Xpress Recovery2 - The saga continues

[Mickey Mouse]

Just heard back from Gigabyte again.
Their response:
"The Unallocated space needs to be at least the same size as your system
partition."

Now if you have a hard drive of say 300Gb and you partition it to C:300Gb
then where
are you going to get the unallocated from?
If you have a hard drive of 300Gb and you partition it to C:100Gb then if
you create D:, then D: can be no larger than 100Gb so as to leave 100Gb
unallocated to equal C:
Sounds a bit rediculus to me but....

Anyway here is my reponse I sent back to Gigabyte:

"In response to your last reply:
Are you saying that if my system partition C: is 200gb then my unallocated
space needs to also be at least 200gb?
If so, and I make my unallocated space 200gb then Xpress Recovery2 will
work?
Now if it backs up my system at say 10gb, it uses 10Gb of the 200gb
unallocated. Can I use say 150gb of the 190gb unallocated left over to make
another partition for my use?"

Stay tuned folks.

Mickey

 

[Brian A.]

Just heard back from Gigabyte again.
Their response:
"The Unallocated space needs to be at least the same size as your system
partition."

No, it must to be at the least, the same size as the total data on the
partition you're going to create the image for.

Now if you have a hard drive of say 300Gb and you partition it to C:300Gb
then where
are you going to get the unallocated from?

You're not, unless you resize the volume with a disk utility/application
to create unallocated space.

If you have a hard drive of 300Gb and you partition it to C:100Gb then if
you create D:, then D: can be no larger than 100Gb so as to leave 100Gb
unallocated to equal C:
Sounds a bit rediculus to me but...

Incorrect, the size of the unallocated space must be at the least the same
size as the total data on the partition you're going to create the image
for. If the data on the partition you're going to create the image for
equals 45GB, then the unallocated space where you will create the image must
be at the least 45GB. However, you need to keep in mind any future growth
of the data being imaged or you may wind up not have enough space to create
the image.

Anyway here is my reponse I sent back to Gigabyte:

"In response to your last reply:
Are you saying that if my system partition C: is 200gb then my unallocated
space needs to also be at least 200gb?
If so, and I make my unallocated space 200gb then Xpress Recovery2 will
work?
Now if it backs up my system at say 10gb, it uses 10Gb of the 200gb
unallocated. Can I use say 150gb of the 190gb unallocated left over to
make another partition for my use?"

Yes.


--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Mickey Mouse]

Hi Brian,
Please don't misunderstand my next question. I don't mean any disrespect as
I ask
in a most respectful way.
When it comes to this topic, do you know what you're talking about ? I've
had a couple
replies and frankly those replies have come from some with little or no
experiance re- XR2.

Just heard back from Gigabyte again.
Their response:
"The Unallocated space needs to be at least the same size as your system
partition."

partition you're going to create the image for.

So, if I understand you,
If my OS + reg files + boot stuff + and all that other startup stuff
plus then my applications and every other damn thing else that gets
installed onto my C: system partition
comes to say 5Gb, then my unallocated space should be minimum 5Gb. In which
case I should make sure
that the unalllocated space I create is say, 10Gb to allow for future
backup/image expansion.

If you say Yes to this, then I would have to say that's incorrect.
I've tried many ways to get XR2 installed and going.
An example/
I've tried a C: primary partition of 300Gb and an 'unallocated space' of
100Gb
Now the only thing at that time on my C: drive was my OS + Mobo drivers.
Adding those two together only comes to a few Gb's,,, maybe.
Now that 100Gb of 'unallocated space' should and is way, way big enough,
right?
Well I still get a message saying "Insufficient free HHD space to create the
image Error 403".

According to Gigabyte, if you take them literally, the 'unallocated space'
in the above scenario should be
300Gb and not 100Gb's. In which case I might be able to reclaim some of the
'unallocatted space' AFTER
it's made it's own partition.

And another little titbit I haven't mentioned yet which you might be
interested in.
My main machine, the one I'm writing this on is also a gigabyte board.
On this machine I have two seperate physical hard drives. When I peek into
disk management I see the following...

Disk 0 (E
Basic 149.04 GB NTFS (and it's a primary partition)
149.04 Gb Healthy
Online

Disk 1 (C (D
Basic 302.73 GB NTFS 361.33 GB NTFS
34.46GB
698.51 Gb Healthy (System) Healthy
unallocted C: & D: are both Primary
Online

Now even with this machine I had the EXACT SAME PROBLEM, "not enough free
hdd space to create image"
HOWEVER! I made E: 'active' and then for some reason XR2 installed and did
it's thing.

I now have the following, after the system files and applications installed.

Disk 0 (E
Basic 149.04 GB NTFS (and it's a primary partition)
149.04 Gb Healthy (Active)
Online

Disk 1 (C (D
Basic 302.73 GB NTFS 361.33 GB NTFS
28.51GB 5.95GB
698.51 Gb Healthy (System) Healthy
unallocted Healthy (EISA Configuration)
Remember, this only worked after making E: active.

The machine I want to install XR2 on only has one physical drive partitioned
to C:300Gb & D:200Gb with 30Gb 'unallocated'
I'm wondering as I write this, can I, and what would happen if I made D:
'Active'?
Unfortunately, I won't have that machine back here for a few days
You know, mastering the Rubik's Cube was easier than this. I could walk
away from this problem and live a happy life, but I'm
not going to let it go! Don't ya just luv a good puzzle
Getting to be a bit like a Sherlock Holmes novel though.

Mickey

 

[Daave]

Hi Brian,
Please don't misunderstand my next question. I don't mean any
disrespect as I ask
in a most respectful way.
When it comes to this topic, do you know what you're talking about ?
I've had a couple
replies and frankly those replies have come from some with little or
no experiance re- XR2.

If that is Gigabyte's official response, it is safe to assume it is
correct.

partition you're going to create the image for.

So, if I understand you,
If my OS + reg files + boot stuff + and all that other startup stuff
plus then my applications and every other damn thing else that gets
installed onto my C: system partition
comes to say 5Gb, then my unallocated space should be minimum 5Gb. In
which case I should make sure
that the unalllocated space I create is say, 10Gb to allow for future
backup/image expansion.

If you say Yes to this, then I would have to say that's incorrect.

All Brian is saying is what the Gigabyte tech is saying. Why do you
think it's incorrect?

I've tried many ways to get XR2 installed and going.
An example/
I've tried a C: primary partition of 300Gb and an 'unallocated space'
of 100Gb

Unallocated *where*? On the destination drive? Or on the same physical
disk (source disk) that C: resides?

Now the only thing at that time on my C: drive was my OS + Mobo
drivers.
Adding those two together only comes to a few Gb's,,, maybe.
Now that 100Gb of 'unallocated space' should and is way, way big
enough, right?

Wrong. Remember that the tech stated that "The Unallocated space needs
to be at least the same size as your system partition." If your C:
partition is 300 GB, then 100 GB of unallocated space on the destination
drive is 200 GB too small. The unallocated space on the destination
drive must be at least 300 GB in order to use that program. Of course,
you may choose to run a different program that doesn't have this
requirement. Or you can use a third-party program to resize your C:
partition, shrinking it down to, say, 20 GB. If you were to do this,
then the 100 GB of unallocated space on the destination drive would of
course be more than sufficient.

Well I still get a message saying "Insufficient free HHD space to
create the image Error 403".

The message is accurate. You need at least 300 GB of unallocated space
on the destination HDD in order to accomplish what you are describing.

If you want to make your life easier, don't use that program! Use either
Acronis True Image or DriveImageXML. When you image with those programs,
your destination hard drive doesn't need to have any unallocated space
at all. Merely save the image archive -- plain and simple. Use
compression and you won't need to use up such a large portion of the
hard drive.

According to Gigabyte, if you take them literally, the 'unallocated
space' in the above scenario should be
300Gb and not 100Gb's.
Yes.

In which case I might be able to reclaim some of the 'unallocatted
space' AFTER
it's made it's own partition.

What do you mean by reclaim? The remainder *will* be unallocated space.
If the destination hard drive is 500 GB and you don't have any
partitions on there at all, then you have 500 GB of unallocated space.
After you run your program, there will be one 300 GB partition and the
rest will be 200 GB of unallocated space. You may do whatever you want
with it. Create one or more partitions. Or do nothing at all.

And another little titbit I haven't mentioned yet which you might be
interested in.
My main machine, the one I'm writing this on is also a gigabyte board.
On this machine I have two seperate physical hard drives. When I peek
into disk management I see the following...

Disk 0 (E
Basic 149.04 GB NTFS (and it's a primary
partition)
149.04 Gb Healthy
Online

Disk 1 (C
(D
Basic 302.73 GB NTFS 361.33 GB NTFS 34.46GB
698.51 Gb Healthy (System) Healthy unallocted
C: & D: are both Primary
Online

I am sure that 34.36 GB and 698.51 GB are reversed!

Now even with this machine I had the EXACT SAME PROBLEM, "not enough
free hdd space to create image"

If you are tying to image E: (which is over 300 GB) onto the unallocated
prtion of Disk 1, of course you'd have the same problem.

HOWEVER! I made E: 'active' and then for some reason XR2 installed
and did it's thing.

What thing? What exactly happened?

I now have the following, after the system files and applications
installed.

Disk 0 (E
Basic 149.04 GB NTFS (and it's a primary
partition)
149.04 Gb Healthy (Active)
Online

Disk 1 (C
(D
Basic 302.73 GB NTFS 361.33 GB NTFS 28.51GB
5.95GB
698.51 Gb Healthy (System) Healthy unallocted
Healthy (EISA Configuration)
Remember, this only worked after making E: active.

The machine I want to install XR2 on only has one physical drive
partitioned to C:300Gb & D:200Gb with 30Gb 'unallocated'
I'm wondering as I write this, can I, and what would happen if I made
D: 'Active'?
Unfortunately, I won't have that machine back here for a few days
You know, mastering the Rubik's Cube was easier than this. I could
walk away from this problem and live a happy life, but I'm
not going to let it go! Don't ya just luv a good puzzle
Getting to be a bit like a Sherlock Holmes novel though.

Do you have any other physcial hard drives other than the two in the PC?
I was originally under the impression that you had a third (external)
hard drive. If you want to make an image of E:, it should reside on a
hard drive that is not in the same PC!

 

[Brian A.]

Hi Brian,
Please don't misunderstand my next question. I don't mean any disrespect
as I ask
in a most respectful way.
When it comes to this topic, do you know what you're talking about ? I've
had a couple
replies and frankly those replies have come from some with little or no
experiance re- XR2.

I do not and never have used XR2, I've been using Ghost from way back when
and added ATI Enterprise Server near 2 years ago, both by far superior to
XR2.

partition you're going to create the image for.

So, if I understand you,
If my OS + reg files + boot stuff + and all that other startup stuff
plus then my applications and every other damn thing else that gets
installed onto my C: system partition
comes to say 5Gb, then my unallocated space should be minimum 5Gb. In
which case I should make sure
that the unalllocated space I create is say, 10Gb to allow for future
backup/image expansion.

If you say Yes to this, then I would have to say that's incorrect.

From:
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/TechGuide_List.aspx?NewTechID=91

<quote>
Xpress Recovery2 will store the backup image file at the end of the hard
disk,so user must reserve enough unallocated hard drive partition space in
advance. (A minimum 4GB is recommended but the actual space is dependent on
the size of the data to be backed up)

I've tried many ways to get XR2 installed and going.
An example/
I've tried a C: primary partition of 300Gb and an 'unallocated space' of
100Gb
Now the only thing at that time on my C: drive was my OS + Mobo drivers.
Adding those two together only comes to a few Gb's,,, maybe.
Now that 100Gb of 'unallocated space' should and is way, way big enough,
right?
Well I still get a message saying "Insufficient free HHD space to create
the image Error 403".

My thoughts are you're getting the Error 403 Forbidden/Access Denied
because for one reason or another XR2 isn't seeing the unallocated space, if
any error logs are created you can check them out to possibly find out why.
On the other side, you'ld have to discuss it with Gigabyte support to sort
it out.

According to Gigabyte, if you take them literally, the 'unallocated space'
in the above scenario should be
300Gb and not 100Gb's. In which case I might be able to reclaim some of
the 'unallocatted space' AFTER
it's made it's own partition.

The only reason for the space to be doubled where the image will be
stored, would be if the imaging application creates a new image in the space
before deleting the present image in the space. To the point, there must be
enough storage space for the image being created whether the space will
store 1 image or multiple images.

And another little titbit I haven't mentioned yet which you might be
interested in.
My main machine, the one I'm writing this on is also a gigabyte board.
On this machine I have two seperate physical hard drives. When I peek
into disk management I see the following...

Just because it's a Gigabyte board doesn't mean the application will work
with it, they state on the linked page I provided:
<quote>
On a few motherboards based on Nvidia chipsets, BIOS update is required for
Xpress Recovery2 to correctly identify RAID and SATA IDE mode. Please
contact your motherboard manufacturer.
Xpress Recovery2 supports only PATA hard disks and not SATA hard disks on
the following motherboards: GA-K8U, GA-K8U-9, GA-K8NXP-SLI, GA-K8N
Ultra-SLI, GA-K8N Pro-SLI, GA-K8NXP-9, GA-K8N Ultra-9, GA-K8NF-9 (PCB Ver.
1.0), GA-K8NE (PCB Ver. 1.0), GA-K8NMF-9, GA-8N-SLI Royal, GA-8N-SLI Pro,
GA-8N-SLI

Disk 0 (E
Basic 149.04 GB NTFS (and it's a primary partition)
149.04 Gb Healthy
Online

Disk 1 (C (D
Basic 302.73 GB NTFS 361.33 GB NTFS 34.46GB
698.51 Gb Healthy (System) Healthy unallocted
C: & D: are both Primary
Online

Now even with this machine I had the EXACT SAME PROBLEM, "not enough free
hdd space to create image"
HOWEVER! I made E: 'active' and then for some reason XR2 installed and
did it's thing.

AFAICT from what they state, the partition only needs to be a Primary one,
read the linked page.

I now have the following, after the system files and applications
installed.

Disk 0 (E
Basic 149.04 GB NTFS (and it's a primary partition)
149.04 Gb Healthy (Active)
Online

Disk 1 (C (D
Basic 302.73 GB NTFS 361.33 GB NTFS 28.51GB
5.95GB
698.51 Gb Healthy (System) Healthy unallocted
Healthy (EISA Configuration)
Remember, this only worked after making E: active.

The machine I want to install XR2 on only has one physical drive
partitioned to C:300Gb & D:200Gb with 30Gb 'unallocated'
I'm wondering as I write this, can I, and what would happen if I made D:
'Active'?

It's been my understanding that you can only have one Primary partition
set as Active on a single Volume, unless each Active Primary is hidden from
any other one and if the partition is an Extended one it can not be set as
Active.

Unfortunately, I won't have that machine back here for a few days
You know, mastering the Rubik's Cube was easier than this. I could walk
away from this problem and live a happy life, but I'm
not going to let it go! Don't ya just luv a good puzzle
Getting to be a bit like a Sherlock Holmes novel though.

It's all part of the learning curve in the "mystery" of life. Not unlike
these minor in-between events, we know the final outcome for life, we're all
born to die.


--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Brian A.]

If that is Gigabyte's official response, it is safe to assume it is
correct.

I believe they either mis-worded it in their reply or MM interpreted it in
another form.

All Brian is saying is what the Gigabyte tech is saying. Why do you think
it's incorrect?

I think not, I stated that the unallocated space needs to be at the least,
the same size or larger as ONLY the data written to the disk to be imaged.
Now either MM mis-worded the above or is still thinking in the way of the
techs statement. I think the 5 GB mentioned was not intended to be the
actual system partition size and was intended to be the total size of all
data written to the drive.

Unallocated *where*? On the destination drive? Or on the same physical
disk (source disk) that C: resides?

It doesn't matter where the unallocated space is as long as it's in its
own reserved Primary partition. Quoted from Gigabytes site, "For the use of
Xpress Recovery2, a primary partition must be reserved."

Wrong. Remember that the tech stated that "The Unallocated space needs to
be at least the same size as your system partition." If your C: partition
is 300 GB, then 100 GB of unallocated space on the destination drive is
200 GB too small. The unallocated space on the destination drive must be
at least 300 GB in order to use that program. Of course, you may choose to
run a different program that doesn't have this requirement. Or you can use
a third-party program to resize your C: partition, shrinking it down to,
say, 20 GB. If you were to do this, then the 100 GB of unallocated space
on the destination drive would of course be more than sufficient.

Not correct unless you're going by what MM provided that the tech stated,
which BTW I read into differently due to what's stated on Gigabytes site.
<quote>
Xpress Recovery2 will store the backup image file at the end of the hard
disk,so user must reserve enough unallocated hard drive partition space in
advance. (A minimum 4 GB is recommended but the actual space is dependent on
the size of the data to be backed up)
</quote>

Note the wording "the actual space is dependent on the size of the data to
be backed up".

The message is accurate. You need at least 300 GB of unallocated space on
the destination HDD in order to accomplish what you are describing.

Not correct, unless the partition to be imaged is 300 GB or less. If in
any way it was true and GBs of unused space were included in the image, they
might as well toss the app in the trash and stay away from data backup
developement.

If you want to make your life easier, don't use that program! Use either
Acronis True Image or DriveImageXML. When you image with those programs,
your destination hard drive doesn't need to have any unallocated space at
all. Merely save the image archive -- plain and simple. Use compression
and you won't need to use up such a large portion of the hard drive.


Yes.

Depends on which you believe is correct, the tech ot their site page.

What do you mean by reclaim? The remainder *will* be unallocated space. If
the destination hard drive is 500 GB and you don't have any partitions on
there at all, then you have 500 GB of unallocated space. After you run
your program, there will be one 300 GB partition and the rest will be 200
GB of unallocated space. You may do whatever you want with it. Create one
or more partitions. Or do nothing at all.


I am sure that 34.36 GB and 698.51 GB are reversed!


If you are tying to image E: (which is over 300 GB) onto the unallocated
prtion of Disk 1, of course you'd have the same problem.

Just above E: shows to be 149.04 GB, which is less than 300 GB.

What thing? What exactly happened?


Do you have any other physcial hard drives other than the two in the PC? I
was originally under the impression that you had a third (external) hard
drive. If you want to make an image of E:, it should reside on a hard
drive that is not in the same PC!

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Daave]

I believe they either mis-worded it in their reply or MM interpreted
it in another form.

I think not, I stated that the unallocated space needs to be at the
least, the same size or larger as ONLY the data written to the disk to
be imaged. Now either MM mis-worded the above or is still thinking in
the way of the techs statement. I think the 5 GB mentioned was not
intended to be the actual system partition size and was intended to be
the total size of all data written to the drive.

It doesn't matter where the unallocated space is as long as it's in
its own reserved Primary partition. Quoted from Gigabytes site, "For
the use of Xpress Recovery2, a primary partition must be reserved."

Not correct unless you're going by what MM provided that the tech
stated, which BTW I read into differently due to what's stated on
Gigabytes site.
<quote>
Xpress Recovery2 will store the backup image file at the end of the
hard disk,so user must reserve enough unallocated hard drive partition
space in advance. (A minimum 4 GB is recommended but the actual space
is dependent on the size of the data to be backed up)
</quote>

Note the wording "the actual space is dependent on the size of the
data to be backed up".

Not correct, unless the partition to be imaged is 300 GB or less. If
in any way it was true and GBs of unused space were included in the
image, they might as well toss the app in the trash and stay away from
data backup developement.

Depends on which you believe is correct, the tech ot their site page.

Just above E: shows to be 149.04 GB, which is less than 300 GB.

Thanks for the clarification, Brian. I guess my big mistake was asuming
that MM accurately relayed what the tech told him (or that the tech
wouldn't have made such a blunder himself). I was being far too literal.
That's good to know. I was thinking that the software was subpar.

Lesson learned. In the future, I will never assume.

 

[Mickey Mouse]

All Brian is saying is what the Gigabyte tech is saying. Why do you think

it's incorrect?

For example
If my harddrive is say 200GB and the data including the system will come to
say 50Gb,
then I think Brian is saying that my 'Unallocated space' which I create at
installation should be
'at least' 50Gb. That didn't work, I tried it.

Gigabyte is saying
If my harddrive is say 200GB all partitioned to C: then my 'Unallocated
space' has to be the same size 200Gb. That doesn't make any sense as there
is only one physical drive.

The Gigabyte book that came with the mobo says
Created your partitions leaving at least 10Gb 'Unallocated'. Anyone got the
book?

I know the problem will be with my understanding. I havn't heard from anyone
I think
so far in this thread that has actually done it and given a step by step
instruction.

My major concern right now is that I'm boring you guys to tears

Unallocated *where*? On the destination drive? Or on the same physical disk
(source disk) that C: resides?

OK, a hypothetical example step by step.

1. One physical drive and it's 500000Mb (500Gb) unformatted, unpartitioned.
2. Insert Windows XP home installation disk.
3. Installation disk asks if I want to make a partition
4. I decide yes and tell it to make a 300000Mb (300Gb)
5. It then proceeds to make me a 300Gb partition and calls it C:
6. It also displays the remainder 200000Mb (200Gb) 'Unallocated space',
which I leave as is.
7. I then tell it to install the OS to the C: partition which it does.
8 Windows get install ok, I then load all my drivers.
9. When all is done, I check disk management and see that I have..
(a) C:drive (system) Primary drive
(b) an amount of space around 200Gb either denoted as 'Free space or
'unallocated space'.
10. If it says 'free space' I turn it into 'unallocatted'

I now have a pc with one physical drive with one partition C:300Gb loaded
with Windos XP and drivers. Aslo appx 200Gb of 'unallocated space'
I try to install XR2 and it says I don't have enough free harddrive space to
create the image.
I know there is at least one other person reading this thread who is having
the exact same problem.
Don't I Conrad? Say something.

Mickey

 

[ushere]

For example If my harddrive is say 200GB and the data including the
system will come to say 50Gb, then I think Brian is saying that my
'Unallocated space' which I create at installation should be 'at
least' 50Gb. That didn't work, I tried it.

Gigabyte is saying If my harddrive is say 200GB all partitioned to
C: then my 'Unallocated space' has to be the same size 200Gb. That
doesn't make any sense as there is only one physical drive.

The Gigabyte book that came with the mobo says Created your
partitions leaving at least 10Gb 'Unallocated'. Anyone got the book?

I know the problem will be with my understanding. I havn't heard from
anyone I think so far in this thread that has actually done it and
given a step by step instruction.

My major concern right now is that I'm boring you guys to tears


OK, a hypothetical example step by step.

1. One physical drive and it's 500000Mb (500Gb) unformatted,
unpartitioned. 2. Insert Windows XP home installation disk. 3.
Installation disk asks if I want to make a partition 4. I decide yes
and tell it to make a 300000Mb (300Gb) 5. It then proceeds to make
me a 300Gb partition and calls it C: 6. It also displays the
remainder 200000Mb (200Gb) 'Unallocated space', which I leave as is.
7. I then tell it to install the OS to the C: partition which it
does. 8 Windows get install ok, I then load all my drivers. 9.
When all is done, I check disk management and see that I have.. (a)
C:drive (system) Primary drive (b) an amount of space around 200Gb
either denoted as 'Free space or 'unallocated space'. 10. If it says
'free space' I turn it into 'unallocatted'

I now have a pc with one physical drive with one partition C:300Gb
loaded with Windos XP and drivers. Aslo appx 200Gb of 'unallocated
space' I try to install XR2 and it says I don't have enough free
harddrive space to create the image. I know there is at least one
other person reading this thread who is having the exact same
problem. Don't I Conrad? Say something.

Mickey

not conrad, but i had exactly the same problem - i just gave up and
bought acronis. i had 2 hd's, followed gig's instructions, got same
error message. if i ever ran a piece of junk software, xr2 has to take
1st prize.

then again, maybe i'm stupid. but i'd love to read an explanation as to
how to use it so that it WORKS!

 

[Peter Foldes]

Unallocated space is usually 10-15% of the size of the drive

 

[Anna]

For example
If my harddrive is say 200GB and the data including the system will come
to say 50Gb, then I think Brian is saying that my 'Unallocated space'
which I create at installation should be 'at least' 50Gb. That didn't
work, I tried it.

Gigabyte is saying
If my harddrive is say 200GB all partitioned to C: then my 'Unallocated
space' has to be the same size 200Gb. That doesn't make any sense as there
is only one physical drive.

The Gigabyte book that came with the mobo says
Created your partitions leaving at least 10Gb 'Unallocated'. Anyone got
the book?

I know the problem will be with my understanding. I havn't heard from
anyone I think so far in this thread that has actually done it and given a
step by step instruction.

My major concern right now is that I'm boring you guys to tears

OK, a hypothetical example step by step.

1. One physical drive and it's 500000Mb (500Gb) unformatted,
unpartitioned.
2. Insert Windows XP home installation disk.
3. Installation disk asks if I want to make a partition
4. I decide yes and tell it to make a 300000Mb (300Gb)
5. It then proceeds to make me a 300Gb partition and calls it C:
6. It also displays the remainder 200000Mb (200Gb) 'Unallocated space',
which I leave as is.
7. I then tell it to install the OS to the C: partition which it does.
8 Windows get install ok, I then load all my drivers.
9. When all is done, I check disk management and see that I have..
(a) C:drive (system) Primary drive
(b) an amount of space around 200Gb either denoted as 'Free space or
'unallocated space'.
10. If it says 'free space' I turn it into 'unallocatted'

I now have a pc with one physical drive with one partition C:300Gb loaded
with Windos XP and drivers. Aslo appx 200Gb of 'unallocated space'
I try to install XR2 and it says I don't have enough free harddrive space
to create the image.
I know there is at least one other person reading this thread who is
having the exact same problem.
Don't I Conrad? Say something.

Mickey

Mickey:
This isn't "boring" at all. Actually it's quite interesting (at least for
me), especially since I'll be shortly putting together probably next week a
system containing one of the newer Gigabyte motherboards.

As I believe I previously mentioned to you (in another thread re the Casper
5 program) I've installed and worked with a fair number of Gigabyte
motherboards but I've never installed nor worked with that particular
program for the reason I previously mentioned, i.e., I'm generally
uncomfortable with the notion of having one's backup/recovery program on the
same boot HDD. But as you've indicated it's worked for you in the past so
that's all that counts.

Anyway, I had a chance to chat with one of my former colleagues who has had
some (limited) experience with that Xpress Recovery2 program. While he's in
agreement with my general point-of-view about not installing a
backup/recovery type of program on the same physical HDD the user would be
restoring, he has installed the program a number of times because the
customer desired such. He seemed to recall (at least during a testing phase
of the system) that the program worked as advertised, i.e., it was able to
restore a corrupted OS to a bootable state.

Like you, he has gone along with Gigabyte's recommendation that a minimum of
10 GB of unallocated disk space be available for the program to create its
partition. He couldn't recall whether he ever had a problem installing the
program. Since the program is designed to back up (via an image) only the
OS, presumably that disk space should be sufficient for the program's
purpose.

He couldn't explain the error message you have rec'd even though you've left
about double that amount of unallocated disk space - you had mentioned that
you had left about 20 GB of unallocated disk space as I recall.

(I note in your hypothetical example above you've indicated 200 GB of
unallocated space - just to further make the point - I assume - that
something is amiss when the XR2 program still would report insufficient disk
space to create the program.)

I might also mention that my former colleague also recalled that at one
point or another when he was having some problem with the program (he
couldn't recall whether it related to the installation of the program or its
restoration process) he got in touch with Gigabyte and was informed by one
of their techs that XR2 was not designed to be used as a routine incremental
backup & restoration program. But he couldn't really amplify that tech's
comment or what it had to do with the problem he had raised with Gigabyte.
But for some reason that comment stuck in his mind. I just thought I'd
mention it to you in passing for whatever it's worth.

So I'll plan to install the XR2 program hopefully some time next week when I
build the system. Assuming the installation process goes without a hitch
(similar to what you've been experiencing), I'll play around with the
program to see what I can learn. I'll subsequently pass on any relevant
comments to you.

In the meantime, if by chance you've resolved the installation problem,
please let us know. And if there's any special info that you think I (and
others) should know re the restoration process I would appreciate your also
passing on such.

Who knows? I might even like the program!
Anna

 

[Brian A.]

For example
If my harddrive is say 200GB and the data including the system will come
to say 50Gb,
then I think Brian is saying that my 'Unallocated space' which I create at
installation should be
'at least' 50Gb. That didn't work, I tried it.

Gigabyte is saying
If my harddrive is say 200GB all partitioned to C: then my 'Unallocated
space' has to be the same size 200Gb. That doesn't make any sense as there
is only one physical drive.

In that case, according to Gigabyte you need to reinstall the the OS and
repartition the drive so it has unallocated space. You can get the manual
for your specific board here.
http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Support/Motherboard/Manual_List.aspx

However, I don't think the information they provide for XR2 in their
manuals is going to help out any better than the tech or the site link link
I provided.

The Gigabyte book that came with the mobo says
Created your partitions leaving at least 10Gb 'Unallocated'. Anyone got
the book?

And if you'll notice, they show the unallocated space at double the size
of the Primary partition containing the OS and yet they still have no
mention that the unallocated space needs to match or better the size of the
Primary drive with the OS. They definitely don't provide any proper
instructions for Joe user.

I know the problem will be with my understanding. I havn't heard from
anyone I think
so far in this thread that has actually done it and given a step by step
instruction.

My major concern right now is that I'm boring you guys to tears

You're not boring us, but we may get dizzy walking around in all the
circles.

OK, a hypothetical example step by step.

1. One physical drive and it's 500000Mb (500Gb) unformatted,
unpartitioned.
2. Insert Windows XP home installation disk.
3. Installation disk asks if I want to make a partition
4. I decide yes and tell it to make a 300000Mb (300Gb)
5. It then proceeds to make me a 300Gb partition and calls it C:
6. It also displays the remainder 200000Mb (200Gb) 'Unallocated space',
which I leave as is.
7. I then tell it to install the OS to the C: partition which it does.
8 Windows get install ok, I then load all my drivers.
9. When all is done, I check disk management and see that I have..
(a) C:drive (system) Primary drive
(b) an amount of space around 200Gb either denoted as 'Free space or
'unallocated space'.
10. If it says 'free space' I turn it into 'unallocatted'

I now have a pc with one physical drive with one partition C:300Gb loaded
with Windos XP and drivers. Aslo appx 200Gb of 'unallocated space'
I try to install XR2 and it says I don't have enough free harddrive space
to create the image.
I know there is at least one other person reading this thread who is
having the exact same problem.
Don't I Conrad? Say something.

Since I haven't seen mention of it or it has lapsed from memory, I'll ask.
Have you even attempted to use XR2 on split disk where the unallocated space
is the same size or larger than the Primary partition containing the OS? If
not, you know what the next step to take is and then get back to us with the
results.


--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Mickey Mouse]

If that is Gigabyte's official response, it is safe to assume it is

correct.

Brian said: I believe they either mis-worded it in their reply or MM
interpreted it in
another form.

"Thank you again for your kindly mail. According to the program design, the
unallocated partition reserved for the Xpress Recovery 2 must be equal or
larger than your system partition (ex. C:\), so please kindly check your
partition size then try again.

Regards,
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY"

All Brian is saying is what the Gigabyte tech is saying. Why do you think
it's incorrect?

I think not, I stated that the unallocated space needs to be at the least,
the same size or larger as ONLY the data written to the disk to be imaged.
Now either MM mis-worded the above or is still thinking in the way of the
techs statement. I think the 5 GB mentioned was not intended to be the
actual system partition size and was intended to be the total size of all
data written to the drive

Notice the Tech above says "system partition" not the total size of files in
it.

It doesn't matter where the unallocated space is as long as it's in its own
reserved Primary partition. Quoted from Gigabytes site, "For the use of
Xpress Recovery2, a primary partition must be reserved."

How do you reserve a primary partition, and how can a partition be primary
and unallocated at the same time? Make it Primary, you make it allocated.
Seems I'm not the only magician here. lol

I am sure that 34.36 GB and 698.51 GB are reversed!

Well, the above somehow got screwed up in transmission

Taken from disk management,
Disk 1 is a Basic physical drive totaling 698.51Gb Online.

This Disk 1 (basic disk) comprises of partitions, C: 302.73Gb Healthy system
AND D: 361Gb Healthy.
And finally it's showing 34.46Gb 'Unallocated' space.

E: drive is a totaly seperate physical drive. When I made E: Active XR2
worked. Why? I don't know why!
Maybe Making E: active was not the reason but XR2 did create an image 'on
disk1' using part of the 34Gb unallocated.

Do you have any other physcial hard drives other than the two in the PC? I
was originally under the impression that you had a third (external) hard
drive. If you want to make an image of E:, it should reside on a hard drive
that is not in the same PC!

No, no external drives just two hard drives E: = just one partition 149 odd
Gb
And the other ( the drive in question) is 698.51Gb partitioned C: & D: +
the unallocated.
E: is just another storage drive.

How about we leave it at that guys. when I get precise and accurate
information from Gigabyte
I'll post it up. I'll even, for anyone interested post a step by step, the
right way to use XR2..

Really, we havn't gotten very far with this, however, it has been most
enjoyable talking to you people.
It's been stimulating, if not fruitful. Thanks to Daave, Brian and all the
rest for your input.
I wish you all the best.

Mickey

 

[Brian A.]

Brian said: I believe they either mis-worded it in their reply or MM
interpreted it in
another form.

"Thank you again for your kindly mail. According to the program design,
the unallocated partition reserved for the Xpress Recovery 2 must be equal
or larger than your system partition (ex. C:\), so please kindly check
your partition size then try again.

Regards,
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY"

They really need to get their right/left half working together united as
one to clean up their instructional information.

I think not, I stated that the unallocated space needs to be at the
least,
the same size or larger as ONLY the data written to the disk to be imaged.
Now either MM mis-worded the above or is still thinking in the way of the
techs statement. I think the 5 GB mentioned was not intended to be the
actual system partition size and was intended to be the total size of all
data written to the drive

Notice the Tech above says "system partition" not the total size of files
in it.

And note the instructions on their site and in the manual do not make that
even close to clear.

How do you reserve a primary partition, and how can a partition be primary
and unallocated at the same time? Make it Primary, you make it allocated.
Seems I'm not the only magician here. lol

You'll have to clear that up with Gigabyte to get the proper
interpretation of their words.

Well, the above somehow got screwed up in transmission

Taken from disk management,
Disk 1 is a Basic physical drive totaling 698.51Gb Online.

This Disk 1 (basic disk) comprises of partitions, C: 302.73Gb Healthy
system AND D: 361Gb Healthy.
And finally it's showing 34.46Gb 'Unallocated' space.

E: drive is a totaly seperate physical drive. When I made E: Active XR2
worked. Why? I don't know why!
Maybe Making E: active was not the reason but XR2 did create an image 'on
disk1' using part of the 34Gb unallocated.

Unless you've mis-written, I am of the understanding that you have
successfully created an image from a 149.04 GB partition into the 34.46 GB
unallocated space.
There's the proof in the pudding that the unallocated space to store the
image in, does not have to be as large or larger than the entire partition
size that is to be imaged.

No, no external drives just two hard drives E: = just one partition 149
odd Gb
And the other ( the drive in question) is 698.51Gb partitioned C: & D: +
the unallocated.
E: is just another storage drive.

How about we leave it at that guys. when I get precise and accurate
information from Gigabyte
I'll post it up. I'll even, for anyone interested post a step by step, the
right way to use XR2..

Really, we havn't gotten very far with this, however, it has been most
enjoyable talking to you people.
It's been stimulating, if not fruitful. Thanks to Daave, Brian and all the
rest for your input.
I wish you all the best.

And the best wishes to you as I patiently await the results between you
and Gigabyte.


--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

 

[Daave]

How about we leave it at that guys. when I get precise and accurate
information from Gigabyte
I'll post it up. I'll even, for anyone interested post a step by step,
the right way to use XR2..

Really, we havn't gotten very far with this, however, it has been most
enjoyable talking to you people.
It's been stimulating, if not fruitful. Thanks to Daave, Brian and all
the rest for your input.
I wish you all the best.

And thank you, too, Mickey. I hope you get it all figured out... that
is, once Gigabyte gets it all figured out.

 

[ushere]

And thank you, too, Mickey. I hope you get it all figured out... that
is, once Gigabyte gets it all figured out.

they'll be quite a few people awaiting the official reply!

 

[Mickey Mouse]

Hi Anna, I'm not going to say much about XR2 untill I hear back from
Gigabyte. I emailed them a few hours ago. I emailed in such a way that
left no room for doubt as to what was going on and what is required and what
I expected of them.

The ball is now squarely in their court! I gave them a hypathetical out of
the box new system.
I outlined to them what motherboard was going into it,
the harddrive (blank) that was going to be used and what size it would be.
I told them how many partitions I wanted,
And I told them exactly what software was going to be loaded, which was
Windows XP, the Drivers and the
Microsoft updates. That's all.
Finally, I told them exactly what the problem was trying to get XR2
installed.

I asked them then to go ahead and prepare this system (on paper) with XR2
installed.
Step by Step

I can send you a copy of the letter if you like. It's in a Word.doc, just
ask.

My sister is a perfect typical example, let me explain.
She does not and never will ever learn how to use Windows correctly. Why,
because she says she doesn't want to know. Her one and only concern is that
when she pushes the button the computer turns on!

Now how many users do you think are out there like her. The number would be
staggering.
You think these people are going to want to spend time learning Casper or
Acronis? you can bet your bippy their not going to want to.

Enter XR2. When the machine goes down permanently simply hit the F9 button
when booting up and in a
little while what ever is in the image backup is back only leaving it
necessary to reload what ever was installed in the machine after the last
backup.

Yes the image partition is on the same drive but as long as the image
partition is not damaged and it's
usually not, then there is no problem.

XR2 is perfect for the, "I don't care how it works, I just wanna play my
game user", such as my sister.

When she calls me with a crashed system, (she lives in another state) I just
tell her to boot up, hit F9
and call me in the morning!!

You know my feeling regarding incremental backups but did I mention 'Erunt'?

Erunt is a program I use to do incremental backups of my registry, and it's
free.

If I install a program that messes up my machine then it's not as simple as
to just uninstalling the offending
installation. Because uninstalling, as you know, doesn't in most cases clear
the clutter out of the registry.

I simply use Erunt to restore my registry to before I installed the ofending
installation.
Everytime I install a new application and all is working ok, then I just
make another back up of my registry.
Works pretty much like that Windows program, that only works when it feels
like it.
Oh yeah, system restore.

How do you like the subject heading of this thread?
I was for a little while considering, Like sands through the hour
galss.....

Mickey

 

[Mickey Mouse]

news:[email protected]...

Since I haven't seen mention of it or it has lapsed from memory, I'll
ask.
Have you even attempted to use XR2 on split disk where the unallocated
space is the same size or larger than the Primary partition containing the
OS? If not, you know what the next step to take is and then get back to
us with the results.


--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Yes I did Brian, if you go back a few thousand posts ago. It's where I
mentioned making my E: frive Active.

Mickey

 

[Mickey Mouse]

Unless you've mis-written, I am of the understanding that you have
successfully created an image from a 149.04 GB partition into the 34.46 GB
unallocated space.
There's the proof in the pudding that the unallocated space to store the
image in, does not have to be as large or larger than the entire partition
size that is to be imaged.


Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375

No Brian, you have misunderstood, the 149Gb drive is my E: drive. A
completely seperate physical drive.
I only mentioned it because in one of my many experiments with XR2 I turned
E: active.
And then for some reason XR2 worked on my other physical drive. C: & D:
I don't know for sure why that worked, if indeed that was the reason. E:
drive is a seagate, the other drive with C: & D: is a western digital.

Mickey

 

[Brian A.]

No Brian, you have misunderstood, the 149Gb drive is my E: drive. A
completely seperate physical drive.

Ok, got it now.

I only mentioned it because in one of my many experiments with XR2 I
turned E: active.
And then for some reason XR2 worked on my other physical drive. C: & D:
I don't know for sure why that worked, if indeed that was the reason. E:
drive is a seagate, the other drive with C: & D: is a western digital.

And that still leaves the proof in the pudding by the information you
provided, partition C: was 302.73 GB and the unallocated space was 34.46 GB
which is buy a long shot no where near the same size or larger than the C:.
I think we may have hit upon the cause of the issue (or not), by your
clarification I believe it may have something to do with XR2s Hard Drive
Detection. They do state that XR2 "is capable of backing up and restoring
only from the first physical hard disk", I'd have to go back and refresh on
whether they mentioned somewhere else it being the first Primary disk.
Going with that and only that said, the information you provided shows E:
drive as DISK0, the C: drive as Disk1 and ICR if any mention was made as to
wwhat if any drive was set as Active. Now, since Disk0 is the first
physical disk and Disk1 is the second physical disk, XR2 may not have
detected either of the disks. Then once you set Disk0 as active, XR2 found
the first physical disk and was happy to work. As a test to kill the cat,
try connecting/setting the C: drive to be Disk0 and see if XR2 plays nice.

Mickey

--

Brian A. Sesko { MS MVP_Shell/User }
Conflicts start where information lacks.
http://basconotw.mvps.org/

Suggested posting do's/don'ts: http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
How to ask a question: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555375