Terabyte IFW restore to a smaller partition

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by Tony, Nov 24, 2013.

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  1. Tony

    Tony Registered Member

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    Hi, for sometime now i have been using Linux.
    Before swapping over i shrunk my windows partition.
    I am now wanting to restore an older windows image, but the image was taken from a 90gb partition and i am wanting to restore to a 47gb partition.
    The data on both the image file and my current windows partition are about 37gb but Terabytes IFW will not let me restore as the partition size is now too small.
    Is it still possible to restore my older and larger image to my smaller partition?
    Acronis used to do this automatically as long as the data to be restored was not larger than the partition but i have not been able to find a way to do this using Terabytes IFW.
    Is it at all possible with image for windows?
     
  2. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Tony,

    IFW does sector based restores.

    http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=554

    I think you will have to restore the current image to a larger partition, compact the data to less than 47 GB, image again and restore the image to the 47 GB partition.
     
  3. Tony

    Tony Registered Member

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    Thanks Brian :)
     
  4. routerguy99

    routerguy99 Registered Member

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    I can't find the scale to fit in ifw 2.88
    Can't restore partition to a smaller partition

    Had to use macruim I wish ifw wouldn't have removed that feature


    It's gone

    Chris
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2014
  5. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Chris,

    It hasn't been removed. It's available for Entire Drive restores but not for partition restores. Same as always.
     
  6. routerguy99

    routerguy99 Registered Member

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    Image for Windows User Manual Page 94 of 216
    Image for Windows Restore Options
    During the restore process, you can set a variety of options. These options will vary
    depending on whether you are restoring a full drive image or a partition image.
    Options available when restoring a partition are shown in the figure below.

    Resize After Restore – Currently available only for FAT, FAT32, NTFS, and EXT
    2/3/4 partitions, you can use this text box to specify a new size for the restored
    partition, bound by the Minimum and Maximum values specified by Image for
    Windows. The units used here are mebibytes, abbreviated MiB. (Please refer to the
    section titled Data Storage Size Unit Conventions at the beginning of this manual
    for more information.)

    I dont get these options with PE50. and IFW 2.88



    Thanks
    Chris
     
    Last edited: Mar 21, 2014
  7. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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  8. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

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    looks like Terabyte has good customer support.
     
  9. routerguy99

    routerguy99 Registered Member

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    I could not believe I forgot to compact that partition before I made an image, It was in my notes a long time ago to do that,

    Thanks
    Brian


    Chris
     
  10. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

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    What do you mean by "compact that partition"? You mean, defragment?


     
  11. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    oliverjia,

    Say you have a 500 GB partition containing 200 GB of data. Let's say the sectors in use are spread over 450 GB. Using sector based apps you would need a 450 GB partition to restore the image into.

    If your original partition was....( * is sectors in use, - is free space)

    [---**----**--]

    then the target partition to restore/copy into can not be smaller than...

    [---**----**]

    Now if you resized the 500 GB partition to 250 GB you could image the partition and restore it into 250 GB of space. Or you could Compact the data to 250 GB (see IFW userguide), image the partition and restore it into 250 GB of space. Compaction is like resizing without a reduction in partition size. Only the data is moved.

    In general, defragging the drive before creating an image is a waste of time as defragging can't move System files and you could still have sectors in use beyond where you desire. Compaction can move System files.

    IFW will tell you the sector spread so you can decide in advance if Compaction is needed.
     
  12. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

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    Thanks very much Brian for the explanation. It's much clearer to me now..
    I wasn't aware of this option before as I always restore the image file to its original partition/disk.

    Regards
    oliverjia

     
  13. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    oliverjia,

    Try this. Start IFW and click Backup (Full). Highlight your Windows partition and click Information. You will see "MiB to Restore". It's the sector spread and is the smallest space you can restore into.

    The Compact button is next to the Information button.
     
  14. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

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    Dear Brian,

    Thanks a lot for the instruction - I've learned something new regarding IFW today:thumb:

     
  15. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    It's surprising to see the sector spread. Often the sectors in use extend to the end of the partition.

    Edit... I just created a 457896 MiB NTFS partition. Used space was 78 MiB. The sector spread was 366314 MiB.
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2014
  16. valnar

    valnar Registered Member

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    I usually buy bigger drives than the previous one, so I can't say I've used this feature before. How does it work with SSD's? Data in an SSD is presented in such an abstract way to Windows (via C/H/S) that moving files around seems irrelevant. I don't understand why IfW/IfL can't do it on the fly like Acronis?

    So would using the compact option cause additional wear & tear to an SSD? What about using the option on a hard drive. Since it's not defragmentation per se, does that fragment files even more during the compact process?
     
  17. routerguy99

    routerguy99 Registered Member

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    I switch from Acronis 2013 to IFW, there are a few things Acronis cant do.
    IFW does a great job on sector spread compact.

    On the Fly why Brian or someone else would have to answer that question for
    you.


    I went from a 500g SSD to 1T SSD, do I can dual boot,

    Chris
     
  18. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    It would work the same with a SSD -- the data is presented to the OS in the same way. IFW/IFL/IFD are sector-based and don't manipulate the file system before or during the restore/copy (except when excluding files). The changes are made after the data is on the drive, which means the source must fit on the drive.

    Using Compact would be adding a little more wear because some data is moving, but it's usually not a lot of data and it's not something that's done on a continual basis. I doubt the data moved really affects fragmentation since it's just moving it down on the drive.
     
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