Comments on: Moving Vista to a larger hard drive using built-in backup and restore http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html Tech writing blog Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:04:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: David http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html/comment-page-1#comment-150158 David Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:30:22 +0000 http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html#comment-150158 Hi Robert. I have an old Gateway GM5424 running Vista Pro. I started to get a warning that my hard drive was going to meet its maker. So I bought a new seagate SATA750 and put it in. Very easy to that point. I was able to back up all my files and docs to a Maxtor 350 external hard drive. Then I went and fired up the computer with the new 750 hard drive. I did the mirror back up as you describe. It went kinda OK with the same glitches you described in your prior article. Before the mirroring, I had the full new drive 750 GB, afterwards, it reverted all back to only 290 GB. I did all I could, defragged, cursed and prayed but could not find the missing 350 GB. Thank goodness, after doing several searches on google I found Tims Tec Blog @ http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html At the end I found the article 16 Aug 09 by Robert "Hello I am back". Followed it all and did what was written: Hey presto, I have back my 750 GB. Thanks to your article all's now well. David B. Hi Robert.

I have an old Gateway GM5424 running Vista Pro.
I started to get a warning that my hard drive was going to meet its maker. So I bought a new seagate SATA750 and put it in. Very easy to that point.
I was able to back up all my files and docs to a Maxtor 350 external hard drive. Then I went and fired up the computer with the new 750 hard drive.
I did the mirror back up as you describe. It went kinda OK with the same glitches you described in your prior article. Before the mirroring, I had the full new drive 750 GB, afterwards, it reverted all back to only 290 GB. I did all I could, defragged, cursed and prayed but could not find the missing 350 GB. Thank goodness, after doing several searches on google I found Tims Tec Blog @ http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html

At the end I found the article 16 Aug 09 by Robert “Hello I am back”. Followed it all and did what was written: Hey presto, I have back my 750 GB. Thanks to your article all’s now well.
David B.

]]> By: RJB http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html/comment-page-1#comment-140312 RJB Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:49:55 +0000 http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html#comment-140312 Hello all I am back, After doing some more Googling I found a simple fix to my problem of only having 80GB usable on a new 500GB disk after doing a complete system restore from a back up image created by Vista's restore utilities. Here is what you need to do. If your restore went smoothly like mind did and you have rebooted back into Vista then open up your Control Panel and select "Administrative Tools" then select "Computer Management" a window that looks similar to Windows Explorer should open. in the left hand window you should see the following categories "System Tools" "Storage" and "Services and Applications" Select "Storage" and then "Disk Management (local)" the utility will then scan your system for all installed Hard drives. In my system my new drive showed up as Disk 2 and showed the 80GB as the active partition on the disk and then it showed the remaining ~400GB as unallocated space. What most will want is for the entire disk to be used as the new C drive. This is what you need to do next. Right click on the active section labeled as the C drive and select "Extend Volume" in the next screen that pops up you will be able to select the rest of the drive to become a part of the C drive. I had no difficulties doing this and in less than a couple of seconds my C drive now was 465.76GB instead of only being 80GB. I still feel that this should be handled automatically by the back up utility but is not. Good luck Robert Hello all I am back,
After doing some more Googling I found a simple fix to my problem of only having 80GB usable on a new 500GB disk after doing a complete system restore from a back up image created by Vista’s restore utilities. Here is what you need to do.

If your restore went smoothly like mind did and you have rebooted back into Vista then open up your Control Panel and select “Administrative Tools” then select “Computer Management” a window that looks similar to Windows Explorer should open.
in the left hand window you should see the following categories “System Tools” “Storage” and “Services and Applications” Select “Storage” and then “Disk Management (local)” the utility will then scan your system for all installed Hard drives. In my system my new drive showed up as Disk 2 and showed the 80GB as the active partition on the disk and then it showed the remaining ~400GB as unallocated space. What most will want is for the entire disk to be used as the new C drive. This is what you need to do next.

Right click on the active section labeled as the C drive and select “Extend Volume” in the next screen that pops up you will be able to select the rest of the drive to become a part of the C drive.

I had no difficulties doing this and in less than a couple of seconds my C drive now was 465.76GB instead of only being 80GB.

I still feel that this should be handled automatically by the back up utility but is not.

Good luck
Robert

]]> By: RJB http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html/comment-page-1#comment-140309 RJB Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:07:48 +0000 http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html#comment-140309 Hello, I have come to the conclusion (many years ago) that Microsoft or rather Microsuck! truly sucks at both their installers as well as their feeble attempts at providing any sort of backup/recovery software. I thought that perhaps they had redeemed themselves upon seeing the new system restore tools provided on Vista Ultimate. I too was running out of space on my C drive and decided to install a 500GB drive and do a system restore to that drive. Well it went off without a hitch and booted correctly and all seemed well, however Microsuck in their infinite stupidity only made it an 80GB drive, just like the original. It has been my experience that when it comes to installers and backup solutions Linux has them beat. I am going to try a program that is based upon a Linux live CD called Clonezilla I have not used this before but will in the next few days and I will let you know how it works for me. Robert Hello,
I have come to the conclusion (many years ago) that Microsoft or rather Microsuck! truly sucks at both their installers as well as their feeble attempts at providing any sort of backup/recovery software. I thought that perhaps they had redeemed themselves upon seeing the new system restore tools provided on Vista Ultimate. I too was running out of space on my C drive and decided to install a 500GB drive and do a system restore to that drive. Well it went off without a hitch and booted correctly and all seemed well, however Microsuck in their infinite stupidity only made it an 80GB drive, just like the original. It has been my experience that when it comes to installers and backup solutions Linux has them beat. I am going to try a program that is based upon a Linux live CD called Clonezilla I have not used this before but will in the next few days and I will let you know how it works for me.
Robert

]]> By: tim http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html/comment-page-1#comment-134713 tim Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:45:21 +0000 http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html#comment-134713 No driver problems at all so far. Tim No driver problems at all so far.

Tim

]]> By: Clyde Davies http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html/comment-page-1#comment-134709 Clyde Davies Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:13:34 +0000 http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html#comment-134709 Did you have much in the way of driver problems? Did you have much in the way of driver problems?

]]> By: tim http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html/comment-page-1#comment-134689 tim Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:14:23 +0000 http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html#comment-134689 @Clyde Vista 64 is great, especially if you have plenty of RAM - I use 8GB. Much faster than Vista 32 on this particular box. Tim @Clyde Vista 64 is great, especially if you have plenty of RAM – I use 8GB. Much faster than Vista 32 on this particular box.

Tim

]]> By: Clyde Davies http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html/comment-page-1#comment-134684 Clyde Davies Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:27:44 +0000 http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html#comment-134684 As an aside to the main thrust of this blog entry; I've never spoken to anybody who uses Vista 64 as a matter of course. I have a copy and a license for it, and have been thinking of installing it. What's your experience of it so far? As an aside to the main thrust of this blog entry; I’ve never spoken to anybody who uses Vista 64 as a matter of course. I have a copy and a license for it, and have been thinking of installing it. What’s your experience of it so far?

]]> By: Ian Blackburn http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html/comment-page-1#comment-134637 Ian Blackburn Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:10:28 +0000 http://www.itwriting.com/blog/1513-moving-vista-to-a-larger-hard-drive-using-built-in-backup-and-restore.html#comment-134637 Interesting article Tim - I enjoyed reading it. Can't wait for the next installment when that 750GB is full though ;-) - it's the modern equivalent of Parkinson's law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law) Interesting article Tim – I enjoyed reading it. Can’t wait for the next installment when that 750GB is full though ;-) – it’s the modern equivalent of Parkinson’s law (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law)

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