The System Reserved Partition
Anybody know if the process for restoring a disk with this partition has changed in this version? The process in v2014 is so convoluted that I don't back that partition up, and when I need to restore I install Windows first, which restores the partition, and then restore the OS to the C Drive.
Are you asking from the point of view from an image that only contains that partition or from a complete disk image and just selecting a single partition?
I am asking from the standpoint of a complete disk image that contains a hidden Reserved Partition. When making an image of my OS disk there is an option to make an image of the complete disk, including the Reserve partition, or you can untick the box for the Reserve Partition, and Acronis will display a warning that it is not advisable to untick that box. If you make an image of the entire disk there is a very involved procedure for restoring it, starting at the bottom of Page 95 of the PDF Acronis True Image 2014 User's Guide and going through Page 100. When I saw how involved that was I decided to untick the box for the Reserved partition and just back up the OS partition. Then when I restore it I first reinstall Windows, which installs the Reserved partition, and then restore the OS partition from the True Image backup. Works fine, but my question is, Does this version of True Image still require this procedure for restoring the whole disk or can the disk be restored without going through that involved procedure?
Here's a partial reproduction of that procedure:
4.5.1 Recovering a disk with hidden partition created by the PC manufacturer for diagnostics or system recovery.
Users of Windows 7 and Windows 8 usually have the hidden System Reserved partition. Recovering a backup of a system disk with a hidden partition requires that you to take into account some additional factors. First of all, it is necessary for the new drive to keep the physical order of the partitions that existed on the old drive. In addition, you should place the hidden partition in the same location - usually at the start or the end of the disk space. To minimize the risk of possible problems, it is better to recover the hidden partition without resizing. Here we describe recovery of a system disk with Windows 7 and the hidden System Reserved partition.
Attach the external drive if it contains the backup to be used for recovery and make sure that the drive is powered on. This must be done before booting from Acronis rescue media.
1. Arrange the boot order in BIOS so as to make your rescue media device (CD, DVD or USB stick) the first boot device. See Arranging boot order in BIOS (p. 109).
2. Boot from the rescue media and select True Image.
3. Select Recovery Disk and Partition Recovery in the main menu. Choose the image backup of your system disk that you want to use for recovery.
Before continuing with the recovery, you need to know the sizes and physical order of all existing partitions. To see this information, click Details on the wizard's toolbar. Acronis True Image 2014 displays information about the backup. This includes a graphical view of all partitions the disk contains and their physical order on the disk.
4. Select Recover whole disks and partitions at the Recovery method step.
5. At the What to recover step, select the boxes of the partitions to be recovered. Do not select the MBR and Track 0 box, because this will result in selecting the entire disk for recovery. Recovering the entire disk does not allow you to resize partitions manually. You will be able to recover the MBR later. Select the partitions and click Next.
Selecting partitions leads to appearance of the relevant steps "Settings of partition ...". Note that these steps start with partitions which do not have an assigned disk letter (as usually is the case with hidden partitions). The partitions then take an ascending order of partition disk letters. This order cannot be changed. The order may differ from the physical order of the partitions on the hard disk.6. You can specify the following partition settings: location, type, and size. You first need to specify the settings of the hidden partition (System Reserved partition in our case) as it usually does not have a disk letter. Because you are recovering to the new disk, click New location. Select the destination disk by either its assigned name or capacity.
7. Clicking Accept returns you to the "Settings of partition 1-1" screen. Check the partition type and change it, if necessary. You should remember that the System Reserved partition must be primary and marked as active.
8. Proceed to specifying the partition size by clicking Change default in the Partition size area. By default the partition occupies the entire new disk. You need to keep the hidden partition size unchanged and place it in the same location on the disk (at the start or the end of disk space). To do this, resize and relocate the partition by dragging it or its borders with a mouse on the horizontal bar on the screen. Or you can enter corresponding values into the appropriate fields (Partition size, Free space before, Free space after). Click Accept when the partition has the required size and location and then click Next.
Specify the settings for the second partition which in this case is your system partition. Click New location, and then select unallocated space on the destination disk that will receive the partition
BillyR,
Would you confirm whether you are referring to MBR or GPT style partitioning?
I have not used the 2015 restore function yet.
You may have an interest in my signature link 3 below.
These guides are based on 2014 MBR but should work with 2015 MBR.
Within that link,
item 3 is a single partition restore. C is illustrated but would also apply to other partitions.
Item 2 is a single check disk restore via the whole disk new or old
Item 1 is a disk restore restoring single partitions--one at a time to either a new new or old dis.
BillyR,
Would you confirm whether you are referring to MBR or GPT style partitioning?
I think it was GPT, but if you will refer to Page 95 of the PDF True Image 2014 User's Guide or to the excerpt I posted in my last message you will see what I'm talking about.
My question is simple: Is the same convoluted procedure necessary in 2015 or has Acronis made it simpler? This is the only complaint I have about Acronis, and if this has been improved I will consider upgrading to 2015.
This has been fixed in TI 2015. If you do a full disk backup and restore it to the original disk, TI 2015 will put all the partitions back in the correct order. All you need to do is check a full disk restore and select the correct destination disk. TI 2015 will restore it properly. This is a major improvement over TI 2014.
Thanks very much, Mustang. That is exactly what I wanted to know. Looks like an upgrade to 2015 is in my near future.
This has been fixed in TI 2015. If you do a full disk backup and restore it to the original disk, TI 2015 will put all the partitions back in the correct order. All you need to do is check a full disk restore and select the correct destination disk. TI 2015 will restore it properly. This is a major improvement over TI 2014.
Well, I did a full disk backup without difficulty. Now the question is, will it restore properly if I need to? Given what I've seen on this thread I'm somewhat skeptical. I would test it but don't know any way to do so and still be able to go back to the way the disk was if it doesn't work properly. Maybe I'll do another backup the way I used to in 2014, and if the disk restore doesn't work I can fall back on that. Maybe. Still thinking about it.
If anyone has done a full disk restore including the Reserved partition I'd appreciate knowing your results.