Cloning R50e HDD to another HDD for use in R51 possible?

[eplebnista]

The code for the R50e is 1834-???(not listed on bottom) and the code for the R51 is 2883-ELU.

Both hard drives are 30gb, both systems use intel extreme 2 graphics on 14.1" lcd's, don't really know about the chipset though.

The reason I am asking is that I got the R51 off of ebay and it came with xp pro installed but it apparently uses a VLK that has been deactivated and the recovery partition is gone(I want to be able to update and be able to use/validate WMP11). I have tried to change the VLK key to the one on the COA using a couple of different methods detailed online, but without success(I keep getting an invalid key error message).

While the R50e has xp pro sp3 installed(activated and validated) and a recovery partition that is intact. Both laptops have a COA attached.

I wish I had some recovery disks or a xp pro disk(besides a dell), but alas I do not, all I have are xp home disks, in order to be able to do a fresh install on the R51.

If cloning has a chance of working(with the free trial of Acronis true image 11), one thing I have not seen mentioned in the cloning faq's is whether or not the target drive needs to be partitioned (& formatted??) first before attaching it to the source pc with an external usb enclosure.

I had planned on hopefully changing the key of the cloned drive to the one on the COA of the R51 and reactivating/validating it with MS so that both machines will have different keys.

Any helps/tips/advice would be greatly appreciated.

[eplebnista]

Is it possible to make recovery CD's using the CDRW drive from the R51 installed in the R50e(which currently only has a DVD-rom drive) to use on the R51?

There does not appear to be any links that start the recovery CD process that I can see, although I am new to thinkpads and probably do not know where to look. I have been searching but so far I haven't found any ultra-novice level detailed instructions or answers.

[carbon_unit]

Welcome to the forum!
I don't think the R5x series had the ability to make a set of recovery discs.
Yes the cloning will work but you may have to install additional drivers available here.
You do not need to format the target drive.
Also you do not need to worry about changing the key on the cloned drive as it should be a VLK number anyway.

[eplebnista]

Thanks for the welcome and the help!

Will report back with results when the attempt is made which may take a while as I am too busy to mess with it at the moment.

[underclocker]

The R50e and R51's use the same IDE controller (and many other similar components). Cloning a drive or moving a drive won't be an issue. As mentioned above, maybe a few driver updates/additions from Lenovo.com and you're good to go.