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	Replies: 6 - Pages: 1 - Last Post: 25-Aug-2011 15:00 Last Post By: Xardas

jrp78

Posts: 4
Registered: 22/08/11

Satellite A505 - Factory restore from an image of hidden partition?
Posted: 22-Aug-2011 20:28

The C: drive on my wife's A505 is dying and it will no longer boot up. I thought I had created the recovery discs but apparently I did not. I'm trying to clone the two hidden partitions from the drive (only the C: drive has the bad sectors) then restore them to a new drive. After I image the partitions to a new drive, I run the restore by hitting '0'. I have been able to go through the prompts of the recovery but it stops and says partition creation failed.

Has anyone tried anything like this before?

Syntax

Posts: 1,287
Registered: 30/09/09

Re: Satellite A505 - Factory restore from an image of hidden partition?
Posted: 22-Aug-2011 20:49

in response to: jrp78

Hey,

So have you cloned all partitions (the whole drive) to new HDD or just some certain partitions? Usually if you clone everything you should be able to run HDD recovery again from new HDD.

But if your old drive had some defective sectors the HDD recovery could be affected and not working properly anymore.

By the way: Can you boot into Windows now with new HDD?

jrp78

Posts: 4
Registered: 22/08/11

Re: Satellite A505 - Factory restore from an image of hidden partition?
Posted: 22-Aug-2011 20:56

in response to: Syntax

I cannot boot into windows on the original drive. Also, I am only able to clone the 2GB(system) partition and the 10GB partition(recovery). The C: partition will not clone. It just won't go beyond the bad sectors.

I have created 3 partitions on the new drive and cloned the 2 good partitions to the new drive along with the MBR. At that point, I can boot while holding '0' on the new drive and it enters the recovery console. I can go through the steps just like i'm going to do a factory restore but that's when it fails.

However, I just got a little bit further. I told it to leave the partitions as-is and it went beyond the error.

Now the problem is it tried to use the first partition(the 2GB system partition) to restore on, not the correct partition and it said not enough disk space. I am comparing the drive setup now, ie...what's set to active/primary/logical/etc. on the old drive vs the new. this might just work but I was also curious if anyone had tried such a thing.

jrp78

Posts: 4
Registered: 22/08/11

Re: Satellite A505 - Factory restore from an image of hidden partition?
Posted: 23-Aug-2011 13:17

in response to: jrp78

It works!! I will do a formal write up soon but you can recover your system without the disks by cloning just the system and recovery partitions to a new drive and using the boot up restore method

Xardas

Posts: 3,144
Registered: 02/10/09

Re: Satellite A505 - Factory restore from an image of hidden partition?
Posted: 23-Aug-2011 14:24

in response to: jrp78

Hey that’s cool

But don’t forget to create the recovery disk if Windows is installed successfully

jrp78

Posts: 4
Registered: 22/08/11

Re: Satellite A505 - Factory restore from an image of hidden partition?
Posted: 25-Aug-2011 13:04

in response to: Xardas

Recovering to a factory image by cloning the system and recovery partitions only.

Ok, first and foremost, this procedure requires a little bit of computer knowledge. Also, this procedure should really only be used if you don't have the recovery media,
you cannot boot the laptop into the OS(regular nor safe mode) and you know for a fact the hard drive is failing. I say this because if I knew the drive itself was fine, I would have easily run the
recovery program from boot up. Lastly, this will only work if the bad portion of the hard drive is only the OS partition and not the other two(SYSTEM and RECOVERY).

1. Tools required: A new hard drive, Acronis True Image Home(you can download a fully functional trial), a second pc or laptop, a SATA 2.5 USB enclosure, Partition Wizard Home Edition(Free), patience.
2. Remove the old hard drive from your laptop and connect it to your second pc with the USB enclosure.
3. Use Acronis to create a backup of the system and recovery partitions only. Uncheck the OS partition when going through the backup wizard.
4. After thats complete, disconnect the old drive from the USB enclosure and hook up the new drive.
5. Use Partition Wizard Home to create 3 partitions on the new drive. Don't worry about all the settings of the partitions, just focus on the sizing and the order of creation.
The first partition needs to be 2GB, the second partition should be the remainder of the space minus 12GB.(I say this generally because the size of this partition will vary
based on what size replacement drive you buy). The third partition will be the remainder of the space, 12GB. Now go back and delete the second partition you just created. I know
this sounds strange but just trust me. After you do all this and hit the apply button at the top, the result should be a 2GB partition, a large portion of unallocated space and
and 12GB partition, in that order.
6. Use Acronis to restore your previously made image to the new drive. Use the manual restore options because you will need to make sure you restore the SYSTEM partition to the
2GB partition and the RECOVERY partition to the 12GB partition. You will also be asked to restore the MBR which, YES, you want to do to the new drive.
7. After the restore is complete, put the new drive in the laptop and boot it up while holding '0' on the keyboard.
8. The system recovery program should start. Follow the prompts and select 'Recover to out-of-box state' and hit Next.
9. On the next screen, select 'Recover to a custom size partition' and the size already in the box should be the size of the unallocated space we had in step 5. Hit Next.
10. Grab your drink of choice and wait for your recovery to complete

Xardas

Posts: 3,144
Registered: 02/10/09

Re: Satellite A505 - Factory restore from an image of hidden partition?
Posted: 25-Aug-2011 15:00

in response to: jrp78

Hey cool, this is very useful and detailed posting!

You’re welcome in forum

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