Thinkpads Forum

My T61 comes with a 100GB hdd with only C: and the rescue zone. I would like to upgrade to a 250GB but with C: D: and rescue zone.
What's the easiest way to achieve that?

1. Go get partedmagic and make the live cd. http://partedmagic.com/downloads.html
2. Make the recovery set.
3. Install the new hard drive.
4. Run the recovery disc set.
5. After all the discs have run and it tells you to reboot, reboot to the partedmagic cd.
6. Make the desired partitions.
7. Reboot into Rescue and Recovery to install Windows into one of the partitions.
8. Boot into windows and format the other partition.

I have an alternative approach.

Obtain a "serial hard drive ultrabay slim adapter" from Lenovo for less than $50 so you can install your new hard drive in the ultra bay where the optical drive now is. (Later on you can use this to run two laptop hard drives in your TP anytime you want.) Then use Acronis True Image Home to clone the entire 100 GB drive (including the rescue partition) over to the new drive now sitting in the ultra bay. Then shut down and install the newly cloned drive in the main/primary drive slot of the TP and reboot.

There are only two things to watch out for: 1) Don't reboot with both drives connected to the system on the first reboot following the cloning procedure; and 2) If you want to maintain the same size rescue partition from the original 100 GB drive on the new drive, you have to use the "manual" setting in Acronis and resize the two new partitions manually in the software as you configure the cloning set up. It's very easy to do as the software prompts you to do everything. If you use the "automatic" method, which is even easier, Acronis will proportionally increase or "grow" the rescue partition size on the new drive and thereby waste some of your precious GBs.

You can download a free demo version of Acronis True Image Home that should allow you to perform this procedure. The cloning procedure is located in and initiated from the "utilities" section of Acronis TIH, not the "backup" section.

I did this process myself, several days ago with the ultrabay HDD adapter. I upgraded from a 120GB 5200 drive to the Hatachi 200GB 7200 drive.

I now have the 120GB drive as a backup should I have a HDD failure or major corruption. In a couple of months (after installation fo some new software I would like to re-image the 200GB drive to the 120GB drive.

Do I have to format or do anything special with the 120GB drive or can I just redo the process and the 120GB drive will be overwritten with the new image?

You can just over-write whatever is on the smaller HD when you clone your 200 GB primary drive to it. No need to format or erase anything. The cloning process will over-write the entire drive.

The only thing you have to worry about is whether there will be enough room on the smaller drive to fit all the data that's on the larger drive. If not, it won't work.

Thanks. I followed exactly until step 6 but I didn't reboot into RR. It still worked though, going through all the application installation process, but took a long time.

So guys who want to take this route, do remember to follow the steps exactly. it'll save you quite a bit of time.

carbon_unit wrote:1. Go get partedmagic and make the live cd. http://partedmagic.com/downloads.html
2. Make the recovery set.
3. Install the new hard drive.
4. Run the recovery disc set.
5. After all the discs have run and it tells you to reboot, reboot to the partedmagic cd.
6. Make the desired partitions.
7. Reboot into Rescue and Recovery to install Windows into one of the partitions.
8. Boot into windows and format the other partition.

Sorry, I made that list from memory.
What part did not work? After you made the partitions, took the partedmagic cd out and rebooted did it not go into rescue and recovery?

I am planning on the same thing.
Except I bought a PCMCIA eSATA adapter and an external harddrive case for the drives.

I was not sure about what software to use.
I am going to try this part magic out...

What I meant was I did not follow the last two steps because I sorta forgot about it. So instead of going in to RR mode to write the image, I had to go through all the drivers and OS setup.

Takes more time and a couple more reboots but it works too, although imaging would take a much shorter time.

carbon_unit wrote:Sorry, I made that list from memory.
What part did not work? After you made the partitions, took the partedmagic cd out and rebooted did it not go into rescue and recovery?

Cool, I'm glad it worked for you.