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Re: Imaging To Smaller Partition?

T

Twayne

Flightless Bird
In news:r8335659ce9rgrjhpb8nnb5kkn4eva37jq@4ax.com,
(PeteCresswell) <x@y.Invalid> typed:
> I'm about to buy a laptop with, say, a 300-gig hard drive.
>
> My Expectations:
>
> - The installed system will contain a bunch of marketing
> stuff
>
> - The hard drive will have only one partition or maybe a
> second partition for the recovery disc image if they're
> saving money on discs.
>
> - Recovery discs will not offer up a re-partitioning option
> and will restore the hard drive to precisely the state it
> was when the laptop was new.
>
>
> My Agenda:
>
> - To tweak the system to where I want it
> > Install more applications
> > Get rid of the marketing stuff

>
> - To image the tweaked system in such a way
> that it can be restored to a 30-gig partition.
>
> - To re-partition the hard drive
> > 30 gigs for the system
> > The rest for a D: ("Data") drive

>
> - To re-image said hard drive
>
>
> My Question:
>
> Is there a way to image that 300-gig partition - which will
> contain less than 30 gigs of actual "stuff" - in such a way
> that a good system can be created by re-imaging to a 30-gig
> partition?
>
> Seems like it might be theoretically possible if the utility
> could know which sectors were virgin and which were used...
> or if the partition were defragged to where everything was
> contiguous and the utility could figure out where that was.


You cannot "image" to a smaller drive if you're using the term literally.
Read the manual that came with your imaging ware.

If your "image" is, say, a Norton Ghost image, then as long as the new drive
is large enough to hold all the data in storage, then yes, it'll work. If
you're lucky you have a separate image of your boot drive: Use that and only
restore the OS related programs/folders. It should fit into 30 Gig, but
depending on what programs you have installed, that could be too small for
much growth in the future. 50 Gig would be a much better number and IMO 80
Gig ideal so that you don't fill more than 85% of the drive.

BTW, you "image" to a restore drive. You Restore images TO your hard drives.

You're not going to get well targetted answers because you have provided
pathetically little information to go on.

--
How to Post to a newsgroup:
http://word.mvps.org/findhelp/whichnewgrp.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how_5681_post-newsgroup-internet.html
 
R

Rick Chauvin

Flightless Bird
"> (PeteCresswell) <x@y.Invalid> typed:
> I'm about to buy a laptop with, say, a 300-gig hard drive.
>
> My Expectations:
>
> - The installed system will contain a bunch of marketing
> stuff
>
> - The hard drive will have only one partition or maybe a
> second partition for the recovery disc image if they're
> saving money on discs.
>
> - Recovery discs will not offer up a re-partitioning option
> and will restore the hard drive to precisely the state it
> was when the laptop was new.
>
>
> My Agenda:
>
> - To tweak the system to where I want it
> > Install more applications
> > Get rid of the marketing stuff

>
> - To image the tweaked system in such a way
> that it can be restored to a 30-gig partition.
>
> - To re-partition the hard drive
> > 30 gigs for the system
> > The rest for a D: ("Data") drive

>
> - To re-image said hard drive
>
>
> My Question:
>
> Is there a way to image that 300-gig partition - which will
> contain less than 30 gigs of actual "stuff" - in such a way
> that a good system can be created by re-imaging to a 30-gig
> partition?


Yes absolutely!

As long as you are imaging back into a larger partition than the actual
uncompressed data it originally contains. Give it an extra 25% for use and
growth.

I would always for good measure, make a image of your C partition just as
it came from the factory First, just for reference or even restore for
unique purposes.

I use True Image which will do that on the fly, I've had the pleasure of
restoring a thousand images by now, but you can use your favorite
imager as well.

> Seems like it might be theoretically possible if the utility
> could know which sectors were virgin and which were used...


Well it does,

> or if the partition were defragged to where everything was
> contiguous and the utility could figure out where that was.


Even if you didn't defrag it will still restore it back to the beginning of
the drive, even if was at first spread out over the entire 300 GB; the only
way it will restore it's Original sector to sector positions is if you
choose that Sector Level option of which not many Programs offer that
option anymore, and is usually only good if for forensics or specific
sector recovering, otherwise it's of little use and too time consuming.

Rick
 
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