Can I keep my old Partitions

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Logman
Posts: 112
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 6:10 pm

Can I keep my old Partitions

Post by Logman »

Hello,
I want to install Bibm, but after hours of reading and searching, I can't find the answer to some questions I have..

On HD0 I currently have 3 Primary partitions with XP, Vista & Win7, and Boot-US boot manager is using a small 1 meg Primary making a total of 4 Primaries.

I can delete the Boot-US boot manager Primary to give me the spare Primary I need to install Bibm's unlimited Primary partition option .

I want to install Bibm using the unlimited Primary partitions option, and understand that Bibm has to change the HD from MBR to EMBR.

What happens to those 3 Primary OS partitions I currently have ?

Does Bibm delete all those partitions and I have to reinstall them ?

Can I image those partitions with Acronis first and will they be able to be reinstalled to the (new) EMBR drive ?

Or do I have to back those partitions up with something else for them to be recognised ?

Like I said, I've read the whole Bibm manual and searched this Forum but can't seem to find the answer. :(
Bob Coleman
Posts: 785
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 5:58 pm

Re: Can I keep my old Partitions

Post by Bob Coleman »

I suppose you could image the partitions with Acronis. You could also image them with BIBM booted from a CD (or UFD, I guess).

I don't think anything will happen to the OS partitions, but I'd probably be inclined to back them up just in case.

I don't know if the 1 meg primary is large enough for BIBM though. Windows Explorer shows my BIBM partition with 4.80 MB free 7.78 MB. This would seem to imply that about 3 MB are used.

I've added a few bat files, but they take up probably a total space of less than 4,000 bytes.

If, in fact, BIBM won't install in a 1 meg partition, you might be able to resize an adjacent partition with BIBM (again running from CD/UFD) to make room to increase the size of the target partition for BIBM.

Though I wouldn't anticipate any problem doing this, again, I'd backup (Image) the OS partitions before trying this.
Logman
Posts: 112
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 6:10 pm

Re: Can I keep my old Partitions

Post by Logman »

Thanks for the reply Bob,

There is a total of 10 megs of free space next to that 1 meg primary, so that's not an issue.

I also have 250Gigs of unallocated free space at the end of the HD which I was saving for when I needed it ( like now ) :)

I'm mainly concerned about if Bibm will delete those partitions when changing from MBR to EMBR, and if that's the case, can I restore the images if needed after installing Bibm.
TeraByte Support(PP)
Posts: 1644
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:51 am

Re: Can I keep my old Partitions

Post by TeraByte Support(PP) »

BIBM won't delete the existing partitions when changing the disk to EMBR. Once it's EMBR you have to be very careful with partitioning/imaging programs that don't support it -- they may delete, overwrite, or corrupt partitions they don't know about. The TeraByte imaging programs all support EMBR and BIBM includes IFD GUI.

For the BootIt partition you need at least 6-8MiB. Personally, I usually give it a bit more than that (like 10MiB).
Logman
Posts: 112
Joined: Fri Jan 16, 2015 6:10 pm

Re: Can I keep my old Partitions

Post by Logman »

Thanks for that info Paul, that's exactly what I needed to know !

Now to read up on your imaging programs :)
DrTeeth
Posts: 1289
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:58 pm

Re: Can I keep my old Partitions

Post by DrTeeth »

On Fri, 16 Jan 2015 18:26:56 PST, just as I was about to take a herb,
TeraByte Support(PP) disturbed my reverie and wrote:

>The TeraByte imaging programs all support EMBR and BIBM includes IFD GUI.

So does ISOBuster, thanks to me and a responsive author.
--
Cheers,

DrT

** You've never known happiness until you're married;
** but by then it is too late.
Bob Coleman
Posts: 785
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 5:58 pm

Re: Can I keep my old Partitions

Post by Bob Coleman »

Logman wrote:
> Thanks for that info Paul, that's exactly what I needed to know !
>
> Now to read up on your imaging programs :)

You may already know this, but you have IFD (Image for DOS) bundled with BIBM. I forget, but I think you have to choose an option to include IFD when generating the BIBM boot media with MAKEDISK. If you do that, you can then run IFD via the Disk Imaging icon on the BIBM desktop.
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