Use pqi file to rebuild c drive

[rupertkirkham]

I have a backup PQI file in my E: drive, (which is a partition of my C: drive ) and I want to rebuild my C: drive using this file. However, the current hard drive is making funny noises and I suspect is not long for this world, so I want to use one of my other drives - a 25Gb to replace the current one, instead of rebuilding a dodgy drive.
So 2 issues: One, how do I reallocate the primary drive to another? Two. What software if any do I need to use the PQI file.

 

[fzabkar]

PQI file types are created by Symantec's PowerQuest. According to the following URL, "PowerQuest was bought by Symantec and rebranded as Norton Ghost".

http://www.fileinfo.com/extension/pqi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerQuest

I believe the name of the product was "Drive Image".

 

[rupertkirkham]

Hi - I have used something called SELFIMAGE to copy the partitions on my c drive (to an external Hard drive). Now I need to make a new c drive (as before) but on another intrnal hard disk I'm not using any more, but it doesn't have 2 partitions. Can I create a FAT partition and a NTFS partition so I can recreate the old c drive? How do I do that and swop it over with my current faulty hard drive?

 

[fzabkar]

An "image" is an exact byte-for-byte copy of an existing file system. Therefore it makes no sense to copy an image of a file system to a new preformatted partition in the expectation of restoring the original.

What you need to do is to transfer the PQI image to a raw drive using SELFIMAGE. This will restore the original drive's partitions and volumes, whether FAT or NTFS. Other imaging utilities include Ghost or DD.

Alternatively, you may be able to view the file system(s) within the PQI image using a utility such as WinImage:

http://www.winimage.com/

If WinImage can't see your files, and if SELFIMAGE is not an option for you, then use a disc editor to peek at the beginning of the PQI file. This should give you an idea of its structure. In fact if you can give us a dump of the first 512 bytes, then this may help us to help you.

HxD - Freeware Hex Editor and Disk Editor:
http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd

DMDE (DM Disk Editor and Data Recovery):
http://softdm.com/download.html

 

[rupertkirkham]

An "image" is an exact byte-for-byte copy of an existing file system. Therefore it makes no sense to copy an image of a file system to a new preformatted partition in the expectation of restoring the original.

What you need to do is to transfer the PQI image to a raw drive using SELFIMAGE. This will restore the original drive's partitions and volumes, whether FAT or NTFS. Other imaging utilities include Ghost or DD.

Alternatively, you may be able to view the file system(s) within the PQI image using a utility such as WinImage:

http://www.winimage.com/

If WinImage can't see your files, and if SELFIMAGE is not an option for you, then use a disc editor to peek at the beginning of the PQI file. This should give you an idea of its structure. In fact if you can give us a dump of the first 512 bytes, then this may help us to help you.

HxD - Freeware Hex Editor and Disk Editor:
http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd

DMDE (DM Disk Editor and Data Recovery):
http://softdm.com/download.html

Does this mean I will have to buy another drive and not format it?

 

[fzabkar]

You don't need to buy another drive.

If the data on your 25GB drive are not important, then restoring the PQI image to this drive will overwrite the existing information. There is no need to prepare the drive by partitioning or formatting it.