T42 hard drive in X31 ?

[fschwep]

I am wondering if anyone has used a hard drive originally installed in a T42 with an X31.
I want to install a larger HD in my trusty X31 and as the present HD contains a somewhat shaky OS install (Win XP restored by an eBay seller using Ghost), I would like to try and clone the recent clean hard drive from my T42 onto a new large 320 GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue to go into the X31. The T42 is properly installed with the IBM service partition, Win XP, all drivers from the original factory restore disks, etc. , and a load of good applications - all tuned for speed. Doing that clean re-install was forced by a sudden HD failure in the T42 and it took me a week before most of my applications were running the way I want them to. I hope to avoid that with the X31, and want to use Acronis WD Edition to either clone the disk from the T42 or to restore a full backup of that disk using an Acronis bootable CD to start up the X31 once the new empty disk is in (I got the WD harddisk not only because they sell the largest IDE laptop disks, but because I can use Acronis WD Edition to restore a backup or clone to any WD drive, for free).

The X31 in question is a bastand refurbished machine, with a 2672-W3U motherboard based on a 2672-CTO. 1.6 Ghz Banias CPU, ATI Radeon, Atheros wifi card, etc. ; the T42 has a 1.6 Dothan, basically the same ATI graphics but with more graphics memory, and Intel 2200 wifi. I have the IBM/Atheros wifi drivers from the Lenovo site.
The question is, would the T42 disk, cloned or restored, or even just taken from the T42 and soved into the X31, just work (boot, run, ask for some additional drivers and then just go) or would it require a lot more work?

I just don't want to do a full clean install with all the hassle of swapping install CDs for several days (although I have a set of original X31 install CDs if I need them).

Has anyone done this between slightly different models from the same generation?

[RealBlackStuff]

Those machines are nearly identical.
IMHO you can just copy/clone the T42 content onto the X31 HD and off you go.
It will sputter a few times in the X31 and find new hardware (actually re-find it), but that should be it.
Make sure to set the T42 graphics to 1024x768 before you copy/clone.

[fschwep]

Thanks, I hoped it might be able to work like that. Will report back when done.

[fschwep]

I can now report that it worked. I used an IDE-USB adapter to connect the new WD 320 GB harddisk to my T42, and used Acronis True Image to clone the T42 to the new empty disk. It recognized both the C:partition and the hidden IBM Service partition and cloned them. Put the disk in the X31, switched it on and it worked - it installed most drivers for specific hardware (card reader, firewire) automagically, I only had to fool around a bit to get the Atheros wifi card working (I had to disable a generic modem driver in Windows). Total time spent was about three hours until I had a fully functional system. I am typing this on it now.
Of course upgrading from a 60 GB to a 320 GB hard drive makes a huge difference. The greater data density on the disk makes it notably faster and it's great having so much space to carry data around when travelling without the need for external storage.
This suggests that properly installed hard drives with running OSes and applications can be used or cloned without much trouble in/between TPs from the same generation.

[jhui]

I can now report that it worked.

I have a slightly different question and hope you can answer. Now you have both a T42 and X31.

I am not sure which version of Windows you are using. I like you can clone the disk image of your running X31 system to a separate disk. Use the new disk and insert it back to a T42. Will the T42 boot up your Windows? I am asking this because I try to recover some files I had saved in my old already dead X31 system. Thanks.