How to change partition numbers?

[pirc]

So I make a clone of my C: drive with the Win 10 OS onto an ext drive which had one partition of backup files. Obviously, Macrium left the original partition as Partition 1 and placed the OS as Partition 2 and 3 (3 being system reserved from the C: drive). How can I reorder these partitions so that Partition 1 is OS, 2 is System reserved, and 3 is the original file backup partition. Is a there a utility is disk part or something else I can use for this? Thank you!

 

[thx1138v2]

As far as I know you can't "renumber" partitions. The number indicates the address space on the disk used for that partition, i.e. the lowest numbered partition uses the lowest set of contiguous addresses on the disk, the middle uses the next higher address space, and the highest number the highest address spaces used.

 

[pirc]

As far as I know you can't "renumber" partitions. The number indicates the address space on the disk used for that partition, i.e. the lowest numbered partition uses the lowest set of contiguous addresses on the disk, the middle uses the next higher address space, and the highest number the highest address spaces used.

So is the clone useless then? I guess what i'm getting at is if my current C: drive fails and I clone the cloned drive to the drive I replace C: with, will it still boot and number the OS partition as one (as long as I don't also clone the backup files partition to the replacement drive)?

 

[jsmithepa]

First off Windows doesn't boot from an external drive.

In case of disaster, you boot with your Macrium Boot Flash, then tell Macrium to restore whatever partition of interest from the external, you just click-select it, and then highlight your Boot partition (which is now sick), and Macrium will bring the backup over and replace entirely over the sick partition.

<Answer deselected by moderator at OP request>

 

[pirc]

First off Windows doesn't boot from an external drive.

In case of disaster, you boot with your Macrium Boot Flash, then tell Macrium to restore whatever partition of interest from the external, you just click-select it, and then highlight your Boot partition (which is now sick), and Macrium will bring the backup over and replace entirely over the sick partition.

I'm not trying to boot from ext. If my ssd fails and I need a new one I can clone the clone copy from the HDD ext onto the new ssd rather than reloading and clean installing and then setting up every single program. Literally plug and play. Your reply is great information, but not the information I'm looking for. It was selected as solution accidentally.

 

[jsmithepa]

Your original post worried about a partition number, I hope my initial response told you, partition number not a concern.

Now you have additional new concerns which I will reply hoping am not interpreting your new request incorrectly.

Say you Boot partition is C: and there you have your OS and also installed your Apps there. A Macrium Image backup copies EVERYTHING in C: so no, you don't have to re-install your Apps. Your OS, with all its settings intact and the installed App will appear EXACTLY as it was the day you performed this image backup.

Now as some people do, they install OS on C: but they have a small SSD and install their Apps on D:, then in order for you to be able to restore EVERYTHNG WITHOUT RE-INSTALLING ANYTHING, then your need to Macrium image backup C: as well as D: I dunno whether Macrium has the ability to backup 2 partitions as 1, that I haven't tried.

 

[Mellelmejor]

As far as I know you can't "renumber" partitions. The number indicates the address space on the disk used for that partition, i.e. the lowest numbered partition uses the lowest set of contiguous addresses on the disk, the middle uses the next higher address space, and the highest number the highest address spaces used.

So is the clone useless then? I guess what i'm getting at is if my current C: drive fails and I clone the cloned drive to the drive I replace C: with, will it still boot and number the OS partition as one (as long as I don't also clone the backup files partition to the replacement drive)?

If your drive fails, all the partitions will fail, but if it is just a logic error on the disk, you can format C:, install the backup and it will run as before.

 

[thx1138v2]

As far as I know you can't "renumber" partitions. The number indicates the address space on the disk used for that partition, i.e. the lowest numbered partition uses the lowest set of contiguous addresses on the disk, the middle uses the next higher address space, and the highest number the highest address spaces used.

So is the clone useless then? I guess what i'm getting at is if my current C: drive fails and I clone the cloned drive to the drive I replace C: with, will it still boot and number the OS partition as one (as long as I don't also clone the backup files partition to the replacement drive)?

The partition table has more info than just the sector numbers of the partitions. One of those things is a "boot partition" flag which tells the BIOS which partition to use to boot the machine. So partition number isn't a factor.

Some utilities allow you to set or clear the boot partition flags so that can cause problems if you don't do it correctly. You could have no boot partition or you could have multiple boot partitions. In the latter case it will boot from the first partition that it finds that has the boot partition flag set. It doesn't sound like that will be a problem for you since you are using backup software.

Just to clear up one other thing: drive letters (C:, D:, etc) are logical drive identifiers that are assigned at boot time to partitions by the OS. One physical drive with multiple usable partitions will have multiple drive letters assigned that access those partitions. It can get confusing when you refer to a drive letter as the physical drive. Physical drives have numeric identifiers (0, 1, 2, etc.) that are assigned by the BIOS at boot time as it finds them. Typically this is in the sequence of the data ports, i.e. SATA_1, SATA_2, SATA_3, etc. It looks for fixed media (SSD, HDD) first, then removable media like CD/DVD, USB, floppy disk, etc. Here are some scenarios:
SATA_1->SSD->drive 0->only one partition=C:
SATA_2->HDD->drive 1->only one partition=D:
SATA_3->CD/DVD->drive 2->E:

SATA_1->HDD->drive 0->two partitions=C:, D:
SATA_2->HDD->drive 1->only one partition=E:
SATA_3->CD/DVD->drive 2=F:

SATA_1->SSD->drive 0->only one partition=C:
SATA_2->HDD->drive 1->two partitions=D:, E:
SATA_3->CD/DVD->drive 2=F:
USB=G: (note: when you insert a USB drive after boot it is assigned the first unused drive letter by the OS)

Technically speaking, an external hard drive is removable media since it can be unplugged or powered down at any time.

Floppy drives are pretty rare these days but all early DOS machines had them and drive letters A: and B: are reserved for floppy drives. That's why the other logical drives start at C: