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Hi Packrat1947!
Great to hear from someone with as much experience on hardware as you, and to hear that I am on the right way with the cloning. I will certainly google the IBM forums tonight.
Thanks a lot - take care!
Andy
Hi Packrat1947!
Thanks for your google tips. Tried:
"To "unhide" the hidden area, invoke the BIOS on bootup by pressing "F1". Then, under "Security", change "Access IBM Predesktop Area" to "Disabled". Reboot." and gave it another shot with Ghost. Same result. Then I tried the evaluation version of Acronis Migrate Easy and to my big surprise it worked directly!!
Thanks again for your hints!
Andy
Hi!
I have an IBM Thinkpad T41 laptop with a 40 GB 2.5" IDE hard drive. I am running Windows XP SP 2.
I would like to upgrade it to a bigger hard disk, so I now have a 120 GB hard disk and a SWEEX cabinet so that I can connect it over USB. I also just bought Norton Ghost 14.0 for the purpose. I initialized the new disk and tried to clone the old one. The process completed without any errors.
Source drive to copy: XP (C:\)
Destination:
(new hard disk)
Options:
[X] Check source for file system errors
[X] Check destination for file system errors
[X ] Resize drive to fill unallocated space
[X] Set drive active
[X] Disable SmartSector copying
[ ] Ignore bad sectors during copy
Destination partition type: Primary
New drive letter: <not specified>
Advanced options:
[X] Copy MBR
I verified that the clone appeared to be identical in Explorer and then shut the laptop down and replaced the old hard disk with the new. But the system does not boot from it; a blank screen just appears and nothing happens.
The new hard disk was configured as master all the time, (I assumed that the external SWEEX USB/IDE cabinet acts as a separate IDE-controller and required the disk to be configured as master).
Any ideas of why it does not work?
- Is it supposed to work to clone the internal hard disk to an external IDE?
- I did not assign a drive letter (since C: was not available in the list, and I guess that in order to boot from it, it must be C:). Is that a problem?
- Should I have configured it as slave in the external SWEEX USB/IDE cabinet?
- Problems with the resize drive option?
- Anything else?
Regards
Andy
Hi Andy,
Glad you found something that worked.
It seems that we must keep several tools in our bags for imaging and cloning. Occasionally, Acronis will not see a particular USB drive or even a port. Then I’ll try an older ghost. If that doesn’t work, the I’ll boot up with a miniPE or other utility disc, and these usually can see USBs. Sata drives are another story, and can be problematic too. Sata just adds a lot of complication with no gain.
Just recently, I worked on a computer that had GoBack on it. Well, GoBack modifies the HD down on the low level and Acronis just could not see it, or deal with it. I think I used the Ghost corporate, and did a sector-by-sector (and ignore errors) type clone. That worked. Live and learn. I’ve been using Acronis 11 with good effect. However, on the Wilder’s website quite a few report that they have issues with it. They say that the Acronis 10 is more reliable. I have them both.
[edit: removed redirected url.]
This utility disc has Runtime’s DriveImage XML program. If you don’t want to build it, it can be purchased. There are other cloners on it too. Runtime sells data recovery tools, so they know about moving ones and zeroes.
http://www.ubcd4win.com/downloads.htm
Runtime gives it away for free, but it doesn't have many bells and whistles.
Many of these utility discs allow you to roll back the registry, when you can’t even get into windows. Nice to have in your ditty bag. I’m pretty sure that Acronis offers their version 8 for free. You might have to dig around for a bit to find it. I don’t know if it is full featured or not.
Well, that’s all for now.
Packrat1947
Interesting that you should refer to ubcd4win -- I was just telling in another thread about encountering a warning of a hacktool virus which turned out to be a report on a file in ubcd4win!
This link takes you to a page they have about false positives due to tools of the kind they include and is worth knowing about.
Hi Andy,
This is my first posting here. I stumbled your issue as I was researching a customer’s Goback issue. No one has yet replied to you, so I’ll throw in my two cents. It appears that everything you did was correct. It should have booted. A quick Google of “clone thinkpad hard drive” turns up a lot of people in your position. I have read on other forums (forensic, data recovery, etc.) that IBM has some unusual Bios characteristics. IBM calls it security, but others just call it a big nuisance, and pain in the butt. Trying to get around the bios password is about impossible, and the computer has to go back to the service center. It will cost you big bucks.
When you bought your new drive, did it come with software. I know that Seagate comes with a version of Acronis True Image, and should do what you want. It may have something to do with a SID number, but I’ll wait to someone else chimes in. I'm sure that HD manufacturer's software have a way around this. I could be wrong though.
Do the google search and you’ll be taken to the ThinkPad forums. That is the place that should be able to help you. I always clone my HDs too. Every computer has multiple drives and most have multiple OSs too. The first clone right after purchase is set aside in case the laptop has to be sent in for repair. This assures that there is no data on it, and no way for a repair tech to blame anything on me. After I get the computer up to speed with my massive amount of utilities, and office products, I clone again. I’m a repair tech, and whenever I leave the house with my small Dell M1210, I have an extra drive ready to drop in – in case it doesn’t fire up. Whenever I clean customer’s computers of malware, I normally clone to one of my spare drives, and do the heavy lifting on it. Then, when I’m finally satisfied, I clone back again. This saves a lot of wear and tear on the original drive. It also gives me a good starting point in case something spirals out of control. I use True Image, Ghost 2003, or Ghost 11 Corporate. These are all bootable CDs. I’ve never had an issue of non-booting yet. Fingers crossed.
I haven’t seen a IBM in a few years, so I’m not really up on their situation. Right now Microcenter is having a nice sale on an IBM laptop. I was going to buy one for my brother-in-law, but just don’t want to get into your IBM situation. I’ll stick with Dells and HPs, thank you. These are the “smallblock Chevys” of the computer world. And no oddball quirks. Long ago, Compaq put part of their bios on the HD. That was a stupid mistake. Bios belongs on the mainboard.
Well, that’s all for now.
Packrat1947