600E Hard Drive Upgrade Problem

[artuero]

Hi, I have a 2645-3AU 600E running Windows XP on a disk that I did a clean install on. Currently using the original disk which is <4 GB. I upgraded my wife's X22 hard drive and wanted to move the 20GB drive from the X22 into the 600E.

I used Acronis DriveImage to clone the 600E's disk to the 20GB drive (over a USB link). It's the same thing I did to install my wife's new drive which worked fine. I then swapped the drives and booted. I got a "disk read error." I tried booting multiple times, and eventually switched back to the 4GB disk, which boots normally.

I put the 20GB drive back in the USB reader and it is readable and seems to be fine, so I don't think there is a defect in the disk.

I've tried re-inserting the drive and am pretty sure it fits in fine in case that was the problem, but I don't think so.

I have the current BIOS for the 600E (which is pretty old, 2001 I think).

If anyone has encountered this problem or otherwise has instructions I would appreciate it.

[whizkid]

The issue may be partition details. If the 600E and X2* use different drive geometries, then the file system will be completely screwed up.

It could be very painful, but you could always backup the drive over the network, put the new drive in, install the OS on the bare drive, and the same service pack, then restore. That should do the job, but take more effort.

[Rob Mayercik]

What did you use to partition the new drive?

I ran afoul of this when I upgraded my 600's drive. For best results, you should be partitioning the drive in the computer in which it will be installed. This is apparently especially important in the case of laptops.

Try installing the new drive in the laptop and redoing the partition table. After that, do the format (/s, of course) before removing the drive from the machine.

Once that's done, try the cloning again. The only other caveat that I can think of is that when you try to boot into Windows, you may have to have your CD ready, since it will be expecting one hard drive and seeing another.

Rob

[artuero]

Well, that is a lot of quick help. TrueImage clones the partitions along with the rest of the drive, so I didn't exactly format/partition the drive. It should be identical to the original but obviously there is something funny.

I guess I will need some sort of recovery disk (or maybe just the XP install disks as whizkid suggests) in order to format the drive in the laptop. I tried doing it over the USB cable but for whatever reason I can't do a format d: /s (says that the /s parameter is invalid). Fdisk is apparently not in Windows XP, and I tried just doing it through explorer but I don't see an option to make it bootable.

[JHEM]

Artuero,

Install the 20GB Hd in the 600E and BOOt the system from a W98SE BOOt floppy or a 98SE CD if you don't have a floppy drive.

If you don't have a floppy drive or a bootable CD, you can find bootable ISO images on the internet you can burn to a CD.

Once you can BOOT the system with the new HD installed, run FDISK and remove any and ALL partitions, especially any "hidden" recovery partitions.

Then FDISK again and set a primary partition and ensure it's set as "Active". Now FORMAT the HD while it's installed in the 600E (very important!) and THEN use Acronis to clone your 4GB HD to the 20GB the same way you did originally.

Regards,

James

[artuero]

I'll give it a go, thanks much.

[wa8yxm]

I just have one thing to add to this... Some times ago Bill suggested Acronis True Image to me for backing up a hard drive that was giving me serious warnings... I used it

It has saved my bacon many times since

After I did the backup the drive did, indeed, fail. I popped in a new drive (I have a 600e 2645-9au) 3 times bigger than the original, formatted with the Win-98se Emergency recovery disk, popped in the Acronis Recovery CD, pulled the files off the back up drive and ... Joy of Joys, lost next to nothing (I mean, bookmarks for one day's usenet browsing, big deal, took me all of about 2 minutes to fix that)

I have high praise for Acronis

Later, a Firefox extension update totalled my browser instalation.

Guess what.. Had a back up handy, Did not even loose the usenet place holders!!!!! (Backd them up seperately)