Restoring a partition Question

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by ecm, Feb 26, 2008.

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  1. ecm

    ecm Registered Member

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    I recently purchased a copy True image Home mainly for making images of my hard disk in case of boot failure.

    I successfully made an image of my whole disk and images of two separate partitions C: and D: to an external usb drive.

    Before I backed up my 120 gig hard disk it had the following partitions:
    A 86 MB containing a diagnostic program and marked as a primary and hidden
    A 2.5 GB containing a self contained operating system that is marked as primary and is hidden
    C: of 99 GB that contains Vista and was originally marked marked as primary and active
    D: of 10 GB that contains the manufacturers restoration files in order to restore the computer to its original factory settings. It was marked as primary and active.

    In order to test my backup images I decided to try and do a restore of the D: partition. I booted from the True Image CD and followed the restore wizard. However I chose not to backup the MBR and changed the partition to logical and inactive.

    The restoration was successful and I was able to boot back into my Vista configuration. However the C: partition is now marked as logical and active but not primary .

    Why did the designation of the C: partition change? Was it because i chose not to restore the MBR with the D: partition? If I restore the C: partition and include the MBR will the partition go back to its original settings. Should I be concerned that the C: partition is now logical and not primary?

    Any answers or comments are appreciated
     
  2. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    I'm not sure you are reading the status of your partitions correctly. Logical partitions can't be Active and you can't have more than one Active partition (you say C: and D: are both Active).

    Can you post a screenshot of what Disk Management shows for your drives?
     
  3. ecm

    ecm Registered Member

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    MudCrab

    Thanks for your response.

    I don't know how to post a screenshot.

    Here is the info Disk management is displaying:

    Volume:OS(C: ); layout:simple; type:basic; Filesystem:NTFS; Status:Healthy(system,boot,pagefile,active, crash dump,logical drive)

    Volume:RECOVERY(D: ); layout:simple; type:basic; filesystem:NTFS; Status:Healthy(logical drive)

    The other two are unnamed under the volume column but the smaller one's status is Healthy(EISA Configuration)
    and the one's status is Healthy(Primary Partition)

    In the True Image Partitions Selection page of the backup wizard there is displayed:

    Partition:OS(C: ); Flags: Pri,Act
    Partition:RECOVERY(D: ); Flags:blank
    Partition:FAT16; Flags: Pri (This is the smallest partition)
    Partition:MEDIADIRECT; Flags:blank

    Prior to my restoration process I am sure that C: and D: did not display as logical drives under disk management

    Does this seem normal? I think I am getting confused over the difference between volumes, logical drives and partitions. Right now everything seems to be working normally so I'm not too concerned but I do like to understand what is going on.
     
  4. GroverH

    GroverH Registered Member

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    Check my link below on posting attachments. Perhaps it could help.
     
  5. ecm

    ecm Registered Member

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    MudCrab
    I figured out the attachment thing thanks to Grover.
    The first image is the present state of my hard disk as seen by Vista's disk management program.

    The second is from True Image restore wizard and is the original backup image of my hard drive. D: was originally a primary but I changed it to logical in the restore process.

    Why is the disk manger not seeing C: as a primary?
     
  6. ecm

    ecm Registered Member

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    I'm trying this attacmment thing again
     
  7. ecm

    ecm Registered Member

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    I guess I didn't figure this good enough. It worked on the test forum. One last try and then I give up. Because I uploaded the images in the test forum it won't let be upload them again in this forum.
     
  8. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    ecm,

    Here are your pictures:

    I assume this is what is currently shown in Vista's Disk Management:
    Figure A
    acronis_temp_1.jpg

    And this is from your previous backup image showing that the partitions were previously both Primary:
    Figure B
    acronis_temp_2.jpg

    I think because you restored D: as Logical it is confusing Vista's Disk Management. The partitions should be okay. Vista seems to have a problem properly displaying partitions when there are changes in the Primary and Logical groupings.

    If you start TI and select to do a Disk Backup, does TI show the C: partition as Primary and the D: partition as Logical?

    You could rerestore D: as Primary (not Active) and probably get Disk Management to display the partitions correctly if you wanted to try and fix it.
     
  9. ecm

    ecm Registered Member

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    Hello MudCrab

    Thanks a lot for your response. You've put my mind at ease.

    I am including a screenshot of how TI sees my hard disk now. Your comments on my previous screen shots are correct.

    Do you know if I leave D: as it is I would be able to use Dell's restore program. They must have set up the D: partition as a primary for a reason.

    Right now I'll leave things as they are. I hate to screw around too much with a smoothly running system.
     

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  10. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    No, I don't know. I don't have a new enough Dell that has a Recovery Partition.

    If the Recovery Partition is booted directly when that option is selected, then it may need to be Primary. You could try booting into it and see if it works. You should be given a menu or options of how you want to proceed. Your manual should have instructions on this. If it boots okay, then I would think it should work okay. If it doesn't boot, you should get an error message or it may skip it and boot directly to Windows.
     
  11. ecm

    ecm Registered Member

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    Hello MudCrab

    I took your earlier suggestion and re-restored the D: partition to its original state of being primary. The disk management program now sees the C: partition properly, i.e. as a primary partition. I guess there must be a bug in the way disk management reads or reports on partitions.

    At least this exercise has given be confidence that the backup/restore process works as designed and the money I spent on TI has been well spent.

    Once again thanks for the time and effort you took to correspond with me.
     
  12. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    Glad to hear you got it fixed. Disk Management does indeed have a problem properly displaying non-MS standard partition layouts, though it doesn't usually have any problem using them.
     
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