Slight change of HD partition has rendered my images useless

[Fred]

Hi, I have a problem that I can't solve. I decided to remove a DELLUTULITY
partition that was on my HD and serving no purpose and so I imaged all my
partitions and then set about remodeling my HD. I deleted all the
partitions and then returned them at the same size they were originally.
Just the last partition was larger due to the regained space.

I restored the C partition image and on boot received error messages and no
boot.

I have reinstalled windows xp home edition so my computer is alive but I
can't use my images?

Does anyone have any ideas please.

Cheers, Fred

 

[Daniel Crichton]

Fred wrote on 25 Apr 2006 05:39:03 -0500:

Hi, I have a problem that I can't solve. I decided to remove a DELLUTULITY
partition that was on my HD and serving no purpose and so I imaged all my
partitions and then set about remodeling my HD. I deleted all the
partitions and then returned them at the same size they were originally.
Just the last partition was larger due to the regained space.

I restored the C partition image and on boot received error messages and
no boot.

I have reinstalled windows xp home edition so my computer is alive but I
can't use my images?

Does anyone have any ideas please.

Cheers, Fred

It's entirely possible that the DELLUTILITY partition is visible to XP
(albeit hidden) and so the partition ID for the XP system is 1 rather than
0. In the boot.ini file you will find that the XP system location is
referenced by the partition ID. I've never messed with reinstalling a Dell
system from images, but it might well be that if you can modify the boot.ini
file to change the partition ID it references for your existing XP on your
image, you can get it to boot. This should be simple enough using the
Recovery Console on your XP CD, and a modified boot.ini on a floppy disk
that you can then copy from within the console to the C: drive after you've
restored your image.

Dan

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

What was the error message?

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Fred]

It's entirely possible that the DELLUTILITY partition is visible to XP
(albeit hidden) and so the partition ID for the XP system is 1 rather
than 0. In the boot.ini file you will find that the XP system location
is referenced by the partition ID. I've never messed with reinstalling
a Dell system from images, but it might well be that if you can modify
the boot.ini file to change the partition ID it references for your
existing XP on your image, you can get it to boot. This should be
simple enough using the Recovery Console on your XP CD, and a modified
boot.ini on a floppy disk that you can then copy from within the
console to the C: drive after you've restored your image.

Dan

Thanks Dan, I will look into that. It brings me hope

Cheers Fred.

 

[Ron Sommer]

Fred wrote on 25 Apr 2006 05:39:03 -0500:


It's entirely possible that the DELLUTILITY partition is visible to XP
(albeit hidden) and so the partition ID for the XP system is 1 rather than
0. In the boot.ini file you will find that the XP system location is
referenced by the partition ID. I've never messed with reinstalling a Dell
system from images, but it might well be that if you can modify the
boot.ini file to change the partition ID it references for your existing
XP on your image, you can get it to boot. This should be simple enough
using the Recovery Console on your XP CD, and a modified boot.ini on a
floppy disk that you can then copy from within the console to the C: drive
after you've restored your image.

Dan

You have a good idea, but your numbers are off.
Partition numbers start with 1, so it is possible that the XP partition
number could be 2 or higher.
C is the first active partition.
My computer's recovery partition (1) is before the active XP partition (2).

 

[Donald Bertrand]

that utility partition actually does have a reason for existing. Dell puts
its diagnostic tools in a hidden partition. they also on newer systems put
your recovery image in a hidden partition (accessible with CTRL ALT F11 if
I recall correctly) the downside, is that now that you have deleted them,
they can never ever be put back on.

cheers,

Hello Ron,

 

[Daniel Crichton]

The utility partition can be recreated - if you dig around the Dell KB
you'll find the downloads required and the instructions on how to set them
up.

Dan

Donald wrote on Wed, 26 Apr 2006 02:29:38 +0000 (UTC):

 

[Daniel Crichton]

Ron wrote on Tue, 25 Apr 2006 21:23:48 -0500:

You have a good idea, but your numbers are off.
Partition numbers start with 1, so it is possible that the XP partition
number could be 2 or higher.
C is the first active partition.
My computer's recovery partition (1) is before the active XP partition
(2). --
Ron Sommer

Yes, sorry, everything else is zero based and I forgot that the partition
number is 1 based.

Dan