Help with what I need to know moving info from one notebook HD to another (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

Here's my situation....

My Lenovo T60 is about to arrive any day now
with a 100GB SATA 5400 hard drive.

However, after I ordered the T60 as an
afterthought, I ordered a 100GB SATA 7200
hard drive to replace it as the 5400 is too slow.

Here's the problem....

The 7200 hard drive is on back order for
4 weeks. I want to start using my T60 immediately.

So....

I figured I'd load my 5400 hard drive system
up with all the software and stuff I want on
it. When the 7200 hard drive comes in, I'll
replace the drive and transfer from one drive
to another.

Here's how I plan to do it (and this is
where I need your help)

I am going to use software such as ACRONIS
TRUE IMAGE or GENIE PC BACKUP to create an
IMAGE of the 5200 hard drive. I have an
external Maxtor One Touch drive for my
desktop that I can store that image on.

As soon as I replace the 5200 with the
7200 hard drive I plan to use the LENOVO
FACTORY RECOVERY DISC to load windows and
the basic drivers. Then I'll load the TRUE
IMAGE or GENIE PC BACKUP software and RESTORE
the image that I made to my Maxtor drive.

Will this work? Can I expect all the information
I took off of the 5200 drive to work as well on
the 7200 drive?

Also, I take it that it won't matter that I am
moving an IMAGE of a 5400 hard drive to a 7200
hard drive?

Does the IMAGE contain any information about
the 5400 hard drive that may hamper performance
of the 7200?

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[SethH]

That should certainly work. If you haven't bought a program yet, I would suggest Norton Ghost . . . but that's really just because I'm more familiar with it.

Restoring from a image to the new drive will in no way hamper the performance.

Another option, if you have another computer laying around, is that you could use the XP Files & Settings Transfer Wizard and save the file it creates onto the other computer (preferably on a network folder or on a firewire HD). Then just install Windows on the new drive and then run the wizard again.

Either way should work without any performance degradation.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I would prefer it if your backup software can be booted from a CD, and launched from the CD, and then backup the hard drive to the external hard drive via USB as a imaged file of the entire hard drive to the external hard drive.

Trying to backup the hard drive with software loaded on the same hard drive being backed up complicates things.

 

[Max Leung]

I would recommend Acronis over Norton Ghost - too many problems with the latest Ghost from what I've read. Acronis can also do incremental backups - I don't think Ghost can do that. Also, Acronis can backup while you work.

 

[jason_l_h]

Most replacement notebook hard drives come with cloning/imaging software. I recently replaced my notebook's hard drive and cloned the old one with the Apricorn cloning software that came with it. It runs from a bootable cd so that the operation can be done without Windows running.

 

[TonyD]

i was about to ask something like this too.
i have a laptop with a failing hd.
so we sent it in under warranty and the drive was replaced.
now i have a new drive with xp installed and the old drive with all the stuff on it.

how do i get the stuff onto the new drive?

i hâve to put the old drive into the lap and taKE out the new one to use my "stuff".

layman's term's as i am mostly computer illiterate.

 

[jason_l_h]

Tony, what you need is an external enclosure (for a 2.5" notebook drive) and a cloning program (True Image, Ghost, etc.). You can install your old HD into the enclosure and then use the cloning software to clone its contents to the new HD in your laptop. Then you can use your old hard drive in its enclosure as an additional storage drive or a backup (or both).

 

[TonyD]

hmm, that sounds easy.
now off to get one of those cloning thingies.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Tony,

It's funny Jason brought that up. I am replacing a
slow 5400 hard drive with a 7200 hard drive for my
notebook and need to clone the drive.

I found this enclosure

If Jason agrees this is okay, then that is what I
will be purchasing.

I take it these enclosures have the correct connector
plug for laptop hard drives?

 

[Rob Gillespie]

You may find when you've restored the image to the new drive that XP won't boot because it doesn't recognise the hard drive's hardware identifier. True Image may take care of this but I know Ghost does not. You may need to familiarise yourself with Microsoft Sysprep utility which is designed for exactly this kind of situation.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Rob,

Do you think the chances are high or low
that this could happen in my case?

 

[jason_l_h]

Ron, that enclosure will be perfectly fine. You should be able to install the drive in it in less than 5 minutes. It plugs into a USB port so no problem there either. I have no experience with Ghost or True Image so I don't know about any of the non booting issues Rob mentioned. I personally used Apricorn'e Easy Gig II to clone my drive. It took about 25 minutes to clone and 5 more minutes to swap out the drives and the new cloned drive booted up just fine.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Ron, the problem is that Windows will be trying to boot off a different hard drive the one it was installed on. Even if you move XP to another partition it plays a tizzy fit so moving to another drive will almost certainly throw up the problem.

It's something you can get around by using Sysprep, or by applying your factory image to the new drive and then installing all of your extra software afterwards.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Can you tell me a bit more about Sysrep and
where to access it/how to use?

Perhaps, if you have a moment, step-by-step
instructions on how to use it before loading
in the Acronis software to restore the image?

Thanks Rob!

 

[Rob Gillespie]

I've not used it myself but seen it in use at work where they roll out the same image to hundreds of machines.

If you Google it you'll find a lot of info on sysprep.

 

[TonyD]

sysrep.

wow.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...302577&sd=tech

 

[TonyD]

so what did you do ron?

i bought an enclosure at compusa that came with backup type software.
i put the old hd into the lap then backed-up the entire content onto the new hd in the enclosure.

then i put the new hd into the laptop.

i see some of the programs on the new hd but were is everything else?

should i have created a folder or something else that i should have backed up to insyead of just directly right into the new hd?

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Hi Tony!

I can't offer you expert advice on this, but
can tell you that I ordered a 2.5 SATA hard drive
enclosure that I am expecting to arrive any day now.

I also bought Acronis True Image and plan
to back up the contents of my laptop to the external
drive.

I have no idea how any of this works. It will be
just as much a learning experience for me as it is
to you.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

I bought a hundred gig drive and an EZ Drive transfer kit from Drive Solutions to replace the Dell 40 GB 2.5" that came with my laptop. Got a good deal on all of it and the transfer was a piece of cake. The PC booted right up off the new drive with my OS and all my programs, just like the old drive only a log bigger. Reformatted the old one to use as a external transfer drive. I've since lent the kit to a couple of friends doing similar upgrades and plan to use it to transfer all my junk from may aging HP desktop to the replacement I'll be buying for it in a couple of months.

Regards,

Joe

 

[DeathStar1]

Ok all, I posted this in another thread and the mods can close it down as I'm going to double post here ...

I have a similair problem. I thought ATI and Fusion HDTV where interfering with each other, and no amount of un installing and reinstallign would fix it, so I did a complete reformat of my home computer.

Problem is, this erased my activated upgrade of Photoshop CS2, WSFTP, and one or two other programs.

I reinstalled Windows, and when I had that same problem on my Jersey Shore computer after upgrading software, I did the same thing.

So, I thought I'd outsmart them. I installed Photoshop CS2 on my new portable hard drive, and WSFTP. Activated the latter, called in to activate the former(didn't recognize 5.0 as valid upgrade even though it is), and boom. I thought it worked. Brought the hard drive home, plugged it into my computer there, and no go. Must have installed some neccesary stuff on the C drive that makes it work..

So...A question. If I get everything working again on one machine, back it up with True Image, and then transfer it to another machine, will it work properly?

Also, I have one of those limited activations on my laptop. Can I use True Image to backup only that program, and append it to my main backup, or am I out of luck in that one?

Thanks!