Radified Community Forums - Restoring OS only image to new HDD

NightOwl

Radministrator

Offline

"I tought I saw a puddy
tat..."

Posts: 5826
Olympia, WA--Puget Sound--USA

Back to top

Restoring OS only image to new HDD
Aug 17^th, 2006 at 10:06am

To all

I was responding to

another thread

, and realized that I wasn't sure what happens in the following scenario:

Many Ghosters here say they use Ghost to create an image of their OS partition only, and use other backup solutions to backup their other data on additional partitions.

All well and good--but what happens if your HDD dies. If you're using Ghost 2003 and you have made a backup of just the OS partition, *Local > Partition > To Image*--if you restore that to a new, replacement HDD, will it boot okay--i.e. will the necessary Master Boot Record (MBR), etc. be restored.

I know that the MBR is restored if a *whole* disk is imaged and then restored--but what about when backing up single OS partitions.

I know Ghost 9 and 10 are different--but same question?

I presume, after restoring the OS partition (telling Ghost not to re-size the restored image to *fill* the new HDD space) one would then create the additional partitions, and restore the data back to them from the data backups--correct?

I have always used *whole disk* images--so, I have never had to deal with this issue.

Thanks for the feedback.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

No question is stupid ... but, possibly the answers are Wink

!

IP Logged

Pleonasm

Übermensch

Offline

Posts: 1619

Back to top

Re: Restoring OS only image to new HDD
Reply #1 - Aug 17^th, 2006 at 10:33am

NightOwl, you ask a very good question.

I exchanged emails with Symantec many months ago about the MBR and Ghost 9. Symantec explicitly assured me that the MBR is automatically included in the image – although a statement of this fact does not actually appear in the Ghost 9/Ghost 10 User’s Guide, as far as I can tell. The fact is implied by the existence of the option to restore the MBR, however, as described on page 103 in the Ghost 10 User’s Guide.

ple • o • nasm n. “The use of more words than are required to express an idea”

IP Logged

Rad

Radministrator

Offline

Sufferin' succotash

Posts: 4090
Newport Beach, California

Back to top

Re: Restoring OS only image to new HDD
Reply #2 - Aug 17^th, 2006 at 1:58pm

well, i can only speak regarding ghost 2003, but if you restore *only* the boot/system partition, that will work. if you didn't back up the rest of the drive, yer screwed there.

i have done the replace-drive thing a few times now, with several different version of ghost, such as 2001, 2002 & 2003.

i first partition the new drive to resemble the old drive (usually, the new drive is bigger) .. usually with 1 primary & 2 logical drives, .. i even format it first, even tho i know you don't have to. (superstitious)

works every time.

IP Logged

NightOwl

Radministrator

Offline

"I tought I saw a puddy
tat..."

Posts: 5826
Olympia, WA--Puget Sound--USA

Back to top

Re: Restoring OS only image to new HDD
Reply #3 - Aug 17^th, 2006 at 2:23pm

Rad

Quote:

i first partition the new drive to resemble the old drive (usually, the new drive is bigger) .. usually with 1 primary & 2 logical drives, ..

works every time.

Just to clarify--you have created a *Local > Partition > to Image* of the OS only partition of a 3 partition HDD--and restoring that single partition only image to your new HDD--no problem with booting and everything is as it should be--correct?!

If you do not pre-partition--I'm betting it will not fly!

____________________________________________________________________________________________

No question is stupid ... but, possibly the answers are Wink

!

IP Logged

Rad

Radministrator

Offline

Sufferin' succotash

Posts: 4090
Newport Beach, California

Back to top

Re: Restoring OS only image to new HDD
Reply #4 - Aug 17^th, 2006 at 2:29pm

yeah, that's what i do.

most of the time, windows is *not* located on the c drive. then it's easy. (long as the drive containing the c drive doesn't need to be replaced)

when windows *is* located on the c drive (i normally don't like windows on my c drive), that's more tricky, or when i need to replace the c drive.

forget exactly what i had to do there, but it was trickier than replacing a drive containing windows which did *not* include the c drive.

why do you think it wouldn't have worked without first partitioning?

IP Logged

NightOwl

Radministrator

Offline

"I tought I saw a puddy
tat..."

Posts: 5826
Olympia, WA--Puget Sound--USA

Back to top

Re: Restoring OS only image to new HDD
Reply #5 - Aug 17^th, 2006 at 3:28pm

Rad

Quote:

most of the time, windows is *not* located on the c drive. then it's easy. (long as the drive containing the c drive doesn't need to be replaced
)

Ah, okay--I see what you're doing--you have windows on a different HDD from the boot HDD. On *Disk 0*, you have the Master Boot Record that points to the boot files that are on the C:\ partition--those boot files point to the *Disk 1* and the partition that Windows is installed on.

So, your image of the OS is not dependent on having boot ability--but if your *Disk 0* goes down--you're in trouble--unless you keep an image backup of that around to restore in the case it goes down! (Isn't this like the argument against using RAID 0-stripping--where you have just doubled the probability of a HDD dieing--both of which your system depends on to successfully boot?!)

Quote:

when windows *is* located on the c drive (i normally don't like windows on my c drive), that's more tricky, or when i need to replace the c drive.

forget exactly what i had to do there
, but it was trickier than replacing a drive containing windows which did *not* include the c drive.

That's the scenario I'm asking about--argghhh--you don't remember what you had to do!!!!!

____________________________________________________________________________________________

No question is stupid ... but, possibly the answers are Wink

!

IP Logged

Brian

Demigod

Offline

Posts: 6345
NSW, Australia

Back to top

Re: Restoring OS only image to new HDD
Reply #6 - Aug 17^th, 2006 at 4:03pm

Rad wrote on Aug 17^th, 2006 at 1:58pm:

i first partition the new drive to resemble the old drive (usually, the new drive is bigger) .. .. i even format it first, even tho i know you don't have to. (superstitious)
works every time.

That's how I do it. I create all partitions using a PM boot CD, then restore my OS partition. I then restore my data partitions using Windows Explorer.

I haven't tried this with Ghost 2003. I used Ghost 9 for the three HDs I've replaced in my main computer over the last 18 months. In tests this method works with Acronis True Image even though their forum members say you must use a full disk image. Drive SnapShot works too.

IP Logged

ckcc

Technoluster

Offline

Posts: 161
South Carolina, USA

Back to top

Re: Restoring OS only image to new HDD
Reply #7 - Aug 17^th, 2006 at 5:48pm

I actually encountered this recently. I use Ghost 2003. I image only my OS partition, not the entire drive. I started having trouble with one system's primary drive so I Replaced it with a new one.
Used fdisk to create primary partition then restored partition image to that. Would not boot. after some investigating I tried fdisk/ mbr and then it booted just fine. So I assume that 2003 does not save the MBR when doing partition to image.
I have been wondering how to include it with the image though without having to image the entire drive since my data partition is huge and already backed up elsewhere.
fdisk/ mbr should work for me since I only have a plain ole single OS to boot, but what about systems with specialized MBR's for multibooting and such.

If anything can go wrong, it already did, and you just now noticed it.

IP Logged

Brian

Demigod

Offline

Posts: 6345
NSW, Australia

Back to top

	Re: Restoring OS only image to new HDD Reply #8 - Aug 17^th, 2006 at 6:15pm ckcc, I'm pleased you responded as I'm interested to hear if Ghost 2003 could work the same as Ghost 9 if you partition the new drive to resemble the old drive before you restore the image. Is that what you did or did you just create the OS partition and create the data partition after you got the OS working?
	IP Logged

ckcc

Technoluster

Offline

Posts: 161
South Carolina, USA

Back to top

	Re: Restoring OS only image to new HDD Reply #9 - Aug 17^th, 2006 at 6:23pm Brian, I I created the data partition from disk management after I got XP booted. Also I did not format the OS partition before restoring the image. Could that affect anything? Hmmm I've got a few extra drives sitting around now. Maybe I'll do some experimenting.
	If anything can go wrong, it already did, and you just now noticed it. IP Logged

Brian

Demigod

Offline

Posts: 6345
NSW, Australia

Back to top

	Re: Restoring OS only image to new HDD Reply #10 - Aug 17^th, 2006 at 6:30pm ckcc wrote on Aug 17^th, 2006 at 6:23pm: Hmmm I've got a few extra drives sitting around now. Maybe I'll do some experimenting. That would be great. I suspect partitioning and formatting the whole drive before restoring the image is the key but let's hear what you discover with Ghost 2003.
	IP Logged

ckcc

Technoluster

Offline

Posts: 161
South Carolina, USA

Back to top

	Re: Restoring OS only image to new HDD Reply #11 - Aug 17^th, 2006 at 6:30pm OK Rad, I see that you formatted first then restored the image. And you say that it booted fine? Maybe thats where I went wrong. So does formatting the partition also create a MBR that allowed your image to boot or did it just allow your MBR to be restored with the image?
	If anything can go wrong, it already did, and you just now noticed it. IP Logged

ckcc

Technoluster

Offline

Posts: 161
South Carolina, USA

Back to top

	Re: Restoring OS only image to new HDD Reply #12 - Aug 17^th, 2006 at 6:32pm Brian, I'm very curious now... so I'm sure gonna try a few things but not sure when I'll get it done. I will post my findings ASAP
	If anything can go wrong, it already did, and you just now noticed it. IP Logged

Brian

Demigod

Offline

Posts: 6345
NSW, Australia

Back to top

	Re: Restoring OS only image to new HDD Reply #13 - Aug 17^th, 2006 at 6:37pm I think that partitioning and formatting does create a MBR that allows success.
	IP Logged

ckcc

Technoluster

Offline

Posts: 161
South Carolina, USA

Back to top

	Re: Restoring OS only image to new HDD Reply #14 - Aug 17^th, 2006 at 6:43pm OK, so does parttioning and formating create a generic MBR that allows booting (like fdisk/ mbr did for me) or does the original MBR get restored?
	If anything can go wrong, it already did, and you just now noticed it. IP Logged

	Welcome, Guest. Please Login