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Will this work (using the restore feature from WHS to resize partitions) RRS feed

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    Hello there,
     
    I'm wanting to redo my system and am curious if this scenario will work.
    Here's what I have so far:
     
    I have a Toshiba Laptop with three partitions on it. Partition 1 has
    Windows XP, Partition 2 has Windows 7 Ultimate, and Partition 3 has
    Kubuntu Linux installed. Currently I'm using the XP partition as a data
    storage holding a couple of virtual machines. I've been backing up both
    partitions to WHS.
     
    What I want to do:
     
    I want to remove the XP Partition completely, combine it with the
    Windows 7 Partition, and completely reinstall Windows 7 Ultimate.
     
    My questions:
     
    If I delete all backups of the XP partition from WHS, and do the
    reinstallation of Windows 7 as I plan (wiping out the XP partition), can
    I use the Restore Disk to restore what I have now in there, or will it
    totally mess things up?
     
    Does the backup/Restore also restore the bootloader information?
    (currently it shows both Windows 7 and Windows XP when I boot up, so I
    need to find out if it's going to show that and cause problems)
     
    If this won't work, are there any recommendations for what I want to do?
     
    Thanks, and have a great day:)
    Patrick.
     
    --
    Smile... Someone out there cares deeply for you.
    Have you updated your OS and Antivirus today?
     
    Smile.. Someone out there cares deeply for you.
    Saturday, June 12, 2010 5:21 PM

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    Probably the XP partition is the boot partition. (Whichever OS was installed first will usually be the boot partition.) If you remove it, you will no longer be able to boot your computer without some degree of repair. And when you restore a partition on a multi-boot disk, Microsoft instructs you to restore all bootable partitions at the same time.

    So no, I don't think Windows Home Server will do what you want. My recommendation would be to wipe the disk, reinstall Windows 7, then restore files by mounting a backup of the Windows 7 partition using the console and dragging/cropping files. Finally, once you're satisfied you've recovered everything you need, remove both of the old computers (the previous installation of Windows 7, and the Windows XP installation) from the console.

    I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
    Saturday, June 12, 2010 7:30 PM
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    On 6/12/2010 2:30 PM, Ken Warren wrote:
    > Probably the XP partition is the boot partition. (Whichever OS was
    > installed first will usually be the boot partition.) If you remove it,
    > you will no longer be able to boot your computer without some degree of
    > repair. And when you restore a partition on a multi-boot disk, Microsoft
    > instructs you to restore all bootable partitions at the same time.
    >
    > So no, I don't think Windows Home Server will do what you want. My
    > recommendation would be to wipe the disk, reinstall Windows 7, then
    > restore files by mounting a backup of the Windows 7 partition using the
    > console and dragging/cropping files. Finally, once you're satisfied
    > you've recovered everything you need, remove both of the old computers
    > (the previous installation of Windows 7, and the Windows XP
    > installation) from the console.
    >
    > ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    > I'm not on the WHS team, I just post a lot. :)
     
    That's what I was afraid of. I was hoping to avoid having to reinstall
    everything. The files are all mainly located on my WHS, in the theory
    of a "centralized location for everything". I don't have very much in
    my My Documents or any other "My" folders on the laptop.
     
    Thanks again Ken. Have a great day:)
    Patrick.
     
    --
    Smile... Someone out there cares deeply for you.
    Have you updated your OS and Antivirus today?
     
    Smile.. Someone out there cares deeply for you.
    Saturday, June 12, 2010 8:01 PM