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Dealing with hidden partitions, recovery, ms stuff etc backup Windows7?
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... |
#2
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Dealing with hidden partitions, recovery, ms stuff etc backupWindows 7?
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. -- ...winston msft mvp consumer apps |
#3
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Dealing with hidden partitions, recovery, ms stuff etc backupWindows 7?
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. |
#4
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Dealing with hidden partitions, recovery, ms stuff etc backupWindows 7?
mike wrote:
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. You can remove SYSTEM RESERVED partition with a recipe here. I did this and it worked, but my requirements might be different than yours. I went from all four primaries in usage, to only three of them, so I could add another OS. And I did a full backup before doing this, just in case. You can do a backup with "dd", if you have any concerns about how well your regular backup software is working. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=409 The Windows System Image is inflexible, and should not be relied on to deal with partition table changes. If you "system image", it's with the understanding that the partition table won't change. If you change the partition table, then throw away the old system images (figuratively speaking). The System Image concept still has good copies of files. The partitions are stored in .vhd files. The .vhd files can be accessed with various tools (for example, the latest 7ZIP can navigate inside one). But that doesn't imply easy migration from there, back to some partition table that has changed. It would require a lot of work. For a backup tool, you could try Macrium Reflect Free. Which I like, because it's free. (Lower left corner) http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx ******* And just for the hell of it, I've backed up the laptop before, using "dd" from a Linux Mint USB key and the FTP protocol. I set up an FTP server on my main machine. And did this sort of thing from the laptop running Mint. The block size used here, is a "factor" of the total disk size, which I checked in advance. ftp binary ftp put "|dd if=/dev/sda bs=73728" sda The pipe symbol in FTP allows sending the output of a command (a stream of bytes) to a file. In this case, a file "sda" was created on the FTP server, and it was around 40GB. The only problem with the method, is getting FTP in IIS to work on my main machine, is a large PITA. And not recommended. Use an FTP server that humans can set up, not crap like that. Paul |
#5
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Dealing with hidden partitions, recovery, ms stuff etc backupWindows 7?
Paul wrote, On 7/8/2014 12:24 PM:
mike wrote: 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. You can remove SYSTEM RESERVED partition with a recipe here. I did this and it worked, but my requirements might be different than yours. I went from all four primaries in usage, to only three of them, so I could add another OS. And I did a full backup before doing this, just in case. You can do a backup with "dd", if you have any concerns about how well your regular backup software is working. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=409 The Windows System Image is inflexible, and should not be relied on to deal with partition table changes. If you "system image", it's with the understanding that the partition table won't change. If you change the partition table, then throw away the old system images (figuratively speaking). The System Image concept still has good copies of files. The partitions are stored in .vhd files. The .vhd files can be accessed with various tools (for example, the latest 7ZIP can navigate inside one). But that doesn't imply easy migration from there, back to some partition table that has changed. It would require a lot of work. For a backup tool, you could try Macrium Reflect Free. Which I like, because it's free. (Lower left corner) http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx ******* And just for the hell of it, I've backed up the laptop before, using "dd" from a Linux Mint USB key and the FTP protocol. I set up an FTP server on my main machine. And did this sort of thing from the laptop running Mint. The block size used here, is a "factor" of the total disk size, which I checked in advance. ftp binary ftp put "|dd if=/dev/sda bs=73728" sda The pipe symbol in FTP allows sending the output of a command (a stream of bytes) to a file. In this case, a file "sda" was created on the FTP server, and it was around 40GB. The only problem with the method, is getting FTP in IIS to work on my main machine, is a large PITA. And not recommended. Use an FTP server that humans can set up, not crap like that. Paul Paul, if I may ask...how does that help the op's desire to use the system restore capability (apparently in reference to the HP created Recovery Partition) ? -- ...winston msft mvp consumer apps |
#6
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Dealing with hidden partitions, recovery, ms stuff etc backupWindows 7?
.. . .winston wrote:
Paul wrote, On 7/8/2014 12:24 PM: mike wrote: 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. You can remove SYSTEM RESERVED partition with a recipe here. I did this and it worked, but my requirements might be different than yours. I went from all four primaries in usage, to only three of them, so I could add another OS. And I did a full backup before doing this, just in case. You can do a backup with "dd", if you have any concerns about how well your regular backup software is working. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=409 The Windows System Image is inflexible, and should not be relied on to deal with partition table changes. If you "system image", it's with the understanding that the partition table won't change. If you change the partition table, then throw away the old system images (figuratively speaking). The System Image concept still has good copies of files. The partitions are stored in .vhd files. The .vhd files can be accessed with various tools (for example, the latest 7ZIP can navigate inside one). But that doesn't imply easy migration from there, back to some partition table that has changed. It would require a lot of work. For a backup tool, you could try Macrium Reflect Free. Which I like, because it's free. (Lower left corner) http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx ******* And just for the hell of it, I've backed up the laptop before, using "dd" from a Linux Mint USB key and the FTP protocol. I set up an FTP server on my main machine. And did this sort of thing from the laptop running Mint. The block size used here, is a "factor" of the total disk size, which I checked in advance. ftp binary ftp put "|dd if=/dev/sda bs=73728" sda The pipe symbol in FTP allows sending the output of a command (a stream of bytes) to a file. In this case, a file "sda" was created on the FTP server, and it was around 40GB. The only problem with the method, is getting FTP in IIS to work on my main machine, is a large PITA. And not recommended. Use an FTP server that humans can set up, not crap like that. Paul Paul, if I may ask...how does that help the op's desire to use the system restore capability (apparently in reference to the HP created Recovery Partition) ? You mean restoring to Factory conditions ? It will still restore to Factory conditions, destroying everything in its path. Is that good enough ? My machine (the Acer laptop with the replaced OS), is still prepared for factory restore. Which would ruin all the work I put into setup of the laptop. The option is still there, if passing the laptop on to another person. The current OS on the Acer laptop, is a Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium DVD (X17-24209.iso) downloaded from DigitalRiver. And installed using the COA on the laptop. And that takes the place of the Acer-provided Win7 OS image. If I need to reinstall, I have two options. Push the "nuclear button" and do a Factory restore from the 15GB partition which is still present. Or reach for the Windows 7 SP1 Home Premium DVD and reinstall and activate that. Pick your poison. At the current time, the DVD does less damage. Paul |
#7
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Dealing with hidden partitions, recovery, ms stuff etc backupWindows 7?
mike wrote, On 7/8/2014 6:23 AM:
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. I recall using ATI11 on Vista which had a System Reserved (100 MB) and successfully backing up and restoring though I don't recall if ATI11 like later versions (2010, 2011, and later) specifically had a check box to include System Reserved. 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. I'm not sure anyone has an answer to your question. Using the hp factory restore option may very well return the pc to its original factory created partition sizing. Good luck. -- ...winston msft mvp consumer apps |
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