disk resizing problem - a quirk of TI?

I had a recent disk failure but was able to fully recover my data thanks to TI. It was my first recovery and was nice to know it works when needed! However, I've come across an interesting problem which I am not sure is a mistake on my part or a quirk of TI.

My previous drive was unpartitioned and I made a full backup of the 38Gb of data on it. The drive itself was 186Gb. I bought a new 320Gb drive which I partitioned, but couldn't get the 38Gb into the first 40Gb partition. TI didn't highlight the drive as it seems there wasn't enough space. I found out why when I reformatted the 320Gb drive and took out the partitions. When I revovered the data, the image wasn't just of the 38Gb of original data, but of the entire 186Gb drive (with all the free space). This is why it wouldn't fit into the 40Gb partition.

However to make things worse. My nice big new 320Gb drive was now only reading 186Gb in My Computer, which is the size of the previous drive. In answer to a previous post Ralphie gave me this solution which worked for him.

However, I couldn't get beyond stage 4 when using the bootable TI Rescue cd as the drive wouldn't highlight. I got further after booting into windows, but I don't seem to have the extra space reallocated. I'm still reading the same 186Gb.

I'm sure I can't be the only person with this problem, and I'd like to hear what other ways people have about this. If I had bought a new hard disk bigger than my backed up data, but smaller than my previous disk, then I assume I would not have been able to make a recovery.

 

Since that suggestion didn't work for you try one of the others. But I don't remember them offhand. You'll have to do a search for it.
One comment though: If as in your case you have only 38Gb of used space on the 186Gb drive, it is possible to use, say, a 100Gb drive to Recover your Image to. The 40 Gb partition you made was probably a tad too small - there might have been some "overhead" that required some extra space.

 

Thanks Ralphie. I'll give it another go, with a 50Gb primary partition.

 

The data was actually less than 34Gb, and I made my first primary partition 50Gb. Still didn't highlight the drive as being big enough. So I thought I'd test the theory that it should fit on a 100Gb disk by making my first partition 100Gb. This time it brought up the second partition (which was 198Gb) as the only place the recovery would fit.

I there anyone out there at TI support who can tell me why 34Gb backup needs the full size of the original disk (168Gb) to be able to restore to?

 

One thing that will cause TI to backup the entire drive rather than just the in-use sectors is if doesn't recognize and understand the file structure. Are you running XP or something else? If XP, have you recently run chkdsk on the original to ensure structure is good?

 

Hello noneleft,

My own rule, when imaging or restoring, is that the capacity of the destination drive/partition needs to be at least 1.5 times the size of used space on the original disk. 34GB x 1.5 = 51GB. Not sure whether TI uses base 10 or base 2 to calculate disk space but either way your 50GB was probably a bit too small for comfort.

As for your resizing problem, depending on your version/build of TI, check out the appropriate link in the forum sticky titled <Product Links, FAQs & Useful Forum Threads (updated February 12th 2007)> under the sub heading Wilders Security threads on common True Image problems and solutions > Resizing Restored Partitions.

Also, worth checking that your motherboard and BIOS can handle the size of your new hard drive.

Regards

 

Thank you for your helpful advice.

seekforever, I am using XP, but a Japanese version. Could this be causing problems with my English version of TI? I hadn't run chkdsk on the original disk, and it may be difficult now due to the disk damage. I'll try putting back the original disk and try chkdsk and a new full backup.

Menorcaman, I'm using TI 9.0 build 2,323. I read through your post, and will try to do a backup again. Although it may be difficult now. My motherboard and BIOS can definitely handle the larger drive. The problem is somewhere with TI. Just not sure where yet...