Solved Recovery partition size when replacing a hard drive using an image

[ellentk]

I'm going to be replacing a 500 GB hard drive with a 1 TB hard drive in a ThinkPad laptop. I created an image of the 500 GB drive using Macrium. It contains C:/, D:/ and a recovery partition. I will be extending the size of the C:/ and D:/ partitions and have read that the size of the recovery partition should not be changed or it will become inoperable. Just checking here to make sure that information is correct. Thanks.

 

[RolandJS]

Scuttlebutt has told me that one can restore a partition onto an equal-size or greater-size partition; one can restore an entire hard-drive X-size onto a target hard-drive x-size or larger. Quick example: I have restored an OS image from a 465GB partition onto or into a 467GB partition. I found it best to "parallel" the target HD to match the source HD -- quick example: OS/465GB-C, Data/467GB-D source was successfully restored onto OS/467.8GB-C and data/467.7GB-D. Just before restoring, I split the whole 931GB/1 giant C into 467 C and 467 D. What brought all of that on -- I was in a hurry, and totally toasted my hard-drive logically [not hardware-wise]; I fixed it all with the abovementioned steps.

 

[ellentk]

Thanks for your reply, RolandJS, but you're confusing me. I'm asking about the recovery partition. I can't see how to apply your example to my situation. Perhaps I'm missing something? My hard drive is failing so I want to install a new one and then copy the image of my old drive onto the new drive. Then I will assign unallocated space to both the C and D partitions and leave the recovery partition alone. I would like to confirm that this is what I should be doing as I have never done it before.

 

[RolandJS]

I forgot the part about the Recovery Partition, sorry! I was focused on your C and D partitions. You're aok with cloning the source HD onto a target HD, as long as the target HD is as large or larger than the source HD. You're good to go.

 

[ellentk]

No problem, Roland. But, I can't clone the hard drive as it is failing. I have an image that I want to use. I've read that method works and I'm pretty confident it will. At any rate, I have no choice but to use the image. What I am not clear on are the requirements/limitations related to the recovery program. I plan to leave it alone after the image is copied to the new drive but I am curious about it.

 

[pbcopter]

I would leave the recovery partition the same size that it was. There is no reason to make it any larger.

 

[RolandJS]

I would leave the recovery partition the same size that it was. There is no reason to make it any larger.

Yes, a full image of this partition from the target HD should restore nicely onto the target HD.

 

[RolandJS]

I would leave the recovery partition the same size that it was. There is no reason to make it any larger.

Question for pbcopter: Does the target HD have to have the partitions already created via a disk management utility? I had to do that when I was "transferring" SysRes, C, D from source HD onto target HD.

 

[ellentk]

Thanks, pbcopter.

 

[ellentk]

Roland – according to macrium's knowledgebase, macrium reflect creates partitions when restoring an image to a new drive:
v5: How to restore a backup image (Restore, v5)

I don't know how other backup programs work but this is the one I'm using.

 

[AddRAM]

After you successfully do your reimage, post a shot of Disk Management from the new drive, you more then likely have to move the recovery partition if it`s to the right of C.

 

[RolandJS]

"Roland – according to macrium's knowledgebase, macrium reflect creates partitions when restoring an image to a new drive: v5: How to restore a backup image (Restore, v5)" -- EllenTK

After you successfully do your reimage, post a shot of Disk Management from the new drive, you more then likely have to move the recovery partition if it`s to the right of C.

AddRAM, that's one reason I normally make the "placeholder" [empty] partitions on the target HD in advance.

 

[ellentk]

AddRAM - Macrium shows this order of partitions on my image, from left to right: System, C:Windows, Data, Q: Lenovo Recovery. (The System partition is tiny, 1.46 GB.) Based on your comment, is this the physical order or just the order based on assigned drive letter? I believe I accessed the recovery partition in order to run some windows diagnostics when my hard drive began to fail. And the image was taken before that. So is it safe to assume the image will restore partitions to where they were? And since they worked where they were the restore will also work?

Macrium lets you resize partitions during a restore, which is what I thought I would do - expand both my C and D partitions as I will have twice as much space. Or is it safer to expand them using partition management software after I restore the image?

Thanks very much for your help. I haven't done this before (obviously) and I don't want to make any mistakes.

 

[AddRAM]

Have you done the reimage yet ???

Post the shot of Disk Management so we can have a look

A System Reserved partition of 1.46 GB is abnormally large. The normal size is 100 MB

 

[ellentk]

Here's a photo I took with my iPad of the diskpart/list volume command. I can boot into windows PE from Macrium's rescue disk but booting into windows even in safe mode is unreliable at this point. The image is clear when enlarged, but if it can't be made clear on your system, it lists:
Volume. ltr. label. Type
0 G. Rescue. DVD
1. E. System. Partition
2. C. Win7. Partition
3. D. Data. Partition
4. Q. Lenovo
recovery. Partition

 

[AddRAM]

Well what are you waiting for, Let`s get r done

In diskpart I would type list disk, select disk 0, then type list partition, not list volume, see if the order is the same. But it should be.

Diskpart > enter

list disk > enter

select disk 0 > enter

list partition > enter

 

[ellentk]

I'm haven't bought the new HD yet. And was waiting for the rails to arrive by mail.

Here's what list partition reports. It looks different then list volume. Is it okay?
#. Type Size. Offset
1. primary. 1500mb. 1024kb
2. primary. 122gb. 1501mb
0. extended. 326gb. 124gb
4. logical. 326gb. 124gb
3. primary. 15gb. 450gb

 

[ellentk]

After you successfully do your reimage, post a shot of Disk Management from the new drive, you more then likely have to move the recovery partition if it`s to the right of C.

I finally installed the new hard drive. It seems to be working well and passed Lenovo's diagnostics, so I hope it lasts longer than the old one. I've uploaded a disk management screen shot. The only thing different, aside from the bigger size, is a bit of unallocated space (for some reason I thought it might be safer to leave some room) and the recovery partition is now G instead of Q. I assume I can change it back to Q with no ill effects?And should I allocate the extra space?

Thank you again for all your help!

Ellen