Thinkpads Forum

I have a T60 and backup using the Apricorn USB SATA Cloning kit with a seperate 60gb SATA drive. It creates a bootable clone in about 10min. At first, the clone would not boot after the "Thinkad" Screen (just a blinking cursor). I called Apricorn and they said to remove the security setting for pre-desktop area (in BIOS). I did this and a subsequent clone also would not boot (same problem). I called them again (several weeks later) and they said that I could only clone successfully from the external drive (in the USB cloning kit) to the internal drive. They said that IBM Laptops require this special proceedure. I tried it and it works. But, it means that I have to remove the internal drive, plug it into the cloning kit and install the Backup drive into the T60 and make sure to specify that the source Drive is the USB drive and the Destination Drive is the Internal Drive. Then, after cloning, I have to reverse the drives. Of course, the T60 drive is very easy to remove from the computer but I am afraid that I will "wear out" the drive connector by repeated interchanging of the drives. Does anybody know if there is a way to accomplish making a good clone from internal to external drive. Note: to clone, I shut down the T60, and (after interchanging drives) cold boot using the Apricorn Cloning CD.

Paul Pavlik wrote:I have a T60 and backup using the Apricorn USB SATA Cloning kit with a seperate 60gb SATA drive. It creates a bootable clone in about 10min. At first, the clone would not boot after the "Thinkad" Screen (just a blinking cursor). I called Apricorn and they said to remove the security setting for pre-desktop area (in BIOS). I did this and a subsequent clone also would not boot (same problem). I called them again (several weeks later) and they said that I could only clone successfully from the external drive (in the USB cloning kit) to the internal drive. They said that IBM Laptops require this special proceedure. I tried it and it works. But, it means that I have to remove the internal drive, plug it into the cloning kit and install the Backup drive into the T60 and make sure to specify that the source Drive is the USB drive and the Destination Drive is the Internal Drive. Then, after cloning, I have to reverse the drives. Of course, the T60 drive is very easy to remove from the computer but I am afraid that I will "wear out" the drive connector by repeated interchanging of the drives. Does anybody know if there is a way to accomplish making a good clone from internal to external drive. Note: to clone, I shut down the T60, and (after interchanging drives) cold boot using the Apricorn Cloning CD.

What about the provided R&R software from IBM that comes with your T60. I use it to backup to my external USB drive. It even made the USB drive bootable (so apparently I can do everything from there).

I figure this way at least both HD's have to die together for me to loose the rescue partition which isn't all likely.

Well, to be honest, I deleted ThinkPad R&R. I like the concept of a exact bootable clone as a backup. I used a earlier version of the Apricorn Clone Kit on my previous Sony laptop and it worked like a charm. The SATA version that I use with the T60 works perfect too, except for the bother of exchanging the drives before cloning. Actually, I could leave the Cloned (Destination) drive in the T60 after cloning. Then, I would alternate drives on each cloning, but I prefer to run with the original drive and always clone to spare drive. The switching of the drives is very easy, but I am worried about "wearing out" the contacts in the drive bay.