Windows 10: GPT configuration question

I have an unallocated 1Mb partition as the first partition (according to Easus) on my laptop drive, in addition to the recommended reserved, system and EFI partitions. Could this extraneous partition be the reason for my inability to restore from an image backup? (Restores fail after making my laptop unbootable)

:)

 

Move windows defender

This is not something requiring going to TechNet, it's a simple side effect of the GPT type partitions that are now standard on Windows systems with UEFI/GPT rather than BIOS/MBR based filing systems. Since most consumers are not technically knowledgeable
though, you're not likely to find many who understand what I just stated, as most will simply leave things alone as they should to allow the GPT partitions to protect them from corruption.

UEFI-GPT-based hard drive partitions Microsoft Docs

BIOS-MBR-based hard drive partitions Microsoft Docs

However, this question does belong in forums related to Windows [10] and its features or filing system. The question of why Windows Defender is detecting something within a partition as malware is a separate issue.

Rob

 

Solving the free space problem on "microsoft system reserved partition " to Win10 upgrading

it should be easier to work with UEFI/GPT for upgrading to win10

win10 UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions info;

UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions

 

No - this partition is only to ensure partitions are properly aligned (especially for ssds).

There is something wrong with your image backup.

Do you have more than one hard drive installed?

 

A 3TB Western Digital for backup in addition to the 686 GB in my laptop; GPT filing system on both
This forces me to do a repeat install.

 

If you create an image backup, it creates just a file on larger drive, and it is totally irrelevant what the partitioning style is on new drive.

I suspect your issue is in one of two areas i.e image file is so large, something is glitching, or something is wrong with partitioning some how.

How did you create the image file, and with what package? Some imaging programs are better than others (Macrium Reflect Free is really good.

Is all your data on the C drive ie same partition.

When you have a lot of data, this is a pretty poor way of backing up data, as you need massive image files.

Far better to put partition data into two sections ie and OS+programs partition, and a separate data partition.

Then the image backups of smaller partition are much smaller eg less than 100 GB unless you have huge numbers of programs.

Then you do not need imaging to backup data program - in fact file history backup is probably a better tool then.

Post an image of your (both) disk partitions, so we can see if present partitioning makes sense.

 

Go to command prompt and type diskpart then select disk 0 then list par

Code: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.10586] (c) 2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. C:\WINDOWS\system32>diskpart Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.10586 Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation. On computer: HALI-WIN10 DISKPART> select disk 0 Disk 0 is now the selected disk. DISKPART> list par Partition ### Type Size Offset ------------- ---------------- ------- ------- Partition 1 Recovery 500 MB 20 KB Partition 2 System 200 MB 500 MB Partition 3 Reserved 16 MB 701 MB Partition 4 Primary 532 GB 717 MB DISKPART>[/quote] Your first partition will by default start at an offset of 1024kb (that is what Windows installation does).

Mine is 20kb as I formatted my disk like that deliberately. As long as it is divisible by 4 then it doesn't matter either way.

In any case it isn't a partition - it is the starting position of the partition.

Honestly (unless you did it wrong deliberately) you don't have to think about alignment and 1MB isn't really a huge amount of space.

 

Depending on the partition manager you may see an offset at the start of the drive for 4k sector alignment. Yes, EASUS will show it while Mini Tool or AOMEI won't.
As mentioned above, there's something wrong with your backup. You probably need Macrium Rescue disk to boot from then click on "Fix Windows boot problem"

 

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Recovery 1024 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 System 100 MB 1025 MB
Partition 3 Reserved 128 MB 1125 MB
Partition 4 Primary 686 GB 1253 MB
Partition 5 Recovery 803 MB 687 GB
Partition 6 Recovery 10 GB 688 GB


This is my laptop configuration
Sans tiny partitions (for alignment?)

 

Apart from the two recovery partitions at the end which could probably be deleted, this does not look too bad although I would have split OS partition as I said earlier.

So I cannot see anything obvious here that would stop an image backup restoring. How did you create image backup, and can you see the backed up partitions in the image file?

 

Kudos to you all, cereberus, lx07, and topgundcp! The one thing I had not tried was Macrium Reflect Free---and it backed up, verified and restored beautifully without hitch nor glitch. The backup solution I've been looking for for over a year (or more, I lose track). Also, I want to try the multipartition thing when I get up enough nerve, cereberus.

 

Hi makridge, glad you got it sorted out. May I ask what other imaging software you had tried? I'm shortly getting a new laptop which will have UEFI and GPT formatting which I've not used before, and I use Aomei Backupper, which is supposed to handle GPT. Thanks!

 

Now you have a good backup, just copy as much data as you can to external drive, and simply shrink partition in disk management, and create a new drive partition in freed up space. This is really easy to do an low risk (even more so with your image backup).

Then of course image backup smaller OS drive as well again (and data drive if you like).

Good luck.

 

I've tried Acronis True Image 2015, AOMEI Backupper, the native Windows Backup, and Macrium Reflect Free. The only one that has given no problem at all is Macrium; it is rather detailed compared to others, but with very little adjustment and leaving most settings at default, it did the job for me.

 

Thanks.. I gave up on Acronis years ago when it didn't even recognise my first SATA drive - it's relative bloatware now.