Ghosting a Thinkpad

[BuddyWill]

I called Lenovo Support about ghosting my Z60m. I wish to swap my current 5400rpm hard drive with a 7200 rpm one and figured a simple ghosting would suffice. not according to support due to the IBM preload. I have paid for an XP license so I don't want to obtain another one.

And since I am a few months off warranty, they didn't want to provide any help other than instruct me to reinstall fresh from Lenovo's support and downloads section.

I want to know if there is anything I can do to retain all my info without having to reinstall everything.

The Lenovo site instructs one method to use the rescue and recovery on backup CD's. I also notice a migration method built into Thinkpads. What's the best way to do this? thanks.

[bontistic]

Here's the cloning FAQ from Bill.

Should be fairly simple to do and cloning will allow you to retain all your data, OS and recovery partition as long as your new drive is the same or bigger sized than the total data size on your old drive.

Migration methods (SMA/RnR) will require you to re-install the operating system first and will take a couple of hours to finish. Cloning will allow you to do it in 30 mins or so.

[BuddyWill]

Nice, thanks!

[billp117]

You also might want to consider the free software from Seagate that can help you either clone or migrate to your new drive. Works for me.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?l ... 04090aRCRD

[BuddyWill]

When using the Seagate utility to clone your IBM_Preload, do you have access to the Thinkvantage OS (press Thankvantage button upon bootup)?

A friend of mine found an article that explains how to ghost a drive to keep all the IBM_Preload completely intact. I used the steps provided and it worked well. IBM also has some information on this as well.

For those interested, this is what I was instructed:

Have USB thumbdrive with a bootable version of Norton Ghost 8.xxx plug it in.

Boot up and go into your bios.

Go into security and set 'Predesktop Area' settings to disable. Before exiting out of the Bios, change the boot order to boot from the USB drive first. Save and exit.

restart the laptop. Boot up into the thumbdrive and by default, a DOS command prompt should appear. instead of typing 'Ghost' to start the software, you input the parameters "Ghost -IB" (if it does not work, try 'ID' as I may have forgotten which one it was).

Complete the ghost through Norton Ghost.

Swap drives and boot from the new drive.

Go into the BIOs before it loads windows on the new drive and re-enable the security settings for "Predesktop Area". By default, it should be set to 'normal'.

That's what I did and everything works. I tested the Thinkvantage Rescue and Recovery software by booting into Thinkvantage instead of windows and all the functions seem to be operational.

I'm excited to have performed the switch but I did notice a lack of improvement in performance/speed after upgrading from my OEM Hitachi 5400rpm drives with the new Seagate Momentus 7200rpm drives. People claimed that their windows load quicker as a sign of improvement but mine does not. In fact, with the new drive, it seems to be slower in some cases. This appears on large when I empty my trash bin. At times it will stall for about a good 10-15 seconds before the task actually begins although i see the progress bar but no progress. And when it removes my files, it doe sit intermittently as though the computer is running hot on multiple processes which I am not.

[bontistic]

Use the -IB switch for Ghost. I use this all the time on Ghost 2003 (I think this is version 9).

Also, no need to disable predesktop security to allow cloning of the rescue partition. Performing a clone even on "Normal" security works fine for me.

[panflute]

I upgraded my 100GB 5400 RPM drive in my Z60T to a 100GB 7200 RPM drive by simply using the IBM rescue & recovery program and doing a complete backup to DVD, then restoring that backup to the new drive. It was that simple. I saw only a very little performance increase with the faster drive. I could put the old drive into the CD bay and do a backup from there, only IBM does not provide that option in the current rescue & recovery software, and spending all that money on Acronis is not necessary since I already have a full "hard copy" backup on DVD.

[billp117]

The free Seagate software is powered by Acronis
I just cloned my X30 from a 40 GB to an 80 GB using the Seagate software. It just does not get any easier.

[clickpoint]

When using the Seagate utility to clone your IBM_Preload, do you have access to the Thinkvantage OS (press Thankvantage button upon bootup)?

A friend of mine found an article that explains how to ghost a drive to keep all the IBM_Preload completely intact. I used the steps provided and it worked well. IBM also has some information on this as well.

For those interested, this is what I was instructed:

Have USB thumbdrive with a bootable version of Norton Ghost 8.xxx plug it in.

Boot up and go into your bios.

Go into security and set 'Predesktop Area' settings to disable. Before exiting out of the Bios, change the boot order to boot from the USB drive first. Save and exit.

restart the laptop. Boot up into the thumbdrive and by default, a DOS command prompt should appear. instead of typing 'Ghost' to start the software, you input the parameters "Ghost -IB" (if it does not work, try 'ID' as I may have forgotten which one it was).

Complete the ghost through Norton Ghost.

Swap drives and boot from the new drive.

Go into the BIOs before it loads windows on the new drive and re-enable the security settings for "Predesktop Area". By default, it should be set to 'normal'.

That's what I did and everything works. I tested the Thinkvantage Rescue and Recovery software by booting into Thinkvantage instead of windows and all the functions seem to be operational.
.

Aghh... I can't seem to get it to copy the predesktop area....
only seems like it copies PRELOAD ...

What could I be doing wrong ??
Using ghost 2003, but when I boot, it comes up w/ graphical interface ; under options I click -ib ; then chose disk to disk...
but ghost only sees PRELOAD and FREE ; I don't think it is copying the FREE section (predesktop)... I have it disabled in bios....

HELP!

When I disable protection in BIOS, windows just sees that as unallocated space.... should it appear as a partition (name,etc)?

[SkZuk]

When using the Seagate utility to clone your IBM_Preload, do you have access to the Thinkvantage OS (press Thankvantage button upon bootup)?

I am also curious, does the "press Thankvantage button" upon boot work?

[panflute]

It would seem logical for IBM to provide a way for Backup & Restore to use a 2nd HD in the bay. But I guess not.

I echo a previous comment. Backup to DVD using the IBM full backup to DVD, switch drives, and restore the DVDs to the new drive. The new drive will be IDENTICAL to the old drive. I too upgraded to a 7200 RPM drive, but saw little increase in speed.

This is exactly why you MUST have a DVD writer in your thinkpad, since who knows anything can happen, even with a bad IBM update (like PC Doctor).....

[BlackCloud]

Hello everyone...first post on the forums but had my Z60t for around 2 years.

I want to upgrade the standard Hitachi 80Gb 5400 SATA drive. I have bought a 250Gb Hitachi 5400 SATA drive. I have read up on upgrading and cloning and I think I followed the instructions but drive just hangs on boot up. No error messages, just flashing cursor before getting to Windows. Here's what I did...

Original hard drive in Thinkpad, new 250Gb in USB SATA enclosure

Set Acronis True Image 11 Home to clone and copy (and preserve original data) to new drive

Tried two cloning methods but almost the same procedure;

1st time used Acronis laptop hard drive where it closes down and boots into cloning application. First time let it automatically adjust partition sizes

2nd time booted from Acronis CD into cloning application but manually adjusted partition sizes. Adjust 'hidden' recovery partition to same size (4.91 Gb) and new C drive to 237Gb

End results for both methods the same...failure to boot.

Acronis always finishes cloning reporting 'successful'

Put the new drive into the Thinkpad but it fails to boot up

If I put the drive back in the SATA enclosure I can see all the files have copied ok and are useable. USB drive always disconnected before attempting to boot up.

The BIOS on my Z60 is the latest. Neither drive is showing any faults.

Any ideas?

[BlackCloud]

Ok, following my own post but this may help someone. Finally got my 250Gb installed and working.

As above post using Acronis to clone the small drive to the larger just left the drive hanging on boot up. It would not boot up at all just left a flashing cursor and no sign of Windows starting. If I examined the cloned larger drive by putting it in the enclosure I could see all the files copied but I could not get it to boot...so...

Tried a different approach...

Backed up original 80Gb Thinkpad drive to another big SATA external using Acronis.

Installed the 250Gb Hitachi in Thinkpad (checked again would not boot, so...)

Used a USB floppy with the RR recovery diskette to attempt to repair the MBR...had error to say drive was showing as non-Thinkpad so cannot repair (so here is the reason it would not boot)

Used 2nd option to overwrite MBR - this option worked

Drive can now be accessed in Thinkpad but would not boot up in C:

However could access Thinkvantage recovery so just let it reinstall itself in C: and so had full working factory restored Thinkpad using the 250Gb drive. Partial success!

Then decided to take chance...boot from Acronis CD and restore the drive image I had made earlier. Took around 2 hours but it copied, reboot...and it worked! Now have my data all copied over and working fine. Have rebooted several times no problem.

Long winded but not as bad as doing a whole reinstall of all application individually. The direct cloning 80Gb to 250Gb using Acronis definately did not work for me but the above method got me there in the end!