Old 40G Image->New 160G Drive, Same Laptop-HELP

Hi all.

Before I ruin my new Seagate 160GB laptop drive I want to ask the experts here for some advice.

Laptop: Dell Inspiron 6000, July '05. Original 40GB IDE drive had Dell diagnostic partition, Dell system restore partition & C partition with XP Pro, etc. NO MEDIA DIRECT. I'm using TI9 v3677 and I have a good 40GB drive image saved on my external drive. The 40GB drive is dead and buried.

Objective: To install the new Seagate 160GB drive into the laptop and to keep the Dell diagnostic partition, Dell system restore partition & C partition with XP Pro except to expand the C partition to fill the 160GB drive.

Problem: I know that I can simply restore the image of the 40GB drive onto the new 160 drive but the C partition will still be approx. 35GB. I cannot increase the partition size or the MBR will change and break the Dell system restore function. But, if I do a Dell system restore after installing the 40GB image onto the 160GB drive, it will create a new C partition and fill the new drive like I want it.

The problem is that TI9's restore image operation will carry over any bad sectors that may have existed on the old 40GB drive and map them out on the new 160GB drive even thought they may not actually be bad. AGain, I cannot restore the image to the new drive and increase the size of the C partition or the Dell MBR will change and I will end up with a broken Dell system restore function.

If, instead I want to clone to the new 160GB drive to get around the bad sector carryover issue, I have to buy a new 40GB drive to restore the Dell 40GB drive image to. That's too costly.

I'm not savvy enough to follow Dan Goodell's Dell system restore fix process. I'll screw that up. So, I can't restore the 40GB drive image to the new 160GB drive, change partition size, modify MBR and then fix it. I'm just not that good.

As a test, I restored the 40GB drive image to the new Seagate 160GB drive and expanded the C partition, restoring each partition in the correct order (diagnostic first, C expanded second, system restore third and finally the MBR). When I restarted, I got the missing Hal.dll file stop screen. I don't know Hal and I don't know how to fix that either.

Can anybody lead this horse to water so I can drink?

I know there's someone here a lot more savvy than me who could do this with his eyes closed. What am I missing? Help, please!

 

Have you tried restoring the entire Image, ending up with the 160 gig drive showing only the size of the 40 gig drive then using the Secure Zone trick to give you back the missing space?

 

I can't do it without breaking the restore partition. Any other ideas for me?

 

Someone else had described a way to restore without carrying over bad sectors, but I don't recall the method. Try a search to see if that message will come up.

 

I did not think changing a partition size would alter the MBR and break the Dell restore function. But I do not have a Dell so what do I know?
I can understand that removing the Dell hidden partitions would screw up the Dell MBR but you are going to keep them.

I would remove the existing HDD and replace it with the new HDD. Provided you have an image of the whole old drive all you have to do is restore each partition and the MBR.
You have to select each partition in turn in the restore Wizard so that you can re-size as you go. Finish with the MBR and press proceed.

Done this way you will have expanded the old partition to fill the new drive with the bonus that any sectors marked as bad will not appear on the new drive.

Don't forget you could always easily get back to square one but it certainly should not be a problem.

Xpilot

 

Questions:

1. Was this test performed when booted from the TI Rescue CD?
2. Was the Seagate 160gb drive installed in the boot position inside the Laptop when the restore was performed?
3. Was the partition restore sequence the same sequence as listed in the 40G Windows Disk Management display? The diagnostic and system restore partitions sizes should not be changed.
4. Was the 160G drive the only drive connected on first booting following the restore?
5. If you used Version 9, have you considered restoring using the version 11 free trial?

Note: the diagnostic and system restore partitions sizes should not be changed.

Normally, expanding the partition size will cause True Image not to include bad sectors.

-------------------------------
You might find this posting helpful.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1299861&postcount=9

 

1) Yes, with the bootable CD TI9 v3677.
2) Yes, it's the internal C drive.
3) Yes, the restore had the diag #1, C #2 & restore #3 exactly like the original 40GB drive.
4) Yes, no other drive present.
5) I tried v11 with the same exact result on reboot after the restore.

Obviously, I have an original Dell MBR in the 40GB image. Somehow, after the manual restore and expansion of the C partition, the MBR gets modified so on reboot I get the missing Hal.dll stop. On other occasions I got the PBR done stop, which indicates the same problem.

It looks like I'm going to have to use the Goodell fix and try to struggle my way through it. Thanks a lot for trying to help anyway.

 

That's exactly what I did. Unfortunately, I got the stop screen on reboot. Thanks for the suggestions though.

 

Thank you for your response but I am unsure of your answer. If your response is based on what is shown on the restore screen titled "Partition or Disk to Restore", this screen does NOT always display in partition order sequence.

Would you please simulate a restore using your backup archive and return to the screen titled "Partition or Disk to Restore". Once there, please click on the two sort icons shown on that screen and match the sample image referenced below. This means you will need to change the "Arrange by" icon screen so that WinNT option is checked. Also the "Choose columns" icon needs to be changed so that the WinNT option is moved to the top; and then checkmark the WINNT option as per the display.

Once you have made the changes on the display, is the partition sequence listed in the same or different order?

This sample image will display in more detail what and why I am asking.
TrueImageHome "Partition or Disk to Restore" Screen
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?p=1303920#post1303920

 

I tried several more tests over the last few days - all failed with the same stop screen message:

The drive is corrupted. Missing file: hal.dll-system32-root....
Please install a copy of this file.

What does missing hal.dll mean?

I've made sure to restore the partitions in the exact order on the larger drive and I have kept the diagnostic & restore partitions the same size as original - only increased the size of the C partition.

I also restored the 40GB image successfully and ran the Dell system restore on bootup but DSR did NOT increase the size of the C partition like I had hoped it would. I'm out of ideas...

 

DriveBy,

Are you using your 160 GB HD with a 35 GB OS partition? Booting successfully?

 

DriveBy,

I think that GroverH has got to the nub of the problem.
The restore disk/partition can and probably does show by default the partitions in a different order from the actual physical layout on the original hard drive.

In Windows disk management the Graphical Representation of the disks shows the order of the partitions as they are actually laid out on the disk reading from left to right. This is the order in which the resize restore should take place.
If you follow GroverH's detailed instructions the Partition/Disk recovery Wizard will change the listing order to match that of the Windows graphic and it will also include the MBR, then it should be plain sailing.

I should have realised this when making my first post but I had forgotten the changed order that probably will be shown in the recovery wizard.

Xpilot

 

Thanks. I'll try that exactly and report back the results...