Reformat a failed Cloned HDD?

I just had another interesting happen. As learned about from rusty I have been doing a system image every morning via AOMEI. Todays failed and notice the SS of what I just noticed. That narfarious N: drive popped up it's head in creating a new image backup (1).

Now I am really wondering what is happening. If the clone was indeed done correctly the image BU should have just sailed through, No?

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb170/kahsr/AOMEIBackupFailedNotePartitionLetters_zpsce426629.gif

 

Note to rusty, I just wanted to let you know I got your PM but could not respond to it because of a 50 message rule. I guess in a bit I will be able to PM you back :clap.

 

Still working on this thing I pulled up the Partitions and see clearly that N: is the System Drive (first partition light blue with no drive letter showing) Then the C: is the Boot Drive with D the HP recovery drive and F wasted space to me at this time.

I guess my questions would be is why didn't the system and boot partitions remain as one and why did it create an extra drive (F)?

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb170/kahsr/CloneShowingNCDandFDrives_zps595e50df.gif

 

Mr. Magoo...

I don't think you have anything to fear with drive N:. I might be wrong, but on your 2 TB drive, I believe you would have a 48 MB cache partition (on drives containing an operating system). Perhaps if you check the specs you will see that your drive has a 48 MB cache?

I have an 8 MB cache on this 160 GB OS drive, which shows up in Paragon Backup and Recovery as a small partition separate from the OS partition and which I believe is the manufacturer's spec for it (8 MB)...

Only question I would have about what I am seeing is why the drive seems to only allow for you to have a 500 GB partition for your OS partition. That is unusual behavior, but there should be an easy way to combine C and F. You say you have the pro version, so I assume 500 GB OS partition this is not some sort of limit for having a free version. IDK...

 

Thanks AtlBo, I just find it odd, this has never happened to me before when doing a clone job. The N: doesn't really bother me (to) much as the drive is working. What's bothering me is not it's not Imaging properly so that image is not picking up the D (HP Recovery) drive nor the F for that matter.

It just doesn't make sense to me that I can't merge the C and F drives the way it is I might as well just stick with the original 500GB drive. Yes, you are correct the Pro does allow merging but it just will not let me merge the o and F for so reason. I think this project is getting to be a matter of principal to me. I just know it should be an easy clone job and it has been a nightmare for two weeks.

Someone out there has to know what I am missing and I just know it is just some simple little thing I am over looking :banghead.

 

Well, after reading the Merge Help a 3rd time (ambashasing) I noticed this little restriction that is keeping me form merging C and F.

The two partitions which will be merged must be adjacent. It means that there are no other partitions except unallocated space between the two partitions which will be merged.

So this leaves it impossible to merge the C and F because of the D drive is between them! So this makes the whole process null.

So now the question is why are all three programs I have tried (AOME, Seagate Disc Wizard and Mini Partition Wizard Home 8) making this extra partition and not using the complete drive as they should?

This truly has me baffled.

 

Magoo, when you set up the backup job, which type of backup did you choose. There are 3 choices

1. Disk Backup
2. Partition Backup
3. System Backup

Although the support techs at AOMEI assured me that I only need to use the System Backup, I always use the Disk Backup because it allows me to backup the entire disk including the MBR, system partition, partition tables, OS, personal files, recovery partition.... everything. From the picture you provided it looks as though you are backing up your Windows partition and N:, the system partition. You definitely want to backup the system partition because it contains all of the files needed to boot your computer. No sense in backing up your hard drive if you can't boot it. I suggest you create a new backup job using the Disk Backup option. When you get to the screen for choosing what to back up you will only be able to choose ALL of the partitions (because it's a full disk backup) This will include:

1. MBR
2. N: (System partition)
3. C: (Widows partition)
4. D: (Recovery partition) <-- I'm assuming your recovery partition is D:, which would be the default, but it may be another letter.

Once you do a successful backup with this configuration, you can delete the other backup job as you won't need it.

 

I used pretty much every freeware disk partitioning program out there and they all have different limitations. It may be that the one you are using doesn't allow merging of partitions. However, I know there is at least one freeware program that does support merging of partitions. I just don't know which one it is off the top of my head. I'll figure out which one it is and get back to you on that. You are a very tenacious man, Mr. Magoo. Most people would have already taken a baseball bat to the infernal beast.:boxing

 

The one that can merge partitions is none other than........ AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard Ed. v5.5

http://www.backup-utility.com/free-partition.html

 

Hi rusty, now you have be wondering and will have to check, I believe I do the Disk Backup but will be checking into that.

As far as setting up a new Disk Image for the new drive that isn't going to happen. I am wiping that sucker as I type!

I am happy to see though that you as I over looked that one little gotcha. If you read down in the blue box of the AOMEI SS you sent me you will see that they too state that the partitions have to be adjacent. So with that D: between them they can't be merged.

This has been one HUGE headache for me but I WILL win this battle :major.

Hang tough and "I'll be back" :guns.

 

Why couldn't you switch the drive letters (D <--> F) then merge D into C, then change drive letter F --> D ?

I spent about 3 hours today researching tech forums all over the net about your exact scenario and I didn't find a single person who could crack it. It seems to be a fairly common scenario with no solution. Every single case I investigated ended with the user reformatting their drive.

 

I think rusty is onto the right idea, if it can be done. Only thing is you are backing up from a 500 GB drive to a 2 TB drive. You don't have the F partition until after the system backup is performed. If you want to change drive names before you run the backup for the sake of sanity, change D (HP Recovery) to something like K before you run the backup. Then run the system backup and merge C and F. Hopefully, your backup program won't assign a letter after K for the extra space (what is larger than your current system partition)...surely not :-o:confused

 

You lost me there AtlBo. Magoo's pics show that he already has an F partition. Perhaps I don't understand what you mean. I do like your idea of changing D to something further along in the alphabet, thereby leaving C and F next to each other. It's easier that what I'd proposed. I'm working on 3 different threads all having to do with disk partitioning and they're all jumbled together in my head. Hence, I'm a bit confused about this one. If we could merge partitions C and F, would that solve the whole problem? Or is there more to this case that has slipped my mind?

 

OK...apologies if I have got this wrong :-o:confused...that's what I get for checking in this way. I thought Mr.Magoo was backing up a 500 GB drive to a 2 TB drive and in the process the extra space (the remaining space of the 2 TB drive) was being turned into F. In that scenario, F wouldn't exist until the backup was created, which Mr.Magoo did, but I think he said he was reformatting the drive to start over unless I am mistaken.

If he has everything still on the 2 TB drive, he could do just as you say if it's possible->change D to something after F...again as you suggested...

 

It sounds to me like both of us have overextended ourselves in terms of the number of threads we're involved in simultaneously. I just can't help myself from jumping into a thread when I believe I've something to offer but my mind (and my desk full of notes) have become one gigantic jumbled mess and I'm not sure whether I'm helping anyone anymore. I don't know about you but I've got to cut back.

@Magoo, don't worry buddy, I'm stickin' with you on this one. You, me and AtlBo will either solve this thing or go down trying.:guns (The Three Diskateers)

 

I am hearin ya rusty this thing is driving me batty too. I have already wiped the disk I had enough messing with it I am going to try something totally radical tonight or in the morning. I will let you both know How I make out.

@AltBo I do wish I had seen the idea of changing disk letters before I started the wipe last night because that might just have worked. I may just give that a try sometime in the very LONG future just to see if it works :tas.

Thanks for sticking with me on this mess folks :cool.

 

It doesn't involve explosives or large bludgeoning implements, does it? I better put on some protective eye gear.... just in case. :cool maybe a helmet too :major

 

Re: Reformat a failed Cloned HDD? "Solved"

It came close but the Ole Lady hid my 06 and C4 :cry.

OK, here is what I did. I completely wiped the drive to start fresh. Then I used Mini Partition Wizard (AOMEI won't work) and created a 12GB Partition. I then did the clone job. When I opened things up this morning I was "this close" to success. For some reason MPW changed the partition to 48GB, no clue why it would do that. But it did as I had hoped, added the System first then clone the drive using the complete drive minus the 48GB which as I had hoped used for the HP Recovery.

I then just resized the HPR drive to just 12GB and made a 36GB drive and labeled it X. Who knows what/if I will ever use that for :-D.

Then of coarse as normal it would not boot w/o F10-F5[yes]-F10[Yes]. I still have no idea why I have to do this, I am just happy I remembered that in the recesses of what mind I have left.

Then came the next surprise! All happy I put everything back together and booted Bear up. Huston We Have a Problem :confused. I went to My Computer and only the C, D and E (CD/DVR) drives showed up! Going to Drive Manager I could see them "good sign". So I went into EaseUs Partition Manager Pro and found that all Drive letters showed none for my second internal drive, both external 500GB BU drives nor my SATA Dock Drive "with and old 500GB drive in it to be wiped and installed in the 2TB external enclosure.

So I used EPMP to reassign the drive letters and Botabing all up and running finally :cool.

@rusty, thanks for the heads up on the AMOEI Backerupper software and then the heads up on the System/Disk BU difference. I was doing the Disk BUs but did have to delete all of the old BUs and start from fresh just to be sure everything would be there for me if/when needed :tas.

Again thanks to ALL who helped me figure this out it sure was a TEAM effort. A special thanks to rusty for your over the top research into this problem. If you have anything left in you then you can be a Super Hero tell others how to correct this problem :strong.