Assigning partition letter & type for new disk

I have 2 identical disks (1 & 2). Only disk 1 has Vista & data on it - disk 2 was empty. Backed up disk 1 - MBR, Track 0, C:, D: (apps), E: (docs), and F: (empty).

I created drive F: on disk 1 to backup the image file to. Wanted to then restore to Disk 2, hoping to test if would boot. Would either have to remove 1st disk before reboot, or disable it in BIOS (turns out my BIOS won't allow disabling).

I used the rescue disk to do restore, at suggestion of beginner's guide on this forum.

Q1: What *should* I have chosen as to drive letter assignment for this case in restore setup? Of course, ATI assigned drive letters of G:, H:, I:, and J: when it restored the orig partitions to disk 2.

Obviously, I need the drive letters on disk 2 to be C:, D:, E: & F:, just like orig on disk 1, so it'll boot.

Windows disk mgr wouldn't change the drive letter of the restored OS partition on disk 2 from G: to C: (logically).

Q2: What change, if any, should I have made for partition type (primary, active, etc.) during restore setup?
That's ASSUMING I removed disk 1 & didn't boot w/ 2 active, primary partitions (on disk 1 & 2). Instructions warn against that!!!

I can just erase the disk 2 & do the restore again - but THIS TIME w/ the right settings. Could also (just for this test) use some other disk mgr to (possibly) change settings (active, hidden) and drive letters.

Thanks! This is taking a while!

 

This is not a direct answer to your question, but as the rescue CD works in Linux, it is a good idea to give all your partitions/drives labels - if a drive is labelled named, it will appear in Linux exactly as it does in MS just the drive letters will be different. Then you can restore to where you know your names should live.

Colin

 

phkhgh,

Is the 2nd hard disk as large or larger than the original?

If so, then I would just restore the Entire Disk image you made (check the Disk # checkbox). You don't have to worry about partition types, etc. TI will restore them to the same as the original drive. I would also do the procedure from the CD and not from Windows. Change the BIOS boot order to boot from the 2nd drive, boot from the TI CD, restore the image to the 2nd hard drive, disconnect the original and boot the 2nd drive.

 

Thanks. As mentioned, the disks are identical.

The problem (obviously operator error) is when I restored the "Entire Disk" to disk 2 (using Rescue Disk), TI did not assign the correct drive letters to allow the new disk to boot. At least I don't think it'll boot w/ OS in G:\.

Because TI "saw" disk 1 as being the active OS boot drive, it wasn't going to create the same drive letters on disk 2. But I missed where I was supposed to intervene.

I'm not sure if I need to specify the partition TYPE when selecting parameters for target disk, in this situation.

Bodgy, yes - my drives are named, like D: Applications, if that's what you mean.

 

phkhgh,

TI does not assign the drive letters.

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partbkgd.htm

Simply follow MudCrab's advice.

PS The second HD should probably be unpartitioned when you create the image of the first HD.

PPS I note it was unpartitioned. Good.

 

Sorry. I missed that you said the drives were identical.

What version and build of TI are you using?

If TI assigns drive letters when you do the restore using the CD, then it shouldn't matter as the assignments hardly every match what Windows will see and use. Do you have to assign drive letters? The only time TI has asked me to assign drive letters is if I'm using the Windows version.

I think the problem was that your "old" Windows saw the identical drive. You said Windows Disk Management wouldn't change the G: to C:.

I assume by this that you booted your original drive and it the saw identical drive and assigned drive letters to the partitions.

Was this before or after you tried to boot from the 2nd hard drive (with the original drive disconnected)?

 

Thanks again guys,
I have v10.0.4942, downloaded a few days ago.

Guess that depends on context of the statement. From the TI manual:

NOTE: I did attempt (& succeded) booting from the "Restored" disk #2. HOWEVER, for Disk 1 (now the NON-booting disk) the relative order of partition NAMES has been switched. Is this "Normal" for Windows (Vista) to switch ORDER of partitions on the NON-booting disk?

Even tho it boots from restored Disk 2, the ORDER of Disk 1's partition names are switched (see below). Also, I don't necessarily want the drive letters on the non-boot disk to begin w/ the next letter after the last used drive letter on booting disk, in case I want to add partitions later.

Did read the page from Goodells - thanks. Saw this, but no explanation of what they're doing:

Explanation of what Explorer shows when I boot from Restored Disk 2:

For the now active boot disk 2, Windows (as expected) did assign drive letters & names in same order as on orig Disk 1 that was imaged, as follows:

After booting from "Restored" Disk 2, Explorer correctly shows:
C:\ SQ008691V02
D:\Applications
E:\Docs
F:\New Volume

And for orig Disk 1 (orig boot disk, now the 2nd non-boot disk), Explorer shows letters / labels:

G:\SQ008691V02 (correct)
H:\Docs (the order has been switched - not by me. Should be "H:\Applications")
I:\New Volume (should be "I:\Docs")
J:\Applications (should be "J:\New Volume")

Regardless of order, for Disk 1 the correct data is in each named partition.

This order switch of partition names may be "intentional" on Windows' or TI's part because (currently) I didn't disable or remove Disk 1, and maybe?? it's switching order of partition names to avoid confusing Windows if there were 2 identical disks? I've no idea.

Thanks!

 

phkhgh,

When you look in Disk Management, what physical order do the second HD partitions appear? What are the partition types of H: I: J: drives? C: is primary. Are the others primary or logical.

 

Hi Brian,
I switched back to disk 1 as the boot disk (but remember, both disks should be identical now). FYI, Windows put the same letter designations on Disk 2 partitions as I described earlier, and switched their order.

Re: order & type of partitions in Win Disk Mgmt:

Disk 1 (now back as the boot disk):
C:\sq008691V02 - system, boot, active, primary
D:\Applications - Primary
E:\Docs - Logical
F:\New Volume - Logical

Disk 2 (disk I restored the BU image to):
G:\sq008691V02
J:\Applications - active, primary
H:\Docs - logical
I:\New volume - logical

As far as Disk 1, those are the designations that Win Disk Mgmt chose when I reinstalled Vista (restored from Toshiba recovery disk) when 1st got the laptop 2 weeks ago).

 

UPDATE:
Just for grins, I did another backup of whole disk1, running in Vista & saved it on HDD. I noticed as TI was preparing to begin, it showed how each partition letter (w/name) would be converted to a new drive letter: like D:\Applications -->H:\Applications. It seemed to keep the partition names in order.

After I restored the 2nd BU to Disk 2 (did it from Windows this time), again Vista shows SOME NAMES of the partitions OUT OF ORDER for the NON-booted disk. If I reboot to the other disk, same thing happens.

In Explorer, the DRIVE letters are in order, it just switches
some drive labels (and data) associated w/ certain drive letters. Like putting H:\ with "Documents", when it should be w/ "Applications."

In Disk Mgmt, for the NON-booting disk, it shows the right order of partition NAMES, but the letters ARE out of order.

As in, G: (the partition containing OS), J: , H: , I:
If you never learned the alphabet, those are out of order.
"They're out of order!?" "You're out of order!!"

It doesn't seem to bother the disk that I'm booting from, but if I want to store data other than an identical clone of the orig disk, having the partition names / letters switched might not be the best. I'm not really worried about having two identical, bootable disks - I just don't know how this will affect other scenarios.

Thanks.

I

 

Simplest way to avoid drive letter confusion?

I've been trying to follow the thread, but can't quite get it. Here's MY situation:
two hard drives. The second one I had installed to serve as a back up location for the first.
Both HD's have two partitions.
First Drive: I labelled C: to have program files
D: has data. I also labeled it "Data Drive I"

Second Drive: I labelled E: and F:
E: is to be where I backup C: w/ it's program files
F: is to be where I backup D: w/ data.

I TI 10.0, run off the boot disk (there must be a conflict with start up, b/c TI hangs when I try to back up a partition, but it works fine from boot disk),
it relabels the partitions, so that what I called D: is now called "E: Data Drive I" and what I called "E" TI calls "D." Confusing!

I'm scared that I will eventually mess up and back up the wrong stuff to the wrong place, or else have back ups on the main drive.

Is there a way I can (simply) label these partitions in a way that will avoid confusion in the future?
Is this problem occurring b/c I'm using the boot disk? (I'm confused about Linux vs. Windows)

Thanks,
Phil

 

Re: Simplest way to avoid drive letter confusion?

So long as you keep track of the verbose name you gave each partition/drive, you can safely ignore the Linux versus MS way of assigning drive letters.

So I'd label your back up drive partitions perhaps like this bu_prog_E, bu_data_F

Colin

 

Re: Simplest way to avoid drive letter confusion?

As Bodgy indicated, assign some meaningful non-confusing names to your drives. Check my pdf link below regarding assigning drive names.

 

Thanks to Bodgy and Grover. That helps a lot. You are very patient--I found, too late, several posts on this subject!

Phil