Upgrading my Internal Drive to a larger drive
Win XP Home SP 3; TI Home 11
Desktop contains a single 250 MB Seagate Barracuda drive. Since several sectors have gone bad recently and the trend is increasing, it is time to replace the drive.
I purchased a new 1TB Seagate Barracuda from Buy.com at a good price. This is a bare drive, still factory sealed, but without cables, start up discs, or manuals that come with a complete boxed version.
Since I am going from a 250 MB drive to a 1TB drive, the Seagate website indicates that some modification of the BIOS is needed, however, no instructions are given as to what parameters must be changed or what values must be entered.
In a previous discussion on this forum I was told that all I need to do was install the new drive, boot from the boot CD, and restore from an existing backup. No mention was made regarding changes to the BIOS.
Any information regarding changes to the BIOS would be appreciated.
Thank you.
I'm confused (apparently it doesn't take much).
In a previous discussion on this forum earlier this month, I had asked about replacing the failing drive with a new one. My current drive is made up of only a single partition C: I hope to maintain this same configuration on the new drive, as well, even though it is a larger capacity drive (1TB replacing 250 MB). This would leave the new additional space for programs, data, etc.
The response I received suggested that I merely had to replace the old drive with the new one, boot from my Acronis backup disk, and restore from a prior full backup image.
The article in Grover's Guide seems to indicate that the process is far more complicated than I was led to believe (and confusing to me).
Since the article covers several alternative configurations, I am confused by the entire process. Apparently there is a lot more required than I was led to believe from the previous responses. Am I missing something or reading too much into this?
Morton,
If you restore your entire disk image to your new disk, ATI will scale your partitions proportionally to occupy the whole disk. If you have a single partition, this is not an issue.
You have to make sure you have only one partition. Right click on the Computer icon on your desktop, choose Manage, Storage, Disk Management. Are you sure there is no hidden partition on the disk? System Reserved? Diagnostics? Recovery? Other?
If there is no hidden partition, your restore will be simple. If not, let us know.
Disk Management indicates only 1 partition.
When I was looking at the Seagate website yesterday it mentioned that replacing a drive with greater capacity required some tweaking of the BIOS.
If I understand you correctly, there is no need to do this. Am I understanding you correctly?
Morton,
What is your current disk controller setting? IDE or SATA or AHCI? Whatever it is, don't change it. Put your new disk in the computer. Get into the BIOS. Is the disk detected? If yes, reboot on the ACronis recovery CD, can ATI see the new disk? If yes, you are in good shape.
As you have a 250GB already in use, most likely, you will have no need for any bios adjustments. On first seconds of the first boot after you install the new disk, the Bios should indicate whether the new disk is seen and its capacity. As you are using the same connector, the BIOS should recognize the new disk with its capacity and description.
You don't say how or where your backups are stored.
One of the good things about using TrueImage for a restore is that you can practice or simulate you procedures. It is practice or simulation until you reach the final screen where you must choose either to Proceed or to Cancel. Choose Cancel if you do not want to proceed.
The final screen is a summary screen and it will indicate to you the planned changes to partition sizes due to the larger capacity.
I assume both the new and old disk is a SATA disk. Remove the old disk and attach the new disk with the same cables and use the same connector on the motherboard.
Boot with the TI Recovery CD and browse to your backup file.
When you get to what is to be restored, check mark the DISK option.
On the next screen, you will select the new disk as the target.
If you have a choice (and version 11 may not have this choice), checkmark the "Recover disk signature" option.
The next summary screen is the last screen before the restore will begin. Look over the data presented on the summary page. It should show one partition being deleted and and a new one created. Partition size should be from approximately
244 gb to 976 gb. C to C. Cancel if you are unsure and ask more questions.
After you do the restore, be absolutely your old drive is not attached during the first boot of the new disk. It does not need to be removed but it must be disconnected during the first few boots. If your backup is stored on another internal disk, I suggest you disconnect its cable before first boot following the restore. The point being that you want Windows to see only the new disk and it is to be connected to the same motherboard connector as the original disk.
I have only 1 drive containing a single partition C: Backups are stored on an external hard drive.
As I understand it, the following is the sequence of steps to be followed. Please verify and add any suggestions or comments.
By now you must have figured out that I am somewhat neurotic about not messing up.
Step 1: Remove the old hard drive and replace it with the new one using the same SATA cables.
Step 2: Turn computer on and press DELETE to enter the BIOS.
Step 3: Check to see if new drive is recognized.
Step 4: Insert Acronis Recovery Disk and boot from this disk.
Step 5: Select the Restore Option.
Step 6: Select the latest backup from the external hard drive as the source.
Step 7: Select the new drive as the target drive. (TI Home 11 does not have the Recover Disk Signature option).
Step 8: On summary screen, verify that source and target disks are properly selected.
Step 9: Partition size should be approximately 244 to 976 GB.
Step 10: Click RESTORE to restore the backup image to the new hard drive.
Step 11: Remove the Acronis Recovery CD and boot from the new drive.
Move step 4 into 1A. Boot with the CD and expect to see the new disk as part of the boot process.
The option to press Delete to enter the Bios is not expected to be used and only needed if the new disk is not recognized. I am expecting the drive to be recognized as part of beginning boot process and this recognition should appear within the first few seconds of each and every bootup. There is a PAUSE button in upper right corner available to be toggled on and off. The appearance of the new disk should be just prior to the appearance of the DVD player and the external disk. If you miss it as it is so fast, let it go ahead and boot into the CD and see if it shows within the CD.
Steps 8-9-10 are all part of the Summary screen of 8.
Step 10 should read Click the Proceed button to restore the backup image to the new hard drive.
Remember, in step 10, the Cancel option is available on the last summary screen should you not want to proceed.
Today I faithfully followed the steps you outlined and I am using my new Seagate Hard drive to write this.
I thank all who responded for providing a clear, concise set of instructions for replacing my failing 250 GB drive with a shiny new 1TB drive.
A few comment and suggestions for anyone who may be about to do the same.
The external drive must be connected BEFORE booting from the Acronis Recovery Disk. If it is connected after the initial boot is started, the backups will not appear in the listing. If this should occur, the computer must be completely shut down before the external drive is connected.
After the restore is completed and the Acronis Recovery Disk is removed, The external drive and any other USB devices should be disconnected before booting from the new drive. Otherwise an error message may appear indicating that "NTLDR is missing".
Morton,
Pat & I always appreciate of the followup results and especially when good news. Your points are well taken which is why I put so much emphasis (final paragraph post #6) on first boot following the restore.
Just noticed a confusing piece of information.
The newly installed drive is 1 TB which replaced my 250 GB drive. All programs, data, etc. have been restored and work properly.
The new drive seems to be recognized by the BIOS and its model number is indicated.
When I go to the C: drive in windows explorer and right click on Properties, the following is displayed:
Used Space: 58.1 GB
Free Space: 174 GB
This is a total of only 232.1 GB!
It does not appear to indicate the total size of the new 1 TB drive. I would expect to see a number somewhere around 900 MB.
When doing the restore yesterday, I don't recall checking the partition size in the summary screen as you suggested (Shame on me).
Checking in Device Manager, the correct disk model number is listed. Right clicking and going to properties > Volumes tab and clicking Populate, indicates the following:
Capacity: 953867 MB
C: 238465 MB
Unallocated Space: 715402 MB
Apparently the C: Drive (my only drive) is only using a small portion of the total drive as a partition of the total capacity. It seems that somehow I need to "expand" the partition to the entire drive. Otherwise the additional space is "wasted".
Any thoughts?
You can use Partition Wizard to adjust the size http://partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html. There is no function in XP disk management to do this as there is in Win 7.
Morton,
Yes, the Partition Wizard will enable you to easily expand the partition size. I do suggest that you download the CD version and burn the CD.
Then use the bootable CD to start Partition Wizard and use the Move/Resize option.
Place your mouse pointer over the right boundary of your existing partition and drag the right boundary all the way to the maximum right so there is no free space either before or after the partition.
Or, if you wish to create a 2nd partition within the enlarged space and keep the C small, this is also possible.
Been there ..... Done that!
Partition Wizard did the trick.
Ran into one small problem:
I have Norton GoBack on my machine. This is something like System Restore except it loads BEFORE Windows. Thus, if there is a problem with Windows, you can still easily restore any of many previous sessions. I like it much better than System Restore.
I booted from the Partition Wizard disk as you suggested. Then, when I restored my backup with True Image, an error message stated that there was some incompatibility due to GoBack. I disabled GoBack and repeated the process. All is well and I now have a 1TB drive working properly.
Thank you once again to you and Pat for your time, patience, and good information.
You guys are great!