Windows 8.1 recovery partition too small

[tmpr 0]

Hi,

 

Since upgrading from Windows 8.0 to 8.1 backups of my desktop PC have been failing because the recovery partition doesn't have enough free space for VSS to do its thing. On my Asus Transformer, which came preinstalled with 8.1, the partition is 0.7GB whereas on my desktop it's 0.3.

 

Will resizing the partition to 0.7GB fix the backup issue without screwing anything else up and can anyone recommend any free software that'll do the job?

 

Thanks

Tom

 

 

 

[Essexraptor 2]

Gparted

[tmpr 0]

Thanks for the reply.

 

Does GParted definitely work with Windows 8.1 partitions? I had a look on the website and I could only find specific mentions of Windows 7 and below.

 

It also mentions that mucking around with the system partition could leave Windows unable to boot so you might have to use the install disk to repair Windows. As I only have install media for Windows 8.0 (I upgraded via the store) that makes me a little nervous.

[ikon 439]

Win 8.1 is a free upgrade to Win 8.0. But, why take chances: clone your 8.1 OS drive to a spare HDD, or use Acronis or EaseUS ToDo Backup to back up the drive, then start playing around.

[Essexraptor 2]

Win 8.1 is a free upgrade to Win 8.0. But, why take chances: clone your 8.1 OS drive to a spare HDD, or use Acronis or EaseUS ToDo Backup to back up the drive, then start playing around.

 

 

This if your going to do any major/critical changes to a OS

 

You can also download a copy of the 8.1 ISO if you have a product key for Win8... here is the link to the "how to". it may be worth your time just to do this as a extreme backup

 

http://www.cnet.com/uk/how-to/how-to-download-the-official-microsoft-windows-8-1-iso/

[ikon 439]

Well, he does want to change the size of a partition on a live OS. I think that pretty well qualifies as major/critical.

[Essexraptor 2]

[tmpr 0]

Well, here's what I did in the end

 

I already had a copy of Macrium Reflect installed so I took an image of the system disk. While I was checking whether the recovery media for that worked I noticed that it allowed partitions to be resized while they're being restored so I thought it was worth a try (mainly because I don't have a DVD drive in that machine or a spare USB stick to install Gparted on)

 

Rather than test this all out on the actual system disk, I used a disk I'd just emptied to use for server backups. First I tried a straight up restore onto the empty just to confirm I'd be able to get back to where I started. Then I did another test restore but this time resizing the recovery partition to 700MB. Then, when I was reasonable confident that it stood a chance of working without borking my machine I repeated the resize restore on the actual system disk.

 

Afterwards the machine boots fine and everything appears OK but when I set up the client backup in the Dashboard it could only see two of the partitions: The 700MB recovery partition and the OS partition. The 100MB partition didn't show up in the list, so it looks like I still haven't got a working BM backup of this machine.

 

On a slight tangent, in the client backup setup wizard I have a load of old partitions that show up in the selection list as "offline". As most of these don't exist any more and aren't part of any previous backup is there any way of getting rid of them from that list?

 

Oh, and thanks for the link, Essexraptor. I'll check it out when my head has stopped throbbing

[ikon 439]

Have you tried backing up the drive with the resized partition and then doing a BMR?