Bob said:
As I mentioned, this will not creat a bootable partition. I have been
assured by the support people that they cannot guarantee the copy will
be bootable.
One can google and finds dozens, maybe hundreds, of programs which will
copy disks, but which one will do what I want, make a bootable xp
partition without reformating the entire target disk?
I came to this newsgroup hoping you would know what google doesn't.
Pardon me! A bootable copy IS a backup. That's the point.
As I mentioned, Partition Magic is no longer available. Again, I have
been so assured by support personel. I had the option of buying a newer
version of Partition Magic a few years ago and I much regret not doing so.
Thanks for your input.
Bob Taylor
OK, let's try this again.
Does the Easeus tool copy a partition ? If not, I could create any
partition type or size with Linux fdisk plus the variety of
Linux formatting tools. Then, copy the files using the free
Microsoft Robocopy. About the only thing I really need a partition
tool for, is shrinking or expanding partitions. I suspect I can do
the rest with other tools.
These are some of the other needed ingredients:
1) A copy of all the OS files, and preferably the proper permissions on the files.
Robocopy can not only copy files, but also preserve permissions. This
is an example from my crib notes. I use version XP026 of Robocopy.
robocopy C:\ F:\ /mir /copy:datso /dcopy:t /r:3 /w:2 /zb /np /tee /v /log:c_to_f.log
This'll give a hint on how to get it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robocopy
Of course, you can't copy OS files safely, while the OS is running, which is
why I do that with a second Windows OS running (Win2K). But that is cheating.
If Easeus can copy a partition, then that takes care of (1).
I could probably copy the files with Linux, but I don't know whether
permissions or ACLs would be handled properly or not in that case. Normally,
I use Linux to get around permissions, which is why I wouldn't count on it.
2) Boot flag set in the MBR. This is 0x80 value, for the partition you want
to be considered for boot. Note that, the MBR consists of 446 bytes of
executable code, contains 4 sixteen byte primary partition entries, and
a signature at the end of 0xAA55 . The "Fixmbr" command from the Windows
Recovery Console, can write the proper 446 bytes onto a disk, without
disturbing the rest of the MBR or trashing the partition entries. I use
the fixmbr command, after an attempted Linux install left the wrong
stuff in there for a subsequent Windows install. What I don't know, is
if you can set the boot flag from Disk Management (OK, I see a "Mark
partition as active" - maybe that is how you'd do it in Windows). I know
I can set if from a Linux LiveCD, using their fdisk command to change
the primary partition entries in the MBR.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc749532(WS.10).aspx
"Only one active partition can be set on a hard disk."
On a data only hard disk, you don't need to have any partition with
that 0x80 active flag present. The partition table can only have
one entry with the flag, and if you're multibooting, the boot
manager within that "prime" partition is responsible for bootstrapping
any other partition via its menu entries.
3) Partition boot sector. This is inside the C: partition itself. If you
copy files from the old C:, to the new C:, what will be missing, is the
boot sector. I think it is actually 1536 bytes long (that is what TestDisk
shows me). A duplicate copy is supposed to be at the end of the partition
as well, but I've had partitions here with only one valid copy. The
"fixboot" command from the Windows recovery console, can write the
appropriate 1536 bytes. I've used this command, when moving my C: drive
around. (I haven't investigated how to fix the partition boot stuff at the
sector level, but it might be possible to just copy the correct
offset and group of sectors, from one partition to the other. The Windows
port of "dd" can do that. I've been using "fixboot" instead of doing it
the hard way.)
http://www.chrysocome.net/dd (takes a while to get comfortable with that one)
You can look at the primary partition entries with this freebie. but it
isn't doing anything more than show the numbers that are making the
stuff in Disk Management for you. First link is a picture, second link
is the download. You can see the boot flag of 0x80 marking the second
partition.
http://www.vistax64.com/attachments...n-partiton-recovery-dell-xps-420-dell-tbl.gif
ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip
So, yeah, I think I could "bolt one together". While in theory, I could
use GParted to shrink or expand a partition, I might instead investigate
what utility it is calling underneath, and just use that tool instead.
GParted is a GUI interface to some underlying set of utility programs.
As far as I know, it is generating a script of commands to run. At
the moment, since I have Partition Magic, I don't have much incentive
to tear it apart and see how it works.
HTH,
Paul