I was planning to use the free version of HD Clone to backup my C drive, and I've spent a bit of time freeing up some space on C.
However, I have just realised that it backs up either a whole disk or a whole partition, regardless of the actual files stored there.
I'm therefore planning to buy the basic version (the free version only does whole disks) and just copy the C partition.
The problem is that the physical disk only has a single partition (C) so I really want to re-partition the disk to reduce the size of the C partition (and therefore have a smaller, faster backup).
However, is it possible to re-partition a disk without re-formatting it and, if so, what is the best tool to use.
Any advice greatly appreciated.
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DiskWizard (freeware) can be found on the Seagate/Maxtor website and although intended for their drives should work on others to the best of my knowledge. See:
www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/discwizard
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If it's Windows 7 you can resize a partition then add partitions to free space using Disk Management: -
windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Can-I-repartition-my-hard-disk
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Thanks. I should have mentioned that it is Windows XP.
I read an article last night that seemed to suggest that it could only be done on a new/re-formatted drive, but I was pretty sure that you could re-partition without wiping the data (incidentally the C drive is currently an NTFS partition).
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Partition Magic used to be to tool for doing this but I believe it costs - there are probably free utilities that do the same job now.
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Why are you doing it this way?
Cloning a disk is NOT a backup that can be used for recovery of data, it can only be used in identical hardware
You do know your cloned image WONT boot in your new PC don't you.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 11 Mar 11 at 09:19
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>> Why are you doing it this way?
>>
>> Cloning a disk is NOT a backup that can be used for recovery of data,
>> it can only be used in identical hardware
>>
>> You do know your cloned image WONT boot in your new PC don't you.
Yeah, I've scrapped the idea of getting a new PC for now (mainly due to your input). I'm just going to get a new PSU.
The whole PSU problem has just prompted me to sort out some proper backups and, as I mentioned in the other thread, I have quite a bit of stuff installed that I wouldn't want to lose if I had a HDD failure, because I don't have the install disks.
EDIT: So I want to create an image of the C partition, and then I'll just backup the data from the other partitions to an external drive.
Last edited by: SteelSpark on Fri 11 Mar 11 at 09:44
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>> I have quite a bit of stuff installed
>> that I wouldn't want to lose if I had a HDD failure, because I don't
>> have the install disks.
>>
>> EDIT: So I want to create an image of the C partition, and then I'll
>> just backup the data from the other partitions to an external drive.
>>
You are taking some big risks if you have stuff you don't wish to lose, especially now that your hardware is playing up.
First buy a new disk or two, internal or external, they are dirt cheap nowadays.
Then clone your existing disk to at least one of those.
Then confirm that the clone will boot up in your PC.
Then you can play about with partitions and moving stuff around on either your existing disk, your new cloned disk, or the spare third disk.
Until you have a working clone, don't mess with your existing disk. I would not even switch on the PC until I am ready to make a clone.
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>> You are taking some big risks if you have stuff you don't wish to lose,
>> especially now that your hardware is playing up.
>>
>> First buy a new disk or two, internal or external, they are dirt cheap nowadays.
>> Then clone your existing disk to at least one of those.
>> Then confirm that the clone will boot up in your PC.
Well, I was going to image the whole hard drive first, before doing any partitioning, but I was going to just store that on an external drive.
Doing a clone to another internal drive, that I can then test, seems a much better idea.
Thanks.
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>> Doing a clone to another internal drive, that I can then test, seems a much
>> better idea.
>>
When you have made the image, disconnect the original disk before you boot up using the new cloned disk.
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Incidentally, the drive is a 160GB Western Digital disk and the model number is WD1600JS-7MHBO.
Can anybody recommend a good disk to buy for cloning it to, please?
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Should I just get a couple of these?
tinyurl.com/64wkapb
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You would be better buying a larger capacity hard drive or drives for the purpose, especially as gigabytes only cost a few pence each these days (cheap as chips in fact).
These Microsoft support articles may prove of interest:
support.microsoft.com/kb/313348
www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/tulloch_partition.mspx
Also:
www.d-silence.com/feature.php?id=246
www.rdweb.co.uk/how_to_partition_a_hard_drive_using_windows_xp/
www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives.htm
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>> You would be better buying a larger capacity hard drive or drives for the purpose,
>> especially as gigabytes only cost a few pence each these days (cheap as chips in
>> fact).
Thanks Stu and thanks for the links.
I do wonder though of there is any point getting a bigger drive, when I am going to use it as a cloned copy of the original? I currently only have about 60GB of data on the drive.
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You can buy a 1TB disk for around 40 quid these days, so very little point in buying anything smaller unless you really do want to minimise cost.
www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-HD103SJ-internal-SATAII-7200RPM/dp/B002MQC0P8/ref=pd_cp_computers_3
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>> Incidentally, the drive is a 160GB Western Digital disk and the model number is WD1600JS-7MHBO.
>>
>> Can anybody recommend a good disk to buy for cloning it to, please?
>>
Booting up a cloned/ghosted drive using dissimilar hardware may not be straightforward.
You may need to use software such as this
"Acronis True Image Home Plus Pack
Optional module that includes the flexibility to restore files, applications and an operating system to dissimilar hardware as well as providing support for Dynamic Disks and Microsoft® Windows Preinstallation Environments (WinPE)."
Free partitioning etc. software is available direct from Paragon
www.paragon-software.com/free/
Last edited by: John H on Fri 11 Mar 11 at 12:21
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Big external hard drives are as cheap as chips these days.
I have a 1TB, on which I have several full series of various US TV shows + several films+ backups for both laptops. I also have copies of everything I would hate to lose - even on a brand new PC or laptop.
I use Acronis True Image Home 2010 on the W7 machine and an earlier version on the XP machine.
Both are paid products, but "torrents are your friends", say no more!
I do a full back-up of drive C, plus the system recovery partition and then subsequent incremental back-ups until I think that it's time to do another full, clean, back-up.
I try to back up at least twice a week.
Remember to make a boot disc to launch Acronis if you ha serious non-booting problem.
I used Acronis to re-install everything onto the XP machine after buying a new hard drive for it.
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>> You may need to use software such as this
>> "Acronis True Image Home Plus Pack
>> Optional module that includes the flexibility to restore files, applications and an operating system to
>> dissimilar hardware
Thanks for that John. If it does indeed work, that would be fantastic. I might stick with the current PC for now, but I would like to be in a position where I can transfer the image to a new PC if I need to.
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Drive partitions and HD Clone - Stuartli
