You'll need a way to mount a second drive - a USB 2.0 PCMICA card and an external 2.5" bay for the drive. Some drive makers (Seagate, WD) supply cloning software - others (Toshiba) do not, so you may have to buy software or adjust your buying plans.
The new drive is a 40GB Toshiba..I have both drives mounted in a pc and have no trouble ghosting, but the dell partition does not copy, so I do not get an exact copy of the original 20GB IBM HDD. I always have this problem with Dell laptops only. With both drives mounted in a pc - one on the primary and one on the secondary controller - how do I copy the drives so that the Inspiron 8100 will boot with the new HDD?
I bought Acronis TrueImage 8 from Newegg.com ($33.50) and it works exactly for what you want to do. I couldn't get Ghost to work either.
You can choose to "clone" the 20GB drive to the larger drive and the program lets you adjust the partitions manually or automatically (proportionally). The result will be fully bootable and you'll still have full function of the Dell hidden partitions.
Message Edited by mandatory on 03-28-2005 06:09 PM
We bought Acronis and it copied the drive perfectly, but the new drive still will not boot. It comes up with a black screen with white writing saying "Error Loading Operating System". Is there a way that we can scan the hardware for problems? It could have something to do the motherboard but we don't have a way to find that out. Any suggestions? Thank you...
Very thorough information and I can tell you I really appreciate your help.
I guess I should go to the beginning and say that the Inspiron would not boot, so I did the total TrueImage, but evidently there is a problem with the boot sector of the hdd.
All of the data is there, but it will not boot. I have done XP repairs, etc., but it still will not boot.
You may have a hard drive problem. You can go to Run and type in chkdsk and let it scan for errors or you can let chkdsk repair errors. See your on-line help for a full explanation.
If correcting the hard drive error doesn't cure things for you, go to the Acronis support page and locate their support forum. You can ask for guidance there and also find many helpful threads. The support is quick.
I can assure you I have cloned and also copied Dell drives many times and it always works perfectly EXCEPT when there is a serious disk error on the source hard drive. Then I have seen errors like you report. Once I cured the source errors, it always went smoothly.
EDIT: One note.....when imaging an entire hard drive for future restoration and bootability you MUST check the box at the top of the source window which causes all partitions to be selected. Only then will the master boot record be copied. If you select partitions and not the top checkbox, TrueImage does not copy the master boot record and the restored hard drive won't boot. You may want to try again making certain you have checked the proper setup box.
EDIT#2: If you are trying to CLONE your original hard drive to the new mechanism, this same requirement applies. You must clone the ENTIRE drive using the checkbox at the top of your source drive selection window. Please report back your results.
EDIT #3: One more thing..... after you clone or restore an image, mount the drive back in the laptop and boot it up. Don't try to boot when both drives are on the same controller, like in your pc.
Message Edited by mandatory on 03-29-2005 11:14 AM
That seems correct, you're duplicating the "unbootability" in the cloning process. If your original drive was not bootable, neither will its clone be bootable. You'd first have to correct the problem with the original hard drive. You proved that with the replacement you installed that booted.
I'm sorry I misunderstood you that your original hard drive was unbootable. My suggestions were based upon you having a working hard drive. I guess there are ways to try to recover the original hard drive but you'll probably lose the data you're after. Kind of like the operation was successful but the patient died.
There are threads at the Acronis support forum that reference ways users have repaired the boot sectors and master boot records of failed hard drives. They may work for you.
EDIT: You can use TrueImage to COPY a partition from a mountable but unbootable drive to a bootable drive, or to mount the partition on the unbootable drive as either a virtual drive or restore it to a working drive that has the unallocated space to accept it. You'd be able to recover your data that way. Then, you could re-order the partition letter assignments on the working drive and once it was the way you liked it, image that one for future restoration.
Message Edited by mandatory on 03-29-2005 12:52 PM
ejn63
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March 28th, 2005 20:00
probono
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March 28th, 2005 21:00
The new drive is a 40GB Toshiba..I have both drives mounted in a pc and have no trouble ghosting, but the dell partition does not copy, so I do not get an exact copy of the original 20GB IBM HDD. I always have this problem with Dell laptops only. With both drives mounted in a pc - one on the primary and one on the secondary controller - how do I copy the drives so that the Inspiron 8100 will boot with the new HDD?
Thanks very much for your patience.
Bob
mandatory
107 Posts
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March 28th, 2005 22:00
Message Edited by mandatory on 03-28-2005 06:09 PM
probono
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March 29th, 2005 00:00
Thanks very much..I am getting it now..and will let you know how it works out for us.
Again, I do thank you for helping me.
Bob
probono
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March 29th, 2005 12:00
probono
6 Posts
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March 29th, 2005 15:00
One more note...I just put in another hdd in the Inspiron and did a clean XP install with no problems.
This inability to boot must mean a corrupted sector that I am imaging onto the new hdd ..
I guess I am just imaging the problem?
Bob
probono
6 Posts
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March 29th, 2005 15:00
mandatory
107 Posts
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March 29th, 2005 15:00
You may have a hard drive problem. You can go to Run and type in chkdsk and let it scan for errors or you can let chkdsk repair errors. See your on-line help for a full explanation.
If correcting the hard drive error doesn't cure things for you, go to the Acronis support page and locate their support forum. You can ask for guidance there and also find many helpful threads. The support is quick.
EDIT#2: If you are trying to CLONE your original hard drive to the new mechanism, this same requirement applies. You must clone the ENTIRE drive using the checkbox at the top of your source drive selection window. Please report back your results.
EDIT #3: One more thing..... after you clone or restore an image, mount the drive back in the laptop and boot it up. Don't try to boot when both drives are on the same controller, like in your pc.
Message Edited by mandatory on 03-29-2005 11:14 AM
mandatory
107 Posts
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March 29th, 2005 16:00
Message Edited by mandatory on 03-29-2005 12:52 PM