Difference partition image vs disk image (in my case)
Hello
My setup is fairly standard c: as system partition and d: as storage on a single WD 1 Tb, OS is W7 premium.
I will now replace it with a 1 Tb Seagate Barracuda (brand new).
I did a full backup of c: so can I just recover c: to my new disk and create the d: partition in windows disk manager afterwards once the system is hopefully up and running(what I usually do after a manual install of windows) or do I need to create the partitions manually beforehand?
Since d: is empty on my old disk I figured there was no gain from doing a complete disk image.
Fredrik,
You should do a full disk backup to be sure all the partitions are included in the image file (including any hidden ones).
Ok, thanks. What about compression level, is there any advantage to use the no compression option, less chance of corruption perhaps? The entire system partition is no more than 48 Gb so space is not an issue,
The compression defaults set in True Image will be fine to use. (Changing the compression has not shown to be more or less reliable due to any corruption because of the compression.)
Do not use "sector-by-sector" as it is not necessary, and will increase the backup size and time considerably.
Be sure to validate the backup image file after the backup. I prefer to do this manually.
Since you will be doing a Recovery/Restore from your bootable media, you could use the bootable media to do the backup and validation as well.
Be sure to only have the new Seagate (restore target) hard disk as the only connected drive in your system when booting up the first time. Make sure that you connect it to the same port/connector as the original drive.
If you are planning to use the older WD drive, add it back into the system after verifying everything works okay with the new drive.
You have not mentioned what OS you are using. There may be some additional steps to take before the backup and possibly after as well if the new drive is an Advanced Format (4KB/sector) drive (probably) and the older drive is a standard (512B/sector) drive (maybe either type - depending on age and model).
My OS is W7 Premium -64 bit and SP1.
The drive currently in the PC is a Samsung HD 103SJ 1Tb. I ran a utility that told me that it has 512b/Sector
The new drive is a Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS 1Tb, when looking at the datasheet at their website it says it also has 512b/Sector
However here is the thing. My Backups are saved to a 2Tb Western Digital in a USB 3.0 enclosure. Western Digitals website claims it supports Advanced Format which I take means it has 4kb/Sector.
Is this a problem? I might mention I had problem making the backup. I made a partition image of c:. I then tried to manually validate it and it said the image was corrupt. I then ran a memory test which checked out fine. Thinking it might be the USB 3.0 cable I bought a new one. I made a new image of c: and it validated ok.
Then I made an image of c: again but this time I placed it on my internal disk and then I manually copied it to the external drive and once again it validated ok both on the internal and on the external drive.
This afternoon I made a complete disk image and it is corrupt upon validation. The third Image I made validated ok.
Might this be because I tried to make an image on a drive with 4kb/Sector? I might mention that it is not an upgrade from XP. I built the system myself 1.5 years ago and installed W7 from a retail DVD.
Is this a newer WD external HD? I have several WD Passport external HDs, including a new model that came out last year or end of 2011, and they all work fine with ATI. But, let's rule out a couple of possible issues:
Run chkdsk /r on that drive.
Also run a drive checking utility from the drive manufacturer, as those sometimes catch errors missed by chkdsk.
Don't connect via a hub, a port in a monitor, a USB extension cord, etc. Connect the external drive directly to a USB port on the rear of the computer case. See if that works better.
Is this a newer WD external HD? I have several WD Passport external HDs, including a new model that came out last year or end of 2011, and they all work fine with ATI. But, let's rule out a couple of possible issues:
Run chkdsk /r on that drive.
Also run a drive checking utility from the drive manufacturer, as those sometimes catch errors missed by chkdsk.Don't connect via a hub, a port in a monitor, a USB extension cord, etc. Connect the external drive directly to a USB port on the rear of the computer case. See if that works better.
It is bought 3 weeks ago and has been used maybe 10 hours. The first thing I did when I brought it home was to run WD:s Lifeguard Diagnostics (long test) and it checked out ok.
I also did an extended test using SeaTools on my internal drive and it checked out ok too.
I connected directly to back of the PC.
Am I understanding correctly that cloning from a 512b drive to a 4kb and then back to a 512b drive should in theory not pose a problem provided none of the drives are faulty?
Am I understanding correctly that cloning from a 512b drive to a 4kb and then back to a 512b drive should in theory not pose a problem provided none of the drives are faulty?
Well, first, you don't know that it is 4 KB/sector.
Second, we've been discussing backups, not clones. I would anticipate no problems making backup images (.tib) to that external drive even if it were Advanced Format. I see no good reason for you to clone to that drive.
Am I understanding correctly that cloning from a 512b drive to a 4kb and then back to a 512b drive should in theory not pose a problem provided none of the drives are faulty?Well, first, you don't know that it is 4 KB/sector.
Second, we've been discussing backups, not clones. I would anticipate no problems making backup images (.tib) to that external drive even if it were Advanced Format. I see no good reason for you to clone to that drive.
No I see no reason either but won't the end result be the same if it works, I will have my old Samsung replaced by my new Seagate with the exact same settings and programs/games installed?
The reason I want to go Samsung-->WD-->Seagate using a backup instead of trying to clone the Samsung directly to the Seagate is I want to know 100% sure that the backup on the WD is valid for use later on.
I'm not sure about what you mean with don't know. I have been told that if the disk supports 4kb (as WD claims this one does) then that is what it is from factory . The WD as I said has never been used as a system disk in an XP system. It has never been formatted by me. I just plugged it in and made two partitions in disk manager.
You said that the WD external is billed to support Advanced Format. That suggests that you could format it as Advanced Format, but it may not be delivered as such.
Yes, it's much better to do a backup and restore than a clone. It's safer than cloning.
Well I am now in the process of trying a recovery. I follow the part of the manual that describes how to recover to another harddrive I guess this is the way to go even if they are the same size. It tells me to not recover the MBR but do it later and set the partition sizes manually. When I start to set the W7 Hidden partition 100 Mb it won't let me. When I Choose Mb it flips back to Gb and the smallest size it allows is 83.11 Gb.
If drives are the same size, you shouldn't need to restore partitions individually. Just select the entire disk to restore it including MBR, and select to restore disk signature.
If drives are the same size, you shouldn't need to restore partitions individually. Just select the entire disk to restore it including MBR, and select to restore disk signature.
Ah ok thanks, the manual was a bit ambigious. I thought the disks had to be the literally same. same Brand, Size and model.
Tuttle,
If a drive is manufactured as an AF (Advanced Format - 4KB/sector) drive it will ALWAYS be that way.
When a drive is formatted, you can define "cluster" size used for file storage.
The disk sector size is the under-laying layout of the tracks on a disk, and are not user configurable.
See http://www.ntfs.com/hard-disk-basics.htm#SectorsandClusters. This is older, but shows the relationships.
AF drives work the same way, but have a different sector size (4KB)
Addtionally, most new drives use 512e or 512-Byte emulation. The underlying disk is 4KB/sector, but is presented to the system as 512B/sector.
Fredrik,
You should have no problem making an Acronis backup image onto either type of drive.
If your target drive for the restore from the backup is to a new AF drive, and you are running XP, you MAY have some performance, and/or stability issues, as XP does NOT support AF drives "out of the box". Partition alignment and updated Storage drivers are sometimes necessary.
James, thanks for the info!
Well I have now sucessfully made a backup from the original 512b drive to an external AF drive and back to a new 512b drive. I used Tuttles method of selecting the entire drive including MBR. Still don't understand why I couldn't use the other method (as described in the manual) and restore the hidden W7 partition first or rather it didn't let me choose size.
You should be able to restore partitions if you want. But, if you're restoring to a disk the same size as the original, there's really no need for such extra work.