Acronis True Image 10. How does it Work?

[noyb]

1) Delete ALL partitions on the problem HDD...

Not an acceptable solution.
I know many who operate as I do with a separate Data partition.
They will be furious if they move to W7 and have this problem.

The only question right now ..
Is this only in my HP computer .. Will Acronis fix it ..
and what has Microsoft done to us now ??

 

[Muad Dib]

Not an acceptable solution.
I know many who operate as I do with a separate Data partition.
They will be furious if they move to W7 and have this problem.

The only question right now ..
Is this only in my HP computer .. Will Acronis fix it ..
and what has Microsoft done to us now ??

Well back to my original post to your problem.

1) Yes it seems peculiar to your HP computer.

2) No Acronis will not fix it because it is not an Acronis problem.

3) MS has provided us with one of the best desktop OSes ever made available.

You speak as if it were something that will have to be done every time you boot. This is a one time fix to a problem that seems unique to your installation.

In the amount of time you have been posting the issue you could have already fixed it six times over.

 

[SIW2]

1. If the Win 7 installer doesn't see any Active partitions already on the HD - it will split the partition you are installing w7 onto - creating the 100mb "System" partition.

To avoid that , partition the HD before installing w7 and mark the partition you are going to install w7 onto as Active.


2. If you already have a 100mb system partition and want to get rid of it :

In Disk Management, give it a drive letter.

In Folder options make sure Hidden files and protected o/s files are showing.

Copy and paste bootmgr and the pale yellow boot folder from 100mb partition onto the 7 partition. ( Skip copying bcd when it tells you it is in use - copy the rest).

Open an elevated cmd prompt and type ( assuming7 drive letter is C)

bcdedit /export C:\Boot\bcd

then press enter.

Mark 7 partition Active and reboot.

7 partition is now the system partition. Do what you like with the 100mb partition. I suggest merging it with a partition manager ( may take a while). You then have one slightly larger 7 partition.

Of course, the start sector is now different - so the bcd entry will not be right (unless your partition manager updates bcd for you). Run startup repair to correct the bcd entry.

Future imaging/restoring of the 7 partition should be fine.

 

[masterB]

Great info, thanks.
+ rep!

 

[SIW2]

I just added the bit about merging partitions to my previous post - so you may want to look at that. You don't have to do that - but it saves having a 100mb partition hanging around uselessly.

 

[noyb]

Many Thanks ... I'm trying a fresh install to an Active partition now.
Will mess with the other .. later

 

[Muad Dib]

1. If the Win 7 installer doesn't see any Active partitions already on the HD - it will split the partition you are installing w7 onto - creating the 100mb "System" partition.

To avoid that , partition the HD before installing w7 and mark the partition you are going to install w7 onto as Active.

Yes indeed, great info, the conditions that create the "System Reserved" partition.

 

[SIW2]

To expand that :

If there is another HD with an Active partition - earlier in the BIOS HD boot order, 7 will see that first, of course.

It will install the bootfiles on the first Active partition it comes across. The rest of it will install wherever you pointed it.

If there isn't an Active before ( and including ) the one you pointed it at - then it makes the 100mb one.

It is mainly to help those using bitlocker.

It can be a nuisance though.

 

[masterB]

You're right. On my laptop I had XP before and I did not get 100mb partition after installing W7.
On my wife's laptop without any other OS I got 100mb partition when I installed W7.

 

[Muad Dib]

To expand that :

If there is another HD with an Active partition - earlier in the BIOS HD boot order, 7 will see that first, of course.

It will install the bootfiles on the first Active partition it comes across. The rest of it will install wherever you pointed it.

If there isn't an Active before ( and including ) the one you pointed it at - then it makes the 100mb one.

It is mainly to help those using bitlocker.

It can be a nuisance though.

In the past I have ensured that each HDD gets it own bootloader by physically unplugging all drives but the one of concern and forcing a bootloader onto that drive's active partition.

Since I just received, literally 15 minutes ago, a shiny new Caviar Black 640GB from the UPS man I will give changing the HDD boot order in BIOs a try. Seems I had trouble with that in the past but my memory has faded with age.

 

[SIW2]

During the 7 install, if you use Drive Options (advanced) , and delete the existing partitions - you will also remove the Active flag - you then get the 100mb again.


In that situation best to just click on the partition you want to install to , without deleting it first.

 

[masterB]

cool

 

[Muad Dib]

I, almost always, create/size the primary partitions as a separate step from the install or restore operation. I am sure that is why I never saw the "System Reserved" partition being created.

 

[SIW2]

That's certainly why.

It doean't create a 100mb system if you already have an Active partition - in case you have an o/s already installed.


If you install 7 on your new HD with it first in the BIOS boot order , then ( if you have marked an Active partition on it first) , you will have the 7 boot files and o/s on the same partition .

 

[noyb]

Many Thanks SIW2
Installing W7 to an active partition did not install the reserved partition.
I’m now able to recover a HDD using an Acronis Recovery Image …
And specify the system partition size during the Recovery … Then add a Data Partition.
I’m also able to replace a system C partition without having to mess with the Data partition.

 

[SIW2]

You're welcome noyb - glad you got it working

 

[new]

Did any of those using Acronis find that Acronis saw the System Information Folder as the 'C' Drive and then re-lettered all other drives, and if so did this cause problems when restoring the image?

 

[Dave76]

I, almost always, create/size the primary partitions as a separate step from the install or restore operation. I am sure that is why I never saw the "System Reserved" partition being created.

I do the same thing. Is it advisable or necessary to format (NTFS) before the install or restore?

That's certainly why.

It doean't create a 100mb system if you already have an Active partition - in case you have an o/s already installed.


If you install 7 on your new HD with it first in the BIOS boot order , then ( if you have marked an Active partition on it first) , you will have the 7 boot files and o/s on the same partition .

Thanks for explaining this, I've read where people had this problem and didn't know why as it's never happened to me. Now I know.

Lots of good information on this thread.

Thanks for the information,
Dave

 

[Muad Dib]

I do the same thing. Is it advisable or necessary to format (NTFS) before the install or restore?

It is not necessary but, IMO, advisable. Unless one is cloning a drive and the proportional re-sizing of the partitions is acceptable, performing partition creation/sizing as a separate operation provides more control and isolates any partitioning problems/issues from the actual restore/install.

 

[Muad Dib]

Did any of those using Acronis find that Acronis saw the System Information Folder as the 'C' Drive and then re-lettered all other drives, and if so did this cause problems when restoring the image?

"System Information" partition? Do you mean the "System Reserved" partition?