How I Cloned My IBM ThinkPad T42 Hard Drive - Step by Step

[poluki]

A. How I Cloned My IBM ThinkPad T42 Hard Drive - Step by Step

1. Intro
i. I had a LOT of problems trying to clone my 40-gig Thinkpad hard drive to a larger drive, so I thought I'd record the process that worked for me in hopes that it might help others. The 40-gig hard drive on my Thinkpad was filling up, and I wanted to clone it to a bigger drive so I could continue as before without reinstalling everything I had accumulated over the years.
ii. Note: I am not a technician or a representative of IBM or Lenovo or Thinkpad or anything...so I cannot guarantee that anything I write here is technically accurate or valid. I've just written down the steps that worked for me.

2. Preparation
i. Buy a new destination drive. (I bought a Seagate 120-gig Momentus. My source drive was the original 40-gig IBM drive [made by Hitachi, I believe].)
ii. Buy a USB External Enclosure to attach the new drive externally to the Thinkpad's USB port. (I bought my external enclosure from CompUSA online for about $20.) (You can also use an IBM approved Ultra Slimbay case that will mount a second drive in the...Ultra Slimbay. About $40.)
iii. Buy or download Acronis True Image software. Generate whatever boot-up floppy disks or CD might be needed by the cloning program. Test to make sure the boot up floppy or CD actually boots up your system.
a. (In my case, because my destination drive was a Seagate, I downloaded Seagate's free version of Acronis True Image called Seagate Disk Wizard. The free version apparently will only work when you have an actual Seagate drive attached to your system...either internally or externally, e.g., via external USB port.)
iv. Set up your laptop's boot sequence so that it will look to your floppy drive or your CD drive--depending on which boot-up device you intend to use--before it attempts to boot up from the source hard drive.
a. (I believe I did this by entering the BIOS during startup...hit F1...then navigate to boot-up sequence, and I designated the system hard drive as the last device to search for booting up. This made the system search my floppy drive first, then search the CD drive second, etc.)
v. Now test your boot-up media (floppy or CD) to make sure your system will actually boot up from your cloning software properly.

3. Install Drivers for the Destination Drive
i. Shut down laptop. Attach the new destination drive via the external enclosure.
ii. Boot up the Thinkpad normally.
iii. Install the drivers for your new destination hard drive.
a. (In my case, I simply opened Seagate Disk Wizard in Windows while the new drive was attached via USB. Disk Wizard auto-detected the Seagate drive and automatically installed the proper drivers. Disk Wizard gave an on-screen confirmation that it had done this.)
iv. Shut down.
v. If you don't want or need to format your destination drive, you can skip the next step.

4. Format the Destination Drive*
i. Preliminary Notes:
a. (*Note: A number of online sources indicate that you do not need to format your destination drive in order for most cloning software to work properly [because the cloning software will in effect format the new drive anyway as a part of the cloning process], and in fact, formatting your new drive using the Operating System running on your source drive can actually create some additional headaches later on. So, you might be able to skip this step entirely and have no problems. I didn't learn about this until AFTER I had already formatted my new drive, so I'm listing all the steps I used here, including the step where I formatted my new drive, in case you make the same "mistake" that I did. As an additional note, however, I'm not actually sure I could have done the "Check the Disk for Errors " step [farther below...and highly recommended] if the destination drive had not been formatted and thus visible to the error checking software (Scandsk, SpinRite, etc.). Either way, if you make the same "mistake" that I made and format your destination drive before cloning, the following steps should help you reach a successful Thinkpad clone in the end.)
ii. Format the destination drive
a. (I've sort of forgotten exactly how I did this...but I believe this is what I did...)
b. Right-click "My Computer" on the desktop and select "Manage."
c. The Microsoft Management Console will open. In the left frame, left-click once on "Disk Management." This will open the Disk Management Extension in the right frame. You will see your existing hard drive listed (and probably also see the hidden IBM Service partition). You should also see your new destination drive listed as an unknown volume (if your drive is new, unformatted out of the box), or you will see the new drive identified in some fashion (if it was already a pre-formatted, or a drive previously used for some other purpose).
d. Right-click on the drive and format the drive. (Of course, you want to be careful to format your destination drive...NOT your current operating system drive.) If you have the option to designate the destination drive as a primary/master or slave drive, choose primary/master. (Don't worry, this doesn't suddenly turn your current, internal system hard drive into a "slave" drive and screw up your system. You just want your destination drive--after it's cloned--to later be recognized as a primary boot up drive when it eventually ends up inside your Thinkpad.) Also, the formatting process may require you to designate a drive letter for the drive, and you can give it any letter that is available; don't worry--the cloning process will later re-designate your drive as the system boot up drive and it will obtain the correct "C:" drive designation in the end, as well.
iii. After formatting the destination drive is complete, shut down.

5. Check Source and Destination Drives for Errors
i. Highly recommended!
ii. There are lots of posts on the Internet indicating that if either your source or destination disk has any bad disk sectors, the cloning process might not be successful. (A clone, after all, generally makes an EXACT copy, bit-by-bit, of your source drive and places it in exactly the same geometry on the destination drive.) The disks basically have to be pristine or the bad sectors have to be identified and blocked off in order for the clone to work. So, you need to run Chkdsk, or Scandsk, or something like SpinRite to ensure the disks are error-free.
iii. I tried them all:
a. In my case, I ran Chkdsk...got no errors...tried to clone...didn't work. I did the same thing with Scandsk...got no errors...tried to clone...didn't work. Finally I used SpinRite and I also (simultaneously) changed cloning software (from Norton Ghost to Seagate Disk Wizard/Acronis True Image), and my clone worked. So, I don't know if it was SpinRite or Acronis, or both. Other people have had no difficulty cloning disks checked using Chkdsk or Scandsk (both of which are usually pre-installed for free as part of most Windows operating systems).
iv. If you want to run Scandsk, here's how:
a. Open My Computer, right-click on your source drive (usually your C: drive), select "Properties," open the Tools tab, click on the Error-Checking button. Then check the boxes for "Automatically fix file system errors" and "Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors." When you click OK, the system will ask you if you want to run this the next time to reboot and select OK. (Scandsk cannot fix errors when you are booted to the Windows OS, so it will run Scandsk just before it fully boots up to Windows the next time you reboot. Then reboot and let Scandsk do its thing.)
b. (Note: You should be able to follow the same steps above while your destination drive is attached and Scandsk should be able to check and fix errors on that drive without rebooting because the destination disk is not the drive that the OS is running from.)
v. In the end, I used SpinRite
a. I booted up using the SpinRite 6.0 boot-up floppy with the new drive attached. I ran SpinRite analysis level 2 on my source disk and the destination disk.
b. After SpinRite had completed checking and fixing/recovering any bad sectors on both disks, I exited out of SpinRite, removed the SpinRite boot-up disk, and then I booted up normally into Windows XP from my internal source drive.

6. Check That All Is Still OK
i. Check to see that Windows boots up properly and that you can still see your new destination drive connected via USB. (You can check to see if the drive is visible simply by opening Windows Explorer and noting the drives listed under the "My Computer" tree.)
ii. Shut down normally and then disconnect the destination drive.

7. Remove the Destination Drive from the Registry*
i. Notes:
a. (*Note: The next step requires modifying the Registry. YOU SHOULD NOT DO THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE A BACKUP OF YOUR REGISTRY, you know how to restore your Registry if necessary, and you are knowledgeable about Registry modification.)
b. (Note: Why do we do this step at all? Apparently, anytime your destination drive is connected to your system while Windows XP is running, the operating system will physically "identify" that destination drive and store a record of it in the Registry. By having this record in the source disk Registry, you run the risk that the cloned destination drive will later identify ITSELF physically as a drive that is NOT the boot-up drive! (Apparently the OS detects a hard-wired identity key or something...so it doesn't matter if you rename the drive, reformat it, whatever...the OS will still detect that physical drive and "think" that it is not the boot up drive.) So, some people recommend removing this Registry entry entirely so that when you later clone the source drive (including this Registry on the source drive), the destination drive won't contain this self-excluding info.)
c. (Note: If you find that you aren't able to edit the Registry following the steps below, you might not be logged in as a user with Administrator privileges.)
ii. Disconnect the external destination drive.
a. Basically, you don't want your source drive or operating system to ever see this drive again until AFTER you have finished cloning.
iii. Boot up normally under Windows.
iv. Select Start > Run > Type "regedit" and hit enter.
v. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > System > MountedDevices.
vi. You should see various devices and hard-drives listed as "dos devices" and one of these should be your new destination drive as it was detected by Windows during previous steps.
vii. You're going to right-click and delete the entry for your destination drive...BUT be sure you're deleting the destination drive, and NOT your current internal, operating system hard drive!
a. (I did read somewhere that it might not be a catastrophe if you accidentally delete your current operating system drive because apparently Windows will recreate these disk registry entries on-the-fly when it boots up again, anyway, but I didn't test that theory and I really don't like the idea of deleting a registry entry for my existing operating system drive...so I'd highly recommend that you be very careful at this step.)
viii. Click on File > Exit to exit out of the Registry editor.
ix. Reboot normally and run REGEDIT again to make sure the drive you just deleted is really gone from the registry.
x. DO NOT SHUT DOWN YET...READ NEXT STEP...

8. Prepare to boot up with your cloning software.
i. In my case...I put my Seagate Disk Wizard boot-up CD in the CD drive before shutting down (because I can't open the CD drive when the system is powered off).
ii. Then I shut down normally.
iii. Then I powered on and the system automatically looked to boot up from the CD before trying to boot up from my hard drive.
iv. Seagate Disk Wizard booted up to its start-up screen properly.
v. I clicked QUIT to exit and powered off.
vi. (Keep the cloning boot-up CD in the CD drive so that the next time you boot up, it WILL boot up to that CD, just as it did in this step.) (Note: You may also be booting up from a floppy drive...same thing.)

9. Make the Hidden IBM Rescue Partition Visible*
i. Preliminary Notes:
a. (*Note: This step will make the hidden IBM Rescue Partition temporarily visible. Before you do this, you should make a backup copy of this rescue partition on CDs/DVDs, etc., in case something accidentally happens to this partition. You should look for instructions on how to backup the rescue partition elsewhere.)
b. (Note: Why are we making the hidden IBM Rescue Partition visible? Apparently, you will not be able to clone completely or properly if the hidden Rescue Partition that IBM places on its factory hard drives is not visible to the BIOS. Some people don't mention this step when cloning Thinkpads, and other people adamantly insist on it. I followed this step after several unsuccessful clone attempts and it worked for me.)
c. (Note: Apparently, not all Thinkpad hard drives contain this hidden rescue partition. If you didn't see this partition listed on your source drive when you were in the Microsoft Management Console - Disk Management Extenson above, then you probably don't need to do this step.)
ii. How to do it:
a. Power on...and while the system is powering up, hit F1 to enter the BIOS setup.
b. Navigate to Security > Predesktop ... and then change the Predesktop setting from "Normal" to "Disabled." You will receive a warning and verification message...click okay and save and exit.
c. POWER OFF. (AND DO NOT ALLOW THE SYSTEM TO BOOT UP FROM YOUR HARD DRIVE.) (Since you have your clone software boot-up media in the CD or floppy drive, this shouldn't be a problem. If you don't manage to power off properly, the system should boot up from your cloning software...and you can simply power off from there.)

10. A Question about MBR (Master Boot Records)?
i. I've read that sometimes you need to refresh or recreate the MBR on a cloned drive so that the system will not be looking for the wrong drive when it begins booting up from the clone. On many non-IBM laptops, the MBR is apparently a single file that can be easily refreshed or recreated from the command prompt using fdisk /mbr or fdisk /cmbr or something like that. I tried these things with my Thinkpad hard drive and never had any success...and I finally read that Thinkpads place elements and versions of the MBR in FOUR different places, and I believe one or more of those places are inside the hidden Rescue Partition. If the hidden partition is not visible...then a complete refresh of the MBR is not possible...and fdisk won't work properly even when those partitions are visible. So...I've just about concluded that fdisk is almost useless or irrelevant when it comes to Thinkpad cloning. When I used Acronis True Image (Seagate Disk Wizard) as described below, there was a step where the on-screen status indicated that Acronis was copying the MBR...and who knows what that means...but somehow it did it properly and my Thinkpad eventually booted up. So...my suggestion is that much advice about MBR--at least as concerns Thinkpads with Hidden Rescue Partitions, or as concerns cloning Thinkpads with Acronis--is unnecessary or irrelevant. If you follow the steps listed here, I don't think the MBR will be a problem.

11. Swap the Source and Destination Drives
i. Preliminary Notes
a. (Note: Why are we swapping the drives BEFORE cloning? Apparently, the IBM motherboard codes data onto its hard drives in a configuation that NO OTHER laptop manufacturer uses. IBM apparently uses a proprietary "240-head" configuration for data on the hard drive, whereas virtually every other PC manufacturer uses 255 heads of data. I don't know the correct terminology, but the drive encoding is somehow proprietary to IBM (wonderful, no?). (I have also read that this sometimes occurs on HP and Compaq laptops, too?!) Thinkpad running Windows XP is using NTFS, but it just somehow configures data in a slightly proprietary way. So...this means that in order to ensure that your cloned drive will work in a Thinkpad, the destination drive must be cloned while plugged into the Thinkpad motherboard itself.)
b. (Note: Again, apparently some people get different results on this point. Some people apparently have successfully cloned Thinkpads while the source drive remains inside the laptop. Other people swear you have to swap the drives first. I had no success cloning until I swapped the drives, but I also changed software from Ghost to Acronis (Seagate Disk Wizard) at the same time, so I don't know if only one of those changes was responsible for the successful result...but I do believe the "255" versus "240" thing is somewhat critical, so I'd recommend the approach I used.)
ii. How to do it:
a. REMOVE the SOURCE drive from the laptop and install it in the external USB enclosure, and install the DESTINATION drive INSIDE the laptop.
b. Notes:
1. (Note: Some people may not be comfortable unscrewing the hard drive cover, pulling out the drive, and unscrewing the cover plate, etc. If you're not comfortable or qualified to do this, you should let an authorized technician do this.)
2. (Note: I'm not a technician, but I'm reasonably coordinated and careful, and I can handle a small screwdriver, and I had no problem doing this. Note that after sliding the hard drive out of its bay in the Thinkpad, the drive is covered with a shiny metal bracket thing with a thin plastic dust barrier that probably serves multiple purposes: it is a bracket that stabilizes the drive inside the laptop, it may serve an electrical "grounding" purpose, and it also seems to be a dust cover for the open circuitry on the drive. You need to remove this cover and place it on the destination drive before you can mount the destination drive inside the laptop. This cover is attached to the drive by four screws, one at each side corner of the hard drive. If you do remove this cover by yourself, be very careful not to touch any of the exposed metal parts, pins, circuits, etc, with your fingers or with anything metal. And keep all dust out of there...any particle of dust getting inside a drive can cause all kinds of problems.)

12. Now Boot Up Using the Cloning Software Boot-Up Disk
i. Acronis True Image (Seagate Disk Wizard) is very easy and intuitive to use. It methodically asks you to identify your source drive, your destination drive, and if the two drives are not the same size and if there are multiple partitions on your source drive (which is the case when you have the IBM rescue partition), it will ask you how you want to arrange and size the partitions on the destination drive.
ii. When Acronis / DW starts up, it will ask you if you want to let it do the cloning Automatically, or Manually. I chose Manual, and I believe this is the preferred mode, especially if you're cloning from a smaller source drive to a larger destination drive. (If you use Automatic, it will simply clone the partitions proportionally, which means it will give a much larger partition to the hidden Rescue Partition than is actually necessary, and thus you won't get the maximum use out of your new drive.)
iii. Sizing the Partitions
a. In Manual mode, Acronis will first make an approximation of what kind of partition configuration you might want for your destination drive, and it will display the new proposed partitions based on the percentages of space the partitions occupied on the old drive. You can either accept Acronis's proposal, or you can modify it.
b. I chose to modify it.
1. To modify, you select the disk or partition you want to modify and set the parameters. I selected the Rescue Partition to modify, and I chose a figure slightly above the minimum space required as indicated on screen, and then specified ZERO unallocated space before and ZERO unallocated space after the partition...which essentially pushes this partition to the very end of the drive, where you want it. Then I clicked Next...
2. I then selected the main OS partition to modify it as well, and I adjusted the numbers so that it would occupy the full space not occupied by the Rescue Partition.
iv. WATCH OUT !!
a. At some point in this process, Acronis asks you what you want to do with your SOURCE drive...and it gives you the option to wipe it out, format it, destroy the data on it, etc.!!?
b. YOU SHOULD NEVER DESTROY THE DATA ON YOUR SOURCE DRIVE UNTIL YOU KNOW THAT YOUR FINAL CLONED DRIVE WORKS AND BOOTS UP PROPERLY !!!
c. I don't know why Acronis even offers this option here...it seems very dangerous to me. If you make the wrong choice here, Acronis will destroy your source drive after it completes the cloning process. If the clone is not successful, you will have lost your source drive and can't try to clone it again! Crazy!
d. So...I chose the option that would leave the data unchanged on my source drive so that Acronis would not touch it.
v. Continue through the menus and then let Acronis clone your drive!
a. In my case, watching Acronis clone my drive was something of an epiphany. After having attempted to get Ghost to clone my drive for DAYS--and every attempt to clone my 40 gig drive took Ghost 11 HOURS!--Acronis was astounding! It took Acronis ONLY 45 MINUTES to clone the whole 40-gig source drive (and my drive was quite full) to a 120-gig destination drive! Amazing!

13. When your cloning software is finished, POWER OFF!
i. (But keep your cloning boot-up media IN the CD or floppy drive for now.)

14. Disconnect your external (source) drive.

15. Restore the Predesktop BIOS to "Normal"
i. (NOTE: Before you start this step, make sure your cloning software boot-up disk IS STILL IN THE CD DRIVE...so that if you don't get into the BIOS on your first try, your system will NOT boot up from your hard disk. If you miss the BIOS step and accidentally boot up from the cloning CD...no problem, just power off and try again.)
ii. Remember, we previously set the BIOS to make the hidden IBM Rescue Partition visible, so we need to restore it to the "Normal" (hidden) setting BEFORE booting up with our cloned destination drive.
iii. So...power on > F1 > Security > Predesktop > set to "Normal" (hidden)...then save and exit.
iv. POWER OFF.

16. Check to make sure Predesktop is REALLY set to "Normal"
i. You might want to go through the previous step one more time to verify that your Predesktop really really is set to "Normal" (hidden) now.
ii. (If the screen shows that the Predesktop IS set to "Normal," just leave it as is and exit.)

17. Moment of Truth:
i. Power on...remove the boot-up media (CD or floppy)...and let the system boot up from your new, cloned, destination hard drive (which should already be inside the laptop from the cloning process).
ii. If all is well, your Thinkpad should boot up normally and you'll have a nice new shiny hard drive where your old one used to be.
iii. (In my case, I also did a little dance because I had had so many problems previously that I was not entirely sure that I would ever successfully clone my Thinkpad drive.)

18. The end.

[SteveS]

I am glad that you achieved success, but it seems like a LOT of work!

I have cloned many T40 series notebook drives, including T43, with no problems what so ever. There is a bit of preparation the first time, but after that it only takes a single command to clone your drive.

I use Norton Ghost 2003, and call it from a DOS command line. Since I use a Ultrabay Slim HDD adapter to house the drive I am cloning to (or from), I use a USB bootable flash memory key to store the Ghost programs. I dedicate this memory key for the Ghost programs, so it is always ready to go..

Note here – the T40 series can only boot from a Lenovo or IBM brand flash memory key. And with Lenovo, it is only certain models. The computer will NOT boot from the lower priced “Essential” models. Make sure the memory key you are buying is specified to support being bootable. These are expensive from Lenovo, but if you are patient, you will see them come up on e-bay from time to time for under $10. When you get the flash memory, you need to make it bootable by running a utility program that is included on a CD with the memory key.

You need to change the default boot order in the BIOS to use the “-USB HDD” first. Once set, I don’t reset the boot order as others have advocated. I see no problems with leaving it, other than occasionally forgetting and trying to start the PC with a different USB flash drive installed. When this happens, just removed it and hit any key.

Ghost includes two DOS programs, along with a simplified DOS program to run under. One is called “GDISK” which allows you to identify disks in the DOS environment. Note that Ghost will clone the entire physical drive all at once, including ALL of the logical drives it contains. So you can not identify drives using drive letters.

It is VERY IMPORTANT that you clone in the right direction!! GDISK helps with this. You can identify the model number of the drives, and the relative size by the number of sectors shown. In the T40 series, the USB flash drive is usually drive 1, the internal HDD is drive 2, and the drive in the ultrabay slim is drive 3.

In order to copy the entire boot record, you need to use a couple of options on the DOS command line. The correct syntax to clone the internal drive into the Ultrabay slim is:

Code: Select all

GHOST –clone,mode=copy,src=2,dst=3 –ib –fni

To clone in the other direction, reverse the arguments in “src” and “dst””

To make it easy, I created two batch files which I also store on the flash key:

CLON2TO3.BAT contains the command line listed above. This clones FROM the internal drive.
CLON3TO2.BAT is the same, with “src=3” and “dst=2” to clone INTO the internal drive.

You only need to go through this preparation once. From then on, to clone you only need to install the flash memory key, install the ultrabay slim drive adapter with the drive in place, boot the computer and type either “CLON2TO3” or “CLON3TO2”.

Assuming you typed the options correctly when you created the batch files, Ghost copies the service partition correctly. When the source and destination drive don’t have the same size, Ghost allows you to change the size of the partitions. Fortunately in this situation, it suggests keeping the service partition the same size, and varying the main “C” drive, which is exactly what you want to do.

If any of the readers do a lot of disk cloning, I would recommend going with the flash memory key and the ultrabay slim bay drive adapter. In addition to supporting drive upgrades, I use the procedure weekly to back up my drive. Because you don’t need to remove the internal drive to clone in either direction, it saves ware on the connectors.

[house kitten]

Is it your opinion the T4 laptop is worth upgrading? I have a T-42 and I thought I would sell it because it seems like it might be getting slow. I do have 1.5 GB of ram and it is a flexview screen so probably is worth upgrading. Seems a lot better than what is out there today.

BTW do you mind me asking what you paid for the Seagate drive?????

Opinons on if it is worth it to upgrade this unit? It is in great shape but it seems to be old technology. I also only get about 2.5-3 hours on my high capacity battery so that probably needs replacing.

[Johan]

Is it your opinion the T4 laptop is worth upgrading? I have a T-42 and I thought I would sell it because it seems like it might be getting slow. I do have 1.5 GB of ram and it is a flexview screen so probably is worth upgrading. Seems a lot better than what is out there today.

BTW do you mind me asking what you paid for the Seagate drive?????

Opinons on if it is worth it to upgrade this unit? It is in great shape but it seems to be old technology. I also only get about 2.5-3 hours on my high capacity battery so that probably needs replacing.

I would - without one second hesitation! - keep aT42 w/FlexView as long as possible! I have not yet seen any better display on any ThinkPad than the 15" FlexView/IPS on the T42's, the displays made by IDTech. Keep it - it runs cool and stable! If you want more battery time, reduce the CPU voltage and the also reduce the GPU clock speed using e.g. Notebook Hardware Control - it works very well! I guess you have already enabled SpeedStep (choose "Adaptive clock" in your power scheme!). Check your CPU speed using either NHC or MobileMeter.

If it runs slow, maybe it is time to do a disk defragmentation of general cleanup... try e.g. the free utility CCleaner. A completely clean install of Windows may also help - but in this case you'll need to restore all your programs and set up printers, network etc... probably a slightly bigger operation!

With respect to upgrading your present 5400 rpm HDD (to a 7200 rpm model), this will no doubt make you feel that you have a significantly faster ThinkPad. Check Steve's on-going endeavour in this respect, here.

PS: If you really don't want your old and slow and totally outdated-technology T42 w/FlexView any longer... well, then you might want to sell it to me, because I am such an extraordinary nice guy and everything...

Best regards,

Johan

[house kitten]

Wow maybe I will upgrade it and if I do consider selling I will keep you in mind.

I use CC cleaner and defrag all the time but do not use hardly any of the thinkpad goodies(or other utilities you mentioned).

Maybe I should....

[Esben]

Another way to clone a harddrive, which also works if the other machine is older, is through ethernet, by booting Hiren's BootCD, and starting Ghost with network support. Both my T42 and a T21 are supported by these network drivers, and likely many more.

[house kitten]

I thought I might also replace my HD so have been doing disk cleanup etc to make sure all the junk is out. The problem is after checking to run chkdsk after startup, it runs but will not stop. I have run this 5-6 times and it will not stop. It just won't boot to windows (XP) after it is done checking the disk.

I have booted to safe mode and it gets as far as loading the driver windows\system32\drivers\agp44.sys and it stops. My hard drive light is on but nothing happens. Only way to stop it is remove the battery. Any ideas how to fix this????

BTW I also set it up to fix all errors when running chkdsk and it did not appear to find any (or did not report any).

Edited to say... Problem fixed. I boot to last known good configuration and everything seems ok. Sorry to bother everyone.

[house kitten]

If I do this do I need to buy an enclosure??? Sorry to sound like an idiot but I don't want to buy anything I don't have to... I have an enclosure in which I have mounted a DVD (but actually that is now removed and I have a desktop drive in there. I replaced my desktop drive this winter. I know they are different sizes but will the cabling work?????

I think I might try this and OP's directions are greatly appreciated.

[Johan]

If I do this do I need to buy an enclosure??? Sorry to sound like an idiot but I don't want to buy anything I don't have to... I have an enclosure in which I have mounted a DVD (but actually that is now removed and I have a desktop drive in there. I replaced my desktop drive this winter. I know they are different sizes but will the cabling work?????

I think I might try this and OP's directions are greatly appreciated.

I am quite certain that your external DVD-drive will not work for this purpose, since DVD-drives are 5.25” and desktop drives are 3.5” – so an enclosure intended for any (or both) of these will most like not also work for a 2.5” sized laptop drive. So, then what to do – well, get help from forum.thinkpads.com!

Option 1: If you want to, you can get hold of the Notebook 2nd Hard Drive Adapter for Ultrabay Slim - and use that while cloning your present HDD onto the new disk. More info about that here: Hard drive options - ThinkPad T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p or here: ThinkPad 2nd Hard Drive Adapter for Ultrabay Slim and here you find the PDF-manual. Its IBM option part number is 62P4554 or FRU = 62P4553 and they are about $40 at eBay. The advantage by this Ultrabay adaptor is the fastest data transfer, since you are directly on the databus!

Also, check this thread, which will take you here.

Option 2: If on a low budget, consider getting a USB 2.0 IDE 2.5"/3.5"/5.25" Hard Drive Adapter Cable Kit or look here - that’s only going to cost you around $ 10,-

NB: Beware that your ThinkPad will only source 0.5 Amp per USB-port, and that a 2.5” HDD typically require 1 Amp (at 5 V) to spin up. Therefore, if powering your external 2.5” HDD only via the ThinkPad USB-ports, you need a HDD-USB cable with two USB cables/connectors! If using an external power adaptor, no problems.

Option 3: Get an external 2.5” USB-enclosure – they only cost around $ 10,- Note above comment about power consumption in particularly if sourced by the ThinkPad USB-ports only.

OK – all set… you’re ready to roll!

Best regards,

Johan

[house kitten]

I will probbaly get an enclosure and then I could use it with the old drive, but first have another question. At Staples I found a 250 GB USB external HD on clearance for $15.00. Could I image the old drive to the external USB drive and then put the new Seagate drive into the laptop and image it? If not I'll just get an enclosure. I have a double USB plug that can be used for power. Sorry I am not very experienced with imaging, cloning, etc.

I did find this enclosure http://www.xpcgear.com/emvst25.html which is only 9.00 (shipped) after using coupon (xpgear717se25), in case anyone else is interested.

Thanks for all your help. You are a terrific resource!!!

[Johan]

I will probbaly get an enclosure and then I could use it with the old drive, but first have another question. At Staples I found a 250 GB USB external HD on clearance for $15.00. Could I image the old drive to the external USB drive and then put the new Seagate drive into the laptop and image it? If not I'll just get an enclosure. I have a double USB plug that can be used for power. Sorry I am not very experienced with imaging, cloning, etc.

I did find this enclosure http://www.xpcgear.com/emvst25.html which is only 9.00 (shipped) after using coupon (xpgear717se25), in case anyone else is interested.

Thanks for all your help. You are a terrific resource!!!

Well, very pleased to be at your service... No, honestly, the thing is that I have lurked and learned so much from this forum (= from all the other users who help and share!), so now I am simply happy to be able to "pay back" a little of the knowledge and experience that I have collected, particularly via this site. Of course, you are a very "special case"... you know - with your old, completely outdated, super slow, low-low technology T42 (which has the fantastic FlexView/IPS display!), so in case you one day might want to get rid of it (yeah, well, we both know that it is way outdated, remember!)... then it is nice to have left a good impression... so that's simply all I am aiming at!

OK, let's get to down to business. I don't quite dare say "yes" or "no" to your suggestion of first imaging your T42 drive to the super cheap 250 GB external drive, you have found (cheap!!), and then imaging it back to the new ThinkPad drive, but I can’t see why it should not be possible? If you first make an Acronis True Image bootable "Rescue Media" (a CD-ROM), and then boot your T42 up on that (with the new, empty HDD mounted), you should be able to restore an image from an USB-device. But: Before starting the whole re-imaging process, you (probably?) need to have the new 2.5" drive formatted... and I am not certain if the ATI bootable Rescue Media is also capable of this? According to the ATI Home ver. 10 manual, Chap. 14 (”Adding a new hard disk”), ATI is capable of formatting a disk, but it is unclear whether they talk about re-formatting or the first-ever formatting? The new HDD must be visible to Windows before e.g. ATI can see and use it – check if this is the case for a new, unformatted disk which is mounted in the T42 – I don’t remember (check via ”My Computer”, ”Manage”, ”Disk Management”). If you have an older version of ATI (ver. 8 or 9?), then check the appropriate documentation, here. If everything else fails, check the Official Acronis Support Forum – someone there will know!

UPDATE! After a little more thought, I am not so certain of the above first-cloning-to-one-external-USB-device-and-then-cloning-back-onto-the-new-T42-drive. Reason for this doubt being that I once cloned (using ATI ver. 9) a Windows-XP bootable HDD to new HDD (both these HDD's sitting in the same desktop while being cloned). Then, I moved the new, cloned HDD (= being XP-bootable) to an external USB-box. But: That USB HDD simply would not start up (the HDD inside never came visible via USB), and after much trouble I finally got the information from the USB-enclosure manufacturer that the HDD inside could not hold a bootable HDD. So, instead I had to make an image of the XP-bootdrive to the new HDD, while the latter being mounted in the USB-enclosure (an image is one, very large file containing the contents of the entire source disk). That's one potential problem. Another is, that if you want to retain the "Access IBM" functionality of your new HDD, then an image will not work - because an image will only be of your old laptop C-drive, and hence will not contain the hidden "Access IBM" partition (often called the HPA). In order for the HPA also to be copied to the new drive, you need to make a clone... an image will not be sufficient, I am pretty sure.

(end of update)

If ATI is not capable of formatting the new HDD, then perhaps you first need to download some bootable HDD-format utility.. such as e.g. (for Seagate drives) the SeaTools – check for yourself. Someone here will know for sure what is possible, and what is not - I just don't remember.

Another option may (perhaps?) be to use IBM's own "Rescue & Recovery" (R&R) program, but I have never used that, so I'm completely blank here. It is possible to restore e.g. backups from USB-devices using R&R, but I am uncertain of it is also capable of cloning HDD’s – read more here: ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery 3.0 - User's Guide. "Unfortunately", there are a huge number of publications on the Rescue & Recovery program(s) - look here or see Rescue and Recovery 4.0 – Considerations – and I simply have never seriously dived into all that (it just appear way too complicated, compared to the simplicity of ATI!). No doubt R&R is useful, but also it seems quite complicated, to me, without ever seriously having tried it. Search this forum, and you will find tons of hits!

Finally, to the external 2.5” drive you have found: That particular one will not work, since it is intended for a SATA drive (Serial-ATA) while the drives in T42’s must be PATA (Parallel-ATA, often called ATA or IDE). In stead, get something like this one - hey, it even comes with a ”Deluxe Carrying Case"!

All for now – try keep it simple!

Best regards,

Johan

[house kitten]

Any advantage to using an Apricorn enclosure over the cheapie you posted previously? I realize it most likely will be of better construction but anything else notable??? If there are not great benefits then I'll probably get the cheap one.

I have ATI (Home version 10) and backed up the laptop so as soon as I decide on an enclosure I am going to begin.

BTW I know it probably doesn't belong here but where can I get a battery at a decent price (9 cell)? I remember someone was selling them on ebay but I thought he was getting out of the business.

[house kitten]

Ordered the Apricorn enclosure and HD from Dell (the Seagate 100 GB). Now I noticed that 1 GB of ram can be had for 54.99 at outpost.com. Is this a worthwhile investment in my upgrade? I currently have 1.5 GB but will another 512 make a differance?

[Johan]

Ordered the Apricorn enclosure and HD from Dell (the Seagate 100 GB). Now I noticed that 1 GB of ram can be had for 54.99 at outpost.com. Is this a worthwhile investment in my upgrade? I currently have 1.5 GB but will another 512 make a difference?

I guess that you mean that this is the new harddisk you ordered? If so, a very good choice! With respect to the enclosure, is this the one you chose? About paying $ 10, $ 20 or $ 30 for an USB enclosure, I don't think you can directly transfer this to its quality... all are probably made in the Far East, all contain more or less the same electronics, so the main difference might be the cabinet. Anyway, given this modest amount, I see no idea to discuss further whether you might could have saved $ 5 here or there. If you have finally made your choice, and are happy - that's wonderful!

For your question of it would mean anything to increase your memory from 1.5 GB to 2 GB (and I assume that we are still talking about your T42 running Windows XP Pro?), I doubt there is any benefit... unless of course you actually use this much RAM! To check your RAM usage, open the Task Manager, or (better!) get the free and very usable program Process Explorer for Windows. See what processes/programs run, and see if you have some programs that have started automatically, but which you don't need. Disable or remove such unnecessary programs - use another very good, free tool for this: AutoRuns for Windows.

Now I guess that you are finally ready for upgrading your harddisk, after this very serious preparation!

I just cloned my T42p (internal) disk the other day to one of these using Acronis True Image Home ver. 9. Had the new disk in an USB enclosure (and had first initialized it under Windows XP Pro, but no need to format it first); the cloning of the HPA + the 14 GB C-drive all in all took about 15 minutes, and the cloned drive worked perfectly when I put it in the T42p!

Good luck!

Best regards,

Johan

[house kitten]

Yes that is the drive I ordered from Dell.

I will try the 2 downloads you recommended but it is my guess that for what I am using it for I may not need the extra ram.

Just curious, why did you recommend the Seagate Momentus 7200 RPM to me, but you purchased the Fujitsu MHV2060AS? I realize price was considersation, but any other reason???

Just wondering if I should cancel the seagate order and purchase the Fujitsu MHV2060AS?

[Johan]

Just curious, why did you recommend the Seagate Momentus 7200 RPM to me, but you purchased the Fujitsu MHV2060AS? I realize price was considersation, but any other reason???

Just wondering if I should cancel the seagate order and purchase the Fujitsu MHV2060AS?

Ooh, very simple explanation: I use the fast, silent, large Seagate 7200.1 as the internal HDD in my T42p, and I use the smaller, slower Fujitsu as an external backup storage. For security reasons, I have made an image of the internal Seagate drive onto the external Fujitsu (cloned at a time when the Seagate was in TOP shape!). So, in case something goes wrong with the Seagate drive - e.g. if some upgrade causes problems - then I can just clone the Fujitsu back onto the Seagate, and I'm in business again!

You should certainly not cancel your Seagate drive - please don't ever talk about that again!!

Best regards,

Johan

[house kitten]

Sorry Johan, guess I lost my mind there for a minute...LOL

I plan on keeping the current drive now for my backup so I guess I'll be all set. Dell is shipping today so I'll be blazing away soon.

Thanks for all your help.

Karen

[Johan]

Sorry Johan, guess I lost my mind there for a minute...LOL

I plan on keeping the current drive now for my backup so I guess I'll be all set. Dell is shipping today so I'll be blazing away soon.

Thanks for all your help.

Karen

My pleasure - you know (to be very honest!), I "use you" intensively to try to shape my gentleman-abilities to perfection - and thank you for this convenient opportunity! - so it wouldn't particularly be nice to provide you with both expensive and bad advice, would it? I simply couldn't stand even the bare thought of doing this!!

So, Karen, all is set now; you're surely soon gonna enjoy your super-duper, high-speed upgraded T42, hopefully like the very first day you received it! If you then, when up and running, subsequently install Notebook Hardware Control (as discussed above), then you may achieve that your fan will be quieter, and also that you will extend your battery time. I just can't see any end to your coming computing-success!

... so I hope you will provide us with the final update, once all is well received, and is up and running!

Best regards,

Johan

[house kitten]

I have the drive cloned but when I try to boot to the newly cloned drive while in the enclosure (as a test) I am getting stop errors and it will not boot into windows normally. Is this because while still in the enclosue the jumpers are still on cable select?

Is there something I need to do about the MBR?

[Johan]

... somewhat sad news, after all this serious preparation! I don't know precisely why you need to go through all this trouble (and I am sorry that you have to!), but from reading another recent thead - this - it seems that the Apricon enclosure itself could have some undesirable impact on your cloning. Check the first "Q&A" on this page also. Try follow the procedure outlined there... does that work better?

Afterwards, I would try install the new drive in the ThinkPad to see if it is recognized by the BIOS - and then try boot on it while it is properly installed. I have never tried to boot on an USB-drive, while there was no internal HDD in the ThinkPad. It may be possible - I just don't know?

To remove and re-install harddrives in your T42, see the Hardware removal and installation - ThinkPad T40/p, T41/p, T42/p, 43/p (the "Hard disk drive" section).

Hope this helps!

[house kitten]

It works! But when I gave up trying to boot to the USB HDD and got so angry I just inserted the newly cloned drive into the laptop and turned on (I had planned to just use the R&R disks and forget cloning) when I noticed the windows logo. It did boot and all is fine. I have run scandisk and it found not errors.

When my DH installed the old drive into the Apricorn enclousre I heard him comment about how it went it. Seems that it does not have to slide in as he had been doing, but that it can snap in and make a very good connection. This I believe was part of my problem. It works now and I am happy. You were right Johan, the larger faster hard drive does make a differance and I am thinking about sending the extra ram (1 GB) back to outpost. I think I may invest in a DVD drive instead.

Thanks for all you help Johan.

[house kitten]

I have changed out the hard drive but this T-42 seems slower then ever. I am starting to wish I hadn't spent the money on the new drive. I do need a new battery because I am getting just under an hour on a charge.

What can I do to speed this puppy thing up? I have done disk clean up, defraged (Ii bought perfect disk so home that is a good choice).

I monitor the startup and have as little as possible loading, but still very slow, especially on power up.

Probably should have mentioned it is slow on both AC and battery.

[crashnburn]

Nice work

[Johan]

I have changed out the hard drive but this T-42 seems slower then ever. I am starting to wish I hadn't spent the money on the new drive. I do need a new battery because I am getting just under an hour on a charge.

What can I do to speed this puppy thing up? I have done disk clean up, defraged (Ii bought perfect disk so home that is a good choice).

I monitor the startup and have as little as possible loading, but still very slow, especially on power up.

Probably should have mentioned it is slow on both AC and battery.

In your prior post you reported that your (at that time: New) 7200 rpm drive made a distinct speed improvement over the old 5400 rpm. I thus don't believe that the new HDD is to blame. Rather, kindly check if anything is eating up your system resources, e.g. System Update as reported in the thread Slow boot problem and solution. Also, you might want to check the thread Problem with ThinkVantage System Update.

If you want more detailed help, perhaps you would be kind to elaborate a little on what you mean by: "I monitor the start-up and have as little as possible loading". Exactly what do you do, and exactly what do you see?? You might want to install the free and very good alternative Task Manager: Process Explorer v11.02.

Nice work

What do you mean by this??

[T23_Owner]

Wow, that is a bunch of work. Here is the easy way.


Get yourself a Ultrabay slim hard drive tray. $20 ebay or less.


Purchase CasperXP or the new casper for like $40.


Put new hard drive in caddy, insert into ultrabay slot.

Open casper and clone it. DONE. Even clones the IBM setup partition. Best software I ever had. Yeah it costs about $60 but man is it worth it.

[ulrich.von.lich]

Is there a way to clone the HPA?

[Johan]

Is there a way to clone the HPA?

Sure, simply download the free trial-version of Acronis True Image 11 Home (usable for 15-days), install and run it, select to clone only the "IBM_service" FAT32 partition (= the HPA), and... that's it!

PS: Apart from being free (as a trial-version), it even comes in a both French and a German (apart from English) version, so there is no excuse for hesitating...

Johan

[Kike G.]

Hi, I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but isn't it possible to clone your disk with the Rescue & Recovery software?

Regards,

[ulrich.von.lich]

I use R&R to back up my system in case something goes wrong I can always go back. R&R creates hard drive images which can keep everything the way it was. The Backup program integrated in Vista will do the job too.

R&R software can also create recovery CDs so you can clone the HPA to a new hard drive. In order to clone your entire disk, you might want to try Lenovo System Migration (I've never installed it.)

Acronis True Image is a good choice too. I successfully cloned the hard drive of an old A31p, on which neither R&R nor System Migration is supported.

[Kike G.]

In order to clone your entire disk, you might want to try Lenovo System Migration (I've never installed it.)

Hi, Ulrich,

One Lenovo's technician once explained me something. He said that Rescue & Recovery software was made to backup your HDD and recover it later in the same computer, for it had all the drivers, patches and stuff that belong to that specific ThinkPad system (for it's a copy of your own HDD, as I understand).

On the other hand, System Migration allows you to transfer your system settings and files to another ThinkPad.

For example, let's say you have a T40 with 40 GB HDD, and you are willing to install a HDD with 120 GB in the same T40 but without loosing any of your information nor your settings or your OS with all the updates and patches. Then you'll use Rescue & Recovery (even without Windows!). But let's say that you have the same T40, but you want to transfer all your files and system settings to the a R60. Then you'll use System Migration.

I hope I understood correctly what that technician told me. If I'm wrong, please, let me know.