R51 new hard drive won't boot after upgrade

[kamaleon]

Hi folks,

I've been experience this weird scenario and it's driving me quite nuts.

My girlfriend's R51 came with a 40GB drive originally. I got a 160 one, put it into an usb enclosure, cloned the original one into it using Acronis, then swapped the two drives, but it won't boot. After the POST, all there is is a flashing \
... then nothing happens.

Now, I've checked the drive is seen in the bios, and it is. It is seen , as much as the optical drive. Still, i've tried putting a jumper on it, it wouldn't change anything.

I've tried recloning the drive. Still nothing. A couple of times.

What is really curious about it is that I wanted to make sure the MBR had been correctly cloned, so I tried to boot that system on another machine - a desktop - and it does! So the cloning was correctly done!

I tried making a fresh install of windows on that drive, on the R51, and it boots perfectly fine. So, what's going on here?

Thanks for any insights on the twilight zone episode...

[spuddog]

I think the problem is in the MBR. I have cloned a drive and used the image on a drive that was not exactly the same (different manufacturer, size, etc.) and I have had to use a Windows boot disk and run fixmbr at the command prompt. I wish I could tell you exactly the steps to follow, but it has been a while.

Scott

[BeeJayEmm]

Try this.

[kamaleon]

spuddog, I don't know... if the problem is in the MBR then why would the drive boot into windows on another computer? The MBR is certainly been copied. I forgot to say that I booted a gparted live cd and confirmed that the partition was set to active as well (anyway I had that confirmation by knowing that the drive was bootable on another computer).

I did think of running fixmbr, but unfortunatly my Win XP install CD is a customized unattended one, it won't let me choose to go into a recovery console. So I would have to get my hands onto another to be able to do that. Anyway, as I said, the partition is indeed active and bootable... the mistery goes on...

BeeJayEmm, I've read that thread, thanks, it's exactly the same description! But I don't understand how they can say that the solution is " old drive must go in the housing and the new drive must be in the computer. "

How can I put the empty new hard drive into the computer and the old one into the usb enclosure? AND run Acronis which is installed on the existing OS which is on the external usb one? Are they suggesting I should boot from the usb drive? If that is so, wouldn't that risk making some funny changes to my OS like swapping drive letters etc? I would rather my OS not become funny in case I cannot do the cloning, at least I can always stick to it and have a functional drive.

Or, are they suggesting that the cloning software is on a live cd?

I appreciate your help folks, let's try to find a solution for this

[andyP]

How's about creating a bootable Rescue cd from Acronis? Put the new drive in the R51 and the original in the USB caddy and clone from the cd.
Another thought, sometimes if the metal caddy isn't on the main drive it can, (for whatever reason), cause the problem you are experiencing.

[kamaleon]

Does the rescue cd allow to clone from it?

I've used the metal caddy (otherwise it would have been impossible to install the drive)

[andyP]

My rescue cd does.

[kamaleon]

Ok, I'll try that... see how it goes.

[Puppy]

Even performing Recovery to the factory state can not fix corrupted MBR sometimes. I solved it by booting the IBM recovery (by ThinkPad button), pressing F3 to get command-line, finding FDISK utility and running:

fdisk /mbr

That worked.

[BeeJayEmm]

kamaleon:
Sorry, I should have been more specific. andyP's advice is correct. You can boot either from the Acronis program disk (which is bootable) or make a bootable rescue disk in the program and boot from that. Put the existing drive in the USB enclosure and the new drive in the ThinkPad. Boot from your Acronis disk and clone (make sure you specify the correct source and target disks!). Disconnect the external drive, boot from your new drive and toast your success!


Brian

Edited out error.

[kamaleon]

Brian, that's ok, don't worry.

Still, funnily now you got me more confused: at the end you said swap the drives again?

I think you didn't mean that

[BeeJayEmm]

kamaleon: I'm so sorry (again). Yesterday was a long day! Yes, you're right, you don't swap the drives a second time. I was looking at two lists of directions I wrote myself, one for ThinkPads and one for a Compaq Presario I used to use. The two procedures differ slightly and I wrote the wrong thing. I edited my post to correct it. Thanks for your sharp eyes!

Brian

[carbon_unit]

As a rule you should always remove the old drive and install the new drive in the Thinkpad before doing any cloning. When finished cloning, disconnect the old drive and boot up.

[kamaleon]

Brian, lol, no worries mate

Ok folks, I'll try it again and see what I come up with

(still that wouldn't explain why the cloning I did was bootable on another machine but not mine but nevermind)

[BeeJayEmm]

...that wouldn't explain why the cloning I did was bootable on another machine but not mine...

Our friend carbon_unit wrote this in another thread. "Thinkpads (or laptops in general) read hard drive geometry differently than desktop computers or USB adapters. If you clone it outside of the Thinkpad it will not work." I have also read this info in other threads around here. If you use the search function above with the phrase "drive geometry", you may find a more complete explanation (if you need one).

Brian

[kamaleon]

cor blimley

hardcore stuff! I will have a look indeed Brian, thanks for that!

[kamaleon]

Fellas, I tried booting from the acronis cd, and it won't recognize the usb drive. Tried 2 different enclosures.

It appears in the bios though. So I'm looking for another solution now...

[kamaleon]

got a Win XP disc, done a fixmbr, still not working.

I'm starting to run out of solutions...

I'd like to try to make an install just to be able to boot from that disk (when I tried installing a fresh XP it was booting alright) and then copy all my data from the original hard drive leaving the freshly-installed MBR intact. Is this possible? I'm still trying to figure out how to achieve this.