Cannot Resize Restore Partition

TI Ver 11 Build 8053
I was able to get an image of a dying 12GB drive without errors.
It also passes validation.
My new drive is an 80 GB. I'm familiar with the process of re-sizing target drives but when I call up this particular image, the screen for resizing partitions has the following:

Free Space Before: "0 Bytes"
Partition Size: "11.27 GB" <---This is grayed out, I cannot change it.
Free space after: "63.27 GB"

Likewise, the graphical display above won't let me "slide" the partition size to make it larger.

If I call up another old image that I made on another computer (not the one I need), it works fine. Essentially, TI won't let me restore any partition sizes other than those on the source drive.

Is my image file is defective? Any suggestions?

 

Go ahead and restore the Image you want, then use the SZ trick outlined below to get back the rest of the space:
================================
If you have already cloned/restored your drive and just want to regain the missing (unallocated) space proceed as follows:
1. Make the bootable True Image Rescue cd, if you have not already done so.
2. Boot with it and from its main menu choose Manage Acronis Secure Zone.
3. Create an SZ of any size less than the missing unallocated space. Do not accept the default to activate the Startup Recovery Manager.
4. OK back to the main menu.
5. Go right back into the Manage ASZ.
6. Choose to Delete the SZ.
7. When asked what to do with the space, accept the default to append it to the existing partition.
8. Back out to the Main Menu, Exit the process, quickly remove the CD and reboot the system (if it doesn't self reboot).
====================================

 

SparkyMachine,

Check this pdf and see if it helps. It was not written for your situation but maybe the illustrations help.

http://grover.tabinc.com/gh-temp/gh-acronis-part-resize.pdf

You can try changing from Logical to Primary or vice versa.

 

If you select the entire drive to restore instead of just the C partition or just the MBR, you get exactly this problem.

Repeat the restore, but select only the C partition and not the MBR also. Then you will be able to increase the size to as much of the new drive as you want.

If you did not restore the MBR already, select that after adjusting C when it asks if you want to restore anything else.

Let us know if that works for you.

 

Thanks for the responses, but I've still got issues:

DwnNdrty: Very interesting work-around. It took me a while to understand why you were suggesting that method. However, it would let me create the SZ but (curiously) it would not let me delete it. It went thru all the paces except for the last step where it deletes the SZ. It just sits at a screen with the SZ greyed out, but the partition size never gets larger.

GroverH: I had downloaded the pdf you linked to some time ago. I understand the procedure, it simply won't let me do the "resizing" step because it is greyed out and refuses to let me increase the partition into any of the unallocated space.

jmk94903: Same result. When I get to the screen where I should be able to re-size the partition, it is greyed out and refuses to let me do anything.

I've even used "Disk-Clenser" bundled with Ver 11 to erase any traces of partition tables, etc from the target drive. Exact same result.

I've been a long-time user of the pgm, so I'm pretty familiar with the typical procedure. This image just doesn't want to permit a re-size on the target drive.

I'm considering doing a standard restore (let it make the target the same size as the original source partition) then use a partition utility like Disk Director to increase the partition size into the unallocated space. I strongly suspect it will do the same thing if I do. I'd suspect a bad HD but it functions perfectly if I restore a test image created from another machine. It's not a defective image, either. I've moved the drive to more than one machine and re-imaged it. All images pass validity check. I'm really stumped.

 

I can't take credit for the SZ trick ... I believe it was Menorcaman who first wrote about it. Sorry to hear it didn't work for you. Since no other suggestions have worked either, you have something odd going on. What make of drive is it?

 

Pretty "vinalla" stuff.
2.5" WD Scorpio 80GB IDE
I'm replacing an IBM 12GB in an HP Pavilian xt178 Laptop (basically the same as a Compaq Presario).
As I said, it seems like the source drive has something weird on the image to begin with.
Since my last post, I have noticed that the screen that shows "Partition or Disk to Restore" screen has a red flag on the little drive graphic symbol to the right of the checkbox for the main NTFS partition. I don't believe I've seen this red before, but I could be wrong. Does a red flag indicate that it is somehow locked in size, defective or something similar?

 

Can you use a 98SE boot floppy and wipe away the MBR. This particular floppy seems to clear more information than any of the other mbr fixes.

Also, maybe use a free program such as "Hitachi Feature Tool" to look at the new drive and see the size has a problem.

 

Red flags are used in Acronis icons to indicate the active partition; green flags indicate primary partitions. A little red "C" on a partition identifier (C for corrupt?) indicates a problem with the contents of a partition.

Here is the problem that I think you are having. Since your original source drive from which you created the image had bad blocks, then the image file, when restored to a new hard disk, will carry the bad blocks table from the old image. Since you restored to a new disk, presumably the new disk does not have any actual bad blocks, but it may have the bad block list. The partitioning routine used by Acronis in TrueImage and in Disk Director will not allow resizing of partitions with bad blocks.

After you restore the image to the new destination drive, try running a chkdsk /r on it, which should clear the bad blocks list. Then the resizing operations should succeed. You can then use the "Add a SZ then remove the SZ" trick to expand the partition out to the desired size.

*Edit

Perhaps I don't fully understand this issue. In searching the forum I ran across these two posts on the same topic:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=142608
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=141078

 

kOlo:
As they say in Guinnis ads "Brilliant !" One Excellent diagnosis.

At the end of the day, it all seems obvious. The original drive was dying, that was the reason I wanted to replace it in the first place. However, it wasn't obvious how ATI handles the dead and dying sectors. Your suggestion worked perfectly.
Summary:
1. Image the Source Drive
2. Restore image to the new drive.
3. Clean up the new drive by running Chkdsk/r (repair).
4. On the new drive, create a SZ (for the purpose of resizing the unallocated space after the clean-up).
5. Delete the SZ and assign the space to the desired partition. (In my case, I assigned all unallocated space to the main NTFS partition.)

Much thanks to all.

 

sparkyguy:

Good to know. I got confused when reading the threads that I referred to in post #9 above. Acronis support kept recommending doing a "restore with resize". But if there are bad blocks marked, TI (and DD) will refuse to do a resize. It sounded like a "catch 22". Glad it worked out.

 

Everytime I see Kolo's name to a post ( among a few others of course)
I make sure I read that post, he usually comes up with something "Brilliant !" something else for us to note when we have trouble with partitioning.
Thanks Mark

 

Nice work!

 

Thanks guys. Keep feeding my ego. Right now my electronics students are beating me up over their exam, so I need some positive feedback!

 

Just tell them that you are officially designated Brilliant and can't be bothered by students who get less than an A on your exams.