How to clone a hard drive in a T43? Compatible drives?

[Oro]

I've had a heck of a time trying to clone a drive to get a larger one (40gb -> 80Gb, nothing extreme here).

I've tried Macrium, also Clonezilla via a USB stick. Both fail to create a workable drive. I am guessing now it is because it's not an "approved" IBM drive? (target drive is a Samsung 80GB MP0804H). The drive is not new, but working perfectly prior to this in another (non IBM) machine. Formatted and tested a-OK prior to latest clone attempt. I've read this how-to on the subject but don't fully understand what I should try now:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=27721

Do I need to buy a drive off the list, find a work around? Or what am I doing wrong? RBS and Orclas have helped me sort out prior errors (e.g, putting target disk in HDD0 bay internally). I have an ultrabay caddy, so not going through a USB cable, etc.

[ajkula66]

"Non-approved" drives work perfectly fine - apart from throwing the "2010 error" - so your problem is elsewhere.

No clue on where since I tend to stay away from cloning altogether.

[mpcook]

Do you know for sure the drive is good (tried it elsewhere?). Also, I know it sounds silly but inserting a drive into a T43 is just the slightest bit finicky. Make sure you slide it in carefully and fully. Also make sure it is in correct orientation. Finally, make sure none of the pins are bent. These are all issues I have encountered myself with T43's. Good luck!

[Oro]

Yes, it was booting a Dell previously, and I can put it in the ultrabay drive and it reads, formats, tests OK. I am going to try Acronis and try that FAQ procedure strictly.

[Orclas]

Just checking: you have low level formatted it before each attempt? And removed the source drive before booting after each cloning?

I ask out of own experience with the problem.

[Oro]

I did before the 2nd attempt, not the 1st.

I am going to not worry about this and just live with the existing drive. I do have a T61p and am just going to migrate some things there, though I will probably try to clone that drive to an SSD, so will have to confront this bugbear eventually...

[cadillacmike68]

Just checking: you have low level formatted it before each attempt? And removed the source drive before booting after each cloning?

I ask out of own experience with the problem.

You don't have to low level format it, but you need to clear the old partitions usnig disk management or DISKPART, or the utility in TI itself.

[Orclas]

You don't have to low level format it, but you need to clear the old partitions usnig disk management or DISKPART, or the utility in TI itself.

I honestly don't remember all the steps I took when trying to make my clone work (I spent hours and hours with it), but I tried a bunch of disk management tools with no luck and would for safety just low level format the target drive if I were to do another clone (since that definitely did work). It doesn't take all that long time and a one pass wipe wont wear the drive excessively either.

[cadillacmike68]

You DON'T need to low level format the drive. I just finished cloning about a dozen drives while on leave. I used Acronis TI home v 11. The clone option is in the Tools / Utils menu.

Use the manual option, especially if you have multiple partitions (including the service / restore partition). That way, you can adjust the size of the new partitions on the disk. Further Arconis will alert you that there are partitions on the target disk.

If you want to clear the partitions before starting Acronis, then either use DISKPART (which i hate, but it is very flexible) or Disk Management under Computer Management under Admin Tools in Control Panel.

When in Disk Mgt, if you have a new drive you might have to "initialize" the drive. That's all you need to do on a new drive. If there are existing partitions, you can delete them in disk mgt or with DISKPART. Then run Acronis and it will not give you any warnings about existing date.

If you want to adjust partitions after cloning you need Acronis disk Director - a separate program. That allows you to delete and resize existing partitions including the current boot partition.

Acronis TI works best if you have an full size dock and boot from a bootable CD in the dock with your original HDD in the internal bay and the target (new) disk in the Ultrabay. It's a little cleaner, however i have no trouble running it from Windoze with the original HDD in the internal bay and the new / target HDD in the Ultrabay. Acronis will shut the computer off when it is finished so you can remove the new clone, because what you DON'T want is for windoze to power up with the clone in the system as a non boot disk, because windoze will "fix" the disk and make it not bootable. But even that can be fixed with a FDD & a windows 98 startup disk.