willisoften Posted March 21, 2003 Report Share Posted March 21, 2003 Has anyone used Part Image to migrate XP/NTFS to another hard drive? Any thoughts or warnings? It must be my time for problems cos my Windows HD has started to buzz! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MottS Posted March 21, 2003 Report Share Posted March 21, 2003 I used Partimage with ext3, ReiserFS and Fat32 partitions but never NTFS. According to their website, this filesystem is supported experimentally. So I would use something else (just my opinion) like Norton Ghost to do the work unless you want to _experiment_. Also notice that the new partiton (the one on which you'll put the image) has to have the same size OR larger than the old one. So don't try to put a 2Gigs partition in a 1Gig one. Other than that... GO! :P MOttS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted March 22, 2003 Report Share Posted March 22, 2003 I use partimage mostly with fat32 and reiserfs, but I think it would ntfs with no problem. Only issue is burning onto a cd is a pain if the file is too big. But if you can copy over a network or your partitions are small enough after compression, it works fine. I would try it with ntfs.. Note that on the web site (haven't looked lately), there is a link on the download page for downloading and building an iso CD containing partimage. Then you can boot off of the cd and backup any partition.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willisoften Posted March 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2003 I read the docs late into the night, from what I can gather, though maybe I was a little sleepy headed, you can copy an NTFS partiton but you can't write to it. The documentation on the website seems to be a bit behind the software so maybe I'll post to the forum. Ghost: I'm a little reluctant to buy software as this is not a job I intend to do regularly. Weird as of this morning the Windows drive has quietened down again, creepy.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted March 22, 2003 Report Share Posted March 22, 2003 Partimage: You can backup/restore partitions. Linux Mount: You can only have a read-only mount. Writes are not recommended (even possible anymore?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MottS Posted March 22, 2003 Report Share Posted March 22, 2003 I read the docs late into the night, from what I can gather, though maybe I was a little sleepy headed, you can copy an NTFS partiton but you can't write to it. It has always been like that.. you can't write to an ntfs partition. They started to include _experimental_ write support in the kernel but this is still beta. I compiled the thing as a module last time I build the kernel but I did not try yet to write to my ntfs partitoin .. LOL Ok .. and I don't think you can mount an image created with Partimage and write to it even if it is a fat32, ext3 or ReiserFS partition. Is this what you expected to do ? MOttS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willisoften Posted March 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2003 Basically I just want to recreate my XP installation on a new HD. I'd prefer it on NTFS which is, IMO a good bit more stable than FAT. The easiest might be some of the tools that come with hard drives : Maxblast or Disk Wizard. I'm just reluctant to purchase software for what might be a one-off job. AFAIK these are basically copy utilities so they take a long time. I've got the feeling that the longer it takes then failure becomes more likely. Acronis looks good so if I can think of a couple of jobs for it I might invest. The hard drive is behaving at the moment so I did an afternoons worth of cd-burning to save everything I could think of to CDR Even compressing my less important stuff and leaving out my mp3s (which are all on cd anyway) its 5 disks! I guess until I get it sorted I'll save my coursework to CDRW as I'm working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoopy Posted March 22, 2003 Report Share Posted March 22, 2003 willisoften - I would go and download a utility called powermax from maxtor's website (assuming it's a maxtor drive making the noise). This fixed a "clickity-clak" noise mine was making. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willisoften Posted March 22, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 22, 2003 Thanks scoopy, it is a maxtor, drive is behaving itself for the moment but it's making me nervous! I have a new one ready to go if I can get the original cloned/imaged/copied. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted March 23, 2003 Report Share Posted March 23, 2003 Here's what you can do ( I just did it ), if you don't trust the NTFS with partimage. 1. Create the original using a fat32. 2. Make a partimage file and put on CD. 3. Restore to new computer. 4. On the restore computer, ALT-R and type cmd. This will open a terminal window. At least it does on win2k. 5. Type convert c: /FS:NTFS 6. A message will appear stating it can't do it while volume is busy. Schedule to do it after reboot? Say yes. After reboot, it will convert to NTFS. I think you should try partimage with NTFS though. Let us know if it works :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willisoften Posted March 23, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2003 Cannonfodder: That seems like a very good idea.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MottS Posted March 23, 2003 Report Share Posted March 23, 2003 I'm not sure if Partimage will want to put an image that is from a ntfs partiton in a fat32 one. Let's see.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
willisoften Posted March 23, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2003 It's great the way your all waiting for me to experiment with MY hard drive! :D I need to do something soon I guess. Scoopy the maxtor utilities did find and fix a few small problems and when I rebooted no buzzing! I'm a bit happier but I think I'm goona change hard drives anyway. Maybe I'll keep the old one for experimental installations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannonfodder Posted March 23, 2003 Report Share Posted March 23, 2003 Motts, partition imaging utilities don't work in that fashion. It actually overwrites the entire partition with the contents of an "image" file. You can think of the image as a camera snapshot of the partition at the time it was made. So basically it doesn't care what is there before. It's all replaced. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MottS Posted March 23, 2003 Report Share Posted March 23, 2003 This is basically why I'm wondering if this is going to work. If you take the snapshot with an ntfs background, it's going to put the background as well when you copy it back to the other hard drive. :?: I might be a bit mixed up with that but let's see what is going to happen.... When I deleted my Windows partition, I made an image of my linux partition first (ext3). Then I formated the whole hard drive ReiserFS and when I put the image back on the hard drive, the system was always complaining about that partition. KDiskFree thought it was an ext3 partition but it was formated ReiserFS. Also, for the kernel to mount that partition at boot time, I had to write 'ext3' in fstab... otherwise it wasn't able to mount it. Since then I formated the whole thing again and installed Gentoo... To make sure everything goes #1, I suggest you make an image of your ntfs partition (well, you have to do it anyway). Then format the new hard drive ntfs and try to put the image back there. If it works then cOOl !! .. the partimage programs works with ntfs partition. Otherwise try the fat32 solution and see what will happen. If that doesn't work either, well I think you'll have to reinstall windows .. :roll: But that should works with ntfs: 6.1 Note about the NTFS support Note for users The NTFS file system is very complex (system files are implemented as regular files). For this reason it is not fully supported in Partition Image. It mean that you can have problems when trying to save an NTFS partition, if your system files are very fragmented, or are not written in standards location. Then, you will have a warning at the beginning of the operation: The NTFS support is experimental. But in most cases, it will work without any problem. The best thing to do is to try to save your NTFS partition. If you have an error message, then you will have to stop. If there was no error, you can continue. If you can save the partition, you won't have problem when trying to restore (except if there is a bug). MOTtS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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