On 7/7/2014 11:33 PM, . . .winston wrote:
mike wrote, On 7/8/2014 1:24 AM:
Dealing with hidden partitions, recovery, ms stuff etc backup Windows 7?

When I build a windows 7 system, I use gparted to create C and D
partitions. C is small and easy to backup with Acronis...life is good.

If I let win7 partition the drive, it adds a 100MB one that messes up the
ordering and confuses the Acronis backup system so the restore won't boot
without jumping thru some repair hoops...so I don't do that.

I bought a used HP laptop. Had one visible C: partition, but it
was so locked down that I gave up and did the factory restore.
Now, it has four partitions.
199MB System NTFS hidden
238GB C: NTFS
14GB Recovery with D: label NTFS
103MB HPTools.. at the end. FAT32 hidden

What I'd like to do is hide the recovery partition,
split C: into
20GB C:
118GB D:

AND NOT LOSE THE LINKAGE TO THE RECOVERY PARTITION
so I can use the boot hotkey to restore the new C: using the system
recovery
partition.
AND FIX UP THE PARTITION POINTERS SO ACRONIS CAN
BACKUP/RESTORE THE PARTITIONS AND THE SYSTEM WILL BOOT.

Google finds me lots of info on shrinking/adding partitions.
I'm finding nothing about how to keep the linkages to the system
factory restore process.

Then, there's the problem that I already have 4 primary partitions.
Is that still the maximum? Have to do something about that.
BUT
I have other situations where this is not a problem, so still
need a solution that splits partitions without screwing up the
drive ordering and confusing the backup/restore/recovery programs.

Need some freeware or tutorials or something...


Win7 compatible Acronis True Image is capable of backing up both...the
Win7 created System Reserved 100 MB partition and the Boot partition
(the o/s) and including it in the same image *.tib *and* restoring it to
the same hardware without the need for repair.

Likewise it can image and restore the entire factory created partitions.

On Windows 7 with traditional MBR formating the partition table has four
'slots' thus four partitions are allowed. The general rule is 4 primary
or 3 primary and one Extended.

If the hardware supports GPT then the EFI specification mandates that a
GUID Partition Table (GPT), which all modern operating systems support,
is capable of containing a minimum of 128 partitions of any size.



Thanks for the input.
I should have mentioned that I'm using acronis11 and unwilling to fork over
bucks for a newer version.
And I don't think I have the option to switch to GUID partitions without
messing up the system restore capability...maybe...that's what the question
is about.

I still need input on what happens to the system restore capability
when I split C: into C: and D: Assuming I can manage the partition
quantity. How does the system get from a hotkey at boot time to
running factory system restore? I think I have several options
to restore a partition. Problem is that I don't know how to get
it linked back into the boot hotkey.