Possible ThinkCentre purchase - (M57a A2U) - drive Q

[patmc]

Hello all; newbie here. 1st post.

I'm looking at this machine: A9088A2U
IBM Certified Used ThinkCentre M57p (A2U)

I have an older ThinkCentre an A50 I think (6147 43U) that I can't baby enough anymore; kids overwhelm it. I tossed a SATA drive on it (by accident, not knowing what I bought), but got it to work as extra storage, not the boot drive.

My Q: Can I move that SATA drive to the new machine? (New M57p comes with Win7, I'd want to keep that going).
Not clear to me that there is room; there may be SATA connections, but no place for the internal drive (don't want to loose the CD/DVD).

Alt strategy Q: Can I move the system on the M57a drive (160GB) to my existing SATA and use it instead?
The existing SATA is 1TB; but I left about 250GB empty; no partition in place yet. If I could move the boot image from the machine to my drive I might be happy with that way of working.

I've never tried to restore an OS to an alt drive, but willing to learn :-}.

[jayton4]

A program called clonezilla can do what you are wanting to do. The M57p should have 3 partitions on the 160gb drive that you can make an exact 1:1 copy with that 256GB space you have on that 1TB drive.

Read the tutorial on it.

Last resort option is to make restore discs and then restore to that 1TB hard drive. You will probably lose all the information on that drive with that method.

[patmc]

Thanks for that pointer jayton4. Interesting. I could probably fit the data on my existing SATA drive onto my backup device, then move it back again later.

Another Q to clarify - I keep thinking this box A9088 A2U is a small tower, not a larger tower like my A50.

But when I look through this info it seems like it is large (and can support two hard drives).
http://download.lenovo.com/pccbbs/think ... 3c6737.pdf

The IBM used site pic is small tower; (M57p), so I'm further confused.

Anyone know if I should trust the used site pic or the maintenance doc more?

P.

[jayton4]

If it is indeed a 9088A2U, then it is the big tower.

The M57 comes in multiple sizes and shapes: http://www.pc.ibm.com/xl/desktops/think ... 7p_eng.pdf

[patmc]

Thanks; been looking for something that told me for sure. I'm assuming picture is off on used site then for now.

Pushed the button, I'll know for sure in a couple of days, and then if I can bolt on my SATA or will have to learn clonezilla. Will report back reality.

I gotta believe the chip jump (pent 4 > Core duo2) will make things better, even if it will be running Win7.

Assuming all goes well, I'll have to figure out what to do with an old M50 and an old T40.... local refurbish donation (4 kids 4 school) is soon.

P.

[patmc]

The 9088-A2U arrived today; it is the bigger vertical unit (like the specs said, not the what the used website seemed to indicate).

Was about ready to start it up, but lifting it out of the box I almost dropped it (as the handle/front plate is falling off). Not sure I can trust the kids to remember not to use the one/only handle... so asking the hot-line for a new faceplate. Figure I can move the power button/wires. If they say no, I may have to push it back for a replacement. You can't do anything using the handle; faceplate is that broken.

Don't think I'll need to clone the drive as it looks like I can add a 2nd (or even third) drive to the box; but the clonezilla has my interest up.

I may try and move the old box XP of the old (slow) drive onto empty space in the SATA I have now; thinking that might improve the system a bit (and let me keep it around for taxes and such).

P.

[patmc]

Well; I tried to play it safe and got another new 1TB drive with the goal of cloning the 160GB that came new in the used box with clonezilla.

I got the data across (I'd done the same with the old XP box to the space on my other 1TB drive; could see it fine).

The source had two partitions - 10.5 GB and ~150GB (but not very full).

I pushed those at two different primary partitions on the new drive:
1: P 200GB WINSYS - 2:L 200GB DATA - 3:L 100GB BKDATA - 4: P 40GB IBMSYS

Targeted primaries 1 and 4; this was based on how my old system looked; one was the OS and the other the IBM recovery stuff.


Problem is now that I'm done I can't boot. (I took the cable off the original drive after the clone).

Feels like I'm missing an MBR; (I used the beginner options in clonezilla); that, or because I never gave the new os primary partition a drive letter when I created it (I did that partition work on the new disk by first installing it on the old machine and used XP computer management).

Is there something simple I've missed?

P

[patmc]

Story continues :-}

I tried the clone again; different strategy (full drive to full drive); not having anything on target yet helps.

I peeked at adv options - and I toggled one I think; about geometry. It said it would do Grub boot loader and copy the MBR.

Later msgs suggested grub not found; but it said it was doing MBR.

Result boots; a big step forward. Not sure what the drive looks like - initial start of the mfg disk image for Win 7; time will tell.

No questions at this time :-}

P.