Thinkpads Forum

Hard drive on my T60 died... ( But I have Image (33 GB) of my disk on another external hard disk. So, the question is... how to recover that image to my new disk? THNX

Use the same software with which you made that image.
If you used Acronis, boot from the Acronis CD, with that external image connected via e.g. a USB case.

I used Rescue & Recovery for image creation. I don't know what's the procedure, is it possible to boot from that external drive via USB? I never did this procedure with Rescue and Recovery before so I don't know how to do that and is it even possible?

I used Rescue & Recovery for image creation. I don't know what's the procedure, is it possible to boot from that external drive via USB?

Only if you made the USB drive bootable by running the "Create Rescue Media" task once you had installed RnR. You have the option of writing the pre-desktop area to either an external drive volume (like a USB device) or a CD.
Personally I do both and then test I can boot from them.

Once you've booted in the pre-desktop area you just take the options to do a full system restore restore. I've done many of these as I regularly test my recovery procedures. No point in having backups if you cannot restore them

If you created an R&R recovery cd you could use that to boot from and recover.

On a related topic, Im curious to know the restore procedure as well. I have a T60 running 3.10 RR and I have tried just about every prodecure related to swapping hard drives and restoring. The one that never seems to work (and the most critical for me) is if my notebook harddrive experiences a complete failure like the OP, and the only solution is to replace the original hdd. No matter how hard I try, if I swap out HDDs, format the new hdd with the recovery cd to make an oem factory install, then recover, or boot right off the recovery cd to restore the image to the new hdd, I can NEVER restore an image made to an external media source onto a new hdd. The only one that works (and works well), is if the original hdd that made the image is installed in the machine. Then I can recover from any media (internal, external, optical) or bootable usb, etc.

I recently tried out the complete PC feature on vista and it allows me to restore an image onto any hdd I want... now this is what I need!

I've done various restores using most flavours of RnR.
I'm currently running RnR 4.2 on a T30 (no HPA).

My backups have always been to an external USB device and I've always used the "Full System Restore" option. I have restored successfully to both the same drive and a new drive (I've done two disk upgrades and used RnR on both occasions).

I had one problem when I was testing a restore procedure.
I had taken a full backup of my drive at the time (it was an 80GB TravelStar) and then did a full drive initialise using the Hitachi Drive Test tool. The subsequent full restore using RnR failed with an error regarding the MBR record. I just ran an initial Windows Setup using some product disks and then reran the restore, which worked fine.
I can only assume that following the low-level initialise the drive was not in a fit state for RnR to do the restore.

hmm...well, I got a related question for anyone out there that managed to pull this off successfully.

1) Original machine with HDD1, running RR 3
2) Create full system backup to USB HDD
3) Original HDD1 replaced with new HDD2
4) preload factory image to HDD2 with recovery media
5) Try to recover backup made on USB HDD to HDD2
6) Wonder why (5) doesnt work and have to rebuild system from scratch!

The question is... why 6 always seems to happen to me!!!

SOLUTION!!!!

I was perusing the internet and found this explaining how to make Rescue and Recovery work for swapped hard drives. I just tried it out on R&R 3 and it works!!!

What you need:
(2) external USB HDDs
(1) Replacement HDD
(1) R&R full CD/DVD recovery set

1. If you have not done so already, on your thinkpad, run the R&R to do a full computer backup OR copy existing backup on original HDD (HDD A) to USB external HDD 1. When it is finished, turn off the machine, unplug, remove battery.

2. Swap out your original HDD (HDD A) with replacement HDD B, replug everything, and boot up.

3. If your new HDD B is completely blank, run the R&R software to do a complete factory restore.

4. Once restore is complete, do a full computer backup to USB external HDD 2. DO NOT use the first USB HDD 1!!!

5. When restore is complete, plug both USB HDD's into any computer, turn on folder options to view hidden files and modify system files.

6. COPY the RRbackups folder FROM USB HDD 1 to USB HDD 2. Unplug USB HDD 2, and restart

7. Go into the pre-desktop recovery menu, and select recover system from usb backup. You can now recover your system, and done!

It sounds like a few steps, and it does take some time to complete, so I wont say its completely easy. But, when you have a total disk failure and replace hard disks, you will see that the R&R recovery files on an external hdd will not work. At least now you have a chance to restore your system just like it was before it died! Thanks to the post by Dodgy in the link above!

I've never had to go through that palava to restore a full system backup to a new disk.

What's worked for me, both in anger when upgrading drives and testing is this,

Take a full backup to an external USB device.
Remove old drive from TPad and install new drive.
Boot RnR pre-desktop area from either the USB backup device or from a bootable CD.
Do a full system restore.

It may be significant that I have always run my TPad WITHOUT the hidden partition, who knows ?

ashleys wrote:I've never had to go through that palava to restore
It may be significant that I have always run my TPad WITHOUT the hidden partition, who knows ?

I've upgraded from 40 to 80GB HDD and then from 80 to 120GB HDD using RnR full system restore and I have the hidden partition on my disks. Worked w/o any problems.