On Restore Partition Labels Out of Order. How to Stop This?

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Radish
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun May 10, 2015 7:42 pm

Re: On Restore Partition Labels Out of Order. How to Stop Th

Post by Radish »

Brian K wrote: "No, not a stupid question. Your drive letters should not change after a restore."

Relieved to hear it's not a stupid question.

I've now read the knowledge base you pointed to several times and, yes, comparing what is said there with the labelling I get after a restore of C:, it would seem that Windows itself might be stepping in on first boot-up from the restored partition and re-labelling the other partitions (according to the stated scheme in the knowledge base). I'm getting partition (re-) labelling exactly as described in that knowledge base.
TeraByte Support
Posts: 3598
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 10:37 pm

Re: On Restore Partition Labels Out of Order. How to Stop This?

Post by TeraByte Support »

You're only restoring the single partition c:? what were all the other
drives when you backed it up originally? Also, you're not choosing options
to change the disk signature I presume?



"Radish" wrote in message news:13435@public.image...

OS = Win 7 Pro. x64
IFW v3.06
IFL v3.06

I have a recurring problem when I restore the boot partition (C:) from an
image file. When I create an image file of the boot partition the order of
all the partitions are labelled (by me) as the order in which they
physically exist on the HD. So the order is:

C:, D:, E:, F:, G: and H:

When I restore the boot partition from the image file and then boot into the
system the order of the partition labels is like this:

C:, G:, H:, D:, E: and F:

See, they are all re-arranged and only C: is the same as it was relative to
the system when it was imaged. What this means is that every time I do
restore I have to manually re-label the partitions into the order I prefer
i.e. into the order of the physical partitions on the HD.

So my question is: Is there some setting I can make to force the partition
labels to be the same as they were when the image was created?

P.S. Though I am on a Windows system I use the IFL (GUI) boot disk to do
restores as I prefer it over the IFD (GUI). I would suspect that doing so
makes no difference to this partition labelling issue. I should add that I'm
not suggesting this is an issue with v3.06 - the same sort of thing was
happening when I was using IFW v2.x.

Bob Coleman
Posts: 785
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 5:58 pm

Re: On Restore Partition Labels Out of Order. How to Stop Th

Post by Bob Coleman »

There seems to be some belief here that IFD or IFL is reassigning drive letters, but (honest question) aren't the letters assigned by Windows when it is (re)booted.
Logman
Posts: 112
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 6:10 pm

Re: On Restore Partition Labels Out of Order. How to Stop Th

Post by Logman »

Bob Coleman wrote:
> There seems to be some belief here that IFD or IFL is reassigning drive
> letters, but (honest question) aren't the letters assigned by Windows when
> it is (re)booted.

That was my thought too, it was that way back in the old days, seems like it still is to me.
Radish
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun May 10, 2015 7:42 pm

Re: On Restore Partition Labels Out of Order. How to Stop Th

Post by Radish »

I just tested this out on my HDs and found that I goofed a bit in explaining the problem from the point of view of what is restoring to where. So additional information is as follows:

I have two HDs both Western Digital same type and same size 500GB. I have both HDs partitioned in the same way with the partitions the same size on both HDs. Also both HDs have their partitions labelled in exactly the same way (as previously described) - the labelling done by myself when setting up the HDs for use.

What is happening is this: My day-to-working HD I'll refer to as HD1. My backup HD I'll refer to as HD2 - I don't use HD2 for anything other than to maintain a quick way of getting a useable system if my HD1 starts to malfunction, HD2 is hardly ever connected to the machine. When I image off the boot partition (C:) this will be an image from HD1. If I restore from that image to HD1 then the labelling doesn't get altered - all the partition labels stay as I had originally set them myself.

However, if I use the same image created from HD1 and restore from it to HD2 then the labelling goes all out of sync (as described above).

Sorry for not mentioning this in the first instance, I forgot. :oops: That said my original question remains the same - is there any restore setting(s) that can be made to prevent this from happening?
Brian K
Posts: 2214
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: On Restore Partition Labels Out of Order. How to Stop Th

Post by Brian K »

Radish wrote:

> Sorry for not mentioning this in the first instance, I forgot. :oops:
> That said my original question remains the same - is there any restore
> setting(s) that can be made to prevent this from happening?

Radish,

That explains it. When restoring to HD2 select this Option. Restore Disk Signature.

But don't have both HDs in the computer at the same time as they will both have the same Disk Signature.
Brian K
Posts: 2214
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: On Restore Partition Labels Out of Order. How to Stop Th

Post by Brian K »

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.shtml

See "How does Windows XP remember drive letters?"
Radish
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun May 10, 2015 7:42 pm

Re: On Restore Partition Labels Out of Order. How to Stop Th

Post by Radish »

Brian K wrote:
> That explains it. When restoring to HD2 select this Option. Restore Disk Signature.
> But don't have both HDs in the computer at the same time as they will both have the
> same Disk Signature.

I don't think I want to try that as once a month I do have both HDs connected at the same time. This because I backup all my data from all partitions on HD1 (with the exception of C: - which I manage via IFL) to the equivalent partitions on HD2. Again, just do this as if ever HD1 goes Bang! then I can get to a fully functioning system by disconnecting HD1, connecting HD2 and then that becomes my day-to-working drive from then on. (And then I get a new HD to replace the faulty HD1 and that HD becomes my backup - and so on.)

Actually I very recently restored the image of C: on HD1 to C: of HD2 but I just clicked the "Automatic" option that IFL offered (I have never used that option before.) What happened was I then booted into HD1, my day-to-day working drive, but with HD2 also connected. Then I found in Windows Disk Manager that HD2 hadn't been mounted, being marked as "Offline". There was some other information which was to do with a "conflict" and that was why HD2 hadn't been mounted. All of that at my tech level just seemed cryptic to me. What I then did was force Windows to mount HD2, so it came "Online". It did, I backed up my files from HD1 to the equivalent partitions on HD2, which was why I had both HDs mounted. Then I shutdown the machine disconnected HD1 and tried to reboot with only HD2 connected. (I always do this after backing-up data from HD1 to HD2 - it's the only way I can test that my HD2 is a fully functioning system ready for use when HD1 starts to fail.) HD2 wouldn't boot. Got an error from Windows saying something about it couldn't find some boot file - insert your Windows install disk and repair. Damn! What I did then was just restore my HD1 image to HD2 but this time not using the "Automatic " option in IFL. After that HD2 booted fine.

Coming out of that, and taking account of what you are saying about Disk Signatures (and I'm not entirely clear what they are) my guess is that when I choose "Automatic" to do the restore that IFW looked at the HD, decided it was the same original HD that the image was created from (partition sizes etc. on HD2 are exactly the same as on HD1 and both HDs are identical in all other ways, same manufacturer, same model, same drive size etc.) and then "automatically" did a Restore Disk Signature to the HD2. Which is why, I now suspect, I had the difficultly with HD2 not being mounted by Windows because there was a "conflict" - Windows saw both drives as being the same drive. Should say that in all of that I am only guessing - it's a bit above my tech level.

In any case, I think that will be the last time I do an "Automatic" restore. As you warn, it seems to do something that causes severe difficulties if both drives are connected at the same time after the restore. And if the user, irrespective of the "conflict" message, forces Windows to mount the HD2 then, in the process, it borks it as far as booting from it goes. :o
Radish
Posts: 29
Joined: Sun May 10, 2015 7:42 pm

Re: On Restore Partition Labels Out of Order. How to Stop Th

Post by Radish »

TeraByte Support wrote:
> You're only restoring the single partition c:? what were all the other
> drives when you backed it up originally? Also, you're not choosing options
> to change the disk signature I presume?
>
>
>
> "Radish" wrote in message news:13435@public.image...
>
> OS = Win 7 Pro. x64
> IFW v3.06
> IFL v3.06
>
> I have a recurring problem when I restore the boot partition (C:) from an
> image file. When I create an image file of the boot partition the order of
>
> all the partitions are labelled (by me) as the order in which they
> physically exist on the HD. So the order is:
>
> C:, D:, E:, F:, G: and H:
>
> When I restore the boot partition from the image file and then boot into
> the
> system the order of the partition labels is like this:
>
> C:, G:, H:, D:, E: and F:
>
> See, they are all re-arranged and only C: is the same as it was relative to
>
> the system when it was imaged. What this means is that every time I do
> restore I have to manually re-label the partitions into the order I prefer
>
> i.e. into the order of the physical partitions on the HD.
>
> So my question is: Is there some setting I can make to force the partition
>
> labels to be the same as they were when the image was created?
>
> P.S. Though I am on a Windows system I use the IFL (GUI) boot disk to do
> restores as I prefer it over the IFD (GUI). I would suspect that doing so
> makes no difference to this partition labelling issue. I should add that
> I'm
> not suggesting this is an issue with v3.06 - the same sort of thing was
> happening when I was using IFW v2.x.

Yes, I'm only restoring the single partition C: - that is all I ever do with IFL. I backup my data partitions using other software.

All drives/partitions on HD1 and HD2 are set by me to be in the following order with their labels\letters to match the same order as the partitions physically exist on the HDs:

C: - Primary (boot partition)
D: - Primary (data partition)
E: - Primary (data partition)
F: - Logical "Drive" in Extended partition (data partition)
G: - Logical "Drive" in Extended partition (data partition)
H: - Logical "Drive" in Extended partition (data partition)

Please note that I image off C: partition on HD1. If I use that image to restore C: on HD1 I do not get the problem with partition/drive labels being re-assigned - the partition/drive labels on restore to HD1 are as were set when C: HD1 was imaged off.

I do get this problem when I use that image of C: partition HD1 to restore the C: partition on HD2. Then the partition/drive labels do get altered to an order that is not the same order as the partition order on HD1, nor the same as the partition order, as originally set by me, on HD2 (which Is set by me, in precisely the same partition/drive order as HD1). I hope that makes sense. What I'm trying to say is the both HDs are setup by me to be mirrors of each other. All partitions being labelled (originally by me) to match on both HDs.

No, I don't enable the change disk signature option when I do the restore the only thing I ever set is for the partition to be made "Active" everything else I leave alone - I don't understand most of the settings so I steer well clear of using them. The manual that comes with the TeraByte software is pretty good but, for me at my tech level, the options aren't explained clearly enough to allow me to use any of them with confidence that I know what I'm doing. But, definitely, I have never ever chosen the option to change the disk signature. (That said I think this might have been done on one occasion by IFL when I let it restore to HD2 using the "Automatic" option. Please see my post above for what happened when I made the mistake of doing that.)
Brian K
Posts: 2214
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: On Restore Partition Labels Out of Order. How to Stop Th

Post by Brian K »

If you have both HDs installed and you boot into Windows, the Disk Signature on HD2 will be changed. It's OK to have both HDs connected at the same time as long as you don't boot into Windows.

How do you backup the non OS partitions? Which software?

Have you considered using Entire Drive image backups instead of keeping a clone of your primary drive? You could backup more frequently (to an external drive) than what you are doing at present. If HD1 fails then swap it out for a new blank HD and restore the image. There will be no drive letter issues.
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