bootit bm cannot find install partition

[wizzleme]

Searched the knowledge base and forum on this, nothing specific.

Lenovo laptop, win7 ultimate has these partitions: c:(boot) hidden:mfg recovery D:(data)

When trying to install from USB pgm states it cannot find room for partition. This happens whether or not you let it try to find on it's own or manually. Whether or not you let it "share" a partition or not.

It instead identifies the USB as drive 0 ! Ha. Boot partition is seen as Drive1 So it is trying to install on the USB which is only 1gb so it cannot. USB is listed alone on the install menu whereas c: partition and D: are listed under drive1.

Afraid to install on Drive one since it is apparent this program has not been adequately tested on Lenovo laptops with hidden recovery partitions. Does not work out of the box. Nothing in the help sections or knowledge base covering this.

[Brian K]

wizzleme wrote:

> It instead identifies the USB as drive 0 ! Ha. Boot partition is seen as
> Drive1

wizzleme,

That is normal and expected when booting a UFD.

Resize the Recovery partition 8 MB smaller so you have 8 MB of Free Space at the end of the drive. BIBM will automatically choose this space for its install.

[wizzleme]

Thanks for your reply Brian K. But I have to question your answer. As I recall the Recovery Partition installed by Lenovo already has like 75MB of free space, so why can't BootitBM find that? Resizing the Recovery Partition may also effect using it in case I need to use that later? BootitBM asks if I want to share a partition to install it, so again, why it cannot find that space and why does it list the recovery parition and D drive under drive1 incorrectly and cannot find the boot partition on install? Do you know anyone who has actually done what you suggest and the results?

[Brian K]

wizzleme,

As your Recovery partition is nearly full, resize the OS partition 8 MB smaller. BIBM will install into this free space (it will create its own partition). You must have free space outside of a partition, not inside.

See page 23 in the BIBM PDF....

"Installing BootIt BM to its own partition requires unpartitioned space and takes up one primary partition, "

Create the 8 MB of free space and follow these hints...

Boot from your BootIt UFD
Setup... Click OK to install BootIt ...
Setup... Don't put a tick in Change all MBR type drives to EMBR and click No to not "enable support for more than 4 primary partitions".
Setup... Click Yes to let setup choose the partition for you (even though there isn't a partition yet)
Setup... Click Yes to install to a dedicated partition. No tick in Install to any drive
Setup... Click OK to begin
Setup... Click OK for Setup completed successfully
click Close
Setup... Click OK for the Remove the boot disk and click OK to restart


Edit... Don't worry about your BIBM UFD being Drive 0. After you remove the UFD the OS drive will be Drive 0.

[wizzleme]

Thanks for your more detailed reply, Brian.

Ok first you said to resize the hidden partition. It has 75MB on it left so plenty to cover the 8MB required by Bootitbm.

Then in the next post you changed it to say to resize the boot C: partition which also has enough space to cover the 8MB.

So the question now presents itself: which is the better place to create the empty space that will take up the bootitbm embr partition from the standpoint of being able to use the manufacturers restore partition should that become necessary?

I do not understand your direction and why it is important and the reason to make all partitions EMBR and what effect this has on the hidden mfg restore partition? Will making the hidden restore partition EMBR make it unusable, for example?

Also this change will make all the primary partitions used up, so I will be unable to create a second OS on another partition as the D: partition is for data. Maybe I should direct bootitbm to share the C: partition, instead of your suggestion to put it on it's own partition?

Again, I think bootitbm developers were errant in not considering laptops with hidden partitions and offering more detailed information on dealing with this.

[Brian K]

wizzleme,

>Ok first you said to resize the hidden partition. It has 75MB on it left so plenty to cover the 8MB required by Bootitbm.
>Then in the next post you changed it to say to resize the boot C: partition which also has enough space to cover the 8MB.
>So the question now presents itself: which is the better place to create the empty space

It doesn't matter. I thought you didn't want to resize the Recovery partition so I suggested resizing the OS partition. For neatness I'd resize the Recovery partition so that the BIBM partition will be at the end of the drive.

>I do not understand your direction and why it is important and the reason to make all partitions EMBR

I didn't say that. The Disk is EMBR, not the partitions. Drive 0 (the BIBM drive after it's been installed and the UFD removed) must be EMBR and installing BIBM makes it so. The other drives can be EMBR if you want them to be EMBR but it's not essential. Your choice.

>Also this change will make all the primary partitions used up,

You can change to Unlimited Primaries if you need to create more than 4 primary partitions in the future. This can be done during the BIBM install or later. It is easy to do.

>Again, I think bootitbm developers were errant in not considering laptops with hidden partitions

This isn't an issue with laptops or desktops. BIBM can work with as many hidden partitions as you desire.

[wizzleme]

So you are saying that I can resize the restore partition and install bootitbm on that empty space without effecting the restore function?

Can you tell me why does install not let me "share" a partition to install bootitbm since that is an option given during install but it does not work. If it did work, I would still have one primary petition left even if I limit the install to 4 primary partitions. The install dialogue gives this option, but if you select it, it does not work.

[Brian K]

> Can you tell me why does install not let me "share" a partition
> to install bootitbm since that is an option given during install but it
> does not work.

See page 23 in the userguide. The shared partition must be FAT/FAT32 and you don't have one.

When using BIBM for the first time it's easier to use limited primaries, but later (when you understand what's happening) you will prefer the unlimited primaries setting, even if you only have 4 primary partitions.

Your restore function should be fine but in the future I'd suspect you will consider deleting the restore partition and using your own backup images.

Edit... I think I misread your initial post. Is your third partition Data or Recovery? If Data then resize this partition as that will put BIBM at the end of the drive. This is just for neatness but it doesn't matter which partition you resize to create Free Space.

[wizzleme]

The main reason I am loyal to bootit is because of the good support on this forum. If it were not for that I probably would be using another partitioning program. The second reason is the reliability of the restore function, never had it fail.

Yes the third partition is Data d:, so I will resize it to get the required 8mb space for bootitbm install.

I generally do not use anything that is associated with windows, except the OS, so I probably will delete the restore partition once i get bootit working ok. I will report back success or failure.

Thanks for sticking with me.