Thinkpads Forum

Hi Folks,

recently I've purchased a Hitachi Travelstar 160Gb SATA drive (HTS541616) with the intention of using it as an upgrade to my current Hitachi SATA 60Gb drive. Ever since then I've been trying all ways to get the the upgrade done without having to do a full WinXP re-install.

The problem: There seems to be no way I can get WinXP to boot after ghosting my current drive to the new one. All I get after POST is a blinking cursor.

Here's the procedure I've been using.
Ghost copy (using ghost v10) my current drive to the new target drive (connected in this case via a USB-SATA adapter).
Swap the new and old drives, and attempt to boot...

Things I've tried to resolve the issue with no success:
- Boot from WinXP CD and repair the install
- Boot from WinXP CD and run fixmsb
- Boot from WinXP CD ad run fixboot
In all the above cases to have the WinXP set-up program recognise the SATA drive I had to change the T60 BIOS settings (SATA mode set to compatible, and disable dual core), since I have no diskette.
- Update T60 BIOS, the Intel Matric drivers and the Hitachi drive firmware to latest versions

Now, the one thing that did work is installing WinXP anew - everything boots fine, but this is not quite what I wanted.

If anyone has succeeded in the task of swapping a SATA drive on the T60, without a full re-install, could you please advise how you've accomplished this feat.

Cheers,
W.

If you search in the forum you will probably find many threads regarding cloning. Try this one for starters;
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=27721

Use the commandline switch -ib when starting ghost (example: Ghost.exe -ib)

You can also set this option from within ghost in options, it's called "Image Boot" under the tab labeled "Image/Tape"

If you have a floppy drive you might also try the "Master Boot Record Repair Kit" @ http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-62978

Download Casper XP. Works like a charm and its free if you have an ultrabay adapter. I using USB or firewire you have to pay but its worth it. I made tons of copies of my drive with it in XP.

Casper XP or get the new one Casper 4.0 for vista. Note casper 4.0 does not work under vista 64bit despite them having a 64bit version.

I use the Apricorn Cloning Kit and had the exact same problem with the cloned HD (Wouldn't boot, just a blinking cursor). I contacted Apricorn and they said that I had to remove the original HD from the T60 and mount it in the external USB drive housing. Then, install the new HD IN the T60. Then I had to boot with the Apricorn CD and Clone FROM the External TO the Internal HD. (This requires that you select the External HD as the SOURCE and the Internal HD as the DESTINATION). This proceedure worked and produced a Bootable Clone. Note: Prior to Cloning, I also had to go into BIOS and Disable Security for the Pre-Desktop Area.

I have used Ghost in the past with my A2xp machines with the built in floppy.

Since discovering the T4x and T6x series ThinkPads I have had success with Acronis True Image. Version 9, 10, and now 11.

I just did this on Sunday. I took a spare hard drive and connected to my ThinkPad T60p with an external USB. Placed the Acronis recovery media in the CD and started the T60p. Selected Clone and an hour or so later had a exact copy of my hard drive. I installed the copy to make sure I had a usable clone and everything appeared the same. I tested by running a few of my installed applications. Sometimes if I move the drive to another computer some of these applications need to be reactivated.

That's my story and I am sticking to it.

Brad

Hi Folks,

thanks for your replies. I have been able to clone the HD and get the new one to boot using the suggested Acronis app.
I've used Ghost v10 successfully when cloning my previous T40 (albeit on Win2k), and I can only conclude that there is something with the combination of Ghost v10, SATA drives and WinXP that messes up things in the order I did them (perhaps connecting the old drive to the USB adapter, and then copying, as suggested above may work).

In any case, if anyone has a similar problem, this thread has plenty of solution tips.

Thanks,
W.