Solved Questions regarding HD volumes, partitions, images, etc.

[Senator]

I have an old laptop hard drive that was running Windows 7. See the Disc Management screen shot below.



I'd like to wipe the disc and copy an image of my current hard drive on to it, but first, I have a few questions I was hoping you could help answer.

1. The System (L partition. How do I delete the drive letter? I don't believe it needs to be or should be a volume. The current drive has the same amount of "System" space, but no drive letter.
2. Drive (M and (G have no data in them so I want to remove them. I assume that would be a simple right-click and "Delete Volume".
3. I presume that when volume M & G are removed I can simply "Extend" Volume (N.

If all this goes as planned and let's say that the image file is approximately 300GB, would it be possible to Restore that image to the same hard drive? BTW, the current hard drive is the same size as this drive 500GB.

Thanks

 

[ignatzatsonic]

You say you want to "wipe" the drive.

If you did that, you'd delete all partitions. The drive letter L on the system partition would be irrelevant as you would be deleting it regardless. Deleting all partitions would leave you with unallocated space.

Likewise, if you wipe the drive, you wouldn't have N and therefore couldn't extend it.

You say the image file is 300 GB. That's presumably with some degree of compression. It will be larger when restored. What was the occupied space on the partition from which this image file was made? If 500 or less, I'd guess it would fit on this drive after you wipe it and restore the image.

Is this an image file of a C drive (Windows)? Does the image file also contain the "system reserved" partition which contains boot files on a typical installation? If you have an image file of a C and the C does not contain the boot files, it won't boot after restoration unless you also restore a system reserved partition that does contain boot files.

Or do you have no intention of restoring this image file and simply want to "copy" it to this drive, without restoration or any attempt at booting this drive. That would be taking your use of the word "copy" literally and no more.

It's one thing to "copy" an image file from drive to drive. It's quite another thing to restore that image file.

 

[me1246]

Yes, you can delete them, but it won't be a click and go type of thing to extend the HDD. Just reinstall after imaging the hard disk, and choose the partition sizes later on. You can use gparted to help.
Yes, you can clone the image to the hard drive, but the sizes would be different, so you will have to adjust the sizes.

 

[Senator]

You say you want to "wipe" the drive.

Thanks for you timely and detailed response. You raise some very good points, which only serve to indicate that I know enough to be dangerous.

By "wipe" I simply meant to remove any data or partitioning that wasn't needed for how I intend to use the drive in the future. Best to disregard that comment and try to answer the questions.

The amount of data on the drive I would be creating the image of is currently 333GB.

Yes, it is Windows 7 and it does contain a System partition (no drive letter), a C: partition, a Recovery D: partition and a HP Tools E: partition.

I believe you may have answered another question I had regarding boot records. Does the MBR reside in the System partition? This would explain why I am unable to boot from another drive that I "wiped" and then restored an image to. Can you tell me how to create or restore a System partition on another drive that I inadvertently deleted the System partition on.

I realize I am probably confusing you because I'm confused myself. I know I want to create an image of my existing drive C and this seemed like a good place to store it. However, this old drive is the same size and speed of my current drive C. In the event of a crash, being able to use the old drive would seem like a reasonable thing to do. However, it wouldn't be a Restored image, it would be an image backup. So I was wondering if I could turn the backup image into a restored image on the same drive.

Thanks again.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

So I was wondering if I could turn the backup image into a restored image on the same drive.

I don't think an image file can be restored to the partition on which it is stored.

If I wanted to restore to drive X, I'd want my image file to be stored on some other drive entirely.

If your image file was stored on partition 1 and that image file contained 4 partitions and you tried to restore to the same drive, I'm not sure if it would work, or even begin. That would be 5 partitions, generally verboten. If the image file contained 2 partitions, it might complete and be OK.

I'm not sure. I avoid the issue by never storing my image files on any drive to which I might want to restore.

But I'm not clear on your overall intent or what you've done so far. I think you've got a single image file that contains several partitions, but that's about all I know.

Re 333 GB. If the working drive has 333 GB occupied, an image file of all partitions on it would be maybe half that size. But again, I'm not clear on what you mean, what you've done, etc.

 

[Senator]

If I wanted to restore to drive X, I'd want my image file to be stored on some other drive entirely.

You have convinced me that it is either not possible and at the least inadvisable for me to store the image on the same drive I might want to restore to, so let's consider that a decision made. I will store the image on another drive and use the drive in question as the new drive (C) in the event I need a new hard drive.

This brings me back to a couple of my initial questions about this drive and how I remove what I don't need and prepare it to receive the image.




The System (L partition. How do I delete the drive letter? I don't believe it needs to be or should be a volume. The current drive has the same amount of "System" space, but no drive letter.
Drive (M and (G have no data in them so I want to remove them. I assume that would be a simple right-click and "Delete Volume".
I presume that when volume M & G are removed I can simply "Extend" Volume (N.

Many thanks

Sorry about this thumbnail. It was the wrong attachment, but I don't know how to delete it.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Unless I misunderstand your intent, you are over-complicating this.

Your previous post shows 2 pictures. I assume the first picture is the drive to which you might eventually want to restore an image of some other system.

And that you have no use for anything now on that drive.

Is that true?

If so, you'd boot your PC from its current hard drive, go to Windows Disk Management, and just delete all 4 partitions on the drive shown in the picture by right clicking each partition.

Full stop.

No concerns about removing drive letters or extending N or anything else.

When you go downtown and buy a new drive, it has no partitions. It's all "unallocated space". That's what you need.

 

[Senator]

Yes, the drive in my previous post (Segate 500GB) I want to make as if it came from the manufacturer. I plan to build a new Windows 7 + my application, but with no data. I use CrashPlan for data backup. In the event of a crash, I simply remove the current HD, put the new HD in and load my data from CrashPlan.

My concern came from the fact that I performed similar (deleting) activities on another HD (previously a drive C) and somehow managed to make it unbootable, even after restoring a Windows 7 image. With my limited knowledge of disc management, I assumed I deleted or corrupted the master boot record.

Thanks, you have been a big help.