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

[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.

[Harryc]

I just did this today on an X31 -

1.) Install the free trial Acronis True Image 11 Home.
2.) Install the new drive in the 2nd HDD adapter for the Ultrabay 2000
3.) Select clone drive in True Image, reboot
4.) Drink a beer.
5.) When it's done swap drives.
6.) Drink a beer

[Uncletoad]

I just did this today on an X31 -

1.) Install the free trial Acronis True Image 11 Home.
2.) Install the new drive in the 2nd HDD adapter for the Ultrabay 2000
3.) Select clone drive in True Image, reboot
4.) Drink a beer.
5.) When it's done swap drives.
6.) Drink a beer

Clearly your success was predicated on the beer.

A detail that should not be skipped for perfection in the process.

[Kike G.]

Clearly your success was predicated on the beer.
A detail that should not be skipped for perfection in the process.[/quote]

Only God knows how many times beers have saved the world in history of Humanity

[majiali]

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!

How come I couldn't find HPA partition by using exactly what you instructed on my T40 HDD? Only 34.02 GB Partition showed up.

[ulrich.von.lich]

The HPA has to be made visible first. Go to Bios => Security => Predesktop Area

[majiali]

The HPA has to be made visible first. Go to Bios => Security => Predesktop Area

Thanks!

If I make it visible, start xp, and run the Acronis to make clone, can I change Bios setting back to "normal"? The pop-up message said I will reclaim that partition and never go back. Is that right?

[ulrich.von.lich]

Once the HPA is made visible, it'll be vulnerable to attacks such as viruses or malwares etc.

I see you only need it to be visible so you can clone your hard drive. So there shouldn't be any problems.

[majiali]

I cloned HDD by using Acronis. New HDD can startup with no error but I think the HPA wasn't cloned because I couldn't use blue button.

Then I swapped the new HDD out and put in original HDD, reboot, and got a notice "Operating System Error", stopped....

Put it into ultrabay, HDD couldn't be found in Disk Management....

MBR error?

What should I do to fix that? thanks