having trouble with disc cloning.

[thatcrazycommie]

I'm trying to upgrade my t60p's hard drive from the standard 100 GB one it came with to a 320GB Seagate. I've tried cloning my disc with Acronis and with XXClone, and both times, the cloned disc wouldn't boot. After the "thinkpad" screen I just get a blinking cursor. Can anyone who's done this successfully point me in the right direction?

[RealBlackStuff]

Put the new HD in a USB enclosure or a 2nd HD adapter instead of the CD/DVD drive.
Then go into Disk Management console and initialize the HD first. After that you can use Acronis or other pgms to copy/clone etc.

[thatcrazycommie]

I do have it in a USB enclosure, but I did not do the "initialize" thing. I will try that, thanks.

[norma023]

go into the BIOS and set the Sata drive to "compatibility mode", then reboot. If that doesn't help, maybe you need to use a switch in your cloning software, like when using Symantec Ghost, we had to use the -ib switch for example.

[SafeHarbor]

My effort with my T61p using Acronis to clone my 100 GB standard drive to a 320 GB drive in an external enclosure failed and was unbootable because of a "external" flag that Windows sets. The solution was to create the Acronis bootable disk and do the cloning before Windows starts.

Since then, I've purchased a caddy and have placed the 100 GB drive in the Ultrabay. In this configuration, Acronis WILL make the drive bootable.

I wrote about it. If interested, you can find the article here:

http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hard ... 16043.aspx

Lamar

[jeffr]

Hi Lamar,

Unfortunately I haven’t had the luck you’ve had with Acronis Home. I’ve twice tried using Acronis 10 Echo Workstation on my Xp Sp3 T60p, attempting to clone the 100 Seagate with a 250 Seagate in the Ultrabay. I read your article and Echo Workstation did not allow me to reallocate freed space to the windows partition that would have been allocated to a larger service partition. That wasn’t so much of a problem. The biggest problem was after the Acronis reboot that is done after accepting the cloning options that included leaving the source disk intact, Acronis didn’t actually restart so the cloning didn’t occur. I pulled out the destination disk and attempted to restart the PC with only the source disk in place, but that was without success. I tried this clone operation with the destination drive in the primary enclosure and the source drive inthe Ultrabay. After this cloning attempt, I needed to use RNR40_RRD to restore the boot partition and use Acronis Disk Director to restore the windows partition to active. Windows would then attempt to start and I would see a faint windows splash screen that would hang. After removing the battery & power and them powering on, Windows would start.

On 2nd cloning attempt I kept the source disk in its primary location and fitted the destinaton drive in the ultrabay. On reboot, Acronis again didnt restart. The destination drive was not written to, and it took multiple attempts at getting the original disk functional after removing power from the Laptop and restarting with last good configuration.

When comparing the results you have had with Acronis Home and my experiences with Acronis Echo, I’m wondering if there are fundamental difference in the code between these editions?

[tegelad]

FWIW. I have a T60p and T61p that I have been able to successful use Acronis True Image Home 2009 to mirror the drives.

As for the steps .... Manual

Utilities > Clone Disk >
Manual
Select Disk 1 as source
Select Disk 2 as source
Select Keep partitions

and burn baby burn .... feel free to check the manual / help pages for better instructions
+-ADT

[pae77]

Acronis has always worked for me to clone directly from the C: drive to an identical or larger drive in the ultra bay using the 2nd hard drive adapter.

I recently experienced my first failure with the latest version of Acronis and went back to the last release of version 11 of TIH and everything is working fine again with my weekly clones, which reminds me I need to do one ASAP.

[jeffr]

Did you also clone the service partition? Acronis recommend removing it from the source disk.

[RealBlackStuff]

If you take an image, also using Acronis, you don't need a recovery partition.
That's only useful, if you ever want to restore the laptop to new-from-factory state.
You could reach the same effect with a set of Recovery CDs available from IBM/Lenovo, or in our Marketplace forum.

[Boxxer]

Hi,

I don't know if this helps but, having recently upgraded my hard drive (from the standard 80GB 5.400 Western Digital to a 250GB 7.200 Samsung) using Acronis, I had the same problem: after selecting all the options and rebooting, the system hanged. I then rebooted it again and, somehow, it picked up where it left, so the drive cloning went well.

I have an external 80GB hard drive, but it's an IDE one, so I couldn't use its case on the new 250GB drive.
So I used the following setup:

without removing the orignal hard drive from the laptop I plugged in the external 80GB drive (USB). Had it cleaned with Acronis and configured it to keep the data on the original drive and clone it to the external one.
After that (and the whole rebooting thing), I removed the original 80GB drive and replaced it with the 250GB, unformatted one. My idea was to boot the computer from the USB drive but it just wouldn't start. It hanged as soon as the Windows logo showed up on the screen.

So I unplugged the USB drive, inserted a Windows XP CD on the optical drive and proceeded to install a fresh copy of XP.
Having done that, I installed Acronis, plugged in the external 80GB drive and did the same thing as before, but instead I chose the external drive as the "old" one and the internal 250GB as the "new" (target) one.

Then, I simply unplugged the external drive and rebooted. Everything was ok!

Sorry for any mistakes or poorly structured ideas, I'm from Portugal and my english is not in mint condition

By the way, I've been a reader of this forum for quite a few months, now, but only today decided to register.

I have a T61 (7661-Z3W), which is my first ThinkPad ever, but I'm familiar to another great product from IBM: the AS/400, iSeries, System i, whatever floats your boat

[nbf23]

i had similar issues with acronis 2009, but after reading around, the solution that worked for me was to put the "destination drive" in the laptop and the "source drive" in the USB enclosure and then run the acronis boot disc and sure enough it worked to perfection.

went from 60GB to 250GB drive. best of luck all

[pae77]

Did you also clone the service partition? Acronis recommend removing it from the source disk.

Yes, I did also clone the service partition, however, the other poster is correct that if you have a clone, you really don't need it. Unless, you only have one clone and something goes wrong with it and your original. Then you might appreciate the ability to browse files and pull data off without being able to boot into windows. But the ideal solution, imo is to lose the service partition and have two separate clone backups.

Or perhaps substitute the Acronis Secure Zone for the service partition.

But all this reminds me that as soon as I have a need for the extra space, I'm probably going to delete the service partition and allocate that space to the C: partition. Until then, I just clone it along with the C: partition.

[hellosailor]

Lamar, whose tech support told you there was an "external" drive flag??

In all the years I've never heard of such a thing. "Removable" perhaps--but never "external".

Was that support tech a native YnGltich speaker? Or laboring under translation issues? I've heard way too many folks who think they are speaking YnGlitch about technical issues--who really have no idea what they are talking about.

I've had Acronis' OEM version for Seagate mung up a cloning operation (the original internal drive is no longer recognized as bootable) but over the years I've swapped many drives in many NT systems--and never had to deal with an 'external' drive flag of any kind. Active partition flag, yes. Bootable files, yes. (And Vista has a new file system to complicate that.) Screwed up BOOT.INI files courtesy of NT itself, yes.

But an 'external' flag is news to me.

[visch1]

In most cases moving to another drive is only because more space is wanted. Don’t forget that once the new drive is functioning properly the “old” drive is an excellent back up drive ready to just plug in.

[jayk]

Just had the exact same problem... had to put the new drive in the system and the old one in an external enclosure (and did the clone using the bootable trueimage CD) and it worked first time.

[Bfskinnerpunk]

So I wonder why it works when you put the original drive into an external enclosure?

I'm awaiting my new 320 drive and external enclosure, but get increasingly nervous that this isn't the kind of thing I can do on autopilot!

So, even with the newest (trial) version of Acronis, the cloning will work if I put the new drive in the hard drive bay right from the start?... and booting off some sort of bootable CD created by Acronis?

[diaz1023]

This is the same process that i am going to do when my 500gb seagate arrives. install new drive in thinkpad, old drive in enclosure and then use the disk boot cd , i will post my results

[Crunch]

I've done this tons of times, and co-incidentally also with Acronis. True Image to be exact. Did you choose Disk Cloning??? It has a very straightforward wizard where you simply put the new drive in the hard drive caddy, either an external one, or, the Ultrabay one, which I use. I like having everything inside my Thinkpad.

There is a fully functional 15-day trial at acronis.com. A new version was just released recently.

Am I missing something here??

[diaz1023]

This is the same process that i am going to do when my 500gb seagate arrives. install new drive in thinkpad, old drive in enclosure and then use the disk boot cd , i will post my results

Well this method did not work for me. I had to keep the original drive in the TP and place the new one in the enclosure. I started the Seagate discwizard and it went smooth, other than a small hiccup. I needed to ensure that the service partition kept the same amount of space. I now have a 500GB HD in my TP, Vista stayed activitated, all programs & files in their respective locations and the machine is now quiet.

[Bfskinnerpunk]

Unbelievable...

The hard drive and enclosure come today.

I follow the above directions:
**Put the original in the external enclosure
**put the new drive in the T61
**boot off of my trial version of Acronis "boot disc"
**go into "clone disc, manual, etc. etc.

Then I get this ----> "This is a trial version of Acronis True Image Home. It is not possible to commit the operations you have selected. To purchase the full version of this product, please find your local reseller ..." etc. etc.

What? Am I doing something wrong?

Dang! I've got the whole rig just sitting here all disconfigured and ready to go.

[diaz1023]

What about trying it with the original in the TP and new one in enclosure. Is the new drive a seagate? If so you can use discwizard from seagate

[Bfskinnerpunk]

thanks... no , it's a Hitachi.

Man, you'd think that hard drive upgrades would be so common as to be a 1 click affair with generic Windows software.

I actually tried to download the Maxtor & Western Digital software, and as it turns out, it is affiliated with Acronis.

Anyway, they have a way of determining that I am attempting to use their software on a Hitachi and won't let it happen.

[PhilD]

why don't you just purchase the software?

[Bfskinnerpunk]

Good question...

Well, the only reason I bought the darn hard drive is because it was 69 bucks!

I totally didn't know that I'd have to buy extra software to install the new hard drive.

Anyway, paying $40 for the software changes the whole "bargain" aspect of it.

I see now that I should have bought a Western Digital or Seagate because they come with the necessary software.

Live and learn!

[PhilD]

did you do a search of the "cloning" threads in this forum? i seem to remember reading more than one post in here recommending a free disk cloning utility, i think it began with a "P". i thought it was Paragon but i don't see any of their backup/cloning software identified as free on their web site. anyway, might be worth looking around a little more.

[Bfskinnerpunk]

I happen to have the Acronis full version boot disc going.

So, I did a clone. It said it was successful, but I couldn't get the computer to boot from the new drive once I installed it in the computer.

Now, I'm trying again. This time, starting with the new drive *in* the computer and the original (old one) in an external enclosure as per a suggestion here.

When it comes to partitions, I selected "proportional" each time because that is what Acronis seems to recommend. If I select "as is", I don't know what becomes of all that extra space. I'm not sure if it matters.

If this doesn't work, I'm thinking of simple using my Lenovo CD's I created when I first bought the computer! Youch! (Other than the expenditure of time, is there any disadvantage do just doing a full, fresh reinstall of everything?)

Back to the current project:
Am I missing a few keystrokes that will tell the computer to allow the new disc to be the "boot"?

As it is, the computer starts... shows the "Thinkpad" opening screen... and then nothing... just a blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner of the screen.

Thanks
Kelton

[visch1]

I'm not sure if this includes cloning but after imaging it's recomended to disconnect the primary drive before a re boot, some sort of first time drive confusion. TI has a great informative forum for info.

[Bfskinnerpunk]

OK....

So I am now tried the Acronis boot CD in with the new drive installed inside the computer and the old one in an external enclosure.

It totally worked.

Doing it the other way (old one remains inside, new one outside) didn't do it.

I'm on the computer now. The only thing changed is the amount of free space available. Everything else looks and operates the same.

Cool!

[Marin85]

Glad to hear that it eventually worked out for you Which version of Acronis True Image did the trick? Also, was it the trial of it or a licensed one?

Marin