Reimaging from a different HD

[donheff]

My 1 terrabyte hard drive failed on my main PC. I talked to the tech folks at the manufacturer and sent the drive back to them for a warranty replacement. I didn't have a good image of that drive so instead I loaded Windows 7 from the manufacturer's CD onto a 500M spare drive, reinstalled my apps, drivers, data and am in pretty good shape. When the new drive arrives I could add it as a secondary drive or use it as the primary drive. The later seems preferable since 1T is more than enough for my uses and I could then use the 500G elsewhere. So, I could use the drive as is from the manufacturer - I assume it will come with a fresh REM install of Win 7. That would require once again installing all my apps and data. Or could I reimage using an image from the 500M drive. I am guessing that would work fine but I am not very knowledgeable about re-imaging. I have only done it in the past to the same drive the image was created from. Does it work to a different HD?

 

[easysurfer]

I assume you are thinking of having the image from the 500M drive restored to the 1 terrabyte drive?

But to be safe, you could as soon as you get the 1 terrabyte HD back..make an image of that (saved to a drive different than the 1 terrabyte HD) so in case your restore from your 500M drive doesn't work you still have to image of the 1 terrabyte HD to recover from.

I carry along a 500G external HD because I find myself having a need to make images of various computers (my desktop, laptop, netbook, images to help friends, family).
I don't see why re-imaging from the image of the 500M drive would not work as I think when people buy a new HD with more space, that's a common strategy to use rather than having to install from scratch.

What software are you using for your imaging? I've tried with what comes with Windows 7 and had no luck on the restore. So instead I use third party software.

 

[donheff]

I assume you are thinking of having the image from the 500M drive restored to the 1 terrabyte drive?

Correct

But to be safe, you could as soon as you get the 1 terrabyte HD back..make an image of that (saved to a drive different than the 1 terrabyte HD) so in case your restore from your 500M drive doesn't work you still have to image of the 1 terrabyte HD to recover from.

This is one of the reasons I ask questions here. People always have a simple suggestion that didn't cross my mind. This is one of those sorta duh things that make me whack my forehead when someone mentions it. Thanks.

I carry along a 500G external HD because I find myself having a need to make images of various computers (my desktop, laptop, netbook, images to help friends, family).
I don't see why re-imaging from the image of the 500M drive would not work as I think when people buy a new HD with more space, that's a common strategy to use rather than having to install from scratch.

What software are you using for your imaging? I've tried with what comes with Windows 7 and had no luck on the restore. So instead I use third party software.

I am using Win 7's built in utility. It worked fine for the old drive. I re-imaged the old drive once and it ran fine briefly but then the disk I/O problem came back.

 

[easysurfer]

I tried using the built in utility of Win 7 (creating the recovery disc to boot from and restoring from an image) on a friend's new computer. The creation worked fine. But when I tried to restore...one time the boot disc didn't boot. The other time (after a new boot disc creation) the image woundn't restore (with some I/O error).

The program (free) I use is from Paragon. I use it only for the imaging and restoring a complete drive. Though there are other features available with it.

Free Backup Software: Paragon Backup & Recovery (Advanced) Free Edition - Overview

It creates disc that is bootable or a bootable USB (like for a netbook that doesn't have a CD drive). It images/restores pretty fast. (Just take your time and double check to make sure pointing the the drive which you really want to restore to).

I just run from the bootable disc or usb flashdrive that the program creates and do my image or restore with that.

 

[donheff]

The program (free) I use is from Paragon. I use it only for the imaging and restoring a complete drive. Though there are other features available with it.

Free Backup Software: Paragon Backup & Recovery (Advanced) Free Edition - Overview

Thanks easysurfer, I am downloading it now. I will make an image for Win7 as a backup and another from this program and give this one a try first for the re-image. I already did the Win 7 process so it will be interesting to try another.

 

[donheff]

Well I have my answer. I installed the image from the 500M to the new 1T and now I have a functional Windows installation on a 1T drive that thinks it is a 500M drive. I guess I will reformat it and use it as a spare drive. Or maybe see if easysurfer's Paragon can partition it and install the 500M image on a partition. That Paragon app is pretty complicated. I used the standard Win7 image for my restoration.

Unfortunately there is no extra ATA cable in the case. Lots of power cables so I assume I can just buy an ATA cable and hook it up as a spare.

 

[easysurfer]

donheff,

As another option (if restoring from the Paragon image you made previously doesn't work),
if you use Paragon's partiton manager. You might be able to expand the partition size in place. I haven't used the free version...

Paragon Partition Manager Free Edition - Leading partitioning software! | PARAGON Software Group - free partition software, resize partition

but used an 8.0 version a few years ago from Paragon.


Sample screen of the resize wizard:

http://images.paragon-software.com/...pm11/pm11_free/3_express_resize_partition.jpg

Might want to give that a try if you still have the 1TB HD as the boot drive connected with the ATA cable, if haven't already reformated, etc.

 

[donheff]

donheff,

As another option (if restoring from the Paragon image you made previously doesn't work),
if you use Paragon's partiton manager. You might be able to expand the partition size in place. I haven't used the free version...

Paragon Partition Manager Free Edition - Leading partitioning software! | PARAGON Software Group - free partition software, resize partition

but used an 8.0 version a few years ago from Paragon.


Sample screen of the resize wizard:

http://images.paragon-software.com/...pm11/pm11_free/3_express_resize_partition.jpg

Might want to give that a try if you still have the 1TB HD as the boot drive connected with the ATA cable, if haven't already reformated, etc.

I pulled it but is still sitting here ready to go. I will pop it back in tomorrow and give it a shot. Thanks.

 

[easysurfer]

Sounds good.. Hope it works out.

 

[donheff]

Success! Thank you Easysurfer. I wouldn't have realized how easy it is if you hadn't commented. Paragon's free edition was 32 bit only, you have to buy the $39 version for 64 bit. But CNET gave good reviews to Easeus Partition Manager and it expanded my partition smoothly. I'm now on my fully restored 1T drive.

 

[easysurfer]

Donheff,

Cool!

Glad that you can use your 1T drive the way you intended.

Didn't realize the free version was only 32 bit. Thanks for the info.

 

[donheff]

Just a brief follow-up on your problems using the built in Win7 image recovery utility. I made backup images with Win7 and with Paragon but you need Paragon running to recover the Paragon image. Unfortunately my PC didn't have a spare ATA cable to run both drives at the same time and I didn't have a bootable USB to run Paragon from. So I loaded a Win7 repair CD and reimaged using the Win7 utility and the Win7 image. The first time I ran it, the program died with a blue screen and some error messages I can't remember. When I ran it a second time it worked fine. That reminded me that the two previous times I restored using the Win7 utility I had the same experience -- initial failure followed by success on the second try. Maybe that is a common problem.

 

[easysurfer]

Donheff,

Interesting about the initial failure and then success on the second try. In the past with various imaging programs, I've had times when the restore attempt fails (but most of the time they work).

I've learned to just in case to make several backups of my data only on separate USB devices. I figure if a restore fails, the OS and drivers etc. can be built from scratch (or restored from what I call a "Pristine image"). Yet the data can't be rebuilt from scratch.

I've also got a HD dock and HD adaptor like these:

Sabrent DSH-USB2 Hard Drive Dock - 2.5/3.5 SATA to USB 2.0, One Touch Backup at TigerDirect.com

Inland 08412 Hard Drive Adapter - 2.5/3.5 IDE/SATA to USB 2.0 at TigerDirect.com

So I can treat hard drive like an external USB drive without having to open up the case.

Glad that you got your drive to work properly.

 

[donheff]

Donheff,

Interesting about the initial failure and then success on the second try. In the past with various imaging programs, I've had times when the restore attempt fails (but most of the time they work).

I've learned to just in case to make several backups of my data only on separate USB devices. I figure if a restore fails, the OS and drivers etc. can be built from scratch (or restored from what I call a "Pristine image"). Yet the data can't be rebuilt from scratch.

I've also got a HD dock and HD adaptor like these:

Sabrent DSH-USB2 Hard Drive Dock - 2.5/3.5 SATA to USB 2.0, One Touch Backup at TigerDirect.com

Inland 08412 Hard Drive Adapter - 2.5/3.5 IDE/SATA to USB 2.0 at TigerDirect.com

So I can treat hard drive like an external USB drive without having to open up the case.

Glad that you got your drive to work properly.

Thanks. I don't have an extra ATA cable in my case anyway so I think I will order one of those docks instead of buying a cable and mounting the extra drive internally. I will just keep the old disk for images and file backups. I too keep copies of important data on USB drives. Stuff I can't do without goes in a Dropbox folder I can access anywhere. The data backup is what allowed me to rebuild my system on the 500G drive with a fresh install of Win7.

 

[donheff]

I got the dock. Now the HD shows up under the Device Manager when I plug it in but it does not show up under Windows Explorer (My Computer) so I can't access it to store files. Any thoughts on that?

 

[donheff]

Nevermind for now, I think I understand the problem. I wasn't scrolling down far enough in the disk management section and didn't see the problem. Turns out the disk is "offline because the disk has a signature collision with another disk that is online." Duh -- same image. I guess I need to mount it to my laptop and reformat the disk.

I hate computers!

 

[donheff]

Done! I had to delete the partitions and reformat the thing as a simple volume. Now it is working fine.

 

[easysurfer]

Cool. Glad to see that you are back in business. Those HD dock things are pretty nice -- surely beats having to open up the case and install/uninstall each time.

 

[ERD50]

Looks like I'm late to this, but I would have kept the 500G on the computer - then use the 1T for backups/images. If you have software that doesn't need to image the blank space too, you could have at least two images on that 1T drive, or one image and plenty of other interim data backups. I find it always best to have backup drives bigger than the 'in use' drives.

I hate computers!

No, you hate Windows! Honestly, the other OSs do not put these kind of restrictions on backups. Windows has to protect against privacy, while Apple doesn't care much as you needed their hardware, so copy away. Apples OSX
makes cloning very, very simple and robust. Linux a bit less so, but still plenty of easy/effective options.

-ERD50

 

[donheff]

Looks like I'm late to this, but I would have kept the 500G on the computer - then use the 1T for backups/images. If you have software that doesn't need to image the blank space too, you could have at least two images on that 1T drive, or one image and plenty of other interim data backups. I find it always best to have backup drives bigger than the 'in use' drives.



No, you hate Windows! Honestly, the other OSs do not put these kind of restrictions on backups. Windows has to protect against privacy, while Apple doesn't care much as you needed their hardware, so copy away. Apples OSX
makes cloning very, very simple and robust. Linux a bit less so, but still plenty of easy/effective options.

-ERD50

Yeah, ERD I have Ubuntu Linux running on a server in the basement and I like that. And I am messing around with a Nook color I just bought - seeing if I can setup a bootable SD card with Android Honeycomb and I like that. But I still stick with Windows for my main PC -- go figure.

You are probably right about the hard drives. But the image doesn't take up a lot of space - 32G for this one.