Using Macrium Reflect for backing up Windows 8

[John Doe]

I have a feeling that problems can ensue if the Windows 8 (and
maybe some prior versions) are installed with secondary hard
drives connected. Windows 8 installs an additional hidden system
partition. That partition might go to an available secondary
drive. If so, and then if you simply choose to back up what you
see as the Windows partition, you aren't properly backing up the
hidden system partition at the same time.

Of course there is the Macrium Reflect option on the left side of its
program window, for backing up necessary Windows parts. But some
people (like me) might miss that. I suppose it works just as well.
But having the windows beast on a single hard drive is probably a
good idea anyway.

So... Probably a good idea to disconnect secondary hard drives when
installing Windows 8.

 

[Paul]

So... Probably a good idea to disconnect secondary hard drives when
installing Windows 8.

That's standard operating procedure here. I've had too many
other OSes damaged, by leaving disks connected. I even had
an installer delete the partition table. As well as overwrite
the wrong MBR.

Even disabling disks in the BIOS doesn't work. A Linux installer
will turn all the disks on, anyway. So you really have to unplug
them, to be safe.

When I installed Windows 8, there was exactly one hard drive
wired to the system. And I ended up with a single partition
install. (The disk already had two data partitions, and it
didn't hurt those or modify them.) I don't know if a single
partition install is normal or not, because I keep hearing
of some second partition. Don't know if that partition is
like the one on Windows 7 or not (contains boot files,
would be marked "System" in disk management). I
haven't heard the word "Bitlocker" mentioned at all with
Windows 8, so it's hard to say why you'd want a separate
boot file partition. On Windows 7, a separate boot partition
is used, in case you're running Ultimate and have enabled
full disk encryption for C: via Bitlocker. The boot files
remain unencrypted, on their own partition.

Paul

 

[John Doe]

It depends on the configuration of your particular computer -
and on the way you organize operating system(s) on it.

Not unless you have clear guidance on the subject. Without that,
you play it safe. And it also has to do with <see the subject line
of this thread>.

I've been multi-booting various Windows installations on several
HDDs since 1998.

I've been making backup copies of the Windows partition for longer
than that, using many different utilities.

During my 8 years as a Microsoft MVP

After I saw Microsoft give its MVP certificate to a technically
uninclined salesman, I lost all respect for MVPs.

If Setup.exe for Win8 (or Win7) finds an existing System
Partition, it will update that partition, rather than create a
new hidden partition.

Makes no difference. Either way, it generates and/or uses a hidden
system partition.

Kind of a long-winded way to say, no, you don't need to
disconnect secondary disks to install Win8.

Actually, I'm pretty sure that Paul's confirmation is better than
that advice. And it's been my experience that Windows 8 (and
probably prior versions) does some weird things to secondary hard
drives. I didn't know until today that it sticks a hidden system
partition on the secondary drive. It's not the fact that it's
hidden, it's the potential problems those of us who do backups
might have when Windows stuff goes on a secondary hard drive.
Again, see the subject line of this thread.

But you do need to watch carefully and be sure you are telling
Setup.exe to install it into the partition that you really want
it in.

That has nothing to do with my situation. Of course not. You have
to be stupid not to know where Windows is installing to. If you
don't know that much, you shouldn't be doing an installation. But
of course, again, I wasn't talking about the installation, I was
talking about the hidden system partition generated by the
installation.

Run Disk Management and study its Graphical Display to get a
clear picture and understanding of where things really are in
YOUR computer. (Be sure to add NAMES (labels) to each partition
so that you don't get confused by changing "drive" letters.)

Oh, Mr MVP, now please tell me how to change the label of a hard
drive!

Please read the subject line...

--

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

On Wed, 16 Jan 2013 01:45:16 +0000 (UTC), "John Doe"

So... Probably a good idea to disconnect secondary hard drives when
installing Windows 8.

Given that starting with Windows Vista (IIRC), drive number enumeration
is not fixed and does not necessarily correspond to the BIOS order,
this is good advice.

In my experience at least, in XP and earlier you could rest assured
that the 1st drive in the BIOS was also the 1st drive in the listing in
Windows, 2nd was 2nd, etc. Today, in one boot it could be that way,
but in the next boot your drives could be enumerated in reverse order.

Microsoft recommends verifying "the disk drive on which you will set up
Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, or Windows
7 by checking the disk information. For example, on the screen that
lets you select the drive for the setup destination, verify the volume
name and the available space."

See their support article "Disk drive numbers may not correspond as
expected to the SATA channel numbers when you install Windows on a
computer that has multiple SATA or RAID disks" at
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/937251 for more information.

--
Zaphod

Arthur: All my life I've had this strange feeling that there's
something big and sinister going on in the world.
Slartibartfast: No, that's perfectly normal paranoia. Everyone in the
universe gets that.

 

[Flasherly]

Not always. As I said in the beginning, it depends on your specific system
configuration. If Setup.exe for Win8 (or Win7) finds an existing System
Partition, it will update that partition, rather than create a new hidden
partition. If Win8 is installed onto a new, empty HDD, I believe it does
create the hidden partition, but I don't know because I've never had that
situation. (And I've never used Macrium Reflect and don't know anything
about it except what I've read in newsgroups like this.)

An intrigue of interest: A case of the residual partition in W8
NeverNever Land.

Evidently you haven't played with it, having no need or impediment
within reasonable rights to do so, being with an expected efficacy of
means given Microsoft to provide a loyal customer, such as yourself,
less pain with more gain.

Why anyone, particularly, technically coherent, or otherwise, ought on
Microsoft's behest to disassemble or otherwise incapacitate a
functional Windows computer prior to continued purchase support of
their products simply seems inconceivable;- I'm certain, that is to
say, Ockham's Razor isn't almost so sharp to send the public reeling
and rocking over into Windows tablatures, en masse, with W8 merely
being a ruse thereby to do so.

You will probably get conflicting advice from others because each of us has
different experienced and different computer setups. We're not all wrong;
just different.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche hold that, fundamentally, affirmation for
humankind exerts its toll in negation. For Niccolò di Bernardo dei
Machiavelli, in order to known and hold closest thine enemies,
Nietzsche then might reasonably expect to extol as most consequent to
his standing, those for whom antagonistic capacity inordinately
exceeds dismissible expectations posed by all but the most astute,
worthy, and hence affable critic.

What I should ask first, then, is without that partition you identify
as conditional or a non-essential entity of reason, prima facie, a
most-basic preparation of the hard drive apparently might seem to
evince, what consequence occurs in result whereupon and were it simply
removed;- furthermore, to evaluate what medium does it constitute to
and within means given for a binary sector rewrite in reconstituting
its form.

 

[meihaofeng]

在 2013å¹´1月16日星期三UTC+8上åˆ9æ—¶45分16秒，John Doe写é“：

I have a feeling that problems can ensue if the Windows 8 (and

maybe some prior versions) are installed with secondary hard

drives connected. Windows 8 installs an additional hidden system

partition. That partition might go to an available secondary

drive. If so, and then if you simply choose to back up what you

see as the Windows partition, you aren't properly backing up the

hidden system partition at the same time.



Of course there is the Macrium Reflect option on the left side of its

program window, for backing up necessary Windows parts. But some

people (like me) might miss that. I suppose it works just as well.

But having the windows beast on a single hard drive is probably a

good idea anyway.



So... Probably a good idea to disconnect secondary hard drives when

installing Windows 8.

To backup Windows 8, you also could try AOMEI Data Backuper, it is free backup software for backing up Windows Operating system, applications, partitions and disk.
More information: http://www.aomeitech.com/aomei-data-backuper.html

 

[John Doe]

Please ditch Google Groups for a real USENET program.
It makes an abortion out of your posts.

--

 

[John Doe]

Please learn how to properly format a USENET reply.

Hint: We start with introductions, not a salutation.

 

[Sjouke Burry]

Please ditch Google Groups for a real USENET program.
It makes an abortion out of your posts.

Please STOP topposting.
It makes an abortion out of your posts.

 

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo <[email protected]>,

Please STOP topposting.
It makes an abortion out of your posts.

best thing is to killfile him, he never posts anything worth reading.