Hard Disk Cloning

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bhuiyan · #1 Post by **bhuiyan** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 3:33 am

Dear all,

I have been using a T41 for some time, during which I have loaded various software, made settings, configurations (and planning to install linux too in dual boot mode) that I do not want to loose. My current system HDD is only 30GB 4200 rpm one. I am thinking of buying a 40GB 5400 rpm HDD to take backups. Or I may buy another Thinkpad, may be X series. But I do not want to redo the configurations.

My ideal solution would be just swapping the current HDD with the backup HDD and be fully functional. So what do you do in such circumstances? What cloning software (open source is better) do you use to do a sector by sector backup, so that dual boot mode including linux partitions can also be used? If the original HDD is 30GB and the backup HDD is 40GB or more, is there any problem?

What happens with WinXP activation? After the swapping, will the backup HDD have any issue?

Finally, what happens if I take this backup HDD and put into another T4X? Or into another X31 or X40 that I may buy in future? Or into another T23 (if it is possible) that I may get from someone. Can I still remain as functional as I am now with my T41?

Lots of questions, but I am sure someone in this board have gone through all these and even more. Advance thanks to those knowledgeable people participating in this board who are willing to share. In Japan, we call them Sempai.

Shoaib

kjarrett · #2 Post by **kjarrett** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 12:01 pm

Hi Shoaib,

I will try to answer what I can.

I use Symantec's Norton Ghost to clone my Thinkpad hard drive for backup purposes. It works very well. There are other programs to consider, PowerQuest DriveImage comes to mind. I have never made a Ghost copy of a HD with multiple boot partitions but I suspect it may not matter. You will want to check here:

http://www.symantec.com/sabu/ghost/ghost_personal/

As far as putting drives into other machines - I have never tried it and would not want to, unless the two machines were identical in every way.

Hope this helps!

-kj-

Leon · #3 Post by **Leon** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 12:06 pm

Acronis TrueImage is my choice..great program! Check it out!!!

taphil · #4 Post by **taphil** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 1:05 pm

One thing I'd like to point out from my experience...

On the new hard drive, you have to "initialize" it so that the ThinkPad will be able to boot from it. (In other words, using Ghost or some other program to copy partitions/drives and making the partition active isn't enough to make the TP boot from the new hard drive.) To do this, you need to have the recovery CD's: put in the new hard drive, boot from the recovery CD, and begin doing the system restore. At the beginning of the process, the program will initialize the hard disk somehow, and you can quit (just shut off the computer) when it begins copying files to the hard disk from the CD, and that's it.

When I didn't initialize my new drive, the TP would not boot from it and gave some error message.

edelrc · #5 Post by **edelrc** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 4:29 pm

As a very brief description:
Ghost is very fast, but a bit less reliable than others. Very well know app.!
DriveImage is the most reliable, but the latest version is too big. Previous version (2002 v6) is better. However, it has a couple of issues with NTFS, but minor.
Acronis is fast and convenient. I ever had varely no problem with it. But it does not have that much share of the market yet, so troubleshooting may be challengng if needed.

Leon · #6 Post by **Leon** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 4:41 pm

Great comparison.. just to add a note... can't speak for Aconis support cause I've never needed to call!

tselling · #7 Post by **tselling** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:14 pm

I also like Acronis True Image. I have used both their disk cloning and disk imaging (with a DVD-R disk). Works great.

mdarnton · #8 Post by **mdarnton** » Tue Jul 06, 2004 10:49 pm

Acronis True Image. I had to switch out a bad drive in the first couple of weeks I owned my T41. I'd just loaded a whole bunch of stuff, and REALLY didn't want to go through it all again, so I read all the reviews I could find and True Image seemed to be the clear winner. It was extremely easy. They had extensive instructions, pages and pages--too much to bother to read--and I decided to just wing it, putting the image on a USB hard drive. I had no problems at all.

meditate2001 · #9 Post by **meditate2001** » Fri Jul 09, 2004 2:50 am

take acronis, it is easy to handly, fast and absolut reliable.

i have a partitionc c with around 5gb and d with the rest. on c there is only
the os, installed programes and my documents. so i can take a complete backup from c to a single dvd, so without any hassly my "system" is always safe. and i just tried it to set up on a new harddisc and it works without ANY problems....

NEVER setting windows up again !! great.

Hard Disk Cloning

Hard Disk Cloning

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