Newbie trying to change to bigger hard drive

[l2karl]

OK, thanks to all here who helped me with obtaining a new HD for my Thinkpad T40. Now it is time to actually clone the old hard drive.

I have Ghost 9 and Ghost 2003? Any preferences here?

I'm running XP PRO SP2.

I have an external USB 2.0 hard drive (Lacie) that is large enough to burn an image too? I do not have a usb enclosure for the new hd. Should I try and get one?

This is the old hard drive:

HTS548040M9AT00 [Hard drive] (36.44 GB) -- drive 0, s/n

The new one is a 60Gig from Samsung:

HM061GC

Never having done this before, I'm a bit leary about this. I've done backups to hard drives, but never cloned anything. (I'm a DOS/98 guy who just made the move to XP PRo... which I have to say has been good to me... so far!)

Any help much appreciated.

[awolfe63]

I have done this with Ghost with mixed success. Use teh disk copy function - not the normal imaging.
Acronis users have reported better luck.

BTW - ghost 14 is the current version.

[l2karl]

I have done this with Ghost with mixed success. Use teh disk copy function - not the normal imaging.
Acronis users have reported better luck.

BTW - ghost 14 is the current version.

Awolfe63,

Well, I don't have Ghost 14, but I do have 9 and 2003. So if there is one of those that works somewhat better that is the one for me.

By any chance would there be a FAQ here somewhere to help me thorugh using Ghost? As it is I think I'm into a 3 step process. Copy over the Lacie Hard Drive and then over to the new hard drive.

OR burn something to DVD???

Really am a newbie here, so sorry for all the questions.

[awolfe63]

Get an empty USB case or a USB/PATA adapter for the new drive. Use drive copy to copy from the old drive to the new - then swap.

Sometimes I have had to install an OS on the new drive first to create a boot sector - then copy over it.

[rkawakami]

What works for me for a T41 and Ghost 2003 is the following:

- port replicator/docking station; which should have the thin, 1" wide connector for...
- external floppy drive; one normally for the 600-series (FRU 05K6187); I use the dock and external floppy since I don't have a USB floppy. If your system can boot from a USB floppy, then you don't need the dock/external floppy.
- Ultrabay Slim hard drive adapter (FRU 62P4553)

- Create a Ghost boot floppy with the -ia option enabled; this is done under Windows
- Shut the system down; the rest of the clone procedure takes place outside of Windows
- Put the new drive into the Ultrabay hard drive adapter and install in the bay
- Place system into port replicator with the external floppy connected and the Ghost boot floppy inserted
- Boot the laptop and press the F12 key to get the boot menu
- Select the removable/floppy drive as the boot source
- When Ghost is finished loading, select Local/Disk/To Disk. Source disk is #1 (the one installed in the laptop's HD bay. Destination disk is #2 (the one installed in the Ultrabay HD adapter).
- When the clone is done, click the "Continue" (not Reset) button and then Quit the Ghost program
- Power the system off and swap the drives
- Boot the system with the new drive, allow Windows to see that a new drive is installed and then tell it to re-start

I've done this disk-to-disk clone numerous times with 600X, T2x and T4x systems. Using the Ultrabay hard drive adapter is much faster than using a USB external case, though probably at a slightly higher cost for the hardware. I've also imaged drives onto DVDs and basically used them as my custom restore disks. Ghost 2003 will write to most Ultrabay CD or DVD burners. In that situation, I have installed an OS just the way I want it and then wrote an image onto DVD+RW disks. Here's a site I setup for using those DVDs:

http://www.kawakami-ca.com/ghost_2003/dvd_restore/

I don't have one yet which documents the disk clone procedure, but hopefully I'll get around to doing it.