Copying System Partitions without formatting disk

RandomQ

I am trying to swap upgrade a 1tb disk with a 2tb disk, the tricky bit is that they are both in use and have data on them.

My initial approach was to look at largest partition on 1tb drive and make space for it on 2tb drive, then to copy that partition to 2tb drive, then delete from 1tb drive and copy 2tb partitions into space occupied by that partition and keep repeating till all was done.

It was all working fine until I got to the recovery and system partitions, they would not copy properly.

I am using the Mini Partition Wizard Tool, now it had an option to migrate a drive, but it erases all partitions on the drive. I tested it on a 60gb USB drive and it does work, but then I would lose all my partitions.

My problem is I do not have anywhere to put the 2tb of data in one go, I have tried copying some to a NAS and some to other disks but that takes forever as I only have old ones. It copies at just about 2mb/s! maybe 4gb if I get a gb switch but I need my gigabit switch and cannot commit to using it.

So I was wondering if anyone knows of an alternative piece of software that is capable of copying these recovery and GPT system partitions. I am not into Linux so please do not recommend something on that OS.

I have tried Hiren but it is all older than GPT.

I have heard of Macrium but before I invest time in that I wanted to see if it can actually copy system partitions without formatting disk or whether there is some other software.

TIA

Heedtheadvice

Just go for Macrium Reflect free version 6.
As I have posted before I am a fan!

......and again practice before committing!

If you had enough space on the 2TB disk to hold all the data of the 1TB disk (all partitions) I do not see the issue and Macrium could have done the whole lot. Maybe I miss something in your explanation.
However....
Is there a reason why you cannot mount both drives at once or just buy an SSD drive to put the system/progs/apps on to and keep the 1TB disk for backup...?

RandomQ

Heedtheadvice wrote: »

Just go for Macrium Reflect free version 6.
As I have posted before I am a fan!

......and again practice before committing!

Thanks for your prompt reply, I am trying to find out if the software can copy these systtem and recovery a partitions with Macrium or other software without nuking the destination disk.

The whole idea of posting is that I do not waste time or registry keys installing software that ends up not working as I want it to.

There are 4 partitons excluding Windows, they are hidden from OS, when I copy them with Mini Partition wizard tool the type and size of partition changes but if i MIGRATE them to a disk then they copy OK.

Heedtheadvice wrote: »

If you had enough space on the 2TB disk to hold all the data of the 1TB disk (all partitions) I do not see the issue and Macrium could have done the whole lot. Maybe I miss something in your explanation.
However....

I am wanting to copy FROM the 1TB disk TO the 2TB disk, the 2TB disk has about 500gb free, so I would be gaining that by upgrading.

Sorry if I have not made this clear enough, I need to copy the 4 system and recovery partitions FROM 1TB disk TO 2TB disk, the software nukes the destination disk, so I either have to move off the 2tb partitions (some of which are Windows partitions) to another disk (which I do not have) or I need to find software that can JUST copy the system partitions.

Heedtheadvice wrote: »

Is there a reason why you cannot mount both drives at once or just buy an SSD drive to put the system/progs/apps on to and keep the 1TB disk for backup...?

Of course I can mount both drives at once but they are both almost full, so how does that help me UNLESS there is software that can copy these system partions?

I do not have money for an SSD or any other kind of drive.

Best I can manage is copying off data from 2tb which is going to take 3 months at current rate of copying.

I would have thought that Mini Parition Wizard Tool or Macrium would be able to copy partitions with copy command, it can clearly copy the partitions properly with the migrate function so why insist on deleting all partitions, just nuts.

S0litaire

How much % is filled/ empty on BOTH drives?

Do both have OS's installed or just one of them the OS and the other just storage?

It might be possible, but you're going to have to be savage in what you do and don't need on both drives if both are nearly full!

And in no way will a nearly full 2Tb drive fit into a 1Tb drive!

RandomQ

I know that 2tb will not fit onto 1tb, but I am repurposing the machines, so it will not have to. I was going to leave about a terabyte of files on the 2tb, free up space, copy partition, delete partition, rinse and repeat.

Both drives are from operational PC's but different manufactuers and specs, I have shrunk the partitions and moved off what data I could from the 2tb to make space for the 1tb.

BUT having done that I needed to get the system partitions of the 1TB onto the 2TB, I copied them but they would not come out the same, different size and different type.

I had something like this before on a upgrading a laptop to SSD and disovered the Migrate wizard in Mini Partition Wizard Tool.

So the only way to copy these OEM system partitions in Mini Partition Wizard tool is to copy system with the Migrate option, but it NUKES the destination disk.

So I need to empty the 2tb disk but that means finding 1.5tb of free space, as explained, I do not have the space and it is taking forever to move the files.

It does not matter how savage I am, if I use Mini Partition Wizard tool it means I have to empty the drive and it will take months because the only place I have SOME space is on an old NAS and it copies really slowly.

SO what I was HOPING was that someone here might have had the same problem with Mini Partition Wizard Tool and found some other software that can copy these partitions.

I already freed up the space in the same physical parts of the destination disk but it messes up when it copies in the the partitions after being copied are not described by Mini Partition Wizard Tool as they were on the Source disk, even the capacity and space used changes.

So has anyone used Macrium to copy these OEM system and recovery partitions?

S0litaire

OK

The reason i asked for % of disk space left is so that I can work out of it's possible to compress the image from the 2Tb drive and fit it on the the 1Tb drive as an image file (rather than overwriting the partitions).

You then image the whole 1Tb drive onto the 2Tb drive and fix partition sizes as required.

Then you can pull the boot/ recovery partitions from the 2Tb image file and write them to the start of the 1Tb drive (overwriting the old data!)

Then manually create a partition in the remaining space. Then copy the contents of the rest of the 2Tb image file into the new partition.

That is really your only option without buying a 3rd disk to act as a temp store for your data...

RandomQ

Interesting approach but

would probably take weeks to compress 2 terabytes of data
Even compressed 2TB would not fit on 1tb which already has files, I planned to copy one at a time each way
No way I could image the whole 1TB to 2TB because the partitions DO NOT COPY properly, has to be MIGRATE
I would not feel confident in compression, I will want to test partitions work before I delete originals.

It is not the only option if there is software that actually works, unlike the Mini Partition Wizard Tool which does not work (except when use migrate).

Well into day 3 of copying what data I can off.

Surely someone has done with with Macrium?

S0litaire

What OS's are on both systems??

You can't "swap" data from one device to another in the way you want without a 3rd disk, or stage, in between.

Remember the pyramid puzzle, The one with blocks and 3 pins? Where you have to move the stack of blocks from 1 pin to the 3rd and keep the shape...

Well you're trying to do it with only 2 pins and blocks on each pin... possible but not easy!!

Also why is it taking so long to copy?

It only took me around 27h- 36h (I fell asleep before it finished!) to copy 1.5Tb from one drive to another using USB2 (It was a lot quicker when using USB3, and even faster when both were in the same machine.)

Are you copying over a slow network connection? If yes then !!STOP!!

Get both drives into a SINGLE machine, it's a lot quicker (we're talking hours instead of days to copy Tb's of data!)

Check the software you are using, does it provide an option to boot from a CD/USB stick?? If YES then create a USB stick or CD if possible. If not you can boot using a Ubuntu Live USB stick

Then :

Using the software, create an image of the boot and recovery partitions of both disks and store them on the 2Tb drive (so you end up with 4 files : 1TB-boot.img, 1Tb-recovery.img, 2Tb-boot.img, 2Tb-recovery.img)

Write out 2Tb-boot.img & 2Tb-recovery.img over the those partitions on the 1Tb drive.

Then do the same for the 1Tb images overthe 2Tb partitions

Now it's just a case of moving data from the 1Tb drive to a temp folder on the 2Tb drive freeing up room to move data from the 2Tb drive over to the 1Tb drive.

Once everything is switched, move the data out of the temp folders on both drives to their correct locations.

That should be you.

Or...
...
...


Hows your Internet connection??
metered or unlimited??
ADSL/Fibre/Cable?

https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html

Depending on your Internet connection you can get the $5 month subscription or try and do it within the 15 day free trial

Backup the contents of both systems. Then you're safe to delete data on them to give you room to work.

Shrink the 2Tb partition to make sure it can fit the 1Tb drive then get a half decent backup software that can create a boot-able bare-metal restore/recovery image from the 2 drives.

Then restore the image of drive 1 onto drive 2 and restore drive 2 onto drive 1. then fix the partition sizes as required.

Might take a while to upload everything though...

Heedtheadvice

I readily admit I cannot follow all that you write but I do understand you have a limitation with partition magic. But to answer the question in your title "Copying system partitions without formatting disk" I have done something I believe is similar using Partition magic in combination with Macrium reflect in the past.

I have just retried using an old disk so the following may be useful. If you do this it is at your own risk and is not for the faint hearted!!! Also note I write this late at night so no guarantees!!
You also need, as has been posted above, space to be able to get data and partitions from A to B but I guess you know that already!

Macrium reflect can do that partition copying. From help files:
"
It is possible to clone an entire hard drive or specific partitions on a hard drive. This is useful if you are upgrading to a larger hard drive. With Macrium Reflect you can boot the target disk on the same system after cloning. Cloning your hard drive creates a bootable new hard drive with the state of your computer at the time you undertook the clone.You can clone to a hard drive installed in your computer or to a hard drive installed in a USB hard-drive Caddy.
Important
Windows cannot boot from a USB connected drive. This is a restriction imposed by Windows. If you clone your system disk to a USB connected external drive then, to boot your clone, the physical disk must be removed from the USB caddy and attached to your Motherboard SATA port.

Deleting and re-configuring existing partitions or configuring new partitions is possible with Macrium Reflect, so you don't need to do this prior to cloning."
To see all the help and the details below that statements see
http://knowledgebase.macrium.com/display/KNOW/Cloning+a+disk

You can basically select the partitions from a disk that you wish to clone - and that includes system partitions, such as from your 1TB to your 2TB. Once there you can then 'adjust' the properties of the copied partitions if you need drive letters etc. but do not do it at this stage.

HOWEVER
A far as I am aware cloning the partition will place it on the selected destination drive at the start (or a similar location to the cloned source) and will probably overwrite any existing data. You need to take action to prevent data loss.

Firstly you really ought to backup your data just in case all goes pear shape especially pertaining to the destinations!!!

You still need to do some partition work.

You need to (possibly) reduce partition size on your 2TB disk to create space for the cloned partition(s) i.e. the area you say you now have free for the 1TB disk partitions you wish to copy.

Now move those existing 2TB partitions to the high end using the wizard move menu to create unallocated space before those logical disks

Now create new partitions on the 2TB disk of identical size to those you wish to migrate from the 1TB disk. Make sure you do not give them drive letters and then only select partitions with out drive letters as those contain your original 2TB disk data during cloning!!

You can now use Macrium to clone the individual partitions from the 1TB disk to the partitions created for them on the 2TB disk.

I'll try and do some diagrams to describe a bit more if required. It does what it says on the can, not necessarily what you want, or the best method, and I expect others with more expertise will have better methods

Heedtheadvice

p.s. I know they were only small partitions I copied but they only took a few seconds. Do you have another unmentioned problem?

RandomQ

Heedtheadvice wrote: »

p.s. I know they were only small partitions I copied but they only took a few seconds. Do you have another unmentioned problem?

Thanks

I think that is enough to give Macrium a go, although it is possible for them too to suggest that it only makes it bootable if you clone the disk.


"It is possible to clone an entire hard drive or specific partitions on a hard drive. This is useful if you are upgrading to a larger hard drive. With Macrium Reflect you can boot the target disk on the same system after cloning. Cloning your hard drive creates a bootable new hard drive with the state of your computer at the time you undertook the clone."

Regarding moving, that is exactly what I did, I moved them all to the right so that there would be space and I did them one at a time, each time clicking Apply.

Thanks for your efforts, I will give it a go and report back my progress.