Creating a New Partition For Data

[LunchBox]

Greetings,

Let me start by saying I know how to create partitions.

All my PC's I built installing OEM windows.
I recently received from a client a laptop with vista on it. It had a bad keyboard. The client is rich cause if it breaks he (to quote Easy E, the rapper) "throw it in the gutter and go by another". So I bought a new keyboard, restore to original settings and now I am the proud owner of a pretty new working laptop. He recently saw the laptop and gave me an odd look. Now , he know that expertise and will begin doing business with me.

Anyways,

The laptop has Vista and it includes the restore partition. What I want to do is:

1> Shrink with OS partition to lets say 8 gigs or so
2> Create a new partition which will later hold my data

If I ever have to a restore (I know it sound dumb but I don't want to learn the hard way since I do not have the recovery CD's)

Will the process restore to the OS partition that is now 8 gigs leaving my Data partition untouched

OR

Will the restore process, remove any partitions other than its own, reformat and re-install which would cause me to loose my partition

Thank you

 

[Crgky127]

The recovery partition will mess up your split, as it will recreate the original setup exactly (this is so that if a user screws up the system when trying to change partition sizes it will all be put back). Your best bet will be to save an image of the whole disk to an external drive. This is better anyway as you can image it after setting up your programs, passwords, background/screensaver and other settings. Then all you have to do is backup any new files regularly. You might want to make the OS partition closer to 20gigs, 8 is fine for XP, but not Vista.

 

[LunchBox]

Thanks Crgky127, I did google the topic and similar questions to mine were answered in a similar way to your answer. I had a feeling that I would have to prepare the drive the way I want and then ghost it.

I was just trying save time by using the original restore instead of creating my own.

Well, thank you for the response.

 

[Crgky127]

Yea unfortunately it's one of those all-your-way or all-their-way situations and saving time isn't an option. You're welcome, have fun.

 

[14049752]

Actually, most recovery partition software won't erase a secondary partition on the primary drive. If C: exists, it erases that and leaves the rest of the partition untouched. It's the recovery discs that you need to worry about, specifically when you do the "Factory Restore".
You didn't mention (or I missed) what brand of laptop it is, but brands like Dell, Sony, and some HPs have data partitions already made on the drive when they ship.

To resize your partition, you can just do it in Vista's disk management tool.


Having said all of that: Ghosting is a better option, because not all recovery software is so nice in terms of partitions. Toshiba restore discs come to mind.

 

[LunchBox]

Well Its a cheap Everex, I called the helpdesk and they had no idea on how to remove the keyboard. I spoke to 3 different techs and they were all worthless, they were polite though (it had an unusual screw location and it was not marked). I eventually figured it out after I started removing more of the bottom cover.

I do not have the actual recovery CD's and I have already done a factory recovery using the hidden partition. If the recovery process wont erase my lets call it "d" drive then sweet, I call size it and ghost the partitions and or the entire HD.

Is it better to use something like partition commander to change the partition size versus Vista's disk management tool?

Thank's again. I wonder when I will loose the excitement feeling about this web site. Everyday that I read on the forums it feels like the very first day when I discovered it. I guess its because I never found a website where everyone shares knowledge and help each other.

 

[Marius]

I would do the following

1) Use Partition Magic to resize your hdd and create an extra partition...

2) After formated your "extra" partition, create a small batch/script program that runs every other day to create a "Ghost" image of your existing partition (the one that you use daily) to the other backup partition (partition with the image)
You can use Nortons GHOST to do that job

 

[LunchBox]

Good idea I didnt think about making a ghost script to run as needed. I was thinking about the imaging after my last post. I will only image the "c" partition and make the scrip run ghost and make it back up to the newly created partition.

 

[Marius]

Good idea I didnt think about making a ghost script to run as needed. I was thinking about the imaging after my last post. I will only image the "c" partition and make the scrip run ghost and make it back up to the newly created partition.

100%

If you know the commands, ill write you a script ( havnt worked with ghost command lines in a while...lol )

 

[LunchBox]

Actually I never ran Ghost while Windows is running. I alway boot into ghost to make an image. I know that some imaging app can running on top of windows but I have not tried it with ghost.


I never actually made a script for ghost and I been googling and basically I believe that there is a part that is confusing me. How do I tell it to go from "c" drive to "d" drive (both are in the same disk) or do I tell it volume to volume? Like the example below I can cipher the part that will do the image except for the part that tells it from "source" to "destination"


I found this online which I will modify for my drive letters.


@echo off
cls
echo ---------------------------------------------------------
echo Ghost Backup .....hit ctrl-c to abort; otherwise
echo
echo NOTE: GhostPE will PAUSE until you manually press "OK"
echo for each image dump!!
echo ----------------------------------------------------------
pause
cls
:: Ghost Backup Routine from c-partition to d-partition
:: With image date rotation (from oldest to newest).
:: rename files
:: this step "ages" the filenames by increasing each by 1
:: check for max number...#5 is the oldest backup.
:: IF max # of backups reached...delete the file.
:: If max not reached, so what...continue
if exist h:\save_c5.gho del h:\save_c5.gho
if exist h:\save_c4.gho ren h:\save_c4.gho save_c5.gho
if exist h:\save_c3.gho ren h:\save_c3.gho save_c4.gho
if exist h:\save_c2.gho ren h:\save_c2.gho save_c3.gho
if exist h:\save_c1.gho ren h:\save_c1.gho save_c2.gho
if exist h:\venus_5.gho del h:\venus_5.gho
if exist h:\venus_4.gho ren h:\venus_4.gho venus_5.gho
if exist h:\venus_3.gho ren h:\venus_3.gho venus_4.gho
if exist h:\venus_2.gho ren h:\venus_2.gho venus_3.gho
if exist h:\venus_1.gho ren h:\venus_1.gho venus_2.gho
::Image Drive1, Partition1
a:\ghost\ghostpe.exe -clone,mode=pdump,src=1:1,dst=h:\save_c1.gho -z2 -fx
a:\ghost\ghostpe.exe -chkimg,h:\save_c1.gho -fx
::Image Drive1, Partition2
a:\ghost\ghostpe.exe -clone,mode=pdump,src=1:2,dst=h:\venus_1.gho -z2 -fx
a:\ghost\ghostpe.exe -chkimg,h:\venus_1.gho -fx
:end
echo Done. Please reboot now.
exit