T61: Clone to larger HDD, repartition & add Win 7 & Mac OSX

[crashnburn]

T61: Clone to larger HDD, repartition & add Win 7 & Mac OSX

Mods - I am posting this to 2 forums for a simple reason.. If you think this is out of policy please dont remove it, etc, just let me know and I'll try to REMOVE / EDIT the relevant material so that there is no / minimal OVERLAP between the threads.

For 1 - Windows Forum
I'd like more responses from people who've done Lenovo / Windows Migration
but dont bother / wont reply to Mac OSX related stuff

For 2/3 - OSX Forum
I'd like to get responses from OSX & Multiboot experts

The bigger PICTURE to be visible.. to the Mac OSX / Non Mac OSX experts.

[ Expect deeper insights in Windows Forum ]
1. Migrate entire HDD as-is to new HDD with Lenovo special Partitions intact (at beginning & end of HDD)
- I have several apps such as Partition Magic / Acronis Partition / Disk Director / Disk Image etc.

[ Expect deeper insights in OSX Forum ]
2. Partition the remaining space in between for Windows 7 & Mac OSX / Leopard / Snow Leopard.
- I am currently on WinXP Pro and will continue to be for a bit, but would slowly evaluate the Win 7 and then eventually migrate to it as a Primary OS. At that point I'd start moving more and more from Win XP to Win 7 and finally would like to delete / eliminate the Win XP Partition and I am guessing Resize the Win 7 partition to take the space

3. My trysts with Mac OSX Leopard and Snow Leopard may involve 1 or 2 separate partitions / instances. Once one of these stabilizes on my system I'd like to keep it as Secondary OS.

Few hesitations in my mind:

1. Can the Lenovo stuff be copied / cloned / migrated bit for bit?

2. From what I have seen / read on Insanely Mac, & some places.
- Mac OSX Partitions / Volumes dont easily move / resize (more/less) and maybe most of it not at all.
- I dont know if there is any Acronis like tool that can easily CLONE them etc.
Please correct me if I am wrong.

What should be my strategy / execution outline for these set of activities?
Where should I position my Partitions / Volumes as such and in what order for least effort / complexity?

[ausmike]

Crash*....
Sorry I am bit confused by your posts ,,,, so am just writing ,,,,

a) I have a T6*P with Win XPP x64 with OSX 10.6.x and Linux(redhat) ,,,, boots nicely and works well...

b) I had orginally started this project with a 250GB HD and then "cloned" to 500GB and then further CLONED to a SSD....

not sure what you planning to use to CLONE ,,, but I used a Demo version of ACRONIS , worked fine and never had any issues....

Planned action = WinXXP --> Win7 x64 ult soon I get a key freed up
maybe I got lucky..... but then I havent had much time to play with that machine ... !

[crashnburn]

Were you able to clone the following:

- Lenovo / Thinkvantage Partitions
- Mac OSX Partition(s)

[ausmike]

umm.... not sure WHY one would need the "factory' partitions ,,, if you going to have 2-3 OS boot-systems..

I would keep factory drive = seperate (reserved) , and not use it....as newer 7200rom drives are cheap now ((hint I had one for sale in Marketplace -cheap))
lots of space in 500GB drive ,,,,

Cheers

[crashnburn]

- Well.. I'd like to have my Thinkpad "Service Partition" intact at the end of the drive & accessible if I ever need it.
- I was asking if Mac OSX Partition / Volumes can be moved around / repositioned on the Larger Drive (inner or outer ring) and / or resized? (As conveniently as Acronis moves & resizes Win etc partitions). ?

[ausmike]

hi crash*...

I am not sure what you would use for things that you want to do ,,,
but we use ...links below...
http://www.acronis.com/backup-recovery/server-linux/

Am told by our local teckie guys who are experts at these things - its like Acronics Disk Director which also gives you the options you (I think) are looking for..

IMV.. putting things on 'outer ring sectors' in my view does not give me THAT MUCH increase/decrease in read /write speed advantages.... after all we talkin about T6X series with <*800 FSB ,,,,,compared to some of the newer FSB;s .. and my OLD DEC Alpha series with10600*+ .....

IMV....if NEED 4 SPEED is issue - go for dual SSDs as I have had in my T61P.....works nicely !.............jsut my $0.02c worTH !