Olav00007
asked on
Copy image of whole hard-drive - lost partitions
I have a laptop hard-drive with many partitions. I also have some lost partitions ("unallocated space" I think).
Is there some way I can backup the entire physical drive?
Restore it on a different drive?
While having other stuff on the drive?
(Its many primary partitions, and an extended partition with many drives.
Normally it should not fit into an existing structure)
Is there some way I can backup the entire physical drive?
Restore it on a different drive?
While having other stuff on the drive?
(Its many primary partitions, and an extended partition with many drives.
Normally it should not fit into an existing structure)
LDH
Yes, if you use Norton Ghost, just copy the entire drive to an image, or a different drive.
You might want to try virtualising the PC in question - that way you can access the software and data on any machine. If this doesn't suit your needs and you don't want to spend money on Norton Ghost you could try the open source software 'Drive Image XML' which does exactly what you want.
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm
ASKER
Notrhon Ghost only deals with logical drives.
Drive Image XML also, as far as I can see from the description.
Drive Image XML also, as far as I can see from the description.
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If you want to avoid spending any money, you could try virtualising the drive physical to virtual (P2V) which will then give you a file you can move on to another disk using a virtual to physical app. VMware do a free P2V app called 'VMware vCenter Converter Standalone 4.0.1' (which you can also use in conjunction with Drive Image XML to perform the V2P part - http://www.vmware.com/support/v2p/doc/V2P_TechNote.pdf)
I've just re-read your question though and it sounds like you want to create a new partition on another drive and have all the partitions of the laptop drive inserted into this new partition. Is that right? Generally speaking, I don't think you can have more than 4 logical partitions on a single physical drive or at least it's a bad idea to. Can you confirm whether you want to insert the drive image into a new partition on the other hard disk or whether you're going to clear the other disk and use the laptop drive partitions as the only partitions after transfer?
I've just re-read your question though and it sounds like you want to create a new partition on another drive and have all the partitions of the laptop drive inserted into this new partition. Is that right? Generally speaking, I don't think you can have more than 4 logical partitions on a single physical drive or at least it's a bad idea to. Can you confirm whether you want to insert the drive image into a new partition on the other hard disk or whether you're going to clear the other disk and use the laptop drive partitions as the only partitions after transfer?
ASKER
The main thing is to have a backup. I imagine that to recover lost partitions between sectors I would need the partition table in addition to the sectors, but I know that would be difficult on an existing drive (But I would like to be sure I can do it on a blank drive if I need to)
This question has been classified as abandoned and is being closed as part of the Cleanup Program. See my comment at the end of the question for more details.