Help, cant create windows image

[fullinfusion]

I finally finished installing windows 7 and everything is complete.

Now I want to make a system Image and store it as I've always done on my storage drive.
Now when I goto do the Image backup It just shows one of my small ssd's and it wont show the main storage drive.

If made sure everything is in the bios is correct but this is a 1st for me having this issue.

Anyway around this?

 

[fullinfusion]

When I go a different route it says I cant put the image on a disk that hes windows installed on, I dont have windows on my storage drive.. Its on an ssd.

I even unplugged all the drives and just to see if I did bugger up when I installed windows but nope it's all good.

 

[Kursah]

Use Windows AIK and maybe a little command line action.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee523217(v=ws.10).aspx

Edit: I should add there's quite a few steps, but there are guides that explain this with less detail to make it easier out there. It takes a little time, but you'll have a good image. Don't worry about cleaning it up if you're happy with it since you aren't creating a deployment image for other workstations.

 

[fullinfusion]

Ok thanks but why all of a sudden is there no dropdown box for my other disk?

I've doen it many times before but this time it says you cant save an image on a disk with an OS on it OR a bootable disk.

 

[Schmuckley]

Use Acronis

 

[Solaris17]

why is F an extended partition? (I dont know if this is supported when backing up) you could always dump a VHD

 

[fullinfusion]

I don't know.. I fixed it now. Changed the drive letter to A then rebooted.. Changed it back to F and now its working as it used to for the back up image.

 

[fullinfusion]

why is F an extended partition? (I dont know if this is supported when backing up) you could always dump a VHD

Ok it worked then didn't... now whats my options and how do I dump a VHD?

also How do I get rid of extended partition so I dont loose all my stuff on drive F.. It's just a drive I have steam on and pic's and stuff like that.

 

[Kursah]

What do you mean worked and then didn't?

I think you may need to reformat or at least delete the volume on the drive to remove the extended partition logical assignment. Not sure what happenend or how it's setup at this point. Formatting would be the easiest route...if you do not have another drive to back your data up to, then we may need to find a partition manager that is capable of this. I would consider trying GParted in bootable form, I think you'll be able to do that with this utility, there are others that could be used out there as well.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/liveusb.php

There are also several methods mentioned here: http://superuser.com/questions/79702/converting-logical-drive-to-primary-partition

The last post my AlanSE might be the easiest way to go though.

Warning, if you play with your drive and partitions it is recommended you backup your data first. As data retention is not a guarantee when playing with drives and partitions in such software. Odds are you'll be okay, but if you're not...you need to be prepared for the loss.

 

[Schmuckley]

Image the whole disk with Acronis..
I could tell you how I do it but it's... involved...

 

[Solaris17]

The issue here is I dont think leap frogging will work (making a normal partition copy data over delete extended partition expand normal partition) because it says logical drive. So theirin any partition made on that drive will be extended. In this case you can try something like paragon to convert it to a normal disk but in reality the only way to 100% pull this off is move the data off disk and correct the problem. by using 'clean' on the drive and formatting as an MBR normal disk.

 

[OneMoar]

with your current partition layout
you will need to use acronis ... no other way about it ...

 

[fullinfusion]

It's just a 1tb black drive.. Windows got buggered or something or I goofed something up. The black is just storage and I don't know why or how its it causing problems. I un hooked all drives but the ssd when I did a clean is install. Also when I said it worked then didn't... It put the backup image on but its like its Remember the drive letter because when I try to duplicate the issue it like it works for the back up then it won't.. If I choose A then later change it back to F then back for testing it won't allow an image to be saved.. I need to choose a new letter ..

 

[jsfitz54]

It appears that when you installed Windows 7, you left the other drives connected. You should have had the storage drives disconnected.

Where is the 100mb Windows partition on the C drive?

edit: did you clone or fresh install? and yes I have read the entire post but something is off for having done a fresh install on a ssd from scratch with other drives disconnected.

Was the ssd repurposed? Did you do a quick format first?

 

[Aquinus]

You just want an image to hold on to in case you need to restore? I would use a linux livecd and would `dd` the drive byte for byte and you should be able to stream/pipe that through tar or gzip to compress it on the fly. To restore it you would simply reverse the process as it sounds like you want a full backup including the MBR and all partitions on the disk.

 

[fullinfusion]

I've don't this many times but for some reason something went wrong. I boot off a disk with OCZ tools and do a secure wipe then power down, I unplug the other drives and pop my USB stick with windows on it and boot from there and install windows. I just let windows do its partition just before the install.

I know there was something wrong with the 60gb corsair ssd that was hooked to the system that I use for downloaded files because before when I had an image and do what your supost to do it wouldn't let me install the image. I would have to unplug the corsair ssd and then it would work.

I do have an image now but I'm not sure how its going to go sense I had to change the drive letter for it to take.. I then swapped back to the letter F so my games and such had a valid pathway..

And yes I always make an image after all drivers and such is the way I like it.. Then I OC the piss outa the rig and always have a nice clean image to save a bunch of time.

I'm just going to buy another HDD and move everything to it.. I can't risk loosing my photos and other programs that are not available any more

What's the best way to hook the new drive up, I mean just install it and goto disk manage and then what? Its just for storage for games and other programs.. Everything else is installed on the OCZ ssd.

 

[eidairaman1]

Hey bro did you forget to plug the cable back in? I still remember to have only 1 drive installed during os installs

 

[OneMoar]

full if you need a copy of arconis I have one here I am not using it came with my ssd
pm me if you want it ...

 

[fullinfusion]

Lol yes its plugged in.. And thanks moar I'll let you know later in the week when I get back.

 

[qubit]

Paragon Hard Disc manager will make nice a hassle free backup image of your system.

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Hello there, @fullinfusion!

It seems like some sort of an OS confusion has happened with your secondary WD Black and I'm sorry to hear about that.
Maybe re-formatting it would help indeed as the community already mentioned. I'd suggest to take a look at this step-by-step how to partition and format an HDD: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=PYCoid
Keep in mind that this will wipe clean the drive, so you should backup all important data from the drive somewhere else.
I noticed from the screenshots that your HDD appears as Disk 0, this means that it's plugged in the primary SATA port where the SSD (as an OS drive) should be. Actually it is possible that because of this Windows cannot create the image there. Swap the ports of the SSD and the HDD, this might help as well.

Keep me posted. Hope this helped!
SuperSoph_WD

 

[fullinfusion]

*update*

@SuperSoph_WD I did have a sata cable in the wrong port thank you for pointing that out.

All is fixed, thanks for the help ppl

 

[SuperSoph_WD]

Good job, @fullinfusion !
I'm happy you solved your problem!

Good luck and happy computing!
SuperSoph_WD