New Motherboard and Universal Restore

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by knowbodynow, Jun 11, 2007.

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  1. knowbodynow

    knowbodynow Registered Member

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    Hello,

    Currently I'm using True Image Home Version 9. I set up my own partitions and installed Windows XP Pro on C: and the Swap file on D:\. My C:\ partition is on one disk the total size of which is 154.3 first partition. Partion d:\ is on another disc the size of which is 232.9 GB. Whne I make a backup image I make it of both partitions. I've been able to restore backups many times without problems.

    I'm planning to upgrade my motherboard and wonder if upgrading to the 9.1 workstation and getting universal restore is appropriate. I'm concerend that universal restore will not work because in the usere guide it says:

    The guide recommends taking images of complete disks but this is not practical. Given my set up what is the best way of transferring my system from my old motherboard to a new one?

    Thanks,

    Chris (Hunt)
     
  2. jmk94903

    jmk94903 Registered Member

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    If the C partition is the entire disk 1 and the D partition is the entire disk 2, then you have done exactly what is required to make the restored image bootable assuming you leave drive 1 and drive 2 in the computer.

    If that is not the case, then move the swap file back to the C partition and then make the image of the entire C drive. This will be bootable. You can move the swap file back to D after getting the new motherboard installed and working.
     
  3. knowbodynow

    knowbodynow Registered Member

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    Thanks for the reply, So what you are saying is that although my C:\ partition is only 20 GB I need to make an image of the entire 154.3 GB drive? If that's the case I'll need to buy an new hard drive just to fit the image.

    My current motherboard supports IDE drives, not ATA. I want to migrate over to ATA. Should I be looking at getting a small fast drive for my system rather than partitioning a large drive?

    I can understand that it is less problematic to move the swap file back to the same hard drive as C:\ but the requirement to take an image of the entire drive seems unreasonable.

    Chris (Hunt)
     
  4. Xpilot

    Xpilot Registered Member

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    When you make an image of a whole hard drive it does not contain any of the unused space in the image. Moreover any hibernation files are not included nor is the space taken by a swap file. These are represented by place holders.
    So if your C drive has only 20GB in use, with normal compression the image will be considerably smaller.

    It would be a valid move to include D drive in any full backup as it would only be the place holder info that would be included. In this way a restore of both drives would have you back to the starting position when the images were made.

    If by chance the D drive was removed for some reason there would be no urgency to do anything about the Windows swap file. This is because Windows would make up for the missing swap file by creating one at the root of C drive all by itself.
    The computer would still boot even though D was not present providing that That C drive was jumpered cable select or the equivalent.

    Xpilot
     
  5. jmk94903

    jmk94903 Registered Member

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    Note that an image of the entire drive is "guaranteed" to be bootable when restored. That doesn't mean that an image of only the C partition definitely won't boot when it is restored.

    If the C (boot) partition is physically the first partition on the drive, then restoring it to a new, previously unused disk is most likely to boot. Running FDISK on the new drive and creating a C partition which is set active before the restore is sure to make it bootable. That's because the system is very simple.

    In many cases, manufacturers put additional hidden partitions on a drive for utilities or restore files, or the C partition is not the first physical partition for some other reason. In those cases, restoring only the C partition to a new drive will not result in a bootable drive since the boot files will point to the wrong partition.

    I like your idea of having a separate fast (SATA) drive as the boot drive. That keeps it simple and easy to backup. However, I'd get a drive large enough for Windows and all the programs I ever expected to install plus email and updates, etc. so that everything could be kept on that one drive except data files.

    You can't install programs on another drive entirely. They always put entries in the Registry and some dlls in the Windows folders, so you want them on the same drive partition as Windows because otherwise you get into a mess if you only restore the C partition.
     
  6. knowbodynow

    knowbodynow Registered Member

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    Thanks xpilot, my C:\ drive is 20 GB in total of which 14 GB has been used. But according to the 9.1 Workstation guide it is advisable to make an image of the whole disk and with regular compression I expect that will be in the region of 60 GB. Making a 60GB image for 14GB of systm data seems excessive.

    Chris
     
  7. knowbodynow

    knowbodynow Registered Member

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    Thanks John, that makes it a little clearer. But I wonder how guaranteed "guaranteed" really is? Suppose I did make an image of the entire drive (the image would end up around 6OGB) and it did go wrong what would the compensation be? It seems to me that a 60 GB image of an entire drive is more likely to have problems than a 9 GB image of a 20 GB partition.

    Since I set up the system myself there are no hidden partitions and drive C:\ is the first partition on disk 1. What do you think of this proceedure:

    1. Put my swap file back on C:\
    2. Make an image of my C:\partition only.
    3. Get a new Sata drive and link it to my current system using an external hard drive case connected by USB2.
    4. Restore the C:\ image to the new Sata Drive.
    5. Swap out my components: motherboard processor and memory.
    6. Change the hard drive and boot the system from the sata drive.

    I'm not sure where Universal Restore fits in with this, meaning at what point it would be necessary to use it. If it doesn't work then I'd have to put my old system back and some how make the room to make an image of the entire drive containing my current C:\ partition. But still not sure how I'd then get just the C:\ partition onto the new Sata drive.

    I'm definitely sure separating the operating system from the data is a must. I have a separate partition for My Documents and that is on a different physical drive from my C:\ system partition. Since I use Thunderbird I've thought of locating my profiles off C:\ as weel but so far haven't do that as I just back up the whole profile to another hard drive every night when I switch the computer off. I also make a back up off some program settings including entries in the registry so I can get programs up and running again the way I like them if I am forced to use System restore.

    Cheers,

    Chris
     
  8. Xpilot

    Xpilot Registered Member

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    Hi Chris
    I had misunderstood you actual hard drive configuration so although what I said was factually correct it did not really suit your circumstances [​IMG]

    If I were to replace a motherboard I would use True Image purely in its backup role in case the change over came to grief in some way.
    I would suggest you have a read of this article as it would seem to provide a solid methodolgy to do what you want to do. http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/moving_xp.html

    Xpilot
     
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