When attempting to create a system image, windows is including three drives by default: the C: (windows), the System Reserved, and the D: (storage)
For some reason, windows things the D drive is a system drive and thus it cannot be excluded from the system image. Is there a way to fix this? Thanks.
Hello Bob565656, welcome to Seven Forums!
Will you please post a snip/screen-shot of the entire disk management drive map so we can see what you have going on as there may be a fairly simple way to resolve the situation.
In the Windows start menu right click computer and click manage, in the left pane of the "Computer Management" window that opens click disk management and post a snip of that.
How to Post a Screenshot in Seven Forums
Hello again Bob.
That's really odd that the backup utility sees D: as "System" when it clearly is not, as you can see from the snip the "System, Reserved" partition is the system partition, that's the reason it's included in the backup as that's where Windows has stored the files needed to boot the system and if they're not included in the backup Windows will not boot if you use the backup to do a restore.
I'm kind-of stumped for the time being where to go from here; keep checking back though as someone may come up with the solution for you at any time; if you find a resolution in the mean-time be sure to post back what you did to maybe help others with the same issue.
It's interesting. I gather the other data partitions to D: must be fundamentally different in some way. Are there any system folders on D:?
How does Windows Imaging behave when you say locate "My documents" for example on a "data" partition like D:?
There are no system folders on D. Sorry mjf, I don't understand the last question. There is no 'my documents' folder on D.
I did, however, install a copy of VMWare on the D, which was then deleted manually since the uninstaller didn't work. I'm guessing windows thinks that there is a program still installed on D and included it in the backup. If this is the case, what can I do about it?
Hello Bob.
If there's no resolution forth-coming and there is nothing on the D: partition that you want to save, if there is maybe you could move it somewhere safe for a while or make a backup of it; the Option Three in this tutorial shows how to do a partition specific wipe "secure erase" of the desired partition, it over-writes everything on the partition with zeroes effectively 'removing' all data; then the data could be put back if need be.
Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD
The "Move To" option in this tutorial can be used to great effect to move personal data from one location to another.
Context Menu - Add Copy To Folder and Move To Folder
You will find it a lot easier to use a 3rd party imaging app.
There are plenty of good free versions.
Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download
Paragon do a great free one too - link is down atm.
Those are very good products.
Which one is easier, which one is better now that's something for others to debate.
There are those who prefer Acronis, those who prefer Easeus.
As is well known, my personal choice is Windows 7 Backup and Restore which has never failed me.
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