Dynamic Drive Question

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by TheMozart, Jan 4, 2012.

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  1. TheMozart

    TheMozart Former Poster

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    Here is my Drive management:

    http://i42.tinypic.com/r938lz.jpg

    Isn't it possible for me to backup and restore C: and W7 using any backup imaging software?

    Do any FREE imaging software support my dynamic hard drive? I really want to backup and restore in case of emergency. Please help, what can I do?
     
  2. napoleon1815

    napoleon1815 Registered Member

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    I believe in terms of live (hot) imaging, most solutions will support Dynamic Disks. I haven't worked with them in a long time (I'd convert them back to Basic Dsks unless you are doing software RAID or something)...I know way back a lot of imagers struggled with Dynamic Disks in terms of offline (cold) imaging or restoring Dynamic Disks as Basic Disks. You were looking at Macrium and Paragon correct? I can't say for sure, but I'd check out their websites and any forums.
     
  3. TheMozart

    TheMozart Former Poster

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    EaseUS emailed me and told me "The current version of our product can backup dynamic disk or dynamic volume, but, you can't restore the backup image to dynamic disk/volume, and you can restore it to basic disk/partition, sorry for the inconvenience."

    So it seems no backup imaging program can RESTORE. They seem to have ability to backup and not restore :(

    Anyone know of a solution for me?

    Does anyone know a backup program that can RESTORE in addition to backup? Does a single imaging program exist that can do that?
     
  4. napoleon1815

    napoleon1815 Registered Member

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    I just replied in the other thread with this:

    "Well it will restore...it will just restore it as a Basic Disk rather than a Dynamic Disk. If you really want Dynamic Disk, you could just manually convert the restored Basic Disks after the fact. I first saw this with Acronis way back in the day (v8.x). I actually did this a few times to convert Dynamic back to Basic."
     
  5. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    What brand is your computer? Is it still on warranty? I'd ask the manufacturer to replace your Dynamic Drive with a Basic Drive. They should be able to do this from one of their images.
     
  6. TheMozart

    TheMozart Former Poster

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    If I use EaseUS to backup C: which is a Dynamic drive/volume, and then restore it using EaseUS, it will restore it as a Basic disc and will Windows 7 still then boot OK? I fear not.

    Otherwise I could backup every partition and restore them all, one by one using Easeus and then the whole system will be basic, but then I doubt W7 will boot.
     
  7. TheMozart

    TheMozart Former Poster

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    Out of warranty. I bought a new WD hdd and restored using the HP W7 Recovery DVDs and this is how it's done it.
     
  8. napoleon1815

    napoleon1815 Registered Member

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    It should, yes...I can't test it myself with Easeus, but I have done this procedure before.
     
  9. TheMozart

    TheMozart Former Poster

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    Im worried to restore the image in case W7 fails to load.

    When you did this before, what program did you use? EaseUS?
     
  10. napoleon1815

    napoleon1815 Registered Member

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    Acronis Boot CD (v8.x)...imaged, and restored...all was well, just restored as Basic Disks. You can easily go back to Dynamic Disks after the fact if you wanted to (via Windows Disk Management)...it's going back to Basic that isn't easy. :)
     
  11. TheMozart

    TheMozart Former Poster

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    So I will backup just C: and restore and then convert back to Dynamic.

    Wish me luck, I am worried W7 won't load and then I waste 3 days of setting up W7 nicely and need to start all over again :(

    I will be back to report later, if you don't see me today that means it failed to load:'(
     
  12. napoleon1815

    napoleon1815 Registered Member

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    Good luck!
     
  13. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    I wouldn't rush into this until you have a better understanding of what might happen. As a test, I used IFD to backup a WinXP partition on a dynamic drive. I then wiped the HD. WinXP would only restore as a dynamic drive.
     
  14. TheMozart

    TheMozart Former Poster

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    What a waste of time that all was

    I created a backup image of C: using EaseUS and then I booted the EaseUS boot CD, selected the image, and then Easeus says:

    "Target: Dynamic Disc (Not supported)"
     
  15. napoleon1815

    napoleon1815 Registered Member

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    Did you do an offline (cold) image or a live (hot) one?
     
  16. TheMozart

    TheMozart Former Poster

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    Live.

    I am back to using Dynamic cause my W7 crashed and EaseUS restore failed :( :thumbd:

    I can't find a free way to backup and restore Dynamic drives.:'(
     
  17. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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    Did you try the conversion in EaseUS Partition Master?
     
  18. TheMozart

    TheMozart Former Poster

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    Yes Brian, I converted all drives to basic. I thought everything was fine. But when I went to restore an image using EaseUS, EaseUS failed and stopped restoring around 30% into it. So I tried again, but then EaseUS converted C: into A: for some strange reason and completely failed the restore and bricked and messed up my whole partitions :'(

    So I had to do a complete new factory W7 install and it created Dynamic and I am not messing around with it anymore and I will just leave it Dynamic and not touch it.

    But now I need to find a backing up solution that works well with Dynamic drives.
     
  19. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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    The restore that you're referring to is in reference to a backup that was made after or before the conversion to basic?
     
  20. TheMozart

    TheMozart Former Poster

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    It was a basic image, created AFTER using EaseUS partition, I then created an image.

    But according to EaseUS, they told me that I was able to restore a dynamic images as well to a basic drive, so even if it was a dynamic image, it should not have messed up like it did.

    And why did it end up stopping into the restore, and why did it then end up converting C: to A: for goodness sake? Why A:? Wasn't A: used in the 1980s for floppy drives?

    It messed up my whole hard drive so I as forced to restore W7 to factory default :'( Going to take me hours to get W7 up and running again as I want it.
     
  21. MrBrian

    MrBrian Registered Member

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    If everything was working fine after the conversion but before the restore, then I would think something went wrong with the backup program. Perhaps try Macrium Reflect if you're having problems with another backup program.
     
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