Advice Required - Laptop Hard Drive Upgrade

Mark,

Choice 1 is my preference. If you use choice 2, do a reverse clone. New HD in the laptop, old HD in the external enclosure, boot from the Acronis CD to perform the clone.

Which laptop do you have? Some types need special procedures.

Brian,

I've got a dell XPS M1210. The internal HDD is 100GB and holds 1 primary partition. When I got it from Dell there were some other partitions on it (diagnostic, media direct etc) but the first thing I did with the laptop was a complete rebuild where I dropped them all and then did a fresh install of Windows XP Pro.

Chioce 1 was also my preference. I have used True Image lots to take / restore images so I'm familiar with it. Also It avoids having to buy an external disk enclosure just to do the upgrade !

Are there any special procedures that apply to this spec ?

Thanks, Mark

Mark,

As long as your Dell has never had MediaDirect you are good to go. MediaDirect can cause major problems when upgrading to a larger HD. MediaDirect is in a HPA and doesn't show in Disk Management.

Despite what you have read, it will make no difference if you restore the MBR or not.

Thanks Brian, I'll give it a go and report back later.

Hi,

I've just completed the upgrade of my laptops internal HDD from a 100GB to a 320GB model and thought I'd document my experience for those with a similar spec machine thinking of doing similar.

My laptop is a Dell XPS M1210 with 4GB of RAM and running Windows XP Pro. Shortly after getting the laptop I dropped all of its partitions (OS, Media Direct, diagnostic stuff, etc) and rebuilt the machine with a single partition onto which I did a clean install of the OS. For others with Dell laptops with Media Direct installed, take note of Brian's reply above as it looks like with Media Direct the drive upgrade process might not be so straightforward. One last thing, I mentioned in my first posting of this thread that the internal drive was IDE. Half way through the upgrade I found out that is was in fact a SATA drive. Fortunately the guys at Overclockers were great and they took back the IDE drive I had bought and swapped it for a SATA drive which was £20 cheaper !!

Here's what I did:

1. Defragged my C: drive using the defragmenter in Acronis Disk Director (V10).
2. Created a bootable Acronis rescue CD.
3. Booted my laptop using the Acronis rescue CD and selected the full version of True Image (v9). There was also an option for a 'safe' version - I'm not sure what the difference is ?
4. Imaged my laptops internal drive to a USB drive. I went for a full backup with maximum compression and for a validation of the backup on completion.
5. After powering off, I removed the laptops internal drive and replaced it with my new 320GB drive (with a quick trip back to Overclockers - see note above !).
6. I booted my laptop using the Acronis rescue CD and selected full version of True Image (v9).
7. Restored the previously taken image onto the new internal drive. The image I had taken earlier included a 'C' drive and 'MBR and Track 0'. I selected to restore both.
8. Once the image had been restore I rebooted my laptop. When windows had loaded the new drive was automatically detected and the drivers for it were loaded (?), Windows prompted me to reboot the machine.
9. After the reboot I used Acronis Disk Director to extend my OS partition into the unallocated space on the drive.

....and that’s it ! The whole thing took about 4 hours 30 mins. Most of that was for the backup (3 hours) and for the restore (1 hour).

The new drive is very quiet and feels much faster, previous boot time was 39 seconds. With the new drive the machine boots in 30 seconds. My apps feel like they are loading quicker than before also.

For info, my new drive is a Seagate Momentus 320GB 7200RPM SATA-II with a 16MB Cache. Its Seagate model number is ST9320423AS and it cost me £50.

Ta, Mark

Mark,

Nice job and thanks for the detailed description. I upgraded the 160 GB HD in my Asus netbook to the same HD that is now in your laptop. It does seem a faster HD but probably more so in your case.

Mark,
To answer your item 3.
The TI Safe Mode is a DOS-based recovery environment (not MS-DOS though) that often will work with restrictiions when the TI Full Mode doesn't. Full is Linux based and sometimes there are driver issues for some hardware.

Not is all rosey for the Safe version though. It is intended to work with the archive stored on an internal HD. It lacks support for USB, Firewire and networking although the way USB is handled on some motherboards will permit it to function. Safe mode is typically a lot slower than Full mode especially if trying to use it on a system that does let the USB work.

Mark, I'm glad everything worked for your successful image restoring. Your success is NOT unusual but not often posted. Thank you for the follow-up.

If the system partition is not the last partition, the use of a Partition TOOL can become more involved. You can resize the partition as part of the normal image restore process. Item 7B inside my signature link illustrates how to perform a Partition Restore with Resizing. If you get a chance, look at the illustrations and maybe even simulate this in practice. My guide is applicable to versions 9-10-11

The basic guide procedures are also applicable to version 2009 except 2009 require two steps. In 2009, the partitions are restored in one step; and then before rebooting, the Track 0/MBR plus Disk ID are restored in an additional step.

As stated many times before by various contributors, the cloning or restoring an image archive is best done when booted from the TI Rescue CD. Plus the chance for success is greater (for various mfgrs) if source disk is relocated into an alternate location and is replaced with the blank target disk prior to performing the procedure. Source disk should be removed before first boot following procedure. That is, only the new disk is to be attached on first boot following the procedure.

It is always good to check your system disk occasionally for disk errors-especially prior to backups. The new disk might also benefit from the error checking following a cloning or restoration if the source disk had not recently been error-checked.

Guys, thanks for the feedback and extra info.

Seekforever - So now I know what 'Safe Mode' on TI is - cheers !

Brian K - 5 days since the upgrade now and the drive feels great. I've upgraded various bits of hardware in the past on PC's and sometimes the difference isn't that noticable. Not so with the the new HDD though :-)

GroverH - I've bookmarked your index page (3426: Grover's Index of Reference Links) for when I next have to use TI image for something other than just take my weekly backup ! We plan to upgrade the HDD on my son's laptop pretty soon, I'll try the re-size during the restore with that.

Thanks, Mark

Hi all,

I am new here and don't even own an Acronis product yet. I am looking for the best solution for my case before I purchase.

I have a similar issue as that posted by Mark, with one major difference:

I am going to be upgrading the hard drive on my slate-style tablet pc, not a laptop. Because it is a slate style (not convertible), it does not have a cd drive. I have an external CD drive but it is not a recordable drive. Because of this, I am not sure the "taking an image" technique would work for me since I will not be able to make a bootable recovery CD.

Since that is the case, am I correct in assuming that the best case scenario would be to put the larger drive in an external enclosure (which I already have), clone the existing drive to the new drive (via usb), then swap the drives out? I am assuming that in addition to cloning the drive, I would also need some partition management abilities to incorporate the unallocated space to the "new" existing partition on the new drive.

If that is the case and my thinking is accurate, which app/apps would be best suited to help me accomplish my needs?

Thanks all!

Sean

Sean McKay wrote:

Hi all,

I am new here and don't even own an Acronis product yet. I am looking for the best solution for my case before I purchase.

I have a similar issue as that posted by Mark, with one major difference:

I am going to be upgrading the hard drive on my slate-style tablet pc, not a laptop. Because it is a slate style (not convertible), it does not have a cd drive. I have an external CD drive but it is not a recordable drive. Because of this, I am not sure the "taking an image" technique would work for me since I will not be able to make a bootable recovery CD.

Sean

You can make the flash drive version of the bootable Rescue CD. After you install the software, look for the Make Bootable Media feature (or whatever it is called now) and choose a flash drive as the target. If you have problems doing this, it is best to start a new topic.

( I had the response written and decided to post anyway so as to not have wasted my time.:) If questions, yes, I agree it would be better to start a new topic.

Sean,
Attention is called it posting #8 in blue. This is also applicable to you except substitute a Rescue Flash drive for the Rescue CD. Also reread posting #5.

The TrueImage Media builder offers you to capability to create an Acronis Bootable Flash Drive. Do this and then try booting from it and see if you can see all your drives.

Another option for a bootable FlashDrive is MudCrab's Grub4Dos option especially Section 3 of link 8C of my signature index. You could use the Acronis media builder and create a Rescue ISO file and then it could be copied onto the Flashdrive as discussed in Section 3.

If either of the two options produce positive results, you could then boot from the Rescue FlashDrive and perform your clone or restore from this entity. Also suggest you read item 7D inside my index.

You should not need a partition tool for either the cloning or a restoration procedure.

Should you change your mind and want to do a Restore with Resize, check item 7B or 7C depending upon which procedure you use.

If you were to buy a Seagate brand replacement disk, a modified version of TrueImage Home is available from their website.

The current version of TrueImage Home 2010 could perform this task. I do not know which other programs that Acronis offers would suffice but you should own and use a backup program and TrueImage does this well for most of us.

I have a similar situation but want to verify the process. I have never replaced a hard drive before. I have a Dell Dimention 4600C with a 30G WD 400BB-75FJA1 with a 120G WD 1200Jb-OOCRA1. Both are IDE. I have True Image Home 2009. What are the best steps for me? Thank in advance for any help

Hello all,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

bpso, in your situation we would recommend to create the complete backup of your old drive, validate it, then replace drives, boot from CD and restore this image to new drive. This is safer than cloning, you will have your first drive bootable (there are some cases when both drives are not bootable after cloning).

If you'd prefer cloning, please check Chapter 13 of this User's Guide. The process of Image creation\recovery is described in Chapter 5 and Chapter 6.

Thank you.

I think I found the right place! I'm looking to replace Roxio Restrospect for Windows because it fails when I attempt a "full volume" restore to a new, larger HDD in my laptop. I've gotton no support from the company or their forum.

What I want to do is simply replace my HDD. Here's what I have:
-- Lenovo (IBM) Thinkpad X61 running Vista Business SP2.
-- Internal drive is NTFS
-- laCie d2 quadra external drive (USB or Firewire)
-- Toshiba external USB drive (I can delete all contents and/or reformat this drive, if that were required)
-- Both the old and new internal drives are Hitachi SATA's
-- External CD drive (for bootable CD)

I haven't messed with the structure of my internal drive, so I don't know what may be using the boot area or hidden partitions.

I'm looking to use whatever product I buy for my regular backups, as well. Again, very simple. With Retrospect I just do a full backup followed by scheduled incremental backups for a period, and then repeat. I use alternating external HDs as A/B targets for the backups.

I also have a second laptop (my wife's Dell XPS M1530 Vista Home Premium SP2) on the network, and do a similar drill for her regular backups.

So ... I'd greatly appreciate advice on a) which Acronis product(s) are best suited, and b) any "tips" on the HDD replacement process in addition to what's been posted here (which I've noted carefully)

Thanks!

You are goin to be fine with Acronis.

Replacing an old disk with a new disk is straightforward.

Best approach is to backup *all* partitions of your old disk from the CD, then swap the disks (put the new disk at the same spot/cable connection as the old one).

Then restore one partition at a time, in the same order, keeping the same size for any hidden partition, and, potentially, resizing the system partition to take advantage of a bigger disk size. FInally, restore the MBR & track0 with the disk signature.

That's it.

To backup, I recommend you do a simple backup like a daily or weekly incremental, with a new full backup after 5-10 incrementals max. Choosing the number, consider that you don't want the last full to be too old for you to go back to, if need be. Run regular validation.

Most important, make sure you can restore from the recovery CD.

Thanks Pat L. Is True Image Home 2011 the best suited Acronis product for my purposes?

You should try. If you have a previous version of ATI, make a backup, uninstall your old version, reboot and install the trial.

I am a happy user of 2011.

BTW: make sure you restore the partitions in the same order. When you run the ACronis CD, you will see different letters than in windows. You might want to take note of your partitions as they show in Windows Disk management: note the labels and the size. These don't change with the CD.

Awesome! My backup/recovery to a new HD in my ThinkPad went flawlessly. I'll post my experience in a separate thread. BIG thanks! for the tips and the helpful Acronis "chat" support. I'm definitely buying a license and switching from Retrospect for Windows.

I just wanted to verify that I followed essentially the same process as Mark (http://forum.acronis.com/forum/4462#comment-6254) with True Image 2014 and it seems to have worked flawlessly. The only major difference is that it automatically distributed the unallocated space between my two partitions, saving me a step. This feature was apparently added around True Image Home 2010. After trying to clone with free tools several times with limited success, I'm glad I bought true-image.

To recap steps, here's what I did:

- Created a bootable true image CD with true image (you could also make an ISO, presumably to make a bootable flash drive)
- Rebooted into the true image tools
- Cloned from my old drive inside my laptop to an external hard drive of the same size (larger would also work)
- Installed the new hard drive in my laptop
- Booted into true image again
- Cloned from the external hard drive to the new dive inside my laptop
- Booted into Windows at which point I was asked to restart my computer one last time, presumably for a driver update with the new drive

It was all pretty painless and probably took 5-6 hours (I went to bed during the second clone operation.) I moved about 400 GB of data from an aging 500GB drive to a 750GB 7200 RPM Drive.

Last note: apparently there's an even easier process mentioned in the knowledge base, but I have not attempted it: http://kb.acronis.com/content/2931