New HDD not recognized in backup

[groundpounder56]

I recently installed a second hdd and made three partitions B:for page file E: for extra storage and G: for backup.When I start Windows7 backup it shows G: but has it X'ed out. When I did the partitions G was labeled as a physical drive and B & E were labeled as primary partitions.... So how do I get backup to recognize G: for backup?

 

[Night Hawk]

First Off! note the letter B is reserved for use with floppy drives not hard drives! Change that to another free letter available. Second G wouldn't work since Windows will only go to B(changed to another) or E since those are mounted as logical drives to start with.

If your new drive only saw one partition assigned G the backup option for selecting that drive's volume wouldn't be greyed out. Make sure G is an active partition in the Disk Management tool.

 

[mlevy]

You also need to make sure it's formatted in NTFS as FAT32 has a size limitation of 2 GB, the backup file (it's a VHD) is going to be much larger than that.

 

[Night Hawk]

You also need to make sure it's formatted in NTFS as FAT32 has a size limitation of 2 GB, the backup file (it's a VHD) is going to be much larger than that.

Fat 16 was the file system limited to 2gb. 98 that used Fat32 by default for that old Legacy version theoretically supported upto 2tb. The new usb external drives 1tb and even larger may come with a Fat 32 volume in order to be Windows/Mac compatible.

 

[mlevy]

Sorry, I should have clarified... FAT32 has a FILE SIZE limitation of 2 GB...

 

[Night Hawk]

The drawbacks of the old File Allocation Table! That's why the new external drives are often seen with exFat on them.

I'm sure groundpounder56 went with NTFS there however being the native file system for Windows these days.

 

[groundpounder56]

Hey, sorry for not getting back to this post but have been working a few extra shifts. Anyway I finally got the new drive working correctly. Now what I would like to do is make the new drive my main drive and use the old one for the page file and storage. Whats going to be my best option to get the data from the old one to the new one? I've seen several references to Acronis and some other utility's or should I just Windows 7 backup?

 

[karlsnooks]

Groundpounder,
Win 7 handles page files much better than XP.

There iis no need to make a separate partition just for the page file. Simply tell Win 7 where you want paging.

Now, before advising re moving from one disk to the other, we are going to need to see the fully maximized output of DISK MANAGEMENT.

Use the Snipping Tool in windows to take a .png snapshot of the output and attach that snapshot to your next post.

To run Disk Management
WIN key | type DISKMGMT.MSC | ENTER key

To run the Snipping tool,
WIN key | type SNIPPING | ENTER key

WIN key is the one with wavy flag on it.

To attach a snapshot:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-how-post-screenshot-seven-forums.html

 

[Night Hawk]

The snipping tool is found in Start>All Programs>Accessories and if used regualrly simply right click to pin on the raskbar. That will come in handy!

Once you have the drive situated the Windows backup tool will by default look at the first partition on the destination drive for seeing the image created and stored there. You may want to take that into consideration since you split your new drive up into G(first thought) and E partitions.

Once you point the backup tool to a specific partition the next time that will be seen if you start the process manually since Windows keeps a record of each much like your browser history in a sense until another backup is designated to another location.

Now it will depend on what you are planning as far as backing up data or a new Windows install on the new drive. For a complete image easy to restore to the first the Windows system image is quite reliable. Here I use Acronis for a second in order to be able to mount it when going to add even more to the latest image. Plus the image mount option is seen with the 3rd party program.

Acronis has had an excellent rep for years now. The Windows Easy Transfer tool will allow you to customize which files and folder will be backed up to the new drive however. You pick and choose them for the backup. It depends on whether or not you want instant access to the files like seen with the mounted image or simply want to have a safety with an archive such a backup or full disk image.

 

[groundpounder56]

OK here is what I've wound up with. I wasn't sure if I needed to have a separate system image or not so I did it this way and just use the weekly backup for file and data.
If there is a better choice please feel free to offer suggestions. I've never used a back plan before so it's all new to me.
Thanks

 

[karlsnooks]

GroundPounder,

Look good.

I just want to make sure that I understand.

You are using Windows 7 Backup and Restore to backup a system image of C: to E:

Is that correct?

 

[groundpounder56]

Yes that is correct karlsnooks. Then I just set up Backup to backup files on weekly basis on F: without making another image.

 

[karlsnooks]

Excellent.

There is one point to be aware of with System Image backups.

The new system image backup overwrites the old one.
This is contrary to some Microsoft documentation.

The backups do not overwrite old versions, unless you end up filling up the partition holding them. The backups work as advertised.

To avoid overwriting, then aftger genereating a system image backup, then rename the WindowsSystemImage file. I simply add a number to mine.
In a second I'll hook up my backup drive and make a snapshot of the directory so that you can see what I'm talking about.

 

[karlsnooks]

Groundpounder,

Here's the snapshot.

 

[Night Hawk]

I found going to that extent to have numerous images is for those planning to have multiple drives since partitions on split drives fill too fast! You will find that images will grow in size as more things are added.

Rather then splitting the second drive there one large primary with a designated backup folder would be for the scheduled backups while a pair of recent images will fill the entire drive rather fast.

Here with two 1tb models for storage one is designated for system images by both the Windows backup tool and the ones made by Acronis along with backing up VHDs while the first of the two is the main storage drive. Note this is all without anything scheduled but random backups made.