X40 HDD replacement best practices

[bpmcclure]

I'm new here, and after a couple of near-death experiences I have been researching how best (and most easily) to replace the HDD on my X40. I have done some studying, but since I am not an IT pro, I am looking for some guidance before diving in.

Here are the resources I have in hand (others are possible if they make the job easier):

Working 40 GB HDD in my X40
X4 Ultrabase with CD-RW
2nd HDD (blank so far) and SATA adapter for Ultrabase (on it's way to me right now)
New 60 GB IBM SSD HDD
Full set of IBM Rescue and Recovery CD's that work (one near-death experience)
Western Digital Passport USB Drive with data backed up (it works)
Powersuite 2010 utility from Spotmau that has backup, cloning capability, etc.
Windows XP Professional SP3 with its tools
IBM whitepaper on Predesktop Area, and how to clone it (seems it won't help since its cloning procedure requires a diskette)

The options as I see them:

1. Install the new drive, use R&R disks to restore to factory, and reinstall programs, then restore data. This is sure-fire, just did it, but it's painstakingly long.

2. Try to get a good backup on 2nd HDD (I have not had much success with Thinkvantage Rescue and Recovery program, but maybe with the second HDD the process will be better), install new HDD, use R&R boot disk to boot, and restore the backup.

3. Do a Windows backup onto 2nd HDD and then restore it as in 2.

4. Try a Powersuite backup onto 2nd drive, then restore it as in 2. Try disabling security on Predesktop area, clone HDD to 2nd HDD, install new drive, and cone back to it. I am not confident this will work with the Predesktop area, but not sure.

5. Try disabling security on Predesktop area, clone HDD to 2nd HDD, install new drive, and cone back to it. I am not confident this will work with the Predesktop area, but not sure.

So, I am hoping someone has done this and knows the best approach. Also interested if anyone has experience using Powersuite Clone Genius for an operation like this, and whether it works. Or, is there an even better approach that I have not thought of yet.

Thanks to all in advance!

Bruce

[mediasponge]

When I upgraded my A31p to a 320Gb drive, here's what worked for me. I used a NTFS formatted external USB drive as a temp area. I used Acronis True Image to take a full image of the internal drive and put the image file on the external drive. Then I replaced the internal drive with the larger one, and restored from the image file, while allowing Acronis to enlarge the Windows partition. I did this twice, once for a 60 to 120 upgrade, and later from 120 to 320. In my case, I had to use a PC card USB 2.0 adapter to get the speed up. You shouldn't have that problem with an X40. I found that there were IBM disk formatting peculiarities that prevented a disk to disk clone with both disks outside the system, and I didn't have an Ultrabay adapter for the second drive, so I couldn't get them both inside the system. Not sure if an X40 has that issue either.

In your case, it sounds like the Passport and Powersuite would duplicate what I did, but I am not familiar with Powersuite. Lately, I've been using Clonezilla which is free, but it has its quirks.

I loathe complete reinstalls...

[bpmcclure]

Thanks for the reply! Did you have to disable the predesktop area in BIOS before making the image with Acronis? And did you make an image file or a copy of the HDD? I tried the image file route already using Powersuite and the Passport (which is FAT 32 by the way) and did not meet with much success, but I think the 2nd HDD may be better. Hesitate to use the Passport for a full clone as that process destroys everything else on the drive along the way.

Does Clonezilla have the same functionality as Acronis as far as you can tell.

Thanks again!

Bruce

[mediasponge]

Thanks for the reply! Did you have to disable the predesktop area in BIOS before making the image with Acronis? And did you make an image file or a copy of the HDD? I tried the image file route already using Powersuite and the Passport (which is FAT 32 by the way) and did not meet with much success, but I think the 2nd HDD may be better. Hesitate to use the Passport for a full clone as that process destroys everything else on the drive along the way.

Does Clonezilla have the same functionality as Acronis as far as you can tell.

Thanks again!

Bruce

I used one image file for the entire HD. You can't use FAT32 to hold such an image, as image files are generally larger than 4 Gb. I don't think I disabled the predesktop area. I thought Acronis took the hidden partitions as well. This was booting from the CDROM, of course. You image disk to file, not disk to disk. That way, your Passport keeps what it has, but if it's FAT32, it's not much help.

Clonezilla does not seem to be able to resize partitions on the fly. It does work for Linux and Windows, which I needed.

[bpmcclure]

I used one image file for the entire HD. You can't use FAT32 to hold such an image, as image files are generally larger than 4 Gb. I don't think I disabled the predesktop area. I thought Acronis took the hidden partitions as well. This was booting from the CDROM, of course. You image disk to file, not disk to disk. That way, your Passport keeps what it has, but if it's FAT32, it's not much help.

Clonezilla does not seem to be able to resize partitions on the fly. It does work for Linux and Windows, which I needed.

Thanks, I'll take a look at Acronis later today and maybe get it so I have that resource too. Disk to image and back to disk does sound like a good way to go, and probably the 2nd HDD in the Ultrabay would do the trick.

[mediasponge]

Thanks, I'll take a look at Acronis later today and maybe get it so I have that resource too. Disk to image and back to disk does sound like a good way to go, and probably the 2nd HDD in the Ultrabay would do the trick.

If you can put the 2nd (target) drive in the ultrabay, you may not need to do disk>image>disk, just do disk>disk. Can Powersuite do either booted from the CD? That may be all you need.

My favorite boot disks for maintenance purposes are:

Acronis: $$
Clonezilla: Free
Spinrite: $$$
UBCD4Win: Free

[bpmcclure]

If you can put the 2nd (target) drive in the ultrabay, you may not need to do disk>image>disk, just do disk>disk. Can Powersuite do either booted from the CD? That may be all you need.

My favorite boot disks for maintenance purposes are:

Acronis: $$
Clonezilla: Free
Spinrite: $$$
UBCD4Win: Free

Thanks for the list. I think Powersuite can do disk to disk, but not 100% sure of how it will handle the PDA. Think I will try that method and see how it works as soon as my 2nd HDD arrives (ultrabay adapter arrived today, probably tomorrow).

[joec]

Powersuite 2010 utility from Spotmau that has backup, cloning capability, etc.

Bruce

Sorry a bit off-topic - but how do you rate Spotmau backup?

I'm looking to find a good backup product to backup my Photoshop etc. files and I evaluated loads. I use the Win 7 inbuilt backup for system state but i need to find another one for the user files.

Evaluated loads and i'm leaning towards Altaro Oops!Backup ( http://www.altaro.com ) ... weird name but works a treat. However before purchasing would be great to get an idea of other products.

Thanks!

[mediasponge]

Lately, I've been using the Seagate FreeAgent Go drives, which automatically backup My Documents in Windows. Rescued my wife's financial data more than once. Daughter uses one at school for art. I have not had a problem with the drives, but some of the Seagate enclosures are flimsy plastic. Continuous backup is nice.

[bpmcclure]

Sorry a bit off-topic - but how do you rate Spotmau backup?

I'm looking to find a good backup product to backup my Photoshop etc. files and I evaluated loads. I use the Win 7 inbuilt backup for system state but i need to find another one for the user files.

Evaluated loads and i'm leaning towards Altaro Oops!Backup ( http://www.altaro.com ) ... weird name but works a treat. However before purchasing would be great to get an idea of other products.

Thanks!

I'll let you know once I get it to work for me, still getting things lined up to use it.

Bruce

[bpmcclure]

Well, came up against a couple of glitches. Smoked my motherboard, so ended up replacing the machine less HDD. New X40 is a newer model, with faster processor and Bluetooth, but has some different hardware than my old one, so have had some driver adventures. So far so good, but still have not gotten to the SSD installation.

And now I have the 2nd HDD in the Ultrabase, and it does not show up as a drive. I can see it in BIOS, and if I right click My Computer, select Properties and then Hardware, both drives show up. Also if I right click IBM _Preload (C:), both are visible, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to use it. Separate post on this, so will sort that out and then move on to cloning, etc.

[bpmcclure]

Got the 2nd HDD working and tried cloning the existing drive using Spotmau after disabling the PDA security in BIOS. Was unsuccessful. First, the target drive was 120 GB, and the old one 40. Cloned it, and then when trying to clone back to my new 60 GB SSD, got an error that the target (the SSD) was smaller than the source (the 2nd HDD). So was out of business there. Ran a test and tried to boot from the 2nd HDD. No joy, got a blank screen with a blinking cursor. So Spotmau did not handle the PDA.

After these adventures, and based on the fact that my replacement machine had a different hardware configuration from what the old HDD reflected, I decided to bear the pain and restore to factory using my Rescue and Recovery disks. Got it all done in about 12 hours, with a few outstanding issues yet to address. Can't find my network printer, and my FTP program has locked my license for being on too many machines. Think I can sort these out, and I now have full up, 1.5 GHz, BT X40 with a 60 GB SSD. And, assuming I can reformat the 2nd HDD back to full capacity, that drive is available too. So a lot of pain, but got where I wanted to be, sort of.