong with it correct?

 

I don't want to confuse the issue further, but if your new drive is booting okay except for the fact it shows the size of the smaller drive, here's another option to regain the missing space, without having to redo the restore:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1044452&postcount=2

 

Interesting! I'm going to try the other method first, but it's nice to have other options.

 

By the way, on a brand new drive, do I have to prepare it in any way before restoring my image? I would think not, but just wanted to ask.

 

Normally, it's fine to just restore the image to the new drive.

 

A new disk obviously can't boot, so wouldn't you have to check MBR when setting up the restore? That of course would not allow you to adjust the partition size during set up.

Then, now that the new disk is bootable, you could go back through the restore process and NOT check MBR, and adjust the partition size.

Or, do the restore steps and not check MBR, that way you can adjust the partition size. After the restore is complete, go right back into the restore steps and just check MBR and restore that. Or, does the restoration automatically include the MBR if the new larger destination hard drive doesn't have one, even when MBR is not checked??

Am I thinking about this wrong? Sorry for all the questions. Just wanting to get it right before pulling the trigger.

Also, when you are increasing the size of the partition on the new drive to the full amount, do you want "free space before", and "free space after" to be "0" correct??

 

TI is supposed to place a standard MBR on the drive if one doesn't exist. You can try it this way first, if you want. If the drive doesn't boot, go back and restore the MBR.

If you want to make sure you're using the same MBR code as the original, restore just the partition (so you can resize) and then go back and restore just the MBR. The order doesn't really matter. The main thing is that how they made TI 2009, you have to do them separately if you want to resize your partition(s). In previous versions, you could do them all "separately" in a single restore process.

 

I have one comment and one question. First the comment--I have found that using a utility such as Partition Magic or similar partitioning software sometimes includes an option to enlarge the partition by merging unallocated space into it.

Now the question. This regards the "disk signature". I have found that replacing hard drives can sometimes result in some applications not working due to needing to be re-activated. I recently wasted about an hour on the phone with Microsoft to go through re-activation of Outlook after changing my hard drive. Could this have been avoided by restoring the disk signature??

Thanks,

Doug

 

That's a good question, and it motivates me to do my restore to my new larger disk in this order.

1) Restore my latest image without MBR being checked. That way I can re size the partition to the full amount. Of course since you don't have MBR checked, you have no option to restore the signature. Because of that, I will then proceed to my 2nd step.

2) Go right back through the restore process, but this time only checking MBR, as well as the disk signature.

Hopefully then everything will be exactly the same. Thanks MudCrab!!

 

But my question still remains--does choosing to restore the "disk signature" (I do not even know exactly what that means) end up avoiding problems with needing to re-activate software?

Doug

 

It can if the software uses the disk signature as part of its activation. It can also help where software is looking for a specific drive (like TI tasks). It's really hard to say for sure without trying it with the software.

The disk signature is just an "ID" number that is included as part of sector 0. Every drive in the computer will have a unique disk signature.

 

I got my new larger hard drive today. I installed it, and restored my newest image. I didn't check MBR, so I was able to re-size the image restore to the full capacity of the new drive.

On a side note, I didn't go back and restore the MBR, or the disk signature. The drive boots great, and everything works as it should.

Thanks for all the help guys!!!