T43 won't boot from USB2.0 external HDD

[cstarks]

I have read the previous posts and replies about this type of problem, but did not see a solution.

I have a T43 ThinkPad, 2668-L3U, running on Windows 7 32bit. My HDD is a 60GB 7200 rpm ATA/IDE drive. I want to clone that drive onto a new Samsung 160GB 5200 rpm PATA drive. I intend to use Acronis True Image 2011 to perform the cloning. I have an unpowered 2.5” IDE/PATA to USB external case. Per Acronis’s instructions, I put the new drive in the laptop and put the original drive in the external case. I went into BIOS and placed the USD HDD #1 on the BOOT list.

My problem is that when I power up, the T43 won’t boot. I can feel the external drive spinning, but that is all. When I put the original drive back into the T43, it boots fine.

I did not put any jumpers on either drive.
I did not format the new drive.
I swapped the external drive cable to a different USB port, which did not help.

Does anyone know what I am doing wrong?

Thanks for your time.

- Charlie

[Harryc]

If you are using Acronis to clone from an external source drive to an unformatted internal drive you need to use an Acronis boot CD. You can make one while booted into Windows using the Acronis program.

[cstarks]

Thank you for your reply, Bill. Before I go off half-cocked, does your reply mean that

[1] the T43 will boot from the Acronis boot CD that I create, and
[2] I will be able access the original HDD residing in the external case and open Acronis on that drive in order to get at the Cloning section (7.4)?

- Charlie

[cstarks]

Please pardon my error in calling you "Bill". I just caught that. I do not know where I picked that up, Harry!

- Charlie

[Harryc]

1.) Yes
2.) Not exactly. The Acronis boot CD is a full version of Acronis, so you don't access anything on the source drive until the clone process starts. You set up the clone from the CD program. It works almost exactly like the Windows version.

[cstarks]

Thank you, Harry. I will give that a try first thing in the morning and then post the results here.

- Charlie

[cstarks]

Good morning, Harry. I have been reading about the procedure and I am close to starting. I have a question regarding the Boot disk creation. There is an option to select or not regarding automatic start. The directions read:

"If automatic start of the program is necessary, select the Starts automatically after check box. The Start automatically after parameter specifies the timeout interval for the boot menu. If this parameter is not specified, the program will display the boot menu and wait for you to select whether to boot the OS or the Acronis component. If you set, for example, 10 sec for Acronis rescue media, the standalone Acronis True Image Home 2011 will launch 10 seconds after the menu is displayed."

Not sure if I need automatic start or not. Not sure what to expect.

- Charlie

[Harryc]

Don't select it if you are unsure of the results.

[cstarks]

Hello Harry, et al.

I was finally able to get it to boot with the Acronis Bootable Media CD, but only after I first disconnected the external USB hdd (which contains the source disk). After it booted and I went into Acronis, I plugged in the external USB hdd and it was recognized by Acronis. Since then, I have been practicing manual cloning, playing with the partition sizes.

I am now at the point where I need to know what size the IBM service partition needs to be. The original size is about 4.795 GB. The actual space used in that partition is about 3.5GB. With proportioning, Acronis wants to make the partition to be about 12.8 GB. What I do not know is whether or not that partition will ever need to be larger than the original size.

Acronis did not proportionally adjust the size of the 100 MB system partition.

So, can I shrink the IBM service partition to about 5GB? Or, does it need to have some additional space?

Thanks.

- Charlie

[Harryc]

My advice would be to skip proportioning and just let it clone actual sizes. Then once the clone is done use a utility like gparted (another boot CD) to resize the existing primary partition or create additional partitions as you see fit.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

[cstarks]

Hello Harry,

I am back to report success! Here is the procedure or process I followed. Perhaps it will be of help to the next person who needs to replace and clone the HDD of a T43.

• Steps

[*]Remove the current (original) HDD from the T43 per ThinkPad instructions.
[*]Install the original (source) HDD into an external USB case, but do not connect it to the T43.
[*]Install the new HDD into the T43.
[*]Create a Bootable Media CD for Acronis True Image Home 2011 (ATIH2011).
[*]Insert the Bootable Media CD into the CD ROM drive.
[*]Turn on the T43 and allow it to boot.
[*]Select ATIH2011
[*]Connect the external USB drive containing the original (source) drive and allow it to be recognized.
[*]Select the Disk Clone Option of ATIH2011.
[*]Follow the instructions which follow each step of the Disk Clone Process (additional information also available within the user's manual of ATIH2011).

If I have forgotten any steps, please remind me and I will update the list.

Thank you for your assistance!

Charlie