5 Windows installs in 2 Primary Partitions and 3 Volumes

[Panagiotis]

Are you sure every setting is correct in the separate bcd's?

From what you describe it seams that you have disk signature collisions.
http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinov ... 63572.aspx

[Panagiotis]

Since you decided to go with EMBR, lets focus on this.

Acronis will see only the partitions that are included in the mbr not the extra partitions. When you restore to a partition pay attention that it respects the exact position (start-end) of that partition otherwise it will conflict with the embr.

Why don't you use IFD to restore or copy the first partition to the other one?

[SimsmartTechnologies]

That is an interesting article;

Although what would happen is that even after I did all the modifications in "BCD Edit" from BIBM, it would *never* use any BCD from the extended partition that I chose, only the one from the Windows 7 primary (and yes I did copy C:\Boot and bootmgr);

The easiest way that I found to confirm it was that in "BCD Edit" there is a "Menu" radio button which included the menu configuration inside. So I would create a menu in the BCD of (A) partition, and put an element in the menu called "(A)". And in the BCD menu of "(B)", I'd put an element called (B), which just makes sense. And same thing for (C) and (D). But no matter which I selected in BIBM when booting, it would always show me the (A) menu.



Panagiotis wrote:
> Are you sure every setting is correct in the separate bcd's?
>
> From what you describe it seams that you have disk signature collisions.
> http://blogs.technet.com/b/markrussinov ... 63572.aspx

[SimsmartTechnologies]

Panagiotis wrote:
> Since you decided to go with EMBR, lets focus on this.

Indeed.


When restoring, It does want to change the start-end, but I made sure not to change it. But it ended up like this nevertheless.

I'm assuming IFD is "Image for DOS"? I don't use IFD because I have a LOT of images created by Acronis, and I needed those.

Unless you tell me that IFD can restore ".tib" files, which that would make my life easier



Panagiotis wrote:
> Since you decided to go with EMBR, lets focus on this.
>
> Acronis will see only the partitions that are included in the mbr not the
> extra partitions. When you restore to a partition pay attention that it
> respects the exact position (start-end) of that partition otherwise it will
> conflict with the embr.
>
> Why don't you use IFD to restore or copy the first partition to the other
> one?

[Panagiotis]

Yes, Image for dos.

check in bibm the properties of the conflicting partitions. Specifically the start-end positions of B and X.
If they are the same it means that Acronis respected your settings; if not, I would not use it with the EMBR.

If it respected the start-end position check the disk signatures (there should be the conflict) and eliminate the partition B from EMBR (replace it with the X)

SimsmartTechnologies wrote:
> Panagiotis wrote:
> > Since you decided to go with EMBR, lets focus on this.
>
> Indeed.
>
>
> When restoring, It does want to change the start-end, but I made sure not to change
> it. But it ended up like this nevertheless.
>
> I'm assuming IFD is "Image for DOS"? I don't use IFD because I have a LOT
> of images created by Acronis, and I needed those.
>
> Unless you tell me that IFD can restore ".tib" files, which that would make
> my life easier

[SimsmartTechnologies]

The LBA Information is indeed different between the two:

Partition 4 (B) has:
Start: 783296512
End: 1173370879

Partition X has:
Start: 783281205
End: 1173371534

Is it still an option to eliminate Partition 4 (B), or it would cause issues?

[Panagiotis]

Now check also the partition A. If Acronis did not make A and X conflict (starting position of X placed before the end posiion of A), you can do it.

But if it mixed them don't use it anymore (unless you are asking for trouble).

SimsmartTechnologies wrote:
> The LBA Information is indeed different between the two:
>
> Partition 4 (B) has:
> Start: 783296512
> End: 1173370879
>
> Partition X has:
> Start: 783281205
> End: 1173371534
>
> Is it still an option to eliminate Partition 4 (B), or it would cause
> issues?

[SimsmartTechnologies]

Partition 3 (A) is:
Start: 393428992
End: 783296511

A-End- 783296511
X-Start- 783281205

It seem to have mixed them. Can I just move X over to after "783296511" ?

Yeah for now I wont restore another image on this disk with Acronis.

[Panagiotis]

If you did not have any data in the end of A it should be ok but...
ntfs places a copy of the mft table at the end of each partition so, once you boot in A remember to perform a checkdisk.


SimsmartTechnologies wrote:
> Partition 3 (A) is:
> Start: 393428992
> End: 783296511
>
> A-End- 783296511
> X-Start- 783281205
>
> It seem to have mixed them. Can I just move X over to after
> "783296511" ?
>
> Yeah for now I wont restore another image on this disk with Acronis.

[Bob Coleman]

SimsmartTechnologies,

I'm in over my head here, but from what you've described, I'd be be nervous about mixing use of Acronis and BIBM. However, I understand your problem if you already have Acronis images whose content you need or want.

Assuming you haven't already destroyed Win 7 (A), how about going back to limited primaries and doing something like the following:

Image A with BIBM/IFD
Restore B over A with Acronis
Assuming B is now OK, image B with BIBM/IFD
Repeat previous two steps for C an D

If you succeed in this, you will then have IFD images of all Win 7s. Then you could unlimit primaries again and restore all the systems with IFD.

I'm not claiming that I completely understand the problem or am completely sure all this would work, but it might be a way to get to the state you want without worrying about possible incompatibilities between BMB/IFD and Acronis. Since you're invloved in this exercise at all, I assume your desire is to eventually arrive at a Terabyte solution.