Replace my stock drive with a WD 500GB

[usernaim]

Hi, I have a T61 and I want a bigger drive.

Perhaps prematurely, I ordered a 500 GB laptop drive (Western Digital Scorpio Blue) and a USB enclosure, with the idea of transferring the system to the bigger drive, then putting it in place of my stock drive. I would like to maintain the pre-boot and Rescue and Recovery features. Ideally, I would transfer everything lock, stock, and barrel, but if necessary I could just do the system, copy the data from a USB hard drive, and reinstall the software.

I'm basically a newbie, so I'm not sure how to proceed. I see in the FAQ something about Flashing a drive, but I'm not sure if that applies. I initially thought I could use Rescue and recovery--backing up to a USB drive and then installing the new drive internally, booting from the USB drive and recovering to new internal HD. Will that work? Or do I need to buy software (Ghost or something else)?

Thanks so much for advice or relevant links.

[BillMorrow]

i use acronis true image and do a backup and then restore..
simple and effective..

FYI logicbuy has a link to a new h/p 500gig HDD for $57~ delivered..
i grabbed one yesterday..

[Harryc]

The price is now $220.40 for that 500gb drive.

[BillMorrow]

it must have been a pricing error..

no one will pay $220 for a 500gig drive these days..

[usernaim]

Will Acronis work with just the trial version, or would I need to pay for the full version?

Alternatively, if I made Product Recovery disks, and popped in the new drive, will it have any trouble installing? Maybe it's better to do a clean install.

Thanks.

[BillMorrow]

trial version will be crippled in some way..
might be smart to read the acronis website..

making the recovery CD's will work (or has in the past) just fine on any new HDD..

[usernaim]

Thanks much, I think I'll go with the clean install, though it's a PITA!

[BillMorrow]

try cloning the drive..

does acronis cripple the eval version..?

[JRicher]

Last night I used the free trial version of Acronis True Image home to clone my c drive to a WD Scorpio Blue 500 gb drive and then installed the new drive internally. Worked first time, no problem. I have Windows XP Pro on a Thinkpad x61s. My files & programs were all there, and my ultrabay and driver for the software key I need for my court reporting software worked fine.

For non-techies, I posted details on how I did it here:

http://forums.lenovo.com/lnv/board/mess ... 504#M10581

[RMCprime]

Did cloning the (C) drive also copy the service/recovery partition on the hard drive?

My hard drive is on the way out (making wierd noises and such) so I'd like to copy atleast the service partition to the new drive and then use the recovery software to reformat.

[RMCprime]

Tried it following the steps in the link above. At boot the rescue and recovery screen comes up and works, but windows does not boot. It just goes to a blank screen with a blinking cursor.

Any Ideas?

X60 tablet - 6363model

Edit... I repeated the process. However this time I used manual mode and set the size i wanted for the C: and service partitions. IT WORKED.