Thinkpads Forum

In this thread http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=17304 nonny wrote

Since this has been asked at least 937 times already, I think it qualifies as a FAQ. If someone wants to formulate the question and answers, I'll add it.

If there's any interest in putting together a drive cloning FAQ, I'm willing to participate with one caveat: I have no experience with the machines that have the HPA.

It would be a lot easier to have one link to refer people to than to have to find a number of links when there are questions.

for me, acronis true image has worked just fine..
either using two drives, source and target, hooked up to USB ports and booting from the main drive..

or cloning the main drive to the target in the ultrabay or a usb external drive..

what else does anyone need to know.. ?
unless they are working with a tight budget..

so, yes, adding that to the FAQ or a special FAQ is a good idea..

BillMorrow wrote:what else does anyone need to know.. ?

IMHO the problem comes from the different types of Service Areas.

During the last 3 days I've read hundreds(!) of threads in this forum concerning "Predesktop", "HPA", "WinPE", "MBR", "..." to find a solution for my own problem. In most cases people telling only assumptions and thoughts without knowing the facts. This can be helpful - of course - but an solution which works with an FAT32X-service area don't need to work with an BIOS-hidden HPA. Posts which include not only "it work's for me" but also a description of the method and MUCH MORE IMPORTANT with which specific ThinkPad-model it worked are very rare. Most people think the other ThinkPads has to react like their own ones and their method has to work on other machines the same way - which is not true (especially T41-T42).

A lot of people are interested to clone/image/repartitioning their drives WITH the HPA/service-area intact and accessible!

AFAIK IBM/Lenovo used only a couple of different service areas.
I couldnt find a complete list which service-type was used in which ThinkPad (or google is not my friend ).

Beside of the problem of choosing the right hard disk (x60, T43, all others) the selection of the right cloning method depends on the type of the ServiceArea.
It would be helpful to get a list of all types of Service/Recovery Areas, their differences, on which models they where used and with which method they can be copied.

They changed the way it was done from the T40-T41 Thinkpads when they started making T42s and T43s. In either case, they are simply partitions on the end of the physical HDD. The BIOS either secures them (no write by user or software, except through RnR), sets them to normal (writable by user, not generally by software), and disabled (treated as a normal part of the HDD). They switched over to a Type 12 partition when they started making T42s. Last I checked, however, this concept goes back alot farther; at least to the T30 and possibly the T23. On those, you needed the R&R (Verision 2.0) package set and it would make backups to a directory under Windows, the bootloader for it was also stored in that directoy, in the HDD. It could be booted into a DOS mode, although 16-bit and not 32-bit/WinPE which is the starting point for the modern HPAs, and you could recover your system or load a backup image. The partition type on either, however, is still FAT32. They are simply managed differently.

In all cases, setting the area's security to disabled and then doing a clone of the HDD will copy the entire HDD as is including the area, be it Type 12 or pure HPA.

There is an issue (and I know you touched on this chris) with Acronis and cloning the HPA, it does not work correctly. Brent mentions this in a post in t4x forum. Other than that I agree it is a no brainer except in cases where the user has absolutely no hardware experience at all and has a hard time grasping some of the terminology. dsvochak has a good idea, maybe add it to alphakilo's HD sticky? Is it there already, don't have time to read right now.

Kyocera wrote:There is an issue (and I know you touched on this chris) with Acronis and cloning the HPA, it does not work correctly. Brent mentions this in a post in t4x forum. Other than that I agree it is a no brainer except in cases where the user has absolutely no hardware experience at all and has a hard time grasping some of the terminology. dsvochak has a good idea, maybe add it to alphakilo's HD sticky? Is it there already, don't have time to read right now.

Sounds like a good idea to me, Mike.

I will check it out.

In my haste I forgot to mention that the cloning issue is with acronis and the t40/41. I'll find that thread.

Kyocera wrote:In my haste I forgot to mention that the cloning issue is with acronis and the t40/41. I'll find that thread.

which version of acronis is exhibiting a problem.. ?

on the T60/X60 you need ver. 9 (?) since the earlier version does not see SATA drives..

here is the thread

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... ht=#136100

this was a while back so and early version of 9?