Windows 7 External Hard Drive problem

[dougie1809]

Hi,

I just brought a WD Elements 1 TB hard drive, and I backed up my C drive from my laptop onto the hard drive. I used R-Drive Image 4.7 program to back up for the process. I used the copy a disk to a disk method. The C drive has 451 GB space which successfully backed up over 200 GB of date to the hard drive. But now my external hard drive says that its full capacity is 451, exactly the same as the C drive, not 1000 GB. Can someone identify the problem? Much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Saltgrass]

It almost sounds like you made your external drive a clone for the internal one. Since I do not run your R-Drive software, was disk to disk the only option you had?

 

[dougie1809]

It almost sounds like you made your external drive a clone for the internal one. Since I do not run your R-Drive software, was disk to disk the only option you had?

Thanks for the reply. No there were more than one, which were 'Create an Image', 'Restore from an Image', 'Copy a Disk to a Disk', and other options, so i thought the copy to disk was the most appropriate option?
Thanks

 

[Saltgrass]

Your desired result is important. I do not think "disk to disk" is what you are wanting since you just seem to be cloning your drive.

If you just want to copy the files to the external, you can just copy them. They may not all copy and this method would just allow for you to access the files that did copy, but not restore your system.

If you want to make a backup image, with which you can recover your install if the primary hard drive fails, you need an image. Also keep in mind, some images can be accessed without having to restore them. I know the Windows 7 Backup Images can be done this way. This method would create a folder on your external drive and just use the space it needs.

 

[dougie1809]

Ok yeah i see, the image would of been the correct option. I now have formatted the drive which has now deleted the C backup data, but it still says that the external drive is 451 GB, the rest are unallocated?
Thanks

 

[Saltgrass]

I would have to guess the drive had been set up just like your internal. You may need to clean the drive and start over. I am not familiar with how your external drive operates as far as special software. If it works like a normal drive, you may want to reformat it, or clean it with diskpart and set it up again.

 

[dougie1809]

Yeah i got it back now successfully, thanks. I had to download a software to re-allocate the partition back to its original 1 TB capacity.
Thanks again