Restoring an image

[Rekusu]

Which brings up a slightly different question.

At the moment, I am creating a W7 install, obviously, on an HDD and making Acronis images as I go.

When I am happy, i plan to restore the W7 image to a new 2gb HDD and copy all my data files from the older XP HDD.

The XP HDD is a 5400rpm WD, the new one is a 7200rmp,2gb WD drive. Given that when installing W7, the program installs all the relevant drivers, etc for what it detects, is restoring to a completely different drive likely to cause the OS not to work?

[jdc2000]

Restoring to a different drive should be no problem. If a hard drive failed, you would be doing that anyway. An image restore program that could not successfully restore to a different drive would not be worth much.

[Rekusu]

Very valid point, thanks.

[Rekusu]

So a similar question regarding restoring an image.

In the past with XP, I have only needed to restore from the image to the first partition on Disk 0 as a clean (with programs) version of XP.

I know this is probably a 'suck it and see' kind of question, but since I have the new 2tb hdd, formatted and ready to go, and since I have an image of W7 with all the installed programs on another hdd, can I copy that image to the first partition of the new hdd, if that hdd is in a caddy rather than in position of Dick 0? While in the caddy, the first partition will not be C:. I would correct that

Obviously, the answer is Yes, but will it boot when put into the computer? Or does it need to be in the position of and plugged in as Disk 0 to restore the image?

To put it another way, since the first partition in the caddy will not be C: , when I put the drive into the computer as Disk 0, does the system recognise that the first partition is C:?

[jdc2000]

Drive letters are assigned by Windows. If the first partition on disk 0 is the boot partition, it should show up as C: when you boot from it.

[Rekusu]

That is what I thought and how it shows up in Explorer. But the attached screen-shot is Paragon Partition Manager with the top; the top hdd is highlighted as Disk 0, the second in the list is the os and correctly marked with C: but is shown as Disk 1 when highlighted.

Attachment 15464

Toodle pip

[Midknyte]

Which SATA port is each drive connected to? It sounds like you had multiple hard drives connected when you installed Windows, and then you chose to install to Disk 1 instead of Disk 0. SATA port 1 is usually Disk 0, but not always.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...d-359be0a6d546

[Rekusu]

Thanks. Just checked and SATA0 on the mb is the first hdd. It's not a big deal as it is more or less, all working.

However........ and please bear with the description.

I have been using an 2gb hdd with two partitions, to create a new W7 os. When things are doing will, I make an image to the second partition.

When things are up and runnin,g I will be using a 2tb hdd, with five partitions and I had another thread regarding not being ablr to create more than four partitions. That has been solved; I have the five partitions made with Paragon Partition master while the hdd is in a desktop caddie.

Yesterday, I restored the most recent image to the first partition (R) of the 2tb hdd, in the caddie. Beiign pesimistic, I put the hdd into the computer and was surprised to see it boot into W7, and all partitions (empty) showing in Explorer.

Put the 2tb back in the caddie, replaced Disk 0 with my XP disk as this has all MyDocs, and suing SyncBack in back-up mode, copied MyDocs to the new hdd. Checked and all working.

A short time later, I intended to copy all the Photo files fro the XP hdd to the 2tb partition, still in the caddie. And nothing happened. Checked with MS Disk Mangement and it show a single, unformatted, primary, basic MBR partition. Fired up Paragon Partition Manager in W7, and it shows a single, basic MBR unformatted generic external USB device. W7 Explorer does not even show the disk.

So where have the partitions, the os and the data gone?

Seem to be taking three steps forward and 2.75 back.

[Midknyte]

It sounds like the MBR got messed up. maybe something happened when you swapped XP and Win7.

When you did the restore, did you also restore the MBR?

Is the "caddie" an internal swappable drive? Just making sure we are talking about the same thing. It might help if you provided make/model.

Typically, you would connect a blank unpartitioned drive to SATA0, and then do the Win7 install. During the Win7 install, you can set the size of the C: partition. After that, you would create the other partitions in Windows Disk Management.

[Rekusu]

Thanks for your reply. To respond to your questions, yes, I did restore the MBR as this was a clean, new hdd. I asked a previous question about why it was even an option, but now I sort of understand.

The caddies is a desktop, IcyBox, connected via USB. I was pessimistic about creating the partitions with Paragaon Partition Manager but they all showed correctly on Explorer. I was pessimistic about restoring an image to and external, USB connected hdd, but what the hell, try and see. It worked and when the hdd was inserted into the disk 0 location, it booted.

It is only after copying all My Docs to the second partition, done with the hdd back in the caddie, that there was nothing to see.

It is annoying but not a deal breaker as I have my original W7 install, so only lost time on creating the new hdd. Been playing around and think I will have to start again. Deleted the partitions and put into Disk 0 position then as you suggest, restore the W7 os, then create the other partitions.

I just cannot believe how difficult it is trying to get this up and running. If it weere not fo the fact the I can no longer use the internet with XP (web sites no longer us Flash) as I am unable to upgrade to the latest browsers, I would not be upgrading to W7. Dread to think how difficult it can be with W10, particularly as I have older programs and an old printer.

[Midknyte]

The caddies is a desktop, IcyBox, connected via USB.

Ok, that's not the type of caddy I was thinking of. It sounds like you have more of a USB dock.

I'm not sure why it's so difficult for you either. Make sure to disconnect any other hard drives, and have your Win7 drive on SATA0. Don't prepartition/format the drive either.

For sure you would have a harder time with Win10. Win7 is already at end of life too.