Recovering C drive to a new disc does not allow a different sized partition

Try without selecting the entire disk (leave the MBR unticked) in "what to restore", select only one partition at a time and see if the problem subsists.

See Grover's Index Section 3 BB, CC, DD for some guides on how to accomplish this.

Thanks for the comments and sorry that it has taken me so long to get back here.
It was not until today that I actually tried again to restore my C drive to the other larger disk with a larger 'New C' drive.

I tried all the suggestions in the Grover's Index Section 3 BB, CC, DD - which basically just says what I had already done.

This time, the new drive which was previously partitioned as:
N: New System - 60.5GB
O: New Applications - 40 GB
P: Other - 85.6 GB.

was changed to just have the N partition present (to be the new C drive eventually) and the other partitions O and P removed and replace with unallocated space. In other words, there was nothing but the new C drive partition on the disc.

With this setup I tried to restore the backed up C drive via ATI using both Windows and via the rescue disc.
The options for restoring were

a) I select Recover,
b) Select my backup,
c) Select recover whole discs and partitions (leaving sector by sector and universal restore unticked),
d) Pick the C drive backup for restore - (the MBR is NOT selected),
e) Pick a new location as the 'C' drive on the other disc (currently N drive, set as primary and active),
f) Select the Change Default partition size

The Partition size information given is the same as I had previously, which is clearly incorrect as it states:
Free space before : 8,589,934,592 TB (Massive value)
Partition size : 0 bytes
Free space after : 60.56 GB.

I get the same when I try and restore from the rescue disc.

I don't understand what it is that I am doing wrong whereby I cannot define the size of the new partition for restoration.
Once again, the 'Free space after' value is really the size of the N drive partition.
Due to the incorrect and massive 'Free space before' value, it does not allow me to adjust anything.

Please advise because at the moment ATI 2010 is practically useless to me.

If your new disk is new, then from an elevated command prompt:
- type diskpart
- type list disk
- type select disk X (where X is the number of your new disk. Double check the disk name and size in the list)
- type clean (THIS WILL ERASED EVERYTHING THE DISK. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE SELECTED THE RIGHT DISK)

Try your restore again.

MRC_112,

Your best chance of success is to perform procedure when booted from the TI Rescue CD.

a) I select Recover,
b) Select my backup,
c) Select recover whole discs and partitions (leaving sector by sector and universal restore unticked),
d) Pick the C drive backup for restore - (the MBR is NOT selected),
e) Pick a new location as the 'C' drive on the other disc (currently N drive, set as primary and active),
f) Select the Change Default partition size

Your next screen "You can change the size of the partitions" is the key. Use your mouse pointer over the end of the partition and you will see the pointer change into two vertical bars. Moving the vertical bars laterally enables to reduce or expand the size of the partitions.

These vertical bars are available on both the left side of the partition as well as the right side. You can also use the pointer to grab hold in the middle of the partition (pointer changes to 4 arrows up/down & in/out) and move the entire partition left or right. As make any movements of the bars or the partition, you will see changes in the free space before and after.

Spend some time on this screen and just practice. Click accept on this screen and you can come right back into the same screen again by clicking the change default partition size. The more you practice manipulating the actual partition size boundaries, the easier the resizing becomes.

When done, the partition size should be the size you want and any extra space left over will be "free space after" which can be assigned to your next partition on your next restore.

The "free space before" will depend. If your os is vista or Win7, this setting should read 1 MB. If os is XP, it might read .03 MB. Most certainly the "free space before" should not be in the GB range or TB range.

If you don't like your settings, cancel and start over.

Your procedures will depend upon the current configuration of the target disk.
If I am assuming correctly, it sounds like you have individual backups for each partition and the first restore is your Drive C. If true, then probably the easiest way is to create the correctly size partitions in advance. You can do that with Windows or Acronis using the Add Disk option. You an also use the Add Disk option simply to delete any existing partitions from the target disk.

I prefer to start with a blank disk with no partitions and adjust the sizes as I go but my backups always include all partitions which makes the sizing of partitions very easy. None of my guides are specific to your setup but the closest is 3-BB with the Gateway laptop.

Thanks for the comments, but my problem still exists. Here is what I did.

I blanked the new disk completely using the method described by Pat L.
I then created the new partition for the new C drive on that disk using the Add Disk option and then setting the partition size to 60GB.

This has basically recreated what I had done using Paragon Hard Disk Manager - but thought it would be worth a try to check if Paragon had messed up somehow.

When I tried to restore again, I get the same issue with the massive free space before, zero partition size and free space afterwards being declared as the whole disc size (new C partition size plus unallocated space).

The adjustment dialogue does not allow me to change ANYTHING via either the sliders (which are not visible anyway), nor via the partition size numerical entry boxes. Doing it via the rescue disc give the same result. Done via Windows to get the screen shot.
I have attached a screen shot of the problem which shows the discs I have (top left), the disc size being reported by Acronis (top right) and the dialogue that I get when I try to change the partition size (bottom right).

Subsequently, there is nothing I can do.
Hopefully the screen shot will provide some help.

PS: You are correct, I have separate backups for each partition, so I am restoring a C drive backup of 24GB to the new 60GB partition.

I am probably doing something silly, but I cannot see it.

MRC_112,

Rename your new system partition "New System", rename your old partition "Old System"

Boot your computer on the Acronis recovery CD.

Watch out! On the recovery CD the disk numbers and letters will probably be different from what you see in Windows. LOOK AT THE LABELS (this is why we renamed the partitions as a first step) and at the characteristics (size) of the partitions.

Try your restore from ATI running on this CD.

I understand your concern, but I knew exactly which disc I was accessing as the original disc had 3 partitions on it and the new one only the single partition.
However, I have renamed the new C drive partition as suggested.
I still get the problem with unable to set any sort of partition adjustments.

I DO run the restore from the ATI rescue disc.
I got ATI from official download rather than packaged, so created the rescue disc from within ATI itself.

As a reminder;

Your best chance of success is after restoring (or cloning) Shutdown the computer and disconnect all drives except the intended new boot drive. Also the new drive should be connected to the same motherboard connector as the one used by the original disk. If you leave both drives attached on first bootup, most likely you will have mixup of drive letters as Windows does not know how to handle two identical drives. After Windows boots correctly into the new larger disk, then you can attach the old drive at a later time as an external or other internal disk.

I still get the problem with unable to set any sort of partition adjustments.

Here is one option you might want to consider.

Due to your ongoing problems, use a different approach.
(1) Download an alternate TI Rescue CD titled "Bootable media" from your Acronis registration account. This alternate Rescue CD has different drivers and sometimes different versions of software. You can find more information on this item by clicking on my signature index below and selecting item 2 - G.

(2) Booting into the new CD, use the Add Disk option and delete the partitions on the intended target disks. Do NOT partition the new disk--leave the space unallocated on the new disk. Do not reboot.

(3) I don't recall a post identifying which operating system you are using. Your attachment seems to indicate you are using Vista or Windows 7 based on the title header of your Disk Management posting. If using either of these, then the "free space before" the first partition should be 1 megabyte. Hopefully, you are not using a Dell with a "media direct" system.

(4.) Continue with the CD, begin your restore of backup c again.
a. Select the target to be the unallocated.
b. Select he the partition type to be primary & active.
c. Resize the partition to be : Partition size=60.5 gb; free space after=125.6 gb. Free space before needs to be 1 MB. Be sure and change the reading from GB to MB. One easier way of doing this is to change the free space before to "0" and click accept. Then re-edit the size again and type the "1" into the windows labelled "MB" in the "free space before" windows. Click accept

If all correct, the partition size reading should read
Partition size=60.5 GB
Free space after= 125.5 GB
Free space before= 1 mb

5. No reboot necessary. Restore your next partition.
a. Select the target to be unallocated.
b. Confirm the partition type as correct. Change if necessary. It appears to be logical but your backup should identify. Active is NOT checked.
c. Resize Partition size to be 40 GB. Free space before should be 0; free space after should be 85.6GB or whatever is remaining.

6. No reboot necessary. Restore you final partition.
a. Select the target to be the unallocated
b. Confirm the partition type. Change if necessary. It appears to be primary. Active is NOT checked.
c. Edit partition size. Partition should occupy the total size. Free space before and after should be "0"

7. No reboot necessary. Again open your backup for C.
Restore only the MBR. On the next target screen, select the new larger disk and select the "Recovery disk signature" if that option is available.

8. Shutdown and perform any disk removal and cable switching, etc.
9. Reboot with only the new larger disk attached.

Sorry it has been such a long time since my last post.
My external drive enclosure broke so had to get another one and then never got round to trying the restore again.

Thanks for the help GroverH but my problem still persists.
I have tried everything suggested in this thread but to no avail.
1) Downloaded a newer version of the rescue disc as you suggested and used that
2) Ensured that all space on the new disc was 'unallocated' using Add Disk and also ensured that the original disc was not connected to the system
3) In Restore, selected the target as the 'unallocated' space and selected the partition to be primary and active
4) The Partition size information given is incorrect again as it still states:
Free space before : 8,589,934,592 TB
Partition size : 0 bytes
When I select Change default partition size, the dialogue that appears is completely 'greyed' out and nothing can be changed again.

Don't know if this has any bearing on the issue, but I am using WinXP Home SP3.

One other item of note: When I had done the Add Disk using Acronis with the original C drive disconnected, the BIOS had been updated so when I connected the original C drive back again, the computer wouldn't boot. At first I thought I had trashed the orignal drive somehow so tried to do a restore to the orignal C drive with a recent backup.
I was unable to do this as when I tried to restore it, I had the same issue of massive free space before and zero partition size.

This means that Acronis as it currently stands can restore any partition I want, provided it is not the C drive.
This is getting crazy now - what gives?

Thanks for your help so far, but if there are no further suggestions to fix this I think I am going to have to junk Acronis.
My very old version (which did not cater for external drives - hence the update to Acronis True Image Home 2010 buid 7.046 with Plus Pack) worked every time. This new version does not seem to work when restoring the C drive to either a larger partition or even the same partition.

At the moment, I'm not sure I can trust it. Please advise.

MRC_112,

All restores from the TI Rescue CD.
Another option you can try is when restoring, checkmark the disk as to what is being restored. Also checkmark the 'Recover disk signature which is on the target selection screen.

This will produce an identical sized disk or very close to the same sizes.

Shutdown and reboot with only the larger disk attached.

Once you have booted successfully with the new disk, then we can change the partition sizes with a partitioning program such as Acronis Disk Director; or use another free utility such as the Mini-Tool partition wizard which is a bootable CD and very easy to use. Once you get a new working disk, I can help you with the space adjustments which should not be an issue with XP. Post a screen capture of your new Windows Disk Management graphical view showing the sizes of the new partitions and your desired sizes.

http://www.partitionwizard.com

This is exactly the problem I am having. I have several full backups and each give the problem above. I also tried to restore to several disks and the same problem occurs ... in fact the same partition size is reported

The Partition size information given is clearly incorrect as it states:
Free space before : 8,589,934,592 TB
Partition size : 0 bytes
Free space after : 95.5 GB.

I did the same things as requested by the support people but nothing works. The bad thing is when i did this (with the latest version 2012) it wiped out my disk setting up new partitions and now I have no system and no data.

Follow the steps in item #2 at this link and let us know the results. Use the illustrated add disk option so the target disk is totally unallocated space before doing the recovery.

http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29618

### Deleted ###

GroverH,

thank you so much for your quick reply. I have been trying to restore for a week with no success and it is very important that I recover the data. I have tried everything in your instructions but checking the signature disk. I will try this now. I have used the add disk with unallocated as well as allocating space to the exact partition needed.... even tried recovering partitions separately...everything recovers but the C drive. I will let you know how this works. I am using windows 7, and the latest version of acronis 2012, and restoring from several boot disks made from acronis...the latest one downloaded from my account yesterday. also the backup (I have three all with the same problem) are all full backups, I did a sector by sector backup. The reason for the restore is my laptop disk had to be replaced.

If the laptop is a Thinkpad, the target disk must be installed inside the computer before doing the restore and use the Recover Disk Signature option.

the signature option did not work. I have to believe it is a bug because the same problem is on all three full backups, and also occurs on the drive in the PC (Dell) as well as an external drive. I rely on Acronis to preserve my data and told many people I do business with to use Acronis so hopefully we can find a work around. Funny thing is the free space before it tries to restore the main partition is exactly the same size as MRC_112 was getting and it is also the same large number regardless of the size disk I try to restore. One of these back ups did work on the disk that I had to replace and where the backup was taken from...the only other change is acronis had an update to 2012 about two weeks ago.

Charlie,
What version of Acronis True Image Home was used to make the full backups?

Charlie,
If you have some time, open this link and review or download item #1 at this link.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/29618

Then boot from the CD and repeat the same steps (simulation) with your backup as you see performed in figures 7, figures 8 and figure 9.

Once your figure 9 matches the same setup as example figure #9, am interested in knowing what items are listed.
Your finished example should have the partition numbers added and the starting sector column added. Your example will not show the ending sector. The example below is similar but not exact as your figure 9.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Example below is the CD recovery view of a backup where the disk or partitions are awaiting selection to be restored.
This example shows the display having been resorted so the partitions numbers appear and the start and ending sectors are displayed.

thank you again GroverH....I will do this now. Also, James F the backups were created with 2012 the latest in June about three weeks ago, there has been an update after this last update I believe. The recovery disk(s) i have been using are both the one created before the update and one created just yesterday by downloading for the ACRONIS website under my account. Thanks again for things to try as I am running out of thoughts and really need this data.

As a last ditch effort, you may be able to selectively restore files and folders from your backup image to a new location. and then move them to the correct location. I have never done a sector-by-sector backup. I will give it a spin and try a restore to see if that may be an issue with the partition restore.

I am wondering whether Charlie could be facing an issue with a dynamic disk...

This did not work because the c partition is not being established.

I did the columns and order exactly as it was on the back up. The order really had not changed from all the other attempts. it was
mrb & track 0
fat pri
ntfs (recovery) pri,act
ntfs (OS) C pri

as usual all the partitions get established and recovered except the c drive. The problem is the partition size is grayed out so I can not give a partition size, no mater what values I put in the free space before or after it does not create a partition for the c drive. I get the same value for
Free space before : 8,589,934,592 TB as MRC_112. In fact, I tried two different size disks and they both give the same number of free space before and does not create a partition for the c data. I tried to use the add disk utility to predefine the partitions but the restore again removes the c partition and can not create it for the recovery. I tried to recover everything but the c drive and that works fine, then when I tried to recover the c, again it deleted the c partition and the recovery failed. The only message I get is recovery failed. This really has to be a major bug in the ACRONIS software as the number in Free space before : 8,589,934,592 TB is too unusual for both of us to be having, and for the same number to occur on every drive I try to restore to.

James, I have been able to restore in the past. The problem is my laptop disk lost sectors and I had to replace it.

Pat, I am not given the choice in the recover program to define the disk as dynamic as that was one of the things I was going to try. My problem is that machine has no tools but what is on the acronis recovery disk since the restore wiped out everything redefining the partitions.

odd thing is for both MrB-112 and myself the free space after has the correct amount of space left on the disk. This is true even when I tried a different disk with a different size. The odd thing is the unusual number of free space before (always 8,589.934.592T

I checked the logs after the recovery failed....seems odd all my backups have the same problem ... the log has the following error

MFT bitmap corrupted (0X70018) tag=0X89D94B01

Charlie,
I suspect the backup images are the problem. I did a sector-by-sector backup of my system. It included a Windows System Reserved Partition, an OS primary partition, and a Data partition. After backup finished, I booted to the newly made (2012 build 7133) recovery disk, and attempted to duplicate the error that your post shows. I could not get the same type of error. When I select a partition to recover/restore, it populates the "Partition Size" field with the partition information from my disk images correctly. It looks like the backup image you have made for the "C" drive did not store the correct partition information in it. I have noticed in your screen captures, that once you select the "C" partition to restore, then the "Partition Size" selection field populates with the bad partition info. This partition information comes from the backup image. Have you tried to do a file/folder restore from the "C" partion image, to recover any information you may need? You can do this from the recovery CD/USB in "Recover My Disk" and choosing the file/folder options instead of trying to recover to entire partition. I know this may not be what you want, but may get you some of the needed files. The "free space before" number (8,589.934.592T), reported when you select the partition to restore, is probably a default value when ATIH can not determince/calculate the correct partition information. Acronis has a support policy where they don't charge for recovery issues, but I'm not sure how much they will be able to do with these errors. Sorry I can't help more.

Reading another thread about MFT corruption, a suggestion (that worked for one person) was made to copy the backup files to another device and try the restore again. A SATA/eSATA/PATA drive as opposed to a USB connected drive. I don't remember where you said your images were stored. Just a thought. The problem also may be that the MFT on the "C" drive was corrupt when you did the backup, and since you did a sector-by-sector backup, you also copied the corrupt MFT into you backup image.

thanks James. I will try to copy to another disk and try to do a restore. I find it odd that all three (all full back ups one month apart) have the same problem. Also, the funny thing is the restore thinks the recovery disk has a huge amount of space....but the space after the partition is always the correct number. If I could only specify the partition size, I think it would work. Thanks for the suggestions .... I now realize I need a reliable product for my backups. I have all my development and a lot of very expensive software that is only on these backups.

I'm sorry you have had these problems with Acronis. I, for one, have had growing pains over the years with the updates/new versions, and the problems they sometimes presented, but I have ALWAYS been able to recover my system. I would only use sector-by-sector backup if I needed to do data recovery or forensic data inspection on a hard disk drive. On my main system, I use more than one product from more than one manufacturer, to backup my system and data, as I can not afford to loose any of it. I also store a spare copy of the backup images on a second hard disk that I keep offsite. The problem you are facing is very unusual in that I have not seen it reported more than a couple of times on these forums or even on the archived forums except for MFT problems during BACKUP, not restore. When you do a sector-by-sector backup, Acronis does not care if the MFT is corrupt or not, and will not give you any errors related to corrupt MFT information. A normal backup "probably" would give you some type of error if the MFT was corrupt. Maybe the MFT is not corrupt in your backup images, and the problem lies with the location of the backup files. I wish you the very best of luck in your recovery progress.

I am currently having an identical issue when trying to restore my Dell Dimension 9150 C: drive back to the state it was in before a routine Windows Update went wrong a few days ago. I was getting the same Free space before: 8,589,934,592TB & Partition size: 0 bytes as OP, and the Free space after: reflects the disk size OK. I used ATIH tool Add a New Disk to set the whole target drive to unallocated space with all partitions deleted. Previously using ATIH Build 6154 created within Windows, I am now using ATIH 2012 Build 7133 downloaded from My Account. I also changed the 250GB drive, which I was trying to restore on to, for its predecessor 160GB model. Now I cannot even select a target disk in the Recovery Wizard. All drives are greyed out, except the external USB 3.0 drive that contains my backup images!

Lots of suggestions on this thread, but has anyone actually found a fix that works? I cannot help but feel it is MBR or MFT related.

Charlie, BigN,
Do you have a Dell FAT32 or Direct Media partition on the disk that you are trying to restore?

Since resizing the partition when restoring won't work (because of the error/bug), has anyone tried changing the size of the backed up image? For example, mounting it in read/write mode and deleting or adding some files. You might also see if you could run a chkdsk /f on it. Then unmount and see if the newly created Incremental has the same problem.

the fat restore works fine...it is the c drive where the problem occurs. The problem (bug) is that the ACRONIS restore does not allow you to define the partition and states the following:

Free space before : 8,589,934,592 TB
Partition size : 0 bytes
Free space after : xxxx.xx GB

where xxx.xx is the correct value of free space on the disk (I tried multiple disks with different sizes, this number is always correct). As you can see the partition size is always 0 so it never creates a partition. I tried to predefine the partition in add new disk, during the restore the Acronis program greys out where you can define the partition size (part of the problem) when the free space is so large, so I tried to define the free space before and after to lots of values - nothing works as it always defaults to 0 bytes. This is a huge bug that seems to be in this product for a long time and seems like a very simple fix - I believe if they allow the user to define the partition in this case or just restore to the amount of free space regardless of the size, it would work. I think it to be a bug because everyone gets the same absurd number for free space before...How the program derives this number is the source of the bug.

MudCrab, I will try your suggestion but I have three backups from different months and they all have the same problem. A further problem is I now have is when acronis tried to restore the backup it re-established the partitions and everything on that system was wiped out. I have to go to another machine to get on this site or use email.

Oh, Charlie, your problem is exactly as mine. Exasperating is it not? It could be an ATIH bug, but I had OS Selector active when I did my backup. So this may be part of the underlying problem. I have been advised by Firesage to run MBRWizard to remove the MBR on my Target disk, and then try the ATIH Recovery Wizard again, restoring both the partition data AND the original MBR. There could well be a small hidden partition behind this issue. Regrettably, and due to a family birthday, I have virtually no time to spend on this today, but I will be monitoring your progress. Sounds like we are in the same boat, but some good advice on this forum will get us out of this mess.

BigN....i tried to restore without the MBR, I made a partition with add disk and tried to recover just the c drive and it came up with the same problem. The problem is in how they are calculating the new drive partition. No matter the disk or back up they give the same amount of free space before the partition they are trying to create...this is true for all the disks I tried, MRC_112, you and I all have the same number (with the correct number after free space). Acronis does not create the partition and that is the problem. It is clearly a bug since at least MRC-112 reported the problem back in 2010 and I am now being told by many others they had the problem and just moved onto other products as they never could get any help resolving the problem from Acronis.

Charlie, not ignoring your comments... have no time to follow up now due to family birthday. Will do so tomorrow. Meantime Pat L, no Dell FAT32 or Direct Media partitions on the destination (target) disk. It has been wiped, re-formatted, exchanged, you name it! But as Acronis OS Selector was installed on the System drive when its backup image was created, there could well be such a partition (hidden) embedded there. But if TI did its biz properly, all that should just transfer over to the target disk along with the relevant MBR data? I have just bought MBRWizard GUI version, and will experiment with it ASAP, and post results.

 Hello all,

Thank you for taking time to contact us.

To investigate the issue we need Acronis system reports obtained from the Help section.

Also, if it is possible, we would like to receive the backup files so that we can try to reproduce the issue in our test lab. 

Thank you.

Many thanks, Oleg, for your reply. Unfortunately, and as a result of my ATIH failing to recover after my system crash last month, I first spent some two weeks trying various things to remedy what was a very serious situation. I had considerable help from several Acronis Forum members by PM, and I cannot thank them enough for their advice. This quickly demonstrated that my PC had cumulative bugs that meant even a successful restore, had it worked, really was not the answer!

So, my decision was to rebuild this computer from the top, except for data disks. Tempted to go Win 7 Pro 64-bit, the PC being suitable for this, nevertheless I decided to stick with tried and tested Win XP Pro. I am familiar with this OS, and I needed a fast result. This rebuild is now substantially completed, and as expected, the machine boots up and shuts down much faster than before. Only essential background utilities, maintenance utilities and major apps have been installed. The PC is lean and mean! Both ATIH and DD were well used to set up a dual boot configuration of Win_XP_Old and Win_XP_New, and multiple backup images were saved throughout the process as each major step was finished. This has now taken some five weeks to complete, and apart from my vacation coming soon, I now have a backlog of things to catch up on. And a wife who is distinctly not amused by all of this!

I am sure you will all understand when I tell you...
1) I just cannot afford to spend any more time on this.
2) ATIH was definitely not to blame for my initial system crash. It was a Windows Installer bug. But I strongly suspect that OS Selector was a major factor in TI's "The recovery operation failed" message.
3) Without major effort after so long, it is unlikely that I would be able to provide the logs and backup files that Oleg would need to reproduce this issue anyway.

So I am going to quit while I am ahead, and get my life back! Thanks all.