How to Image Your Hard Drive

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Gee · #1 Post by **Gee** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 2:21 pm

I have the solution.

I have done this several times and was successfull every time

I used Ghost 7.5 Enterprise, but any version will work.

If you want to retain the Service Partition, use my method

First get 2 adapters so the drives can be plugged into a desktop. Get a boot floppy of Ghost. Assuming the original drive is the master on primary and the new drive is master on the secondary.

Boot the floppy, run Ghost using these switches

ghost -clone,mode=copy,src=1,dst=2 -ib

That will do it. It will copy the extra sectors.

RoxyRose · #2 Post by **RoxyRose** » Sun Jun 25, 2006 6:13 pm

Awesome...thanks

gunston · #3 Post by **gunston** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 3:47 am

how to do a bootable Ghost cd?

Gee · #4 Post by **Gee** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 4:23 am

You can make a recovery CD the same way. Boot Ghost from a bootable floppy and use these switches

ghost -clone,mode=dump,src=1,dst=@CD1 -ib -auto -z9 -bootcd

This will tell Ghost to dump to CD with compression. Make sure your boot floppy has an autoexec.bat to launch ghost and set to restore as this method will get the boot record from the floppy.

gunston · #5 Post by **gunston** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 4:26 am

no, i don't understand your point here.
all i need is just a bootable disc and not burning the backup file into cd... or am i misunderstood your words?

Gee · #6 Post by **Gee** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 4:32 am

You want to use a Ghost CD instead of a floppy.

If you install the full version of Ghost, you have options to create either a boot floppy or a Boot CD with the Ghost software on it.

gunston · #7 Post by **gunston** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 5:08 am

which version of Ghost does offer this feature?

gsuser · #8 Post by **gsuser** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 6:23 am

For me, Acronis True image is much more reliable than Ghost...

gunston · #9 Post by **gunston** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 6:28 am

acronis true image can create bootable cd?

gsuser · #10 Post by **gsuser** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 12:18 pm

True image can create a bootable cd, or even a bootable image on a dvd...
As they say there :
http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/produ ... trueimage/

- Online data and system backups

- Create an exact hard drive image

- Backup and restore individual files and folders

- Bare-metal restore in minutes

- Central administration and remote backup and restore

- Store backups on direct attached, NAS, or SAN volumes and variety of media

I have had many problems with Ghost corrupted images, never with Acronis...

Gee · #11 Post by **Gee** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 11:36 am

gunston wrote:which version of Ghost does offer this feature?

Any version after 7

gsuser wrote:For me, Acronis True image is much more reliable than Ghost...

But does it copy the extra boot sectors? The whole point of the exercise to is to duplicate the drive so you have the service partition intact.

gsuser · #12 Post by **gsuser** » Wed Jun 28, 2006 9:56 am

But does it copy the extra boot sectors?

Of course, it can manage everything...

blackhiphop863 · #13 Post by **blackhiphop863** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 12:37 pm

GHOST is the best way to get your HD image.

i m a new here,so i m no sure the rules of here, is it allow to public some free software link here?something like GHOST V8.3?

if someone need it ,tell me

i m from China , and we got lots of free copy software to download.
i know this is tortious.but it is what happen here... completely free

syhead · #14 Post by **syhead** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 5:06 pm

Why not use IBM Rescue & Recovery?

hishamh · #15 Post by **hishamh** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 7:19 pm

blackhiphop863 wrote: i m a new here,so i m no sure the rules of here, is it allow to public some free software link here?something like GHOST V8.3?

if someone need it ,tell me

i m from China , and we got lots of free copy software to download.
i know this is tortious.but it is what happen here... completely free

What you are describing is not 'free' software - it's cracked/pirated software, and in no way, shape or form can any links to such be posted in this forum.

From the rules of this forum:

5. Do not post links or requests for warez.

blackhiphop863 · #16 Post by **blackhiphop863** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 11:44 pm

hishamh wrote:
blackhiphop863 wrote: i m a new here,so i m no sure the rules of here, is it allow to public some free software link here?something like GHOST V8.3?

if someone need it ,tell me

i m from China , and we got lots of free copy software to download.
i know this is tortious.but it is what happen here... completely free
What you are describing is not 'free' software - it's cracked/pirated software, and in no way, shape or form can any links to such be posted in this forum.

From the rules of this forum:

5. Do not post links or requests for warez.

all right....

blackhiphop863 · #17 Post by **blackhiphop863** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 4:09 am

syhead wrote:Why not use IBM Rescue & Recovery?

Recovery is always lost some important files which we need.not that perfect...

gsuser · #18 Post by **gsuser** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 4:14 am

GHOST is the best way to get your HD image.GHOST is the best way to get your HD image.

Did you ever tried a recent version of Acronis before writing such thing ?

Why not use IBM Rescue & Recovery?

I made a fresh install with a "light" version of XP ( http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html ) in order to only have the software I wanted. I deleted the IBM recovery partition to use it for the image I made.
Seems to faster now...

blackhiphop863 · #19 Post by **blackhiphop863** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 8:47 am

gsuser wrote:
GHOST is the best way to get your HD image.GHOST is the best way to get your HD image.

Did you ever tried a recent version of Acronis before writing such thing ?

Acronis? i ve never heard of this , maybe we got different name in chinese... is it better than ghost? whatever, one person one notion
,i still think Ghost is good enough,

gsuser · #20 Post by **gsuser** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 12:01 pm

Acronis? i ve never heard of this , maybe we got different name in chinese...

Ghost 9.0 can not make things like creating a new partition, or resize an existing one, format a disk, etc... All that True Image can do

A 10 Go partition can be restored or created in 15 mn with True Image, and 40 with ghost (with an average compression level).
With True Image creating an image, windows can be used normally, when it is very slow doing the same thing with Ghost.
So please find hurry the name of this app in China, and try it

blackhiphop863 · #21 Post by **blackhiphop863** » Sat Jul 01, 2006 12:27 am

Ghost 9.0 can not make things like creating a new partition, or resize an existing one, format a disk, etc... All that True Image can do

A 10 Go partition can be restored or created in 15 mn with True Image, and 40 with ghost (with an average compression level).
With True Image creating an image, windows can be used normally, when it is very slow doing the same thing with Ghost.
So please find hurry the name of this app in China, and try it

[/quote]

wow..really??! it s cool~~ lol.. i must try! thx

Gee · #22 Post by **Gee** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 2:00 pm

I am able to resize the partition using Ghost Corporate 7.5

shalliday · #23 Post by **shalliday** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 12:10 pm

Last weekend I tried to upgrade my X31 from the original 40gig hard drive to a new 100 gig 72000 hard drive, following as best I could the instructions found on this site. One of the computer techs at my work actually assisted me with making the image and he was using a very old version of Norton Ghost (2. something). No matter what we tried it did'nt work. We both figured it was because the version of Ghost was ancient.

Now I am looking to buy either Ghost 10 or Acronis True Image. From what I have read, members here on this site have had sucess using both. My question is which software product would work best to image the hard drive or are they both pretty much the same?

Appreciate any and all opinions.

boon · #24 Post by **boon** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 12:57 pm

I vote on acronis as well. I cloned the hard drive using a usb enclosure and it works. and I think the program also let you create a system recovery and create a hidden partition as well but I have never try it yet.

shalliday · #25 Post by **shalliday** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 11:38 pm

so the True Image software is the best solution to go then.

boon · #26 Post by **boon** » Mon Mar 12, 2007 11:57 pm

why not try download trial version of the acronis true image program? I think they allow you 15 days trial.

but are you trying to make an exact copy of your old hard drive or want to transfer the hidden partition to another hard drive?

If you are trying to copy the hidden partition of the old hard drive no programs will work. you'll have to follow some steps shown from ibm to transfer the hpa to another new hard drive

if you want to make an exact copy like cloning tue image program will do well

shalliday · #27 Post by **shalliday** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:27 am

I am trying to upgrade the 40gig hard drive in my X31 to a new 100gig. The 40gig hard drive already has all of the thinkpad drivers and programs installed along with WinXP and all of my other software programs. All of the thinkpad drivers, WinXP and other software has all of the latest updates applied and is configured just the way I like it. I would like to transfer the contents of this drive to my new 100 gig so that all of my software and settings remain the same on the new drive and it boots up as the primary drive, just like the existing 40 gig does now.

Where I never did this upgrade before, I am not familiar with how to proceed. After reading the information available on this forum, I think I need to copy the hidden partition along with the hard drive image. Am I correct or do I just need the image. What is contained in the hidden partition anyway? Is it needed?

I have read about upgrade kits I can buy, image capturing programs like Ghost. At this point I am very confused as to what I need and how best to proceed. If its an upgrade kit I need or additional software and/or hardware then I have no problem purchasing it. I just don't know what I need to to purchase, if anything and what process I need to follow to successfully complete this upgrade. Appreciate your help!

Ken Fox · #28 Post by **Ken Fox** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 10:43 am

shalliday wrote:I am trying to upgrade the 40gig hard drive in my X31 to a new 100gig. The 40gig hard drive already has all of the thinkpad drivers and programs installed along with WinXP and all of my other software programs. All of the thinkpad drivers, WinXP and other software has all of the latest updates applied and is configured just the way I like it. I would like to transfer the contents of this drive to my new 100 gig so that all of my software and settings remain the same on the new drive and it boots up as the primary drive, just like the existing 40 gig does now.

Where I never did this upgrade before, I am not familiar with how to proceed. After reading the information available on this forum, I think I need to copy the hidden partition along with the hard drive image. Am I correct or do I just need the image. What is contained in the hidden partition anyway? Is it needed?Appreciate your help!

There are several ways to do this. I have successfully transfered the contents of a number of Thinkpad drives to larger ones using Norton Ghost 2003 from a USB2 floppy drive OR from a CD having the same stuff on it. In addition, I have done this same transfer with a reduced capability version of Acronis True Image 9 that came bundled / free with a networkable hard drive case made by Ximeta ("Netdisk").

There are a number of explanations of how to do this, which are much clearer than any explanations in this thread, that you can find on the hardware/software forum and several others. They are forum threads with "stickies" which means they stay at the top of their respective forum posts list. look for the words "clone a hard drive" to find them.

If you don't already own a program to do this, I would suggest the free trial version of Acronis. You can also buy this program for about $15 delivered; Nonny has posted links in a number of threads here for a dealer that is selling the retail box version of this program for around $10, plus cheap shipping. Once you have true image installed you can make a bootable CD that will enable you to use the program. I would not go out and buy Norton Ghost just in order to clone this hard drive, although it is a program that I personally rely on. Either of these programs have another use which is to periodically back up the entire hard drive so that you can recover from any of a number of potential disasters.

Hard drives, including external hard drives, are very cheap nowadays and I suggest you do complete hard drive backups periodically in order to protect yourself. Either Ghost or True Image will allow you to do this in the future. So, either harness some old hard drives you have lying around to store your backups on, or invest $100 in a 300gb external drive when you see a sale (weekly, may require a rebate), to use for this cloning job and future hard drive backups as well.

I suggest you read a few "cloning" threads on this board and you will see that the process is not that difficult.

ken

shalliday · #29 Post by **shalliday** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 1:02 pm

Thank you Ken,

Thank you for your help and information. Did a forum search on "imaging" and found alot more related threads on the site. Now working my way through them. Since I needed a good backup and recovery software package, I went ahead and purchased Acronis True Image 10 Home. Thank you again for all your help!

m509272 · #30 Post by **m509272** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 4:35 pm

I just upgraded from a 40GB to an 80GB 5400.3 Seagate drive on my X31. The usual mistakes made first.

I then ordered an Apricorn Drivewire aka Universal Hard Drive Adapter aka ADW-USB-KIT for $25 - $10 rebate + shipping from frys.com.

What a great little device. You can plug in a PATA 2.5 or 3.5 or a SATA drive into the adapter block. It comes with a power block which has a typical 4 prong drive power cable on the end which either plugs into a 3.5 PATA drive directly or into the adapter block for 2.5 PATA or any SATA. You also get a USB cable to connect the adaptor to your system.

It comes with EZ Gig II cloning software. Installed it directly on my X31. You connect up the drive, run the software, tell it to clone and then it reboots and runs the cloning software in what appears to be DOS mode. Shut it off, insert new drive into laptop and voila, all done.

How to Image Your Hard Drive

How to Image Your Hard Drive

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Version

Partition

Nice and simple solution

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