Cannot Explore Saved Images

Every time I try to explore an image, I get the message, "cannot assign
a drive letter to a partition from the image archive."

I'm using XP Pro w/FAT 32 (SP2 with all the current updates)

The images I'm trying to explore are not in a Secure Zone. They are on
a couple of outboard drives.

In the window to select the image to be explored there is a FAT 32 & a
FAT 16 partition shown.

I have tried assigning drive letters to each partition and it doesn't
work.

I have tried assigning a drive letter to only a single partition and it
doesn't work.

I have been able to do this in the past, but I always had a problem
doing it. It was never as simple as the HELP section makes it seem.

Also, does anyone know of a simpler program to back up an entire C:
drive?

One like the old Drive Image for FAT 16 drives?

That program didn't have all the fancy frills, but it was so simple a
5-year-old could do it, and it worked flawlessly every time. All these
bells and whistles in these new backups like Acronis TI are just too
complicated.

Thank you.

 

Surprised to hear that you have a FAT32 file system with your XP Pro.

If your outboard drives, as you call them, have FAT32 and FAT16 systems, you will then have multiple *.tib files per backup because of size limitations.

There would be an advantage to format your "outboard drives" with NTFS system and then have a single *tib file per backup.

As for exploring the images, in the menu, click Tools and then Explore archive.
Or, click "Operations" and then "Mount an Image" and this will assign temporary letters to your partitions (when done, click "Unmount" to remove these letters).

 

Is this a Dell computer?

Did you image the entire hard drive by checking the box for the drive rather than only checking the box next to the C partition?

If so, your image contains a Dell FAT16 diagnostic partition and a Dell FAT32 restoration partition. These are not ordinary partitions and cannot be assigned drive letters. There should also be a third partition in the image which is your C drive. If you select only that partition to Explore, you should be able to mount it and view the files.

Other manufacturers also use special hidden partitions, but I'm familiar with the Dell situation.

 

You got it!

It's a Dell!

I made a new image, choosing only the NTFS portion of the drive. It worked! It mounted the Explore image and I could navigate through it.

THANKS!!

 

Glad to help.

Be sure that you keep one image of the ENTIRE hard drive with all three partitions. That's what you need to restore to a brand new hard drive if you drive fails and be certain that it will be bootable. You only need one copy of this entire disk backup because the hidden partitions will not change.

From then on you only need to make images of the C partition.

If the drive fails, restore the image with all three partitions first. Then restore the latest image of the C partition to bring the systme up-to-date.

 

I did that. Saved the NTFS, FAT16 and FAT32 partitions to the Secure Zone on the C: drive. I also have my Bootable CD, so I'm hoping I'm safe now.

Thanks again. )

 

Hello xcor,

I'm sure John would agree that's not a good idea. If your hard drive fails then you will loose access to the SZ and any images saved in it. Best to save any images to a separate HD, either internal or external USB/Firewire. Failing that, save them to rewritable DVDs.

Regards