Replace hard drive(single bay) and want to restore Image

I owned an dell low profile computer with only one hard drive bay and I would like to replace the old hard drive to a bigger hard drive. I already created an partition image using T11 to external usb hard drive. I read from the old post that you can clone disk but the old drive need to stay which is not going to happen with my computer. What is the best way to restore my image(OS ie xp) to new hard drive(do not want to mess with master/slave jumper stuff) and also, I would like to partition my drive to allow dual boot to another OS. Please can someone provide ,Step by step instruction please, the help file seems to be overwhleming. Thanks in advance!!

 

If you haven't already done so, make the Bootable Rescue CD. You will need it to restore the Image that is on the external drive to the new drive you put in the computer.
Look for a message by GroverH and at the bottom of his message are Links to good instructions that you need.

 

Here is the link to GroverH's guides https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=168165

 

When I click on the link, the pdf does not display anything Blank pages with small pages??

 

I save the pdf and now able to use adobe reader to look at it. thanks.

 

My suggestion would be to

1. Assign meaningful names to your partitions so they can be identified by name--not drive letter.
2. Create a new full disk image of your hard drive. In other words, tick mark the disk option and not the partition option.

3. Remove the old disk and install the new disk in the same position and connector as the old disk. The jumper settings and connector must be identical. If the old was cable select, then the new must be cable select, etc.

4. Boot from the TI Rescue CD.

5. Restore you backup image but choose the Partition Restore with Resizing.
This is illustrated in pdf below but the resizing illustration is not identical to your situation. You must change the partition size to your own situation--not the sizes illustrated.
http://grover.tabinc.com/gh-temp/gh-acronis-part-resize.pdf

6. Follow the remaining guidelines in as shown in the pdf above which will include restoring "MBR & Track 0".

7. Don't forget, you can simulation this sequence all the way up to you click proceed or cancel. Click Cancel to end the practice; or click proceed to perform the restore.

8. When restoration completed, disconnect the usb drive and allow the system to reboot.

9. After you are satisfied with your new drive, then use the XP disk management function to create your new second partition and format the new partition..

The guides in my signature gives a good overview but the restore illustration applies to when restoring to an identical disk. The "note-2" lists the changes necessary when using a "Partition Restore with resizing" and my pdf link above further illustrates (note-2) how to do a "Partition Restore with Resizing."

Note: when resizing your new drive, you can also leave "free space after" to the size you intend for your future second partition. Then later, you can create your new partition in the un-allocated space.

 

Currently, there is 2 partitions in the old hard dirve, do I need to partition the new hard drive to 2 partitions(but larger size) to restore this image or T11 (with resize) will partition the hard drive and restore the image and the remaining hard drive will be unallocated. I want to able to have remaining hard drive for other OS.

 

simpley read GroverH awesome pdf guide and play with the size d00d

 

1. During a partition restore with resizing, you need to adjust the size that you want the partitions to be upon completion of restoration. Restoring both existing partitions would be the easiest restore and fewest problems. Note: I am assuming that current partition #2 is a data partition and does not contain an OS.

2. TI will offer a default size but I cannot predict what sizes willl appear. You really need to control the size of both partitions so nothing is left un-allocated.

3. Regarding the new OS. Later, this can be installed on a separate(new or old) disk. It need not enter into any discussion of what is happening on the with your new larger drive expansion I would suggest that when you are ready to install the new OS, that you remove the other disks and let the new OS be installed as the only OS. You can then use your BIOS options to choose which disk & OS you want to boot from. I would avoid having two OS's on the same disk as it causes all kinds of image restore problems.

Question: What sizes are your current partitions and what partition sizes are you considering for your new larger drive?

Thank you demoneye for the nice comments!

 

Hi thank you for information, I think I must be not making myself clear, sorry for the confusion.

Old drive is 9g(have 2 partitions): Partition 1 Drive C: contains mostly junks(I do not want to restore this actually) and Partition 2 Drive E contains OS and Data which I created an Image);

New drive is 320g. I want my hard drive to have at least 2 partitions. One partition of 20g to restore the image(OS xp pro) of old drive above; One partition of 80g for data storage and the rest unallocated .

What is the best way to accomplish what I mentioned above with at least 3 partitions. As I mentioned before that there is only one bay area for hard drive, I can not have another hard drive for another OS.

 

Sorry, my mis-understanding your post about the single bay. It was obvious but I ran right thru the red light.

Since your system partition is Drive E, I "assume" that all your programs were installed on that drive and whenever you install a program, it is installed to E:\programs. If this is true, then installing your system back to drive C will be a real headache. Yes, it would be doable, but requires considerable editing of registry and ini files to change all references from E to C.

Instead, I would suggest you create 3 partitions on the new drive and then do a fresh install of Windows onto the new C drive. Yes, you would have to re-install all your programs and yes, you would have to download & install all of the Windows updates. Afterwards, you could restore all your personal data onto the second partition. Finally, you could install your new OS in the 3rd partition. Be aware, you will have grief when restoring your system partitions when you have a dual boot system.
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However, should you want to maintain your current drive lettering and simply transfer those settings onto a new & larger disk, then follow the steps mentioned in earlier resizing pdf and post #6. I believe you should make your system drive a little larger than 20GB. Perhaps 25 or 30. My current used space for xp pro is 15GB (includes no personal files) and Windows needs breathing room so it can roam around when defragging, etc. The unformatted 320GB size will convert to a formatted of about 298GB.

My best guess is that you would resize the partitions to something similar to

Code:

Drive C (partition 1)  Before adjustment    After adjustment
Junk Data
Free space Before              ?                   0
Partition size                298                 25GB
Free space after               ?                 273GB

Drive E (partition 2)  Before adjustment    After adjustment
system drive
Free space Before             273GB                 0
Partition size                25GB?                80GB
Free space after               0                  193GB (un-allocated)

This illustration would assign partition sizes of 25GB to C; 80GB to E plus 193 GB unallocated for later assignment.

Remember, If you're having trouble getting the partition sizes as desired, you can keeping going forward or backward via practice or simulate any changes you want up until you get to the screen where you must "Proceed or Cancel". Click cancel to quit the program or click proceed to invoke the actual changes.

After the restoration is completed and the sizes as as desired, you can delete the junk data on C drive since you say it has no value.
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As a matter of information, I would also suggest you review the XP Disk Management display; plus open your c:\boot.ini file in Notepad and print that file in case you should have a later need.

 

A somewhat related question.

I have the Try and Decide option activated which creates a second partition. Can ATI 11 handle this when recovering to a larger HDD? It would be nice if it would recover the same size T&D partition, and just use the rest of the HDD space for the primary partition.

~Dave

 

Hello all,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup software

Dave49, you can do it with Acronis True Image 11 Home using GrovertH solution, but in this case it can be done in another way. You can deactivate Acronis Try&Decide feature, remove Acronis Secure Zone, create an image of your hard drive and restore it to new hard drive. Now you're able to reactivate Acronis Try&Decide feature once again and create Acronis Secure Zone with any size you want.

Thank you
--
Michael Levchenko

 

I recommend removing the Try&Decide/Secure Zone partition before making your backup image and restoring it to another drive. You can always create a new one later if you wnat it but why mess around with more patitions than you have to, especially a hidden one?

 

Thanks for the advice.

What about with regular backup images? Should I uninstall T&D and just activate it when I want to try a new program, and then remove T&D again? I have my HDD imaged with ATI 11 every night. If I have a HDD failure, and need to restore from the image onto a larger HDD, how will Restore handle the T&D?

~Dave

 

ATI shouldn't have a problem with an image that includes a T&D partiton but other progrs might. It just simplifies things generally, to have hidden, specialized partitions out of the picture. And since whatever program install your are trying with T&D won't survive a reboot, there is no need to keep the T&D partition around all the time unless you are testing progs with it very often.

 

Ok. Thanks very much to both of you guys. Sorry to hijack this thread, but I learned a lot.

~Dave

 

Just want to report that I actually replaced the hard drive and restore the image with the partition of my size using Grover and other's link with no problem. Since I am using T11 , there is different screens compare to his document, but it was so easy following the wizard that it was no problem. Everything works, thanks Grover and others.

 

JFoo,
If time permits, would you mind summarizing the actions you took to achieve a successful restoration. It would help others in the same situation if you could explain to them what you did.

A successful conclusion is always appreciated. Thanks for the feedback!
and my apologies for the confusion regarding single bay.