Failing to migrate to SSD - a few pointers please!

[felixgogo]

All,

I have just purchased a 32GB SSD, and I want to use it in my X60s. After investigating around on this and other forums, I decided to use Acronis Migrate Easy, and an external SATA interface so the X60s would recognise the new SSD.

All well and good so far.

After formatting the SSD to FAT32 on a Mac (Could not figure out how to do this on the thinkpad - BIOS options did not have a format, partition, restore or any tool that allowed me to format the drive) I plugged the SSD via the usb adaptor into the X60s and it was recognised.

Installed AME, and followed the instructions - it failed saying the new drive is smaller than the old one, Dur - yes it is, and I want to go ahead and copy the 10GB of system data and files from the X60s and the 4GB restore partition to the 32GB SSD. It will fit. My maths isn't great, but I reckon I should be left with around 14Gb.

However, I have tried automatic, manual, running AME from a boot disk and it always fails the same. I tried installing Acronis True Image instead and this was just the same.

So - I am beat, what glaring obvious thing am I overlooking?

Thanks in advance!

[EOMtp]

Place the new drive in the X60s as the primary drive, boot from external media, and "copy" from external to internal drive, not vice versa. (Note: Set the SATA option in the BIOS to "Compatibility" mode.)

[felixgogo]

Thanks for responding so quickly.

However, I don't fully understand what you mean.

I remove the 80GB drive, and insert the 32GB SSD, OK got that.

Boot- from media, do you mean boot from the Acronis CD disk I created? or something else?

Copy from external to internal? Won't Acronis fail the same as the destination disk will still be the smaller drive?

Sorry if I am being dense here! Thanks for your patience!

[EOMtp]

Boot- from media, do you mean boot from the Acronis CD disk I created? or something else?
Copy from external to internal? Won't Acronis fail the same as the destination disk will still be the smaller drive?

Yes, boot from the CD you created or anything else from which you can boot. After you boot from the external device, "create" the image you want on the new internal drive. These were generic instructions. If you proceed in any other way, the device you create will not be bootable/readable because of "disk geometry" issues.

I did not pay attention to, or address any issues, regarding the destination drive being too small, or other matters which have to do with "transferring" the operating system from one device to another. When I read that you formatted the SSD on a Mac, I knew that you were proceeding on the "wrong track", and you should be warned about the "correct" setup.

My point is simply that whatever method you choose to restore/clone/copy/create the new drive from the old, you pay attention to the physical setup that will work (as described in the earlier post) vs. the physical setup that will not work even after the restore/clone/copy/create process appears to have succeeded.

[gongo2k1]

resize the partition on the original disk to be much smaller, that way when the utility tries to copy the partition, it will fit.

[felixgogo]

Hey guys - many thanks for your help.

I have got a little further with this, swapping the disks before running the Acronis boot disk got me further - but the the clone failed - saying this is not supported with a trial version.

I have no issue buying the Acronis software - but I guess I want to know it will work first!

I think I am heading towards just reinstall XP on the new drive, and all the driver issues and loss of the R&R partition (which I have not been able to use anyway)

I would try to resize the original partition, how would I do this?

[felixgogo]

Me again.

After trying one more time, and the AME refusing to do the clone unless it was a purchased full copy, I went to the Acronis site to purchase the software.

Guess what? Yeah - the order failed.........email with their techs - awaiting a response.

So I tried installing XP fresh onto the SSD. And this fails saying the disk is faulty. It is not, as I can see it properly when connected to my other laptop via a usb interface.

I tried reformatting the SSD on this PC, and this was successful, but whe reinstalled in the X60s it fails when windows is trying to load. Is this becuase this is a SATA drive and these are no recognised when installling XP before the SATA drivers? (I think I read this)

I am totally stumped as what to do now.

[felixgogo]

Patience is a virtue.....

I used Easeus to resize the C drive, so it matches the new drive.

Clone operation gets to the final step, and the AME stops, saying it can't do a clone as this is a trial version. I know I have seen people use trial versions on this forum to do exactly this. But it will not work for me.

[gongo2k1]

now that the source and destination partitions are the same size, you could always boot linux and 'dd' the old to the new. it'll be a little slow, but it'll work.

[felixgogo]

All -thanks for your help on a subject that was, at times, baffling.

I have learnt a great deal.

OK - it now works.

I purchased a full copy of Acronis - and placed the new drive in the PC, and performed a full clone. All OK, and works great.

thanks