cloning hdd to new hdd in usb 2.0 caddy

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NoBob · #1 Post by **NoBob** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 1:06 pm

Hi,

Have connected my new Hitachi 7k100 mounted in an external usb 2.0 caddy. XP2 has recogmised it. Now I need to initialize before cloning, but have been googling around to find out if giving the drive a letter in disk management will affect how the disk will function when I install it in my T41.

As I understand it I now need to initialize/format the disk in NFTS and then clone the disk using Acronis, xxclone or some other tool. Am going to try Acronis first. Before doing that do I also need to go into bios to make a hidden partition visible?

Thanks,

NoBob.

#2 Post by **Kyocera** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 2:13 pm

I did this last friday, I just used killdisk to wipe the drive, placed in enclosure and Acronis 9 did the rest. It is a free trial version I think, there is a freeware version of killdisk.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=20555

NoBob · #3 Post by **NoBob** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 5:45 pm

Thanks for the links. However, it's a new disk I bought, so don't need to erase anything from it. I have to format it and was wondering if giving it a drive letter could cause problems...

Thanks,

NoBob

Roy_W · #4 Post by **Roy_W** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 6:45 pm

The drive letter has no importance before you start the cloning. Acronis will clone your original drive boot sectors and all necassary data allowing your new drive to be seen as the "Primary" and "Active" drive in your system.

Your new drive will be an exact replica, minus the size differences, of your old drive and thereby automatically be allocated the same drive letter. Unless there is a HUGE difference in disk size, the OS should ignore the fact that the disk has even changed.

Cheers Roy

Roy_W · #5 Post by **Roy_W** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 6:51 pm

NoBob wrote:Hi,

Before doing that do I also need to go into bios to make a hidden partition visible?

Acronis can and probably will repartition and format your disk as required. Although it would probably be worthwhile to remove any existing partitions before you begin, in order to avoid any confusion. XP disk manager will allow you do this quite easily.

#6 Post by **Kyocera** » Thu Feb 16, 2006 7:31 pm

I did not change any bios settings at all for anything. Downloaded TrueImage installed it, connected HD enclosure and followed the wizard. It copied all partitions, windows and recovery. The recovery partition boots fine, I tested it after the process. Took about 40 mins.

NoBob · #7 Post by **NoBob** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:06 am

Thanks to everyone for their help.

I Acronis cloned the old 40GB hard drive onto the new 7k100 in the caddy. Swapped them over. On start up, received an "error 0271 check date and time settings," so pressed the blue button, went into BIOS and changed the system time setting, which had reset itself to 01/01/1998. Rebooted and so far everything's fine. Just had to reactivate Photoshop again.

The 7k100 makes a sort of low ratcheting/clicking sound that wasn't there with the 5400RPM Hitachi, but it's not too bad. It was really too loud and annoying though when it was in the caddy - if I were going to use it as an external HDD I'd have to move it as far away from me as possible.

Thanks again.
NoBob.

dsvochak · #8 Post by **dsvochak** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:33 am

Does "rebooted and so far everything's fine" mean that everything (including the hidden partition) was cloned to the new drive without having to go through making the hidden partition visible or any of the other machinations listed in the various threads about problems with cloning the HPA?

Has Acronis made some improvements to TI to eliminate the difficulties listed in those older threads?

NoBob · #9 Post by **NoBob** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 10:49 am

Hi,

I used the Acronis 8 trial for cloning (went through the automatic precedure) as heard mention 9 was flawed. Everything's working okay. Just hit the blue button and the same Access IBM window opens up. System info shows HDD capacity at 94552. IBM_Preload (C:) has 60.1GB of free space and IBM_Service (E:) is 839MB (instead of the former 300+MB). If any cracks appear I'll post an update. Just plugged in the old hard drive, which I've put in the caddy, and it's recognised and running.

NoBob

#10 Post by **bill bolton** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 8:22 pm

NoBob wrote:I used the Acronis 8 trial for cloning (went through the automatic precedure) as heard mention 9 was flawed.

I've been using a full retail Acronis vers 9 for a couple months now and its worked without any issues at all on both T41s and T43s.

Cheers,

Bill

#11 Post by **Kyocera** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 8:54 pm

dsvochak

Does "rebooted and so far everything's fine" mean that everything (including the hidden partition) was cloned to the new drive without having to go through making the hidden partition visible or any of the other machinations listed in the various threads about problems with cloning the HPA?

Absolutely

, pressing f11 at startup starts the product recovery program, diagnostic utilities etc.

Windows Disk Manager reports the following:
IBM_Preload 35.62GB NTFS Healthy (System)
IBM_Service 1.64GB Fat32 Healthy (unknown partition)

I did this on my t30 not the t42, maybe I should have made that clear.
And went from a 40G to a 40G.
The link I posted was to the t2x t3x forum.

NoBob · #12 Post by **NoBob** » Fri Feb 17, 2006 9:01 pm

Thanks Bill, Will keep that in mind.

NoBob.

#13 Post by **Kyocera** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 12:51 pm

Update to this post, I did this with my t42, have an extra 20g HD, used the same procedure as posted above, Acronis cloned everything fine, and did not care that it was a 20g drive as long as there was enough space to fit everything, had 6g left over.

NoBob · #14 Post by **NoBob** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:21 pm

After installing the 7k100 I was able to access the IBM diagnostics page while booting up. The blue button worked okay. Now, a few days later, I tried it again but now on pressing the blue button I get the message "entering PC DOS", then a message flashes on screen (I think I catch the word 'missing'), followed by "rebooting". And XP just starts up as normal. This also happens when I press F11. Any ideas? I could just put the old HDD back in and re-clone everything, but would mean backing up emails recived over the past few days. Would installing IBM Rescue and Recovery 3.01 make a difference?

By the way, the blue button works fine when I'm in Windows. Is there any way to disable/enable the Predesktop Area?

Thanks,
NoBob.

NoBob · #15 Post by **NoBob** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 6:52 pm

I was wondering, can this Predesktop Base be used to repair the Predesktop Area on a Thinkpad?
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... TVAN-RNRLE

NoBob.

#16 Post by **GomJabbar** » Wed Feb 22, 2006 10:29 pm

You should have the security for the Predesktop Area set to Normal in the BIOS. If you have it set to disabled, you may accidently write over important Predesktop files.

I don't know if the Predesktop Base would repair your installation or not, but I would try the following first.
Rescue and Recovery - Recovery repair diskette

cloning hdd to new hdd in usb 2.0 caddy

cloning hdd to new hdd in usb 2.0 caddy

Re: cloning hdd to new hdd in usb 2.0 caddy

success!

problem developed

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