OS Transfer question

[P & H Macguire]

I use win XP SP2. I have recently had to re-install Windows and re-install
all my programs, updates etc. and really didn't want to have to do this
again. Accordingly, I decided to purchase Acronis True Image 11 to make a
re-installable backup of my system, and am expecting delivery of this very
soon.

I have one HDD 160gb, 2 1/2 years old, which has Windows on it, partitioned
into C:, D: E: Windows on C:

I also have a new 320GB HDD partitioned into F: G: and H:

I have reason to believe the 160 GB disk may be having problems, (humming
noise, bad sectors and so on) My question is, can I make an image of the
entire operating system and applications on Drives C D and E and then
transfer this to the other physical drive (350 gb) containing drives F G and
H, and then rename the partition with Windows to C:?

Hope this makes sense

Regards and thanks in advance

Pat Macguire

 

[philo]

I use win XP SP2. I have recently had to re-install Windows and re-install
all my programs, updates etc. and really didn't want to have to do this
again. Accordingly, I decided to purchase Acronis True Image 11 to make a
re-installable backup of my system, and am expecting delivery of this very
soon.

I have one HDD 160gb, 2 1/2 years old, which has Windows on it, partitioned
into C:, D: E: Windows on C:

I also have a new 320GB HDD partitioned into F: G: and H:

I have reason to believe the 160 GB disk may be having problems, (humming
noise, bad sectors and so on) My question is, can I make an image of the
entire operating system and applications on Drives C D and E and then
transfer this to the other physical drive (350 gb) containing drives F G and
H, and then rename the partition with Windows to C:?
'

To properly use Acronis...after you image one drive to another...

you must disconnect the original main drive...then put the "imaged" drive in
it's place...

the drive letters will be the same as original


Note: If you reboot and leave the 2nd drive in place...the drive letters
will be assigned incorrectly...
and may result in big problems when it's time to use it.

Just follow the instructions that come with Acronis...it's pretty clear.

BTW: The utility works great and has saved me *many* hours of trouble...I
though it well worth the purchase price

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I use win XP SP2. I have recently had to re-install Windows and re-install
all my programs, updates etc. and really didn't want to have to do this
again. Accordingly, I decided to purchase Acronis True Image 11 to make a
re-installable backup of my system, and am expecting delivery of this very
soon.

I have one HDD 160gb, 2 1/2 years old, which has Windows on it,
partitioned into C:, D: E: Windows on C:

I also have a new 320GB HDD partitioned into F: G: and H:

I have reason to believe the 160 GB disk may be having problems, (humming
noise, bad sectors and so on) My question is, can I make an image of the
entire operating system and applications on Drives C D and E and then
transfer this to the other physical drive (350 gb) containing drives F G
and H, and then rename the partition with Windows to C:?

No. You don't quite understand the process. The imaged drive is going
to be C, D, and E, as soon as you replace the old drive with it. You don't
do any renaming.

Hope this makes sense

Regards and thanks in advance

Pat Macguire

Imaging will take a bit-by-bit picture of the existing disk to the new one.
Once the image is made, you will then shut down, detach the old drive, and
put the new one in is place. Do *not* re-attach the old drive at this
time. Now, boot the system; the BIOS will want to update because of the
new hardware, but aside from that you should be able to boot normally.

When you boot with the new drive, it will be exactly as the old one was,
minus the failing media. The old drive letters will be assigned
automatically.

After that first boot, you can shut down and re-attach the old drive, or
better yet use a USB2 drive adapter or case to avoid having to open the
system again. But you'll have all the data that was on it, so there should
be no questions of needing it for recovery. This drive will then be
assigned other letters that aren't C, D, or E.

Acronis works very well, but in this particular scenario with multiple
partitions on one drive, I've not been able to resize partitions. So,
you're going to have unused and unpartitioned space on the new larger drive.
You can make another partition, or you can deal with it in other ways.

When you image a drive with only one partition to a new larger drive, *and
use Manual mode*, you can tell TrueImage to use all of the available space,
expanding the partition size. This option is not available in Automatic
mode.

If there are multiple partitions, as you have, I've not found a way to
resize any of them during the imaging process. If you wanted to do that,
I would suggest a juggling process with another temporary hard disk, where
you copy the data from the non-C partitions to folders, then delete those
partitions; this would allow TrueImage to let you use more of the drive
space. However, if you do this, you need to be aware of whether you have
apps installed on D and E, with registry entries pointing to them. If you
do, you pretty much need to re-create D and E partitions (even on another
hard disk) to make those registry references valid.

HTH
-pk

 

[P & H Macguire]

Thanks for both these illuminating responses. One fact I should have
mentioned is that I do have a 500 gb external hard drive, so it looks like I
could image each of the existing partitions, one at a time and under their
original names, to this drive, and then restore them to the "opposite"
disks, perhaps after having resized the partitions (and re-formatted the
disks ?) appropiately?

Regards

Pat Macguire

 

[philo]

Thanks for both these illuminating responses. One fact I should have
mentioned is that I do have a 500 gb external hard drive, so it looks like I
could image each of the existing partitions, one at a time and under their
original names, to this drive, and then restore them to the "opposite"
disks, perhaps after having resized the partitions (and re-formatted the
disks ?) appropiately?

Regards

Pat Macguire

That's a lot of extra work you are trying to create for yourself

just image the first drive to the 2nd one...that;s all there is to it

 

[P & H Macguire]

That's a lot of extra work you are trying to create for yourself

just image the first drive to the 2nd one...that;s all there is to it

Ok, but what happens to the programs/applications, and indeed the
partitions, installed on the "2nd" drive; are they just overwritten? Does
the imaging operation take what's on the first drive off it, or is it a
copy?

Regards

Pat Macguire