R51 HDD upgrade: how to clone system?

[Fiish]

Hi,

I'm planning to upgrade my R51's hard drive to a 5400/7200rpm model and would like to find out how I can copy the recovery partition to the new hard drive. From what I have read in this board, the Recovery CDs actually restore only the Recovery Partition and I would still have to boot into it and do the Factory Restore from there.

My question is: Can I just restore the recovery partition that way, and then do a clean XP install?

I have an OEM WinXP CD with SP2 already streamlined in (there was no SP2 when I bought the notebook), and I plan to use to install Windows, but will use the CD key on my R51's sticker. Would that cause any issues with activation?

Finally, I also thought of the suggested methods of using Arconis True Image to just clone the HDD over; would it work across different sized hard disks and would I lose the recovery partition that way?

[Kendas]

Hi,
Finally, I also thought of the suggested methods of using Arconis True Image to just clone the HDD over; would it work across different sized hard disks and would I lose the recovery partition that way?

Just got done upgrading my A30 from the oem 20GB to a 60GB drive... The PO had formatted the 20GB and removed the recovery partition. I just "cloned" the old drive to the new one using Notron Ghost 9.0. Worked like a champ and booted right up on the 60GB.

Nothing fancy to the cloning process... I just bought a USB to IDE cable that included the 2.5 drive adapter and power supply from Cyberguys and away we went.

Ken

[Kyocera]

Have you checked out the HD Clone FAQ? Link in my sig .

[Fiish]

Thanks for the pointers. Now I just have to wait for my new HDD to arrive

Kyocera, I've gone through your FAQ, it was very helpful. From what I've read, I take it the latest version of Acronis will clone the recovery partition with it. Can the trial version do this?

However, I've noticed that my predesktop isn't really working properly - some of the links in it don't work, notably the 'restore system' functions. They work fine when I boot from my Recovery CDs, which were made with the same version of R&R. Would the fact that I have uninstalled the Windows R&R (found out it was adding about 20s to my boot time) have anything to do with it?