Seamless Hard Drive upgrade?

Message

msafi · #1 Post by **msafi** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 12:21 am

is it possible to copy the entire content of my 40GB hard drive and have it entirely moved to a new larger hard-drive (i'm eyeing the 100GB)? do you think if i purchase the HD and take it to the local repair center they just do everything for me hassle free? i don't wanna have to deal with technical stuff like that.

any recommendations?

pphilipko · #2 Post by **pphilipko** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 12:35 am

You could call someone to copy over your previous hard drive to your new one, but it will cost $$$. I would just install Windows and all of your essential apps, rather than copying over your ENTIRE hard drive.

msafi · #3 Post by **msafi** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 12:50 am

pphilipko wrote:You could call someone to copy over your previous hard drive to your new one, but it will cost $$$. I would just install Windows and all of your essential apps, rather than copying over your ENTIRE hard drive.

oh..wow...i couldn't do that. I only have a few gigs left in my 40GB HD and the rest is all filled with software not multimedia. i have drivers to my external peripherals, software that needs to be activated over the internet, huge software development kits and platforms, lots of tweaks here and there...i don't wanna worry about re-doing all of this.

i know it's better to start over clean. but my system is still at a speed that i can tolerate. i don't feel a need to start over. that's why i prefer a seamless upgrade...i don't wanna notice anything but the increased number of gigs and the slightly improved HD performance.

laz · #4 Post by **laz** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 1:24 am

You can get an external hard drive enclosure or ultrabay second hard drive adaptor and clone the drive. There are lots of programs out there for doing that sort of thing. (I've never don it though, so someone else will have to fill you in on the details)

You'll get gouged if you take it to a laptop repair place so you're probably better off doing it yourself, and you'll learn how to do it for the future if you ever need to again.

kyrotech · #5 Post by **kyrotech** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 7:03 am

laz wrote:You can get an external hard drive enclosure or ultrabay second hard drive adaptor and clone the drive. There are lots of programs out there for doing that sort of thing. (I've never don it though, so someone else will have to fill you in on the details)

You'll get gouged if you take it to a laptop repair place so you're probably better off doing it yourself, and you'll learn how to do it for the future if you ever need to again.

The will charge you more at a "repair shop" than the cost of the ultrabay hdd adapter or USB external enclosure

clonning from the 40 GB to a 100 GB is so easy you wont believe it, using acronis true image or symantec ghost

#6 Post by **Kyocera** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 8:32 am

clonning from the 40 GB to a 100 GB is so easy you wont believe it, using acronis true image or symantec ghost

I've used Ghost, if you know how to read and insert CD's into a drive you can do it. Block out some time, don't be rushed read and you can make it happen.

mappler · #7 Post by **mappler** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 9:02 am

I would do this yourself. This is easy to do, and something you should be able to accomplish if you already know how to physically replace the hard drive.

1) Buy your new hard drive
2) Buy an IDE to USB adapter. This can be a cable solution or a full enclosure. They can be found for $12 on a good day, $25-$30 max if there aren't any good deals around.
3) Download Knoppix. http://www.knoppix.org/
4) Burn your Knoppix CD. Put it in your CD Drive and reboot. It will NOT write anything to your hard drive. (until you tell it to)
5) Follow the directions at http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/saw2 ... tions.html

The only real wrinkle would be if Knoppix doesn't recognize the USB connected drive automatically.

-Matt

aabram · #8 Post by **aabram** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 9:39 am

kyrotech wrote:The will charge you more at a "repair shop" than the cost of the ultrabay hdd adapter or USB external enclosure

clonning from the 40 GB to a 100 GB is so easy you wont believe it, using acronis true image or symantec ghost

I believe neither Acronis nor Ghost are free. I'd love to be corrected though.

pae77 · #9 Post by **pae77** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 10:37 am

For someone who wants to keep it as simple as possible, I would recommend purchasing the correct IBM second hard drive adapter appopriate for your machine (about $50 without EPP), the second hard drive, and if you don't already have it, a floppy drive and a way to connect it to your computer without using the ultrabay. IBM makes a cable for this or you could get a USB floppy.

The IBM second hard drive adapter comes bundled with excellent free disk cloning software on a floppy that just requires you to boot from the floppy with both drives connected to the system. Then you just follow a few simple prompts and it will clone the primary hard drive to the hard drive in the ultrabay adapter. Then you just remove and swap the hard drives and you will have all your old stuff on the new drive.

Otherwise, if you want to avoid having to use a floppy, you could purchase the second hard drive adapter and Acronis True Image software which is pretty easy to use.

msafi · #10 Post by **msafi** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 11:36 am

i have symantec ghost, but my CD drive is not very reliable. it works but sometimes it fails. so if extensive CD usage is required i'll have to use my external multi-burner.

so how can i do this with ghost?

Ok, i just opened Ghost and saw the copy hard drive option. and it tells you that "this" feature is useful when upgrading to a larger hard drive....it seems fairly easy

so where can i buy a good 100GB hard drive that's compatible with my T40 237372U?

thanks all, you've already been more than helpful!

pae77 · #11 Post by **pae77** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 1:09 pm

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductLi ... dRecord=60

brandy · #12 Post by **brandy** » Wed Nov 09, 2005 1:14 pm

I just moved from a 40GB to a 100GB drive in my T42. As others have described, I popped the new drive into a USB 2.0 drive enclosure and used Norton Ghost to do a disk to disk transfer. Slicker than slick.

I purchased both the new drive and the enclosure locally at Best Buy.

One word of warning: Due to the diagnostic partition, Thinkpad drives are atypical, so you have to follow these instructions, otherwise you won't be able to boot off the new drive. (Learned the hard way

)
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-57590

d lehmann · #13 Post by **d lehmann** » Thu Nov 10, 2005 10:59 pm

I have used all of the forementioned methods and would recommend you get the ibm 2nd hdrive adapter.
It sounds like you couldn't loose that data, and in my opinion that is also the safest way.
Stay away from the lates Acronis, it is very buggy.

highvista · #14 Post by **highvista** » Sat Nov 12, 2005 4:54 pm

I migrated from a 40GB to a 100GB drive for my T42 using a USB drive enclosure and the included cloning software. It was a piece of cake. It cloned both my data partition and the IBM hidden partition. You can find this at Buy.com by searching for "Apricorn". It's the Universal EZ HDD Upgrade Kit. Gret deal for less than $50 US.

d lehmann · #15 Post by **d lehmann** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 10:21 am

highvista wrote:I migrated from a 40GB to a 100GB drive for my T42 using a USB drive enclosure and the included cloning software. It was a piece of cake. It cloned both my data partition and the IBM hidden partition. You can find this at Buy.com by searching for "Apricorn". It's the Universal EZ HDD Upgrade Kit. Gret deal for less than $50 US.

That is the software that comes with the ibm 2nd bay adapter

pae77 · #16 Post by **pae77** » Sun Nov 13, 2005 3:14 pm

Yes, the question you have to ask yourself is which would you rather have . . . a USB enclosure for a hard drive or the IBM second hard drive adapter for the ultrabay since the included cloning software and the price is about the same (unless you can get EPP pricing on the second hard drive adapter).

msafi · #17 Post by **msafi** » Thu Dec 08, 2005 7:52 pm

so, my hard drive crashed today. i was browsing like always, and all of the sudden, i hear like a small metal object hits some where inside the case. then a stream of soft clicks. i called ibm and had them send me a another one.

last time i made a backup was like 2 months ago. all my email is on the server, except some, which was mistaken for spam and got deleted after one month. well, at least i'll have a fresh start. my laptop actually started slowing down significantly the few weeks before it crashed today.

any how, i'm about to order the new hard-drive now. i found this on the website that pae77 mentioned: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... ode=100053

is it going to work with my t40 and x31? i actually wanna buy two, one for my t40 and another one for my wife's x31.

thank you all for your help.

msafi · #18 Post by **msafi** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 7:26 pm

can someone please help me out?

#19 Post by **bill bolton** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 8:26 pm

> last time i made a backup was like 2 months ago.

A backup is like a spare tyre...... don't go far without one!

Cheers,

Bill

#20 Post by **GomJabbar** » Fri Dec 09, 2005 10:33 pm

msafi wrote:any how, i'm about to order the new hard-drive now. i found this on the website that pae77 mentioned: http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDe ... ode=100053

is it going to work with my t40 and x31? i actually wanna buy two, one for my t40 and another one for my wife's x31.

I don't see any problem. Basically the main things you need to check for compatibility are:

1. Physical size. Verify that the physical size of the drives are the same.
2. Interface. Verify that your are not ordering a SATA drive unless you have a very new laptop with the SATA interface (ie T43 or newer). However, with the T43, the SATA drive will create an error on boot-up with a non-IBM branded drive (generally). [However, even with the error, it will still work]
3. Size in GB. Older laptops don't allways support the larger hard drives. AFAIK, this would not be a factor for the T40 or X31.

#21 Post by **BillMorrow** » Sat Dec 10, 2005 12:42 am

most all of the above is correct..

i have cloned many drives using acronis true image..

also have used, in the past, apricorn's EZ-Gig (the one that comes with the 2nd HDD adapter ($45)..

the 100gig ATA6 7200 RPM HDD should work in your T40 without any problems..

SO, buy the 100gig, a 2nd HDD adapter (or borrow one) and acronis (try ebay for a used copy)..

and the close will go just fine..

bear in mind that once you clone the new drive the old drive will still be a working drive and will serve as a backup to the new image on the new drive..
it is a COPY not a MOVE from the 40gig to the 100gig..

darths68 · #22 Post by **darths68** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 2:15 am

Ok - I think I have tackled an impossible task - cloning the 60GB hitachi drive in my t43-2686-DGU to put it on a 100GB hitachi

I have read everything I can find for the last three days - I have cloned the drive with both Ghost and Acronis - NOTHING works - the 100GB drive won't boot after the cloning operation - I've done fdisk /mbr, repaired the XP installation (repair works but then won't boot) - nothing works

History: I deleted the rescue and recovery partition when I first got the machine using partitionmagic (I made CD's first) - everything has worked fine w/ the 60GB drive

I have disabled the predesktop option in the BIOS

I can't use the -ib option with Ghost 10.0 because it doesn't exist anymore

I get a blank screen immediately after seeing the IBM thinkpad splash screen, with a blinking cursor in the upper left corner - I never see any hard drive activity - it never gets close to booting windows

I can only assume the problem lies in the massive complexity of the HPA boot record NIGHTMARE that IBM has created on the drive - according to the white paper on HPA (see link below), the boot records are digitally signed to prevent copying - UNLESS you disable predesktop

HELP!!!!!! I'm finally giving up I guess - Am I missing something????? My t43 is very new (3 months?)

Maybe Linux dd is the only way - but drive is NTFS - I don't think Linux does well with NTFS yet right?

Good Reading: (Hopefully this will save someone all the time I've wasted)
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/billmark ... grade.html
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/billmark ... epaper.pdf
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-57590

melmo · #23 Post by **melmo** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 9:01 am

I had problems moving to a larger drive as well. I bought a cheap $20 Cdn USB drive enclosure that Norton Ghost wouldn't detect as USB 2.0, so 12 hours later when it finished I discovered the new disk would not boot

Then I tried Acronis... didn't work either.

Then I tried a free utility call xxclone http://xxclone.com/ and it actually worked. It runs from within Windows so my USB 2.0 problem went away and the imaging was done pretty fast. A year and half later I'm still using that copied disk image even after upgrading from a T41 to a T42.

Good luck, I can relate to your pain

#24 Post by **carbon_unit** » Sat Jan 21, 2006 10:19 am

darths68 wrote: Maybe Linux dd is the only way - but drive is NTFS - I don't think Linux does well with NTFS yet right?

Good Reading: (Hopefully this will save someone all the time I've wasted)
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/billmark ... grade.html
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/billmark ... epaper.pdf
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-57590

dd is a bit by bit copy not a file by file copy. It just copies the bits and is not aware of the filesystem. It does not know if it is copying NTFS or HFS or BFS or EXT2.

donking! · #25 Post by **donking!** » Fri Feb 24, 2006 3:41 am

So do the rescue and recovery partition and the predesktop generally create problems for cloning drives on ThinkPads? What about the digital signature on the boot records. Is that true? Is that a problem with cloning?

I'm waiting to get a T60, but generally I like to make clones of my hard drives, as backups, so I don't have to use the installation cds when I have problems and so I can restore my system to different states.

Thanks for any clarifications.

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