Backing Up System Files

EricG,

1. You need to make a complete disk image, this will include all hidden partitions.

2. Before doing that make sure you have made an True Image recovery CD and that it boots your system and can see your external hard drive.

3. Validate the image once made, this will take much longer than actually making the image but the peace of mind is worth it in your case.

4. When you recover the image if the new drive is the same size as the old drive everything will be recovered as is, if the drive is a different size partitions will be resized (within limits) to fit the new drive.

You may not be aware but you've posted your question in the Business user section (ABR11), if you edit your thread you can transfer it to the True Image Home section where more users will see it and perhaps respond

Hi

Thanks for the information. The backup I made as soon as the disc error messages started to appear have been verified and I do have a recovery CD (and also a USB Flash Drive) and both were working when tested a short while ago.

My Laptop has three partitions - the ususal C Drive, plus a System Reserved partition of 100 Mb and an un-named partition of 12.70 Gb that is marked in brackets in Computer management as a Recovery Partition.

My normal backups are a single fresh image created on a weekly basis alternating between two separate External HDs and usually include C Drive plus the System Reserved partition. After the error messages started to appear I did then make a fresh single backup of all three partitions.

What I would like to know is if the HD fails and I need to create a new HD should I use an image of the two partitions or one containing all three partitions. If I use a backup containing only two partitions I wonder whether that will in fact work.

Any further comments would be appreciated.

Dells also include a Recovery partition. Its sole purpose is to return the drive to its original factory state. Once you've installed applications and added your data, returning the drive to factory state isn't of great value. A more recent full disk image, using something like Acronis True Image, is more useful. If you do that, you can safely delete the Recovery partition to reclaim the space.

If the same is true on your Acer, you wouldn't need that Recovery partition. But, you can't just delete it without checking how your current drive boots. Sometimes the Recovery partition is the Active partition, meaning it actually boots first and then Windows loads from the OS partition. It's not difficult to change that, just involves copying boot files to the OS partition and making it Active, but it needs to be done before deleting that partition.

The other, tiny partition may be diagnostics, at least that's what it would be on a Dell. It's usually only around 100 MB in size, so I left it intact.

Since you think your current drive may be failing, it's safest to create a full disk image, including all partiitions, and restore that to the new drive. Once you know everything works on the new drive, then you can take steps to remove the Recovery partition to reclaim that drive space. On my Dell laptop, I reclaimed almost 20 GB of drive space when I removed the Recovery partition.

BTW, thread title is misleading, as OP is talking about extra partitions, not Windows system files.

Thanks again. I shall take your advice and include all the partitions in my backups in future.

Incidentally, I am still using the Laptop and despite the warning messages I can find no drop in performance and now wonder if I am somehow getting erroneous error messages.

I installed and ran the WD Diagnostic software for the drive and it did show a problem which I will pursue with WD.

Wasn't quite what I advised. You should include all partitions in the current backup, since you think the drive is failing and may want to restore to a replacement drive. Once you're on a reliable drive, you can do as I did and remove the Recovery partition if you want to reclaim that disk space.

Run chkdsk on both drives, which you can start from Properties | Tools | Check now.

For the purposes of needing to replace the drive, I would recommend a complete disk image, this will include all the partitions and all the booting information. Once a new drive is installed and the full disk image recovered, then and only then would I consider deleting and extending any partitions.

Once a known good drive is up and running, depending on what the non OS partitions contain depends on whether I would continue imaging the complete disk or complete plus a single partition. If you only image the OS and System partition, then most times that will give you a bootable drive, but as Tuttle mentioned, OEM made machines especially laptops can have the disk layout slightly different to standard layouts.

As I said in my first paragraph, at this stage a complete disk image is the way to go.

Agreed. If I wasn't clear, we're saying the same thing: full disk image now. Consider re-partitioning after you have the image restored to a known good drive.

Sometimes it is easier said than done. The easiest way to make sure you have it all within your backup is illustrated via figure 5 in attached link. Check the disk box under disk mode.

http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28705

Once you have a COMPLETE disk backup, then you can do any type of restore needed including creating an identical replacement.

Hi all

Many thanks for all the further advice and information. I am just now awaiting delivery of my new replacement Drive which will be the same size and model as the current one. My backups will consist of the C Drive and the two hidden Partitions which appear in Windows Disc Management as System reserved (100 Mb) and PQ Service (about 27.5 Gb as far as I recall).

I have some further questions regarding the hidden partitions:

a. How will I know in which order these partitions should be installed or will Acronis do that automatically?

b. Will they be named as they appear in Disc Management or will I have to identify them by size?

Also, as the latest backups I made are of the Hard Disc in its current state (i.e. some sectors have been relocated (presumably fom bad sectors) will that affect the likely success of the recovery to a new (hopefully error free) replacement drive?

Eric,

So long as your imaging method is complete disk, that is how you'll restore it in this instance.

If you intend to restore the image by having the new drive in an external caddy and the old one still in the laptop, True Image will show everything as you see it in Windows.

On the other hand if you are going to place the new drive into the laptop, you will need to make sure you've made a True Image recovery CD, and tried booting from it, checking it can see your external drive. When you boot from the CD it runs in Linux, this means your drive letters might be different but your drive names will still be the same. All you need to do is select the complete disk option as the restore method exactly as if you were using Windows.

Personally for drives that contain the OS I prefer to boot from the CD so that Windows has no chance to write to any of the disks, and use the Windows method for all non OS drives. In your case of course being a laptop you only have an OS drive.

Thanks. At least my current drive is still working so if my efforts don't work out I can always return to the original drive until I sort out any problems.

Eric,
Regarding your question in post #10.

The user is expected to know the partition sequences and to know which is the active partition. The program may well suggest an setting which is contrary to your configuration and it is up to the user to make the corrections during the settings process.

You should look at your Windows Management console graphical view and even print it out so you have visible and ongoing evidence of the how your system is configured. The illustration presented will list which is the active partitions and the types of partitions, and their sizes. If your drive C does not have a name assigned, the assign a volume name without delay. I like to include the drive letter as part of the volume name. The name could be something like the below--8-11 characters--no symbols.
example= Win7-C

When doing a restore (using the CD), if you check mark the disk as to what is to be restored, then all choices are already made for you. It is only when you restore individual partition there is the possibility for a user mistake.

If your's is a Gateway, you may find my guides index item #3-BB and 3-DD (for the Gateway) helpful. Click on top line of my signature below.

I'll endorse Grover's recommendations, about printing the Disk Management window and naming your C-drive. I'll go further and suggest that you assign names to each of your drives and partitions, whether they are internal or external USB drives. This will help to keep you from making a bad mistake when you do a restore.

Hi all

Many thanks for all your help. I got a new Hard Drive delivered today and have (I hope) successfully recovered my failing drive to a new one. I followed all the advice and the user guide and all seemed to go well except that, as instructed in the guide, before I could go back to the recovery mode and recover the MBR my system booted up into Windows.

Now I need to know whether I should do something about the MBR? Help!!!

Restart the restore (using the CD) and checkmark only the track0/mbr optiion to be restored. Also, on the very next screen, where you choose the new target disk to receive the mbr, also checkmark the "recover disk signature" which is located in lower left of that screen. Click proceed to restore the mbr and recovery disk signature.

Thanks. I did that this morning and everything seems fine. In hindsight, I don't have a use for the Recovery Partition as I would be very unlikely to try and recover the Laptop to its factory state.

If I had recovered only the System Reserved and C Drive would that have enabled me to make use of the extra space (not that I particularly need it) and if I then didn't recover the MBR would everything work as it should.

I have read somewhere that the MBR on Laptops sometimes includes data relevant to the system as well as the Recovery Partition but as I booted up without it yesterday I am wondering if I need it.

EricG wrote:

I don't have a use for the Recovery Partition as I would be very unlikely to try and recover the Laptop to its factory state.

If I had recovered only the System Reserved and C Drive would that have enabled me to make use of the extra space (not that I particularly need it) and if I then didn't recover the MBR would everything work as it should.

No. As I explained to you, a few posts earlier, your current boot process may need that Recovery partition. You can't just delete it without checking how your current drive boots. Sometimes the Recovery partition is the Active partition, meaning it actually boots first and then Windows loads from the OS partition. It's not difficult to change that, just involves copying boot files to the OS partition and making it Active, but it needs to be done before deleting that partition.

As you did not do any of that, if that Recovery partition was/is the Active partition, restoring the system without restoring that partition would have resulted in a non-bootable system. As you're now restored everything, you may now do as I described to make the OS partition bootable and safely remove the Recovery partition.

In Computer Management I see three partitions

The first has no Volume Name, No File System and a status of Healthy (Recovery Partition)
The second Volume is Acer (C:), File System NTFS and a status of Healthy (Boot,Page File,Crash Dump,Primary Partition)
The third Volume is System Reserved, File System NTFS and a status of Healthy (System,Active,Primary partition)

Does this suggest that the Boot files are not in the Recovery Partition and that they are indeed within the C: Drive or the System Reserved partition?

Where would I look in C: Drive for any boot files?

System Reserved is your boot partition. When you boot the system, it boots from that partition and then switches to the OS partition from which to load Windows. That was the same on my Dell, before I changed it and then deleted that partition.

It is the PQService Recovery Partition that I won't use and I have deleted that and extended the C Drive to take up the unallocated space (using the free version of EaseUS Partitiopn Maker).

The System reserved partition can stay as it is only 100 Mb anyway.