HD upgrade problem - T30

[westsailor]

I wanted to replace the 40gig drive in my T30 with a 60 gig Hitachi Travelstar. One difference is the old drive is a 12mm and the new Hitachi is 9mm.

I first formatted the new drive (no fdisk) then cloned the 40 gig using Ghost 2003 via USB. No problem so far, I can view the new disk/files, etc. and 'bytes used' are the same on both HD's via a DIR command under MS-DOS.

However, when I try to install the new hitachi drive in the T30 I get a 'disk read error' at bootup.

I've searched the forums here and find other instances where others have similar problems when trying to replace the HD. However, I haven't seen any definitive answers to what the problem is and how to resolve it other than try Acronis True image. I really don't think it's a problem with the cloned image.

So to recap... New drive is not defective (can access via USB), cloned image appears fine, physical install reports 'disk read error'

Any ideas/suggestions?

[_erazor_]

the boot sector was likely not cloned properly

are you sure you made a bootable image of the old driver?

[westsailor]

Well, I am assuming (and we all know what that means) that when Ghost clones a drive it is basically a bit level copy/image, starting at 'sector 0'.

That was my next approach tho, to start over and 'format E:/sys' to ensure a proper bootable sector is present, something I didn't think would be necessary the first time around (see assumption above).

For me this is usually a pretty straighforward task... nothing terribly technical involved with adding/replacing a HD. Usually... When it turned out NOT to be so straightforward I just wanted to make sure there wasn't any 'Thinkpad/T30 specific' issues before I spend another whole day cloning the new drive via USB.

Would not having a good boot sector result in a 'disk read error'? My first inclination was to go into the bios and make sure the proper drive parameters were set (e.g. autodetect drive type).

Alas, there is no entry in the bios that has anything to do with setting the proper drive type. Is the IBM bios smart enough to understand there is a different drive present with more heads/sectors/etc. and adjust itself accordingly?

[dsvochak]

Cloning a drive and rebooting with both the original drive and the new drive in or attached to the machine creates the problem described at http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm

Also, if you remove the TP disk from the machine, connect it to a desktop and clone to a new disk for the TP, the cloning process may fail because the desktop reads the notebook drive geometry differently than the TP does.

Either of these could account for your problem.

[westsailor]

Actually, the old drive wasn't present since I natually 'assumed' things would work as planned. I'd removed the original drive, installed the new one and got the 'disk read error'.

When it failed, I then reinstalled the original drive back in with the new, cloned drive attached via USB to verify the new drive was OK. Booted fine (with orig drive) and could access the new drive no problem.

And no desktop was involved either

but still you may be onto something... I'll check it out.

[Sportler2k3]

Im using the partition magic clone tool and never had any problems with it.
Not on my t30(scnd HD) an not on my Tosh Portege(with the 4th HD installed while i own it)
I mostly used my desktop machine to clone the old HD's data to the new HD, both connected via usb2.0

always booted correctly with the newer drives installed

greetz Marc

[JHEM]

Also, if you remove the TP disk from the machine, connect it to a desktop and clone to a new disk for the TP, the cloning process may fail because the desktop reads the notebook drive geometry differently than the TP does.

That's usually only a problem if the HD is installed internally in the desktop.

For the OP, go to Acronis and download the 15 day trial copy of True Image and use that to clone your HDs.

I've never been a fan of Ghost even though many here have no problems with it. If you want to try running Ghost again, IIRC there's some switches you have to set in the command line when running it in order to get a BOOTable clone.

Regards,

James

[rkawakami]

Well, I am assuming (and we all know what that means) that when Ghost clones a drive it is basically a bit level copy/image, starting at 'sector 0'.

There are several options (i.e. command line swithes) available with Norton Ghost 2003 which may affect how the copy process works. Do you know which ones you are using? If you didn't explicity specify any, then I would assume (there's that word again!) that the clone is using a "default" method, which should work correctly.

I have had success using the following procedure with original drives that do not contain any recovery partition so this may not work in your case:

1) Create a Norton Ghost boot floppy and run Ghost from the floppy and not under Windows. This is the way I avoid the problem described by dsvochak with having two bootable drives in the system when it is restarted. I trashed a drive when trying to clone it which resulted in a missing "Welcome" screen (no way to sign on!). Of course this requires an external floppy drive with your T30. My solution is to use one of my external floppy drives from a 600X, along with an A/T/X series port replicator. Simply plug the floppy into the appropriate port, mount the T30 to the replicator and change/verify your BIOS boot sequence (or hit the F12 key when booting).

2) I use an Ultrabay hard disk drive adapter for my target drive and not USB. I believe that the data transfer rate is much faster this way. It also eliminates any dependancies on USB drivers and what not. So far I have cloned several drives on my 600X systems but have not tried this with my T21 as I do not yet have the Ultrabay 2000 adapter.

3) I specify the "image boot" method for the clone. Here's where you may need to play around with the other options. The drives that I have been cloning are single partition drives so this is what works for me. I have not had any problems booting the target (new) drive but the operating system may force a re-boot because it "sees" a new drive configuration the first time it starts. Also, certain M$ products under Windows XP may require re-activation because of a preceived change in the setup of the computer. I think that there's a way to avoid this by using sysprep or some other tool but I've never tried it.

That was my next approach tho, to start over and 'format E:/sys' to ensure a proper bootable sector is present, something I didn't think would be necessary the first time around (see assumption above).

Correct. I have never prepared a blank drive with a system format prior to a clone with Ghost.

Would not having a good boot sector result in a 'disk read error'?

Possibly. This may depend upon the way that the clone operation was performed.

Is the IBM bios smart enough to understand there is a different drive present with more heads/sectors/etc. and adjust itself accordingly?

That is my understanding. The IBM Easy Setup does not appear to display the drive parameters like most of the other older BIOS. It's not like the old days where you could see what "drive type" it sees and view/adjust the number of heads and sectors. There may be a way to get to this information using the CTRL-D screen but I haven't tried and most likely it's in hex anyway.

[Kyocera]

Save yourself the agony and use Acronis.