Laptop HD upgrade

  • Thread starter Thread starter Spartanicus
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Spartanicus

I'm planning to upgrade my laptop's HD [1], I'd like to fully mirror the
old drive's data onto the new one without clean installing the OS (W98).
I've got an external CD burner and the CD drive in the laptop can be
booted from. I can't temporarily hook up the new and old drive
simultaneously, and I have no access to a LAN.

Any recommendations on how to do this? (I don't fancy having to buy
software for this one off job)

[1] Current drive is a 4G Hitachi, the one I'm eying up is a 20G Seagate
Momentus ST92011A. I hope to get around my bios limitations with the
Seagate DiskWizard Starter Edition software. I'm not sure if the Ultra
ATA100 Seagate will work on my ATA33 laptop.
 
Spartanicus said:
I'm planning to upgrade my laptop's HD [1], I'd like to fully mirror the
old drive's data onto the new one without clean installing the OS (W98).
I've got an external CD burner and the CD drive in the laptop can be
booted from. I can't temporarily hook up the new and old drive
simultaneously, and I have no access to a LAN.

Any recommendations on how to do this? (I don't fancy having to buy
software for this one off job)

[1] Current drive is a 4G Hitachi, the one I'm eying up is a 20G Seagate
Momentus ST92011A. I hope to get around my bios limitations with the
Seagate DiskWizard Starter Edition software. I'm not sure if the Ultra
ATA100 Seagate will work on my ATA33 laptop.
Click to expand...

I find very useful this kit
http://www.apricorn.com/product_details.php?ID=220

Good luck
 
Previously Spartanicus said:
I'm planning to upgrade my laptop's HD [1], I'd like to fully mirror the
old drive's data onto the new one without clean installing the OS (W98).
I've got an external CD burner and the CD drive in the laptop can be
booted from. I can't temporarily hook up the new and old drive
simultaneously, and I have no access to a LAN.
Click to expand...
Any recommendations on how to do this? (I don't fancy having to buy
software for this one off job)
Click to expand...

Best way IMO is to get access to a regular PC, put in old and new
disks with adapter. Then boot Knoppix (-> google) and create
the needed partitions on the new disk with Linux fdisk. You can just
copy the old partitions over sector by sector using 'dd', 'dd_rescue'
or 'cat' if the new ones are the same size or a bit larger.

Afterwards you will need a standard rescue floppy for Windows to make
the new disk bootable. Alternatively you can also use LILO or Grub as
bootmanager.

You can also just copy the complete old disk with dd/dd_rescue/cat,
but that requires enlarging partitions afterwards to be able to
use the whole space. I did this recenlty with partition magic.
Norton ghost may also be able to do the whole job, including
larger target partitions, and do away with the need for Knoppix
which is more of an expert's tool.

You might be able to do this without the normal PC, but it will
be significantly more painful.

Face it: A laptop is not as flexiple as a normal PC.
[1] Current drive is a 4G Hitachi, the one I'm eying up is a 20G Seagate
Momentus ST92011A. I hope to get around my bios limitations with the
Seagate DiskWizard Starter Edition software. I'm not sure if the Ultra
ATA100 Seagate will work on my ATA33 laptop.
Click to expand...

The ata100/ata133 should not be an issue. If your Laptop is really
ata133, it might also not have any problems with a 20GB disk, since
ata133 is not that old.

Arno
 
Arno said:
Best way IMO is to get access to a regular PC, put in old and new
disks with adapter. Then boot Knoppix (-> google) and create
the needed partitions on the new disk with Linux fdisk. You can just
copy the old partitions over sector by sector using 'dd', 'dd_rescue'
or 'cat' if the new ones are the same size or a bit larger.
Click to expand...

What the HECK are you going on about? The person is a WINDOWS user.

Do you not have the foggiest idea what it's like to try to use Linux if
all you've ever used before is Windows?

Grief, Arno - I fully agree with the bit about using a normal PC with
adaptors, but what a ridiculous piece of advice to suggest Linux.

OD
 
What the HECK are you going on about? The person is a WINDOWS user.
Click to expand...
Do you not have the foggiest idea what it's like to try to use Linux if
all you've ever used before is Windows?
Click to expand...
Grief, Arno - I fully agree with the bit about using a normal PC with
adaptors, but what a ridiculous piece of advice to suggest Linux.
Click to expand...

The guy is free to ignore my advice. But he explicitely said that
he did not want to buy any software, which kind of limits his choices.

Arno
 
Arno Wagner said:
The guy is free to ignore my advice. But he explicitely
said that he did not want to buy any software, which
kind of limits his choices.
Click to expand...


Between adaptors and Windows software, what is
the *cheapest* way to do it? Are there external
adaptors in case no internal bays in the PC are
available?

*TimDaniels*
 
Arno Wagner said:
The guy is free to ignore my advice. But he explicitely said that
he did not want to buy any software, which kind of limits his choices.
Click to expand...

Since when do you need anything beyond Windows to partition, format
and copy files from one drive to another, oh mighty clueless one?

Even the drive makers offer software that copy the old drive to the
newer one. Sober-up before you gibber.
 
Previously Timothy Daniels said:
Between adaptors and Windows software, what is
the *cheapest* way to do it? Are there external
adaptors in case no internal bays in the PC are
available?
Click to expand...

The adapters are usually either a short IDE-cable with
one 2.5" connector (avoid those if you want to connect 2 drives)
or a 2.5" female connector with atached 3.5" male connector.
The later type is plugged into a normal IDE cable.

I think there is no way around getting at least one of these
adapters. They should cost about 20 Euro/USD each.

Basically you can use the second type of adapter also in an external
IDE enclosure or you can get USB enclosures for 2.5" HDDs (better
option), but for an on-time operation like this you can also use an
open case and a "flying cable" model. Just make sure the drives are
insulated at the bottom (phone-book/newspaper, e.g.) and do not run
too long or too hot. Also handle them very carefully while they
are running.

For software, well, it depends. I am not aware of any free Windows
software that can do what you need. Others here might know something.

Arno
 
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