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Thread ID: 118563 2011-06-11 05:33:00 Two drives for the price of one! ruup (1827) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1208295 2011-06-11 05:33:00 Hi,I was doing a clone of 'C' drive when I got tired of waiting for it to end (taken over 3 hours and two left and climbing) so I canceled it.

Now I have two drives on my 1TB external drive.My operating system id Win 7 64 bit I was using EASEUS Todo Backup to clone the drive.I would like to restore it to a single drive.

Help please in simple as possible language.

Cheers
:waughh:
ruup (1827)
1208296 2011-06-11 06:05:00 I'm guessing EASEUS has created a partition. Personally I am not a fan of EASEUS now. I created a single 50GB partition using 50gb of allocated space at the end of my 640GB Drive and it split it into 2x 256GB drives and deleted everything. How I don't know. But I was very very pissed off. The Error Guy (14052)
1208297 2011-06-11 06:43:00 Are you sure that you may be cancelling before it's finished and not going the full distance

With Acronis in doing a new backup it retains the previous image until the new one is finished then deletes the old one to make sure if any problems like a power cut during backup happens,you are still left with your previous image
Lawrence (2987)
1208298 2011-06-11 08:01:00 If I read that right, you have the Main C drive, and it was being Cloned to an external 1TB USB drive ??

If so then all the data (if there were any) that was on the external drive will be wiped anyway.

The EASEUS Todo Backup does take a while to clone drives ( but it is very good, where some others fail), I had one today, Using Todo, took just over 3 hours to clone a 40GB drive to a new 250GB.

Solution: Wipe the External drive, format it to NTFS and start again.See note below


If you are doing backups, cloning is not the best way to do it, you would be better off making an image (takes less room) and as long as the drive is big enough you can hold other backups as well.

Note: Being windows 7 it has a built in backup program.

Windows 7 actually has two partitions anyway, one is around 200MB (hidden) and then the Actual OS/Programs drive.
wainuitech (129)
1208299 2011-06-11 08:37:00 Hi,
Right on the money wainuitech I now have two new Volumes L & M,prior to my attempts I had only L
L - 189 GB M = 740 GB both drives are empty how do I combine the twoback into one?

Cheers

:thanks
ruup (1827)
1208300 2011-06-11 09:27:00 This may be a bit long -- (Sorry) but I wont be back tonight, a customer gave me some home brew whiskey :drool and its got a damn good kick + movies tonight .

Anyway . >>>>>>

If it were me, and Assuming you are doing a backup of your Current system -- plug in the external drive, wipe it completely clean, and then use Windows Backup to make a back up image .

To wipe out the current partitions on the EXTERNAL drive, you can either use disk management in Windows click start, type in disk manage click on Create and Format hard Disk partitions (sometimes it wont allow you to do certain tasks)

SO thats why personally I use third party software, as it usually has more options and features, something like the Paragon Free version ( . paragon-software . com/home/pm-express/" target="_blank">www . paragon-software . com) or Easeus free ( . partition-tool . com/product . htm" target="_blank">www . partition-tool . com) or Gparted (http://gparted . sourceforge . net/) < thats abootable CD--- Myself, I use a bootable CD when doing things like that .

Once you select the partitions on the external drive and delete them (make sure you get the right drive - its a real bugger wiping the wrong drive --- guilty :D) you will have a completely empty drive, create a new single partition and format it in NTFS . < this is important as you will see .

Once formatted - to do a windows 7 back up image, click start, type in Backup, click on backup and restore - then top left "create a system Image", you will get a window open and looking for back up locations, it should find and auto select your external drive, if it doesn't auto select, then select it from the drop down box, click on next, follow any on screen instructions, and walk away while it backs up the computer .

The backup location HAS to be in NTFS format - thats why I said before its important

When its finished it will ask you to make a restore Disc/CD, you dont have to, but it is advisable as this could be needed in the event of having to restore, and better to do it before its needed . You can make it later if you want as long as the system is bootable .
wainuitech (129)
1208301 2011-06-11 09:45:00 Sweet... You lucky bugger...Hope the kick doesn't effect your head in the morning....still probably be worth it eh!

Thanks for the info...

:clap
ruup (1827)
1208302 2011-06-12 02:53:00 I have never used the W7 backup.
How does the Image/file size compare to Acronis, Paragon etc?
mzee (3324)
1208303 2011-06-12 04:28:00 Its about the same, give or take a bit .

Paragon and Acronis sometimes fail as well, they say they have backed up OK , but its not till you actually need them that you discover they have not worked .

Doesn't matter what backup you use, it has to work each and every time .

The majority of people never test backups beforehand, and when they are needed :crying - to late then .
wainuitech (129)
1208304 2011-06-12 12:10:00 Its about the same, give or take a bit .

Paragon and Acronis sometimes fail as well, they say they have backed up OK , but its not till you actually need them that you discover they have not worked .

Doesn't matter what backup you use, it has to work each and every time .

The majority of people never test backups beforehand, and when they are needed :crying - to late then .

Its easy enough to validate the file, but sometimes gets overlooked .
mzee (3324)
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