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BJB's avatar
BJB
Level 5
10 years ago

Replacing then restoring secondary drive

First I will state that I did read the manual about this.  And I am a longtime Ghost user and have done several cold metal restores with SSR2013 but this would be my first restore from within the windows SSr2013 GUI environment.

So I want to use an image (I just can't get used to this "restore point" language).  Anyway, I want to make an image of my non-OS second drive.  Then replace it with a larger capacity drive, and restore the image to that drive. And not touch my C drive.  If it helps, all of my backups are done by drive.  I don't backup multiple drives in one backup job.

I have incremental backups of the drive in question and my plan is to make a clean....restore point....right before pulling the drive.

Then I plan to put in the bigger drive, load up SSR and run a restore of that specific restore point to the new drive and expand the unused capacity.

However....I look in the manual and it starts with "recover my computer"....and pick the drive, etc. etc.  Choosing "restore my computer" when I have Drive C and secondary drive images lying around is a scary choice! 

I just want the easiest way to select that newest backup and then point it to the new drive for a restore for JUST my secondary drive.  I know I need to check the box that expands the new drive to its full capacity which comes up at some point.

But if someone could please let me know the correct menu entry point to just select that one restore point/image and then give me a prompt as to where to restore it TO, and check the box to expand the drive, that would be great.

The manual in that secondary drive area is just very weak.

Also, since I am restoring an image, any suggested housekeeping?  Maybe run CHSDSK after the restore?

 

Thanks,

BJB

 

 

 

 

Backup and Recovery
Restore
SSR 2013
System Recovery
Windows 7
  • criley's avatar
    criley
    10 years ago

    Yes, you should see all the usual options available for restore once you have chosen the target disk.

    If this resolves your issue, please remember to mark this thread as solved so that others can see there is a solution here.

    Thanks.

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  • criley's avatar
    criley
    Moderator
    10 years ago

    As you are only needing/wanting to restore your data volume, you can do the restore in Windows (no need to use the recovery disk).

    Go to Tasks/Recover My Computer to start the restore. In the 'View by' drop-down box, select 'File name' - this will allow you to select only the volume you want to restore. Further on in the restore wizard you should see the list of available drives that you can restore to.

    Hope that helps.

  • BJB's avatar
    BJB
    Level 5
    10 years ago

    Thanks, that sounds pretty painless and more straightforward than the manual.  Just want to make sure I only choose the one drive, the correct image for that drive, and the correct destination.

    Your directions seem to get me there!  And I assume the prompt to expand to the existing disk size space would be somewhere after choosing the disk.

     

    Thanks,

    BJB
     

  • criley's avatar
    criley
    Moderator
    10 years ago

    Yes, you should see all the usual options available for restore once you have chosen the target disk.

    If this resolves your issue, please remember to mark this thread as solved so that others can see there is a solution here.

    Thanks.

  • BJB's avatar
    BJB
    Level 5
    10 years ago

    Sorry, to re-post after marking "solved", but another consideration has come up.

    Since I have moved my default docs, pictures, music, etc. to a new drive, my research says that if I bootup without that drive installed (say since I have replaced it with the new drive), windows will cause issues.

    So I am now looking at doing a bare metal restore of the D drive.  So image it from within the windows interface, shut down, unplug old drive D, plug in new drive D, bootup with SSR2013 boot disc and go through the "recovering a computer" process.  Choose my standalone drive D image as the file and then choose "drive D" as that will be the only one listed.

    Reading through the manual, it looks like it will also give me an option to browse to a network drive, and also pick the drive (i.e., does not just assume you want to restore C or C AND another drive), and then pick the target location.

    Bootup after the restore and windows won't even know anything changed.... Maybe run a chkdsk after the restore.

    I see in table 15-5 that it even has the resize the new drive option.  So, does this sound like a valid plan?

    Thanks again,

    BJB
     

     

     

     

  • BJB's avatar
    BJB
    Level 5
    10 years ago

    Does my bare metal restore method discussed above make sense?

    Any suggestions?

     

    BJB

     

  • criley's avatar
    criley
    Moderator
    10 years ago

    Yes, you can restore a non-system volume (i.e. DATA volume) using either the recovery disk or from within Windows.

  • BJB's avatar
    BJB
    Level 5
    10 years ago

    Having tried this bare metal restore, I thought I would add some comments for others that might be looking for this information to help them out.

    First, the step-by-step, with images, more detailed walkthru of a bare metal/restore environment restore I was looking for can be found here:
    http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH53848

    Although it is really for a "restore anywhere" restore, it's detailed explanations of the restore wizard options are way better than the manual. Just be sure to use only the appropriate sesctions and I did not and would not use the utilities unless you know what you are doing.  No need with a new drive.

    However, one more caveat that was not pointed out.  The boot disk environment does not recognize 3TB external drives!  Actually thought using a plain external drive  would be easier than trying to get networking to work to my NAS, but after the 3TB was not seen by SSR, I then re-imaged to a network share and the SSR boot environment was able to map the drive and use it. Are there plans to add this capability?

    What SSR did during my first restore is more appropriately a separate post which I will make shortly. (It did not correctly resize the drive). I do not want to mix threads and subjects.

    However my second restore, without choosing "resize restored drive" did work and I used windows to expand it so all appears well.

    Took 3 times as long as it should have but it worked.  Hopefully a chkdsk finds everything okay tonight.

     

    BJB