Restore C: to new HD minus the hidden partition?

[pgoelz]

Just trying to think the process through.....

I have a used 60GB HD arriving today that I will use to replace the 40GB HD in my X41 to gain some more storage space. The existing 40GB drive has the Windows XP C: partition and the 4GB hidden partition.

I plan on using Acronis to restore an image of the C: partition from the old drive onto the new drive. I do not plan on restoring the hidden partition to the new drive since I have several backups of the working install but I do plan on creating a D: partition for data.

Question.....

Will the system boot without the hidden partition after the restore or will I need to do an fdisk /mbr? Just wondering. I assume the current MBR is custom to the X41 with the hidden partition and I don't know what it will do if the hidden partition is missing.

Paul

[K0LO]

Paul:

Don't restore the MBR from your backup to avoid this problem. You should do the following:

1. Create a backup of your Windows partition (and any other partitions) but leave the IBM service partition out of the backup.
2. Put your new hard drive in the X41
3. Boot to the Acronis recovery disk and restore only the partitions. Do not restore the MBR. You can choose new sizes for the partitions as you restore each one. True Image will create a new partition table and will create a generic MBR as it restores.
4. Reboot to test

[pgoelz]

Ah, I am new to TI11 (just upgraded from TI8) and didn't realize you could omit the MBR from a restore. Nice feature.

I'm not home to check right now.... can the bootable Acronis CD create partitions in addition to the one it will restore to, or do I need to do that with FDISK or Partition Magic? IOW, I will be restoring the C: partition but would like to have a D: partition also. Just wondering if I can do all that with TI.

Thanks,
Paul

[K0LO]

No, but you can restore your C: partition with resize and choose the desired size, leaving enough room for a data partition. After booting back into Windows, then use Windows Disk Management to create and format your data partition.

[pgoelz]

Thanks. I tend to forget that Windows has a disk tool built in. I also have Partition Magic installed and can use that too once I boot back into Windows.

Paul
WA9PUL BTW

[K0LO]

Paul
WA9PUL BTW

Aha!

[pgoelz]

Just to wrap up..... the swap went without a hitch. I also discovered that TI 11 includes partition and format functions in the bootable rescue media, so that was all I needed to delete the existing partitions and create new ones.

Paul