Query on a clone

[ICIT2LOL]

I have just got a Seagate 1TB hybrid drive for my partners machine which has got very slow even though I have tried everything to tidy it up.

Now I aim to clone the old drive to this drive with Macrium but I have a query before I start because as far as I know the drive is as is when she bought the machine from the store.

1. Partition 1 seems very large - any thoughts?
2. Partition 2 is ok though full of um... clutter
3. Partition 3 I have no idea what is for except probably full of Toshiba crapware
4. Partition 4 (circled in main pic) is a complete mystery.

As far as I know apart from me adding CCleaner and MBAM to the machine and using Brinks optimize tutorial it has not been touched by anyone.

So anyone with an idea what is going on and what I can do with the Partition/s 1 & 4? to make the main partition slightly larger before I go ahead with the cloning please.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Since my last post I have done some research but am still a bit stuck.
Am not sure what the 4th unallocated partition which I have since formatted with PW to NTFS is for.

I have Googled and found what the first and third partition's are for but the last (4th) partition is to me a waste of space.

 

[Layback Bear]

I'm not sure if I can help but this tutorial will give a better look.

By Golden:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

I would of chosen to back up everything and and then do a clean install.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok Jack I can do that no problems I was using PW to try and do something with that wasted space in the last partition. It remains a mystery to me why the first partition is so large as you know it is usually quite small typically in MB's.
I am guessing this is the stores set up and is following the instructions from Toshiba.

Now as for a clan install mate we won't go there the ground is WAY too dangerous cos if I got it wrong the boss would be well homicidal. Don't get me wrong but I am with what you say but truly the consequences are dire.

The other alternative I did think of is using PW I can enlarge the C: partition by shoving it sideways cos I am guessing the larger drive will have unallocated space after the clone and perhaps I can get this sorted later on.

 

[whs]

P1 is the system partition containing the bootmgr
P2 is the OS partition
P3 looks like the recovery partition
P4 was not really a partition but unallocated space that was not used

I would image P1, P2 and P3 and restore them on the new disk. Then you will again end up with unallocated space on the new disk which you can use for anything you please.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Thanks Wolfgang I will have to wait until tomorrow now as I don't have access to a drive I can image to. In the meantime could I just clone that drive and see how it performs? The imaging I can do later and redo the whole thing. I don't really mind a bit of going around again as I only have this machine (s) to work with being away from home.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Wolfgang being a bit of a tinkerer I thought of why not just drag and drop the partitions in Macrium - is that possible without the need for the imaging?? as in my pic.

 

[whs]

You can try to clone it for a test. I never had much luck with cloning. That's why I prefer to work with images. Let us know how you make out with the clone. Maybe we can learn something.

 

[whs]

The dragging is the way to do it. And the unallocated space you can deal with later - with Disk management, e.g. make an additional logical (extended) partition.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok mate I shall try it as I have done a few clones with Macrium and no problems. Will let you know how it goes

 

[Kaktussoft]

You forgot to mark the new 1.46GB partition as ACTIVE!! After cloning detach source drive and boot. Actually do a startup repair... to fix the bootmenu. If it boots successfully you can attach old drive again. Mark old 1.46GB partition as INACTIVE.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

An update
Kaktussoft you have just made a comment on what I found out I was missing as I didn't check the mail for replies until just now (and could have saved myself some sweat working on it).

The clone went for about three and one half hours and was showing up with different letters for the partitions.

This I thought nothing of until I installed the new drive and nothing.... BIOS saw it but no boot.

So went back to installing the old drive back and using the USB gadget tried to set the labels right with Partition Wizard - still no go when the new drive put back in.

So out of interest I looked at the options in PW and saw - Set as active now this rang a loud bell as I remember Wolfgang's tutorial for aligning SSD's and it mentioning making the drive active.

Clicked on each of the partitions and marked each for set active with PW and ran those commands.

Reinstalled the new drive and it immediately went to loading Windows. Cutting a long process short it ran a lengthy repair process which has now made the drive boot the machine.
The only flaw is that on power up it stops and asks me to press CTRL ALT DEL
- doing this immediately starts loading Windows.

So lesson learnt and thanks to everyone who looked in as I was on death row if the drive messed up

Summarising the clone can be done easily using the partition drag drop method in Macrium as long as the partitions are set as active before the clone or after as I did. I might write a little something up if someone could tell me if I should have or could have marked the whole drive as active before I started the cloning or whether it is best left to afterwards.
However there are still some issues on power up that I need to sort out so I had better get on with it.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Further update sorted the problem with a start up repair I think I ran a malware scan that baulked something.

Anyway boot time is now down from 1 minute 40 secs to 50 secs so I think the thing has been nailed

PS Forgot the new snip and I am now wondering how I an utilize that unallocated space to C: if possible.

 

[Kaktussoft]

Why did you mark the 10.93 partition ACTIVE? The 1.48GB partition was ACTIVE when you started.

I don't care what partition is ACTIVE (so holds the bootmgr and bootmenu). Normally that partition is 100MB and label "system reserved". I think reset to factory settings isn't possible anymore... or does it work (just try to do it, but DON'T actually start the restore!)

 

[Kaktussoft]

Further update sorted the problem with a start up repair I think I ran a malware scan that baulked something.

Anyway boot time is now down from 1 minute 40 secs to 50 secs so I think the thing has been nailed

PS Forgot the new snip and I am now wondering how I an utilize that unallocated space to C: if possible.

Using PW you can move the 10.83 partition to the right. After that you can extend C (in diskmanagment or in PW)

 

[whs]

How to extend partition easily with partition magic ? Partition Wizard video help.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Why did you mark the 10.93 partition ACTIVE? The 1.48GB partition was ACTIVE when you started.

I don't care what partition is ACTIVE (so holds the bootmgr and bootmenu). Normally that partition is 100MB and label "system reserved". I think reset to factory settings isn't possible anymore... or does it work (just try to do it, but DON'T actually start the restore!)

Ok well I am not really that cluey when it comes to dealing with this sort of stuff and I did say I did mark the partitions as active only because I was running out of ideas and hadn't seen your post.

That was because the clone was done overnight and I had not checked my mail on my machine before getting the drive in and trying it.

In my first posts I did ask why the first partition was so large because as you say it is usually a few MB's and that is known only to whoever first installed Windows on a very unusual 600GB drive. If you look at posts #1 & 4 you will see what I was greeted with. Now cloning in the past I have only had to use drives of similar sizes or small to large and when those popped up it took me by surprise as I had originally bought a 500GB drive for the job and of course it would not clone so hence me buying the 1TB to circumvent that problem.

The factory restore I can always reinstall the old drive I suppose but as long as this drive is working there is no desperate need for it. The other suggestion of moving the third partition to the right I will do anyway to give Lynne the max C: space.

All in all a bit of a learning curve for me and hopefully helpful for anyone stuck with my situation in the future.

Oh and thanks Wolfgang I will have a look at that video before I do anything as I am still wary of doing anything without some guidance now.

However thanks to everyone again for helping me out of a spot.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

How to extend partition easily with partition magic ? Partition Wizard video help.

Wolfgang I have just got round to watching that video but your link takes me to the PW site but clicking on extending partition is asking me to use JavaScript for camtasia??

I viewed a YouTube for resizing and moving the partition would that be much the same because the version on that video was PW 5.0/

 

[whs]

Get the .iso for the bopotable PW ( last box on the website). Burn that to CD and boot the system with that CD. Then follow the tutorial I linked earlier.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Get the .iso for the bopotable PW ( last box on the website). Burn that to CD and boot the system with that CD. Then follow the tutorial I linked earlier.

Ok Wolfgang I will do that as I have never used that boot option before and having heard a bit about it just lately was curious.