Re: Hard Drive Upgrade

I use the clone function too. To swap hd's, I have an Apricot software into
a usb external. The software and external hhd case as less than $40 from
buy.com. TrueImage is good too.

I have never got IBM Rescue and Recovery to work well. It backs up fine,
the image is good, but after I restore it, it would never boot. Once you
get something to work, why change.


"John Doue" <notwobe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:QqsNg.44$ib4.9@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I have had strange results with cloning laptop drives, quite often with
TrueImage as well. The problem seems to arise when doing the cloning with
a desktop computer, and then moving the drive back to the laptop. Odd as
this sounds, it's as though the desktop machines seem to address the disk
slightly differently to the laptops. In many cases I have been left with
what appears to be an MBR or boot sector problem, and the only fix is to
repartition and reformat from within the target machine. Odd.

Perhaps though, the problem in this instance is more to do with you
trying to clone the HPA partition. You should really be backing up and
restoring the HPA partition with the Phoenix tools, as per the IBM
instruction document which details the procedure.

Carl,

I think I have an explanation for the "strange results" you are referring
to. IMHO, and although nobody has been able to explain clearly to me the
cause of the problem, it looks like Thinkpads has a different way of
"addressing" a HD. I read something about it some time ago but I went over
my head and could not make sense of it. I would be extremely grateful to
anybody who could explain to me what is different with IBM addressing
system. I believe that Compaq used to be different in this regard too, but
this is water under the bridge today I guess ...

Until I bought a Thinkpad, I never ever had any problem with
PartitionMagic copying boot partitions from one drive to another and using
it. When I tried to do the same thing with a Thinkpad, it did not work.
When I checked the partitions with PMagic, it came up with an error
message saying the geometry of my HD was faulty, and the data was not
accessible. Conversely, using PMagic on my Thinkpad created boot
partitions that were deems faulty if checked from a standard desktop.

I looked for a workaround to this problem (I am used to Partition Magic
and find it very clear in its menus and safe to use), but came up with the
conclusion that I had to clone the whole (whole highlighted here) disk
with TrueImage to get a bootable disk. Once this is done, partitions other
than the boot partition can be changed and move with PMagic without a
hitch.

Using TrueImage has worked for me nicely, with the proviso to be extremely
careful when selecting the disks, using the Manual approach to clone the
whole disk, directly and not through a file to be restored later.

I am curious to know where John, the OP, stands now.

Regards

--
John Doue


.

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