Vista formatting takes how long?

[robertpri]

Just installed an eSATA drive and used vista for the formatting. Set the parameters and had lunch. Came back at after 55 minutes, it shows 8% format.

At this rate, it will take 12 hours for this 300gb drive. Partition Manager would do it in about 20 minutes. So, if this normal for vista?

 

[SIW2]

No, That's longer than it should be.

Try a Reboot so Disk Management can get itself up to date on what you have done so far.

Hope it helps

SIW2

 

[robertpri]

Thank you,
Rebooted and tried again. After 12 minutes it showed 2% formatted. At 50X, that is 600 minutes or 10 hours which is a slight improvement over 12 hours.

Rebooted again and used Partition Manager 9. I am NOT lying--it took less than one minute.

I really really really try hard to use the vista utilities where possible to avoid third party software conflicts. But some vista stuff doesn't work.

 

[SIW2]

Hi Robertpri,

Sometimes Disk Management will appear to hang if it hasn't updated itself with the previous action - reboot cures that.

Doesn't seem to have in your case - did you try Quick Format ?

I use the Paragon Products myself - they're excellent.

There may be a problem with Disk Management - worth trying SFC command to see if that can help.

This will do it for you - just click Start system repair

http://www.vistax64.com/software-tools/183170-system-file-check-tool.html

Hope it helps

SIW2

 

[robertpri]

Hi Robertpri,


There may be a problem with Disk Management - worth trying SFC command to see if that can help.

This will do it for you - just click Start system repair

http://www.vistax64.com/software-tools/183170-system-file-check-tool.html

Hope it helps

SIW2

Yes, paragon stuff is pretty darn good. I would try sfc except for one thing: every time I have used it in the past on faithful XP Pro, it asks for a source disc to replace any bad files.

Since I have nothing but that godawful recovery thing, I have been told to not waste my time. The compressed recovery disk cannot be used for files, even extracting to sfc.

Is that correct? [don't recall where i read that]

big thanks!

 

[SIW2]

Hi,

Yes, usually a "recovery" disc is an image - so you won't be able to get files off there.

If you need any, one of us will post a copy from our system in a zip file for you to d/l directly from the post.

You may be lucky - if you have a Dell disc , they are usually a modified M$ install disc ( rather than an image ), with a load of Dell junk added in.

SIW2

 

[robertpri]

I am not sure what is on it [them, there's two] but I can attest that it takes about 3 full hours to recover. Done that twice already!

So, to avoid that, I'm using both Acronis backup AND Casper for a full, live backup to my eSATA drive. Bootable.

Never want to touch that recovery monster again.

 

[lordbob75]

I am not sure what is on it [them, there's two] but I can attest that it takes about 3 full hours to recover. Done that twice already!

So, to avoid that, I'm using both Acronis backup AND Casper for a full, live backup to my eSATA drive. Bootable.

Never want to touch that recovery monster again.

Always a good idea. Bloatware is horrible.

When I get my new HDD I am planning on a full reinstall, and a separate partition on a separate HDD with my recovery settings on it for a quick recovery if the worst should happen.

~Lordbob

 

[robertpri]

When I get my new HDD I am planning on a full reinstall, and a separate partition on a separate HDD with my recovery settings on it for a quick recovery if the worst should happen.

~Lordbob

Great idea. I copied C and D to F and G [my esata ext drive] so I have the same thing on two hd's. I can boot to either one [I hope, if BCD works]

If you make another install to another drive, what will be your method to boot to it? I am always looking for improved methods.

 

[SIW2]

Hi robert,

If you use the copy ( not move ) partition function with Paragon , I believe it updates bcd for you , so you can boot straight into the new copy and the original.

Not sure what would happen if you cloned one drive to another - you'd have identical disk signatures. I think Vista will either complain , or change one - not tried it so I can't be sure.

Let me know what happens with that - will be interesting.

SIW2

 

[lordbob75]

When I get my new HDD I am planning on a full reinstall, and a separate partition on a separate HDD with my recovery settings on it for a quick recovery if the worst should happen.

~Lordbob

Great idea. I copied C and D to F and G [my esata ext drive] so I have the same thing on two hd's. I can boot to either one [I hope, if BCD works]

If you make another install to another drive, what will be your method to boot to it? I am always looking for improved methods.

When you have two or more OS on either one (like me) or two HDD, it differs only a little. It will boot to the first device on your mobo. If they are the same, then you set the default OS, and can still change it at boot. I set mine to 5 secs, but its up to you.

~Lordbob

 

[robertpri]

It's too late tonight to try anything questionable, and then keep me up until dawn.

But I will try the second boot over the w/e

The copy was made by Casper, and I have done this on dozens of computers with XP/XP Pro. Two hard drives, both active and bootable, works fine.

All you need is a boot menu, and that was simple with bootini in XP.

So, I am going to try BCD to create the menu.

I would never try this with different partitions on the same drive. Recipt for disaster.

But two entirely separate hd's should work, even in vista. [he says, with fingers crossed]

 

[lordbob75]

Let us know how it works out.

~Lordbob

 

[robertpri]

Let us know how it works out.

~Lordbob

Ever had something go so perfectly that you worry it might have been too easy?

I tried dual boot with Easy BCD and must be doing something wrong. I entered the second drive in the right place, checked all the menus, saved it, but on rebooting, it just opens the laptop drive. There is never an opportunity or menu for the second drive.

So, I resorted to Partition Magic 9, and there is an option for Boot Management. I clicked forward, and there was never any place to select anything, it just said the PM Boot Manager was activated.

Rebooted to a PM menu that showed both drives! I have gone back and forth between them [with reboots] and ensure that it's actually using different drives because I have difference screen background for each drive.

I am thrilled! Now I have a fully backup on the ext eSATA drive and can boot to either one.

I might take the rest of the day off...

 

[SIW2]

Hi robertpri,

Did you just clone one drive to the other using Ghost ?

SIW2

 

[robertpri]

Hi robertpri,

Did you just clone one drive to the other using Ghost ?

SIW2

No, I used trusty Casper V5 that I used on XP many times. Was not sure it would work on Vista-64, but it never missed a beat. All my business clients have Casper on their XP machines.

Every 3 am or so MS Scheduler copies any file changes in the past 24 hours. All my clients are businesses with mission critical files, taxes, employee records, customers, etc, and cannot rely on ghosting or images or added boot recovery disks. They all have a second drive with a full file/file copy of the primary drive.

 

[SIW2]

Hi,

I am not familiar with that app. - tho. it sounds good.Is that an app. you operate thru. Windows, or is it a bootable one ?

If it makes a sector by sector clone , then both HD's would have the same Disk signature. I believe if you connect both at the same time, Vista will change the Disk signature of one of them .

Since the bcd identifier number is partly made up of that , it would not be possible to use M$ boot management to boot the second drive. Normally one would need to generalise the bcd entries to make it work.

You seem to have overcome that by using a 3rd party boot manager to hand the active flag back and forth to the o/s partition you select ?



SIW2

 

[robertpri]

Casper here:

Casper hard disk copying software provides complete PC backup protection | Future Systems Solutions

I discovered it years ago when installing backup systems for a local office. I wanted fully duplicate drives, ready to use, bootable, and file by file. I messed with several apps but could not find one I liked until Casper. It's made for entire drivers, or partitions. I have never had the need to just copy a folder, so not sure how that would work, but I wanted full drive copies anyway.

Yes, BCD could not figure it out [Or I did it wrong] so used the Boot Manager inside Partition Manager 9. The only reason I bought PM was for a better control of partitioning.

The BM takes over from Vista as the boot menu. There is a third option [after showing the two drives] to disable BM and use Vista.

BTW: I made a serious error in my first post which I willl edit right now. I gave credit to Acronis for the boot manager, but it's Partition Magic. I use both, so was a bit confused.

 

[SIW2]

Hi robertpri,

Thanks, I had a look at Casper - seems good, but I won't be using it as I already have several cloning apps. - including one from Paragon.

Was interested in what would happen when trying to boot both the original hd and the cloned one .

Paragon BM seems to do the trick, and luckily I have that too - so if the need arises, I can try that.

I presume you mean Paragon Partition Manager 9 - because Partition Magic causes havoc if used on Vista.

SIW2

 

[robertpri]

Hi robertpri,

Was interested in what would happen when trying to boot both the original hd and the cloned one .

Paragon BM seems to do the trick, and luckily I have that too - so if the need arises, I can try that.

I presume you mean Paragon Partition Manager 9 - because Partition Magic causes havoc if used on Vista.

SIW2

I am not clear on the first Q. trying to boot both HD and cloned one? Not sure what you mean. I boot to either the laptop C drive or the eSATA F drive. One or the other, but not both.

Yes, I meant Partition Manager 9. I didn't realize there was also a Partition Magic.

However, I hit a BIG problem this am. I booted with no problem, chose the laptop drive from PM9 menu. Great.

Later, I put laptop into hibernation during breakfast. It would not come out of hibernation, no matter what I did. Blinking cursore forever.

I booted to the PM9 recovery disk and removed the PM9 Boot Manager. It booted fine, but I lost the BM menu.

Ergo: after many successful tests and reboots, this was the first time I tried to recover from hiberation and it failed badly.

I sent email to paragon to see if they have a solution.

Meanwhile, I am worried about enabling BM again. Either that, or never use hiberation.