replicating the haddrive onto another disk

[Rose]

I cant understand how to make a working replica of the T40 haddrive.

I tried and tried replicating the 40 gig drive with original IBM installation together with the pre desktop area and all onto ANOTHER disk that is NOT the exact same model, but it wont work.

I tried with Norton ghost 8 and the -ib command and the t40 still says system not found. No mather what switch i use it wont work. When trying drive image nothing on the original drive can be found.

*gah!*

[gazingwa]

Try setting the partition active with a dos boot disk and fdisk.

[SCURaja]

Rose-

I was in a similar situation..i just gave up and got a external usb disk used ibm rescue and recovery, created a backup onto the disk..and i was able to restore the image onto a bigger hd that i bought...

good luck

[s0larian]

@SCURaja:

And how was the partition layout after the restore? What happend with the additional free space on the new harddisk?

[firstep]

Can you write down the detailed process? Thank you very much!

Rose-

I was in a similar situation..i just gave up and got a external usb disk used ibm rescue and recovery, created a backup onto the disk..and i was able to restore the image onto a bigger hd that i bought...

good luck

[Rose]

IBM really made replication of this drive impossible. I tried various ways of workarounds, for example doing a partial factory restore of the drive and after the factory content has been copied onto the preload partition I tried to copy the partition from one disk to another, BUT STILL IT SOMEHOW KNOWS, because it seems to boot from another virtual partition that is not seen where IBM has stored necessary information to complete the restore process.

[Rose]

I also would like to ask the guys who have the restore CD from IBM. What kind of content is on the CD? What does it do to the drive? Does it reimage the drive so that it looks like the original drive with the Predesktop Area and all? or does it just do the windows installation part? And does the CD contain Bootable Predesktop Area Tools itself or what?

The f*ckin arseholes at IBM didnt wanna give me the restore CD when replacing my harddrive through warranty although i CLEARLY have a license AND the original IBM image on my faulty drive.

[Rose]

Also, and this is the strangest part, i manipulated the drive quite seriously, overwriting the MBR and all partition information (due to my problems with the drive) and now somehow when booting up i have the Preload partition and TWO repdesktop partitions, where one is 300 mb and the other around 4 gb, and it all shows in windows but there really arent allot of content in there, only some DOS-tools. But STILL booting into the PreDesktop area works and doing the factory restore is possible.

[Zeitgeist]

I also would like to ask the guys who have the restore CD from IBM. What kind of content is on the CD? What does it do to the drive? Does it reimage the drive so that it looks like the original drive with the Predesktop Area and all? or does it just do the windows installation part? And does the CD contain Bootable Predesktop Area Tools itself or what?

The f*ckin arseholes at IBM didnt wanna give me the restore CD when replacing my harddrive through warranty although i CLEARLY have a license AND the original IBM image on my faulty drive.

The restore CDs restore the PC to the original state, i.e. with HPA, please use the search function of this forum. See e.g.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=7706

You can create yourself the recovery CDs.

[Rose]

Ok. Update:

Tried to do an partition clone from another T40 original IBM disk and the replication works, although replicating the entire drive was not possible.

Did the IBM Rescue and Recovery complete harddrive backup and itt succeeded in replicating the windows partition but not the Predesktop and Factory Restore parts.
Obviously the restore content is stored somewhere on the drive on a totally unknown filesystem that no software can read, or something like that.

I also saw in the documentation of R&R how the different partitions work and maybe there is something that ive missed so far, but untill now it doesnt seem to be possible to replicate the Predesktop area.

[Zeitgeist]

1. "unhide" the HPA in the bios
2. Use R&R to create an image of the entire hdd and save it to an USB hdd or CDs/DVDs.
3. Install the new hdd, make sure it contains NO partitions, i.e. it is also not formated
4. Boot from the first R&R CD and copy the image either from the usb hdd or the CDs/DVDs

Again, the HPA will be created only if the new hdd does not contain a partition.

[Rose]

1. "unhide" the HPA in the bios
2. Use R&R to create an image of the entire hdd and save it to an USB hdd or CDs/DVDs.
3. Install the new hdd, make sure it contains NO partitions, i.e. it is also not formated
4. Boot from the first R&R CD and copy the image either from the usb hdd or the CDs/DVDs

Again, the HPA will be created only if the new hdd does not contain a partition.

ill try that.....

[firstep]

Hi, Zeitgeist, I have a couple questions about your post.

1. The HPA must be there? I've delete that partition to get more space.

2. Does the new HDD have to be same sized as the original one? For exmaple can I use 7K60 to replace 5K80?

3. What are the R&R CD's? When I received my T41, I got one CD. Later I called IBM and asked for 5 CD's. Are they all R&R CD's?

Thanks

1. "unhide" the HPA in the bios
2. Use R&R to create an image of the entire hdd and save it to an USB hdd or CDs/DVDs.
3. Install the new hdd, make sure it contains NO partitions, i.e. it is also not formated
4. Boot from the first R&R CD and copy the image either from the usb hdd or the CDs/DVDs

Again, the HPA will be created only if the new hdd does not contain a partition.

[syhead]

I did not find the option about the HPA in the BIOS. Are you sure it's there?

[JHEM]

The f*ckin arseholes at IBM didnt wanna give me the restore CD when replacing my harddrive through warranty although i CLEARLY have a license AND the original IBM image on my faulty drive.

Where are you located? WTH did IBM support expect you to do with a blank replacement HD?

In the US, if you don't get the CDs with a replacement HD, then the HD is supposed to come with the OS already loaded.

Regards,

James

[JHEM]

I did not find the option about the HPA in the BIOS. Are you sure it's there?

It's there if you haven't erased it!

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.ws ... &loc=en_US

Regards,

James

[syhead]

I did not find the option about the HPA in the BIOS. Are you sure it's there?

It's there if you haven't erased it!

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.ws ... &loc=en_US

Regards,

James

This was not helpful. This simulated BIOS is identical to mine, and there is no option about theHPA in the simulated BIOS. (unless it right under my nose and I can't see it)

[JHEM]

Security> IBM Predesktop Area.

Regards,

James

[Zeitgeist]

I did not find the option about the HPA in the BIOS. Are you sure it's there?

I didn´t notice, you have the t42 model.

In contrast to the t40/t41 models the t42 does not have anymore the bios activated hidden partition. Just use R&R.

[Zeitgeist]

Hi, Zeitgeist, I have a couple questions about your post.

1. The HPA must be there? I've delete that partition to get more space.

2. Does the new HDD have to be same sized as the original one? For exmaple can I use 7K60 to replace 5K80?

3. What are the R&R CD's? When I received my T41, I got one CD. Later I called IBM and asked for 5 CD's. Are they all R&R CD's?

Thanks

1.Well, when you have deleted the hpa- it is gone. Hope you have the recovery CDs.
2. NO!
3. The first one of your recovery CDs is the boot CD- you can make them yourself:
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.ws ... IGR-4Q2QAK

[syhead]

I did not find the option about the HPA in the BIOS. Are you sure it's there?

I didn´t notice, you have the t42 model.

In contrast to the t40/t41 models the t42 does not have anymore the bios activated hidden partition. Just use R&R.

so, my R&R image (which is in my USB drive) would create a perfect image in a new HDD, including the hidden partition?

I don't have the need to change my HDD now, but it's unsettling to have a backup system that I have never tested before. I don't want to have bad surprises in the event of a HDD failure...

Because of these doubt, I'm doing two backups: one using R&R for the whole HDD and another just for my files. In case R&R fails, I would restore the computer to the original factory condition, instal my programs one by one, and copy my files. (a lot of work)