How-To Geek

When I bought my Sony Vaio 14" laptop 2 years ago (VPCEA13EN, having 3GB memory and 320 GB hard disk drive) it had C drive of 40 GB and Drive of remaining 280 GB. The factory installed windows 7 Home Basic, I got removed and asked the shop to install windows 7 ultimate which I bought. When I asked them to divide D drive into 2 more smaller units they said it could not be done. But some months later when I asked our usual computer repairing shop they said it could be done and made 2 more divisions. So I have 4 drives clearly shown on the computer. On 3 of these drives I have stored a total of about 140 GB data.

Recently someone said it is a good idea to take image back up of C drive (operating drive) and keep it for emergencies. I used his Image taking program and started the process of Image copying. But after proceeding a few steps the process stopped saying there is no partition and that there is only one volume and so no Image is possible. I asked some computer experts about this. One person suggested that I copy all the data on an external disk and then only can do proper partitioning. Another said I should have got my laptop registered with Sony when I bought it and they would have given some help. I thought the shop registered my computer when I bought it since they had asked my name to put on the computer. Further this second person told me not to disturb the computer and do a re-formating as it is a long and complicated process.

With all this almost contradictory advice what should I finally do? I am confident that Geeks will give me the best advice since Geeks recently solved 2 of my very irritating problems.
glrsj

Hi SarahJames,
Thanks for taking interest in my new problem. Our internet was out for over 2 weeks. Only from night before last it has been sometimes working and may go off any time. So if I do not write a reply it doesn't mean that I have lost interest but it only means that internet is out again.
I am not a computer expert but am slowly learning more things. I just learned how to take a Screen Print and next how to create a URL, save it and send it. I hope I succeed in sending what you are asking for.
Regarding the question you asked: Where do I want to save the Image? My C drive, the Operating drive, is about 40GB full. My D drive is empty and is about 80 GB. I don't have so much space in my external HDD, only about 25 GB. But I heard that Image is highly compressed.
Second question: What program am I using? I was using my friend's program "Hiren's Boot CD - 10.1" and "Acronis" program from it.
Hope this little information will help you. I will have a few more questions for clarification later.
Thank you.
glrsj

Many times I tried to download Macrium from the sight you suggested as also the Tutorial. But never succeeded in both. I don't know what more I can do.
Besides, I have one more question to ask. When I bought my Sony Vaio laptop it had OS Widows Home Basic (64-bit). Since at the same time I bought the bigger version Windows 7 Ultimate, I asked the shop technician to install the Ultimate version. Since it was nearing the closing time he asked me to come the next day because he said it would require more time to do all the necessary savings. I am from far away place from the shop, so I told him I might not need the Basic program and to go ahead and install Ultimate. He must have done that. Now I regret that decision. If I want to get rid of this laptop I don't want to give away my Win 7 Ultimate which I bought separately. In the HDD there is only 100 mb reserved space which is shown only when I open Disk Manage. Is there any chance of recovering the factory installed Basic program? There is a serial number printed on the back of the laptop, which I suppose is meant only for this laptop. It is 2 years since I bought the laptop and it is beyond the guarantee period. Is anything possible? In the extreme case if i download a pirated version of Win 7 Basic and use the genuine serial number will it work? I would be very happy to get answers for my problems.
glrsj

I tried to download Macrium from your site. A small rectangle appeared and when I clicked on the top right hand corner a small menu appeared. I clicked on Download. Then the trouble began just like in my previous attempts. It asked for my Microsoft ID and then for my password. i have three or four IDs. I tried every one of them and each time it was rejected and agagin and again the same 2 boxes asking for microsoft IDs appeared. I don't know what I am supposed to enter. Please tell me what this microsoft Id is. You see I am not an expert.
Regarding the Vaio partition I shall look into it a little later. I 'll try one thing at a time.
glrsj

The .iso on the Skydrive can show either as a text line or a rectangle. Just right click on it and 'Download'. That should work.

dear whs,
At last I managed to download Macronium from your site. it is not as iso file but a zipped or compressed file. Do I burn it to CD as it is or do I uncompress it and then burn it to CD? Actually I copied it to a folder and used "Extract here" command to uncompress it. Even after that there are still two files that are zipped. What should I do?
Secondly, how do I get your Tutorial? Is it a printable file?
glrsj

My tutorial is an on-line video tutoriasl with a lot of links (includes also a video tutorial from a friend describing the recovery process). Printing it makes no sense - just watch it on-line. http://www.sevenforums.com/tut.....html?ltr=I

PS> The zip folder you downloaded you have to unzip.

@Fhirkin9, go ahead, no problem.

i have been going to the site/s showing macrium tutorial, quite a few times. It is supposed to be a video file. I see a black video screen but nowhere cal i find any play button. How do I play the video tutorial/ Any clear and detailed instructions will be very helpful and appreciated.
glrsj

I tried everybody's suggestions to open the tutorials, reached the mentioned sites, saw the headings of video clips,clicked on them resulting in a bigger black screen, but that was all. Could not open anything, saw no play button. I don't know how it can play with no play button. I now havew the program but without knowing how to use it I am to square one. The past few days i have been trying all permutations and combinations without success. Usually I work at something till I find a solution. But this time no luck. Any other help?
glrsj