Anybody up to speed on vista?

[joe-90]

After a complete hard drive crash the other day I decided to get a new PC with vista on it. I heard it was a good idea to make restore points so used the wizard. It offered me a slot on the partitioned drive (H). However, when it went through it found out there wasn't enough space on the partition and stopped. Now it keeps nagging me to say that the restore didn't work and I should sort it. By looking around I see that I can shrink the main partition (c drive) which would hopefully give me room for the back-up on H drive.
I'm a bit wary of partitions as I had trouble way back in the past. Has anyone done it? If it works do I just click backup again or will it try to fit yet another restore next to the one I've started? Any ideas anyone?
I tried it with CD roms but it wouldn't fit and never seemed o make any headway with another disc either, it didn't say 'put another disc in to continue - just that it had failed'.

 

[Doc Lenny]

On the Fly

Go for it.

 

[joe-90]

That's a good resource, thanks.

 

[tim west]

Just be careful with these Partition Managers like Partition Magic, they can lull you into a false sense of security with their automatic functionality as I found out to my cost.

Had use Partition Magic to reclaim free space and expand the main partition on several occassions without trouble but the last time I used that facility thinking it was just taking free available space as it suggests, I went for just a few more MB on the main partition only to find it had actually decimated the boot sector! I don't call the boot sector free space and wonder why it attempted to reclaim already allocated sectors? so just be wary that these automatic partitioners can cause problems.

 

[joe-90]

Partition Magic was exactly the 'trouble' I was referring to last time.

 

[joe-90]

This is as far as I've got - so need advice.


By looking around the PC I could see that I could shrink the main partition (c drive) which would hopefully give me room for the back-up on H drive. Anyway I followed the instruction (this is a 250 gig drive btw) and instead of doing what I hoped and making the H partition bigger so I could fit more onto it, It freed up some space that is listed as '83gb unallocated.' So what I've got (looking at the computer management screen) is three boxes. The first says ' RECOVERY (H) 9.71 GB NTFS HEALTHY (primary partition). The middle one says ' C 139.39GB NTFS HEALTHY (system, boot, page file, active, crash dump, primary partition) and the end box on the right says 83.79 Unallocated.

If I right click on the first one 'Recovery' I don't get the option to expand.
If I right click on the middle one C drive, I get the option to expand or shrink.
If I right click on the right one (unallocated) it just says 'New simple volume'.

Am I right in guessing that the H partition on the left can't expand because it's squeezed up against the main C drive?
Am I also right in guessing that what I should be doing is finding out how to turn the 'unallocated space' into another drive and doing my restore on that one?
I've also got the issue of the partially completed 'restore point' on the 'Recovery Drive (H)'. I know what time I tried to do this so if I delete the folders created at that time will I be safe in not to deleting the factory installed back-up? Any help appreciated.

Windows Vista Home Premium.

 

[Doc Lenny]

What have you got stored in the Recovery Drive that is taking so much space?

Vista should delete old restore points when a new one is created.

 

[joe-90]

The computer came with a partitioned drive with vista and whatnot (office trial etc) already on it, so if you had problems you could format the C drive and do a complete back-up back to factory settings.Then when I tried to do a restore point it filled to overflowing.

 

[Doc Lenny]

Joe

Have you just got system protection turned on for the C: drive? Or have you got them both selected?

I can't understand why it would use the recovery partition to save restore files unless you have system protection turned on for this drive.

 

[joe-90]

It's because you can't save to your C drive because when it is formatted during a restore it would wipe off what you are using to restore. Therefore it only offers you the other drive (H) and CD rom. It can then load your system back onto the C drive when it has been formatted.

 

[Doc Lenny]

Joe you miss my point.

You have probably got an image on your Recovery drive that will restore you pc back to factory settings. (out of the box)

When selecting a recovery point you only need to turn on protection for the C: drive as that has all your current system settings.

It will create the restore points on that drive. This is why I asked whether you had turned on system protection for the H: (recovery drive), you dont want to do this as it is not neccesary.

 

[joe-90]

I followed the prompt and that's what happened. BTW. if you change the original out of the box image how can that then give you an out of the box computer?

BTW where is that screen you pictured - I can't find it.

 

[Doc Lenny]

I followed the prompt and that's what happened. BTW. if you change the original out of the box image how can that then give you an out of the box computer?

BTW where is that screen you pictured - I can't find it.

Using the System restore tool has nothing to do with the Image that resides on your Restore Drive (H)

System restore essentially backs up your current system configration should you need to revert back to it in the future.

Click on the Control Panel menu option.

Click on the System and Maintenance menu option.

Click on the System menu option.

Click on System Protection in the left-hand task list.
You will now be at the System Protection tab in the System control panel. This tab allows you to enable and disable System Restore as well as make new manual restore points.

This will lead you to the system restore screen.

This is hard work Joe... when you mensioned

I followed the prompt and that's what happened.

Was this a windows prompt or another program. Please give details.

 

[joe-90]

I don't really know what I'm talking about, but when I first started a system restore it only offered me H drive or CD. H drive couldn't take all the info.
Is that the same as a restore point? Any info I can read up on?

 

[Doc Lenny]

I don't really know what I'm talking about

Ok so I think what has happened is that a third party software such as Ghost or your DVD burning software etc.. has prompted you to backup your entire system (sound about right)

Since the PC is new then this is not critical at this point. What is more important is that you backup your data.

I would leave it at that for now!!

For the future I would recommend that you look at the partitioning link I provided and create a partition (DATA) that you can use to store data any other backups that you care to create.