PowerQuest Drive Image 2002

[Pexster]

This fine product has managed to screw up our hard drive. Our 80 GB drive now only has 40 GB with the rest unallocated. Their product is supposed to allow us to re-allocate free space, but the product won't run now under XP !!! (It just hangs at the logo.)

Tech support has been next to worthless. If I just un-install it, and try Ghost, any chances of having better luck? I'm concerned that Drive Image did something at such a core level that it can't be fixed. For instance, if I run FIXMBR from the Recovery Console, then reboot and run it again, it will tell me again that I have an abnormal or corrupt boot record.

Any ideas?

[Chuckiechan]

I'm not sure what you were doing. Were you deleting an old partition or a new one? Did you make rescue disks. Go ahead and make them now, and see if there is something you can do at the dos level.

[shahani]

I've been using this for a while under XP. Works just fine. I guess the only really good way out is to re do everything.

Don't worry about irreversable damage to drive. Unlikely. Start over and it'll work.

[Pexster]

I've got the rescue disks, and can access Drive Image using Caldera DOS. But there is no option for Disk Operations that way, and that's where the "Reallocate Free Space" is. Disk Operations only appear in the Windows version, which I can't access.

It's nice to know that I can't really hose things, 'cause I've read some stories of people having to reinstall their OS after DriveImage screwed it up.

The good thing is that our PC works just fine; we're just missing half of our drive. I can try to create an image using the DOS version, but wonder whether that image will include whatever it is that's causing the app to refuse to run. I don't understand enough about this situation.

[shahani]

Do you have Partition Magic --if you do you can reallocate the unused space into a partition without damaging existing partition.

[Pexster]

Don't have Partition Magic, although I suspect that the some of the same code is in the Drive Image Disk Operations section. I guess I'll try bugging the PowerQuest guys again tomorrow.

Thanks!

[Pexster]

A final update on this problem. PowerQuest sent me a file several times, pqdi.rtc, and asked me to run it from the rescue diskettes. That allowed the program to run under Caldera DOS, but as I mentioned before, Disk Operations are not available under that boot.

I finally got an answer directing me to replace the same file using "VF Editor" into the file DEFAULT.VFD (their virtual floppy disk utility).

They have directions for this on their website, although most of their instructions do not seem to be up-to-date as to which apps have which utilities.

Anyway, all is well now and thanks to the TechIMO community for keeping me from panicking to much (especially you, Shahani)!

[shahani]

Glad it worked out Pexster.