Restore to different size partition

I have a dual boot (both XP) notebook that I just upgraded the HD size. I used True Image and Disk Director on the old HD but did a fresh install on this new one for both OSs. I have three partitions, C = 40 GB, D = 15 GB, and E = 65 GB (more or less). I've now gotten all the software loaded on both systems and have had a change of heart on my partition sizing. I've already gotten the three images I want, a fresh C drive w/OS only (no software), the C drive with all software and the D drive with OS and software.

I want to decrease my C drive by 20 GB and move that to the E drive. I'm concerned I'll lose the ability to restore the C drive image with OS only if the original image was of a larger partition size. Quantity of data is not an issue of course. I'm not concerned about the other images as I can make new images of the newly resized partitions when I'm done. I just don't know if there is information in the image that requires it to be restored onto an identical partition size. I see that if I start the restore process (just to see what options I have) it says the image is of a 40 GB (again more or less) drive. Will there be a problem?

In the past I only used TI to restore my second OS/partition. If I restore the first OS/partition, should I restore the MBR and Track 0?

Thanks in advance,

MV

 

If i've read this correctly you should be ok.
When TI restores an image it will ask you to select a partition to restore to, and will only show those that are large enough to accept all the data. It will know what the size of the original partition was. If the one you select is larger then it will ask if you want to change the size. In your case i think it will just show what the new size will be i.e. 20Gb, and ask if it is ok to continue.

The MBR should be ok, you can restore the MBR only, if it restores the partition it will restore the MBR too.

 

first don't restore the mbr track o, unless your restoring to the exact same size hard drive. The mbr contains the information from the old hard drive and will display the size of the old hard drive on the new drive.

Next with windows xp, I always go by what the actual used size of partition is. Example if I have a 40gb (6 gb in use) , the use size is what you need to worry about, I can downsize the new partition to 20gb or I can upsize. Where it get's tricky is when you try to restore a larger partition into a smaller partition (which is allowable as long as the use space fits) you will have drive letter change problems.

And lastly you can move your partitions around but the drive letters on the system partitions registrys need to remain the same everytime. If the drive letters are changed around your system drive won't boot. Also you will have to modify your boot.ini file if you want to keep your dual boot.

I read that disk director has the ability to change drive letters, but unsure if it can do it on a non-booting hard drive. You will need a utility that can modify drive letters otherwise you will have to do it manually through the repair console which will be a trial and error process.

What you want to do is possible, but it probably won't boot up the first time without some drive letter/boot.ini repairs.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=174958

 

As sparkymachine said, there shouldn't be any problems. Just make sure that there is really enough space to restore. There has been a recent post where it looked like TI should be able to restore the image (just going by used space), but it needed a larger partition to actually work.

You should not need to restore the MBR.

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Hopefully, you won't have any drive letter change problems.

Are your current installations using the Windows boot manager with the partitions accessible from each OS? (Not both C: when booted.)

 

I use Windows boot manager, as it has always done what I've needed.

According to Sparkymachine, I might have a problem trying to restore my image of a clean OS only C drive. It is of a 40 GB partition, but the new partition will be only 20 GB. I tried a test restore once again, this time using the C drive image. It didn't show my D drive as a 'restore to' option. I guess that's because the C drive image (though only 5 GB in size and of 8 GB of data) is of a 40 GB drive partition and the D drive is only 15 GB.

I only mentioned the old to new HD transition so it would be clear (obviously I wasn't) that the old HD isn't a factor in the new HD config. Rather than using images or cloning of the old HD, I did fresh installs and loaded all SW from scratch to get the systems once again the way I like them, only on a larger HD.

Thanks for the comments. I'll change the partition sizes and keep a note that if I want to restore to a "clean OS only" C drive, I'll need to resize back up to 40 GB before I do it.

 

Yes, it would shout at you lol. I tried the same thing once, trying to restore to a smaller partition so I reformatted the C partition using Disk Director on the same rescue disk and then it showed up in TI- never really understood that one but I think it is because there was data in the partition so the free space was less than required even though the used space would be overwritten anyway.

 

15GB isn't that much space for a 8GB image. Does the 8GB include the page file and hibernation file (if any)? Don't forget that those have to be "restored" with the image.

You say the D: partition (15GB) wasn't available. Was the 20GB C: partition also not available?

An option you might consider: Restore the clean image to a partition sized large enough to allow the restore. Then use DD to shrink the partition to 20GB. Then create a new image of the 20GB partition.