Data transfer with enclosure....

Question

I want to transfer all data from one laptop hard drive to another. What can i expect? I'm sure it's not as easy as it sounds. Also, the new HD is SATA. Do I need a 2.5 SATA HD enclosure to do this? Thanks.

jackshack · Answer

If your new hard drive is a SATA drive I must assume that the old drive is also SATA as it will not otherwise fit into your notebook.  Given that the old and new drives are SATA the answer is yes, your external enclosure must support a SATA interface.   You didn't mention the operating system, but assuming that it is Windows XP you can put the new drive into the computer, use the Windows CD to install the operating system, install the drivers with the Resource CD (or download them from the Drivers and Downloads section of Dell Support Tools), mount the old drive into the enclosure, and use your preferred copy routine to transfer your 'My Documents' and other data to the new drive.  It may be necessary to take 'ownership' of the directory on the old drive before the transfer will be allowed; you do this through the security settings on the folder, and you need to be in safe mode using the administrator account to do this if you're using XP Home.   You can also mount the new drive into the enclosure and use Acronis True Image to clone the old drive to the new one.  There are some problems doing this if you are using Media Direct 2, but otherwise it should work ok.   Good luck!

360 Pro · Answer

Thanks for the Re. The hard drive I want to transfer data to has a corrupt OS on it(XP cannot start because hal.dll is missing or corrupt). Basically, I want to format it and re-install XP, or just mirror my good drive. That's another ballgame, isn't it?

osprey4 · Answer

360 Pro:   You cannot mirror a drive from another machine unless they are identical machines. However, if you need something cheap, there's a freeware program called XXClone that has worked for me (although I have only used it for backup, not drive cloning). Google it.

360 Pro · Answer

I'm glad asked. So, this is possible if I try the freeware? If I can't do that, will I at least be able to format the HD from the other laptop in the enclosure?

360 Pro · Answer

The notebook I'm using is a Dell Latitude and the HD in the enclosure is a Hitachi Travelstar from a Dell Inspiron 1505. The Dell Inspiron cannot start windows because of a missing .dll file. I cannot boot from the Windows XP cd to repair it. It appears that the XP cd I have been given to work with is not bootable. Just an autorun. I can't even get to the command prompt. I can't think of any other way to fix it other than formatting the hard drive and starting from scratch or transferring the files. I thought maybe I could mirror my old OS to the Hitchi on another partition. Basically, I have no idea what to do and I'm just going through trial and error. Thanks for your attn. and please reply.

jackshack · Answer

Essentially a clean disk waiting for the installation of something.

360 Pro · Answer

This is great info. Thanks. So, if I do format that drive, what can I expect when I put the drive back in the other machine?

jackshack · Answer

You should be able to format the drive but even if you could install Windows it would not work in another machine, and will probably not work in the machine you formatted it from.

Windows XP CDs are bootable unless you have a disk that was simply copied instead of going through the process of making a bootable ISO CD. In order to do a clean install or even to perform a proper repair install you must be able to boot from the CD.

Message Edited by JackShack on 04-30-2007 01:16 PM

Storage, Drives & Media

Data transfer with enclosure....

Was this post helpful?