Trouble Making Image Backup with Acronia True Image 2016 -- apparent misread of space

(1) "I don’t know what all the talk is at the link,"

I barely know what it is too. But I think that's what is necessary to do to reestablish your push button. But it would be hell to do, if even we had the stuff necessary. We'd have to find an .xml file & have to hope ReagentC can do a SetOSImage. It just isn't worth the effort to reestablish something that is a dinosaur compared to system images you can make yourself.

(2) "Can I mount that and run it"

You can mount Install.wim. But I wouldn't run anything on it, & I wouldn't know what to copy off it. Did you look at your Gateway site to see what was there? That's the better idea. I never mounted & unmounted one using Command Prompt commands. Best look that up. Here's a sample...

https://www.activedirectory.ncsu.edu/services/windows-deployment-services/mounting-wims-with-dism/#:~:text=%20To%20mount%20a%20WIM%20file%20using%20the,Determine%20which%20WIM%20index%20to%20mount%3A%20More%20

Mounting WIMs With DISM

1. I don’t know what all the talk is at the link, that’s beyond me. But it seems to be talking about adding tools to the image. We’re not talking about adding anything to it, customizing it. But I suppose to can understand that we have to do something similar anyway.

But another thing, it is talking about copying it to the C drive — and mounting it. Can I mount that and run it, so get the Gateway tools from it there? Or, what would happen if I tried to run it from there, can I run it from there? If I can actually mount and run it and maybe selectively install the Gateway stuff, that’s all I’m seeking.

I saw the other things too, about something no longer available in win 10. I don’t know if that is something we need to use, I think you’re saying maybe.

I had some thoughts about copying it over. If we copy it to, say, my external drive, I’ll bet it becomes visible automatically, and would be so when we copied it back. We might instead need to enlarge part 5, copy to there where it will remain invisible, and then copy back from there, and delete it from part 5. Unless we have it running from C, then don’t need that partition 6 at all.

Re reformatting, if that gets rid of the bad sectors, instead of deleting, I was just thinking it might (probably not) retain something that makes for the link. I think its linked now, but whether that is because of something about the partition or if it is strictly the file, I don’t know. I don’t know how it is linked, if it is simply linked with the equivalent of a cmd to look at part 6 and find a file by that name, well it will be there.

2. Yes, if an updates makes part 6 the active recovery partition, it would have to be imaged. But that is relatively minor, its only 14 GB of a total of about 170 GB being imaged. Preferable not to have to image it, but not a big deal if have to.
3. Well, maybe we can run that any and see what we can see. Maybe it wont even know its holding that image after we’re done, and that would be telling.

We can sleep on it, get back to it tomorrow and do it.

(1) You are welcome. But I think it's too complex to reestablish the Win 8 push button that Gateway built into the OS. I think Microsoft wiped it out when you upgraded to Win 10. I don't think it makes sense to get it back. You should use your own system images instead when an emergency arises. To get it back, we'd have to do the stuff in...

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/add-a-custom-tool-to-the-windows-re-boot-options-menu

Add a custom tool to the Windows RE boot options menu

It puts an option into Advanced Startup using different ReagentC commands than we've used so far. And I think one of them may no longer exist. So, I'll only do what I said above -- delete/recreate. It should go smoothly as it did for Partition 5, so we shouldn't settle for just a reformat. Want it?

(2) "I have a suspicion that regardless, at next update, Windows very possibly will put the new Recovery folder in the same partition as this one file again."

So, really, the best thing to do is to delete Partition 6 altogether & be done with it. If Windows makes it the active Recovery partition again -- a fit & proper system image backup of Win 10 would have to include Gateway's Win 8 again. (But hopefully Acronis won't insist on sector by sector.)

(3) "Oh, but when we get to that point, can you give me a code to see if things are linked up or not? Is that a simple check?"

All I know for now is that "ReagentC /Info" mentions Partition 6 as the holder of the recovery image. But I don't think that's the whole thing to it. I don't know where ReagentC is getting its information from.

After all this time, I guess you want to be done with this project. :) Well, like I’ve said, I do appreciate your efforts, and I did give thanks for sticking with it.

Let us copy the one file over, we don’t need to bother with the Recovery folder, that’s now already on part 5.

I was thinking of first trying a reformat of the partition, see if that gets rid of the bad sectors. If it does, then we would not need to delete and recreate it. I don’t know what this linking and Reagent stuff is doing, but if the reformatting gets rid of the bad sectors, do you think that it might have a better chance of saving whatever the partition is set up as to keep any links needed?

If reformatting does not get rid of the bad sectors, we can go ahead and delete and recreate. And name the new Partition Push Button as it is now.

And then copy the one file back.

I have a suspicion that regardless, at next update, Windows very possibly will put the new Recovery folder in the same partition as this one file again. On fact, I suppose if I deleted part 5 before running the update, it would pretty much have to put it in what now is part 6. Not that I’m trying to do that, but is might be a way to eventually get things linked up as they need to be. I don’t know of any other way I can even use that file other than through Advanced Startup.

Once done, I would restart, of course, I think then I will restart a second time to Advanced Startup — that might or might not push something to link up. I don’t want to click on the button to reinstall the OS from the file on Part 6, I’m afraid it would just start the installation rather than go through some setup steps first — do you know? If I can click on that, and it goes through a couple steps for setup, then I would click on it, that might force-link things because it might look for the file.

Then I would check with Acronis, make sure the bad sectors are gone, but I expect they will be. I feel there are reasonable chances simply reformatting would do it, and that might salvage something that links the file with the recovery folder on part 5.

Oh, but when we get to that point, can you give me a code to see if things are linked up or not? Is that a simple check?

Again, thanks for your help.

I guess figuring out the Reagent code, if needed, would involve starting from scratch, not just using the previous one we used and changing the part and file names.

Here's what I'm willing to do...

(a) XCOPY the files of Partition 6 to a location of your choosing.

(b) Delete & recreate Partition 6 as a Recovery partition.

(c) XCOPY the files back to it.

If any connections are lost, I refuse to reestablish them. I'm not doing any ReagentC's over this. But I think you'll be better off because Acronis will likely not force sector by sector anymore. Want the commands?