Cloning Laptop Harddrive...

Hi guys,

Here is my dillema:

X30 laptop, harddrive died, put new harddrive in (40gb), tried to install xp pro using the license on the bottom of the laptop, failed. google tells me i need to use an IBM recovery cd... phoned them up, the laptop is 3 months outside of warranty, therefore it will cost me £40. (only links to it online are dodgy edonkey ones)

I have an X31 laptop (similar but p4 vs p3 etc) that is dead but has a working harddrive (15gb) and it still has the ibm recovery partition.

I want to either:

a) clone this recovery partition onto the new 40gb harddrive and install windows that way using the key on the bottom of the laptop

b) whack the 15gb drive in the X30 and install windows, then clone this windows installation across to the 40gb drive.

I have an external 20gb usb drive (which wont take these laptop harddrives, unless i find a tiny torx screwdriver), so how can i copy the partition across using this and, potentially, some sort of boot disk/cd :)

The challenge is set!

2 options

buy a tool like acronis true image - which is a really easy way of organising an HD upgrade.

partition new HD as required
boot up laptop with a linux "live CD" use the DD command, which will

This will do a block by block copy

syntax is dd if=/dev/xxx of=/dev/xxx
where if is the input file (or disk in this case) and of is the output file
and /dev/xxx is the name of the disk probably /dev/HDA1 (if IDE) or /dev/SDA1 if Sata.

get one of these and do the swap on your pc :)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-5-Laptop-HDD...QQcmdZViewItem

Quote:

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Originally Posted by GoNz0

get one of these and do the swap on your pc :)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-5-Laptop-HDD...QQcmdZViewItem

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wow i didnt realise how cheap they were! this seems to be the easiest option then :)

i was using that as an example, but you can normally get 2 for a fiver inc delivery, have a sniff around as i think some uk seller was doing that !

http://computers.search.ebay.co.uk/_...QsassZurextras £3 each (its not UK, read his feedback)

The way I normally clone laptop drives is to make up a network boot floppy, boot up, connect to a network share, ghost the drive to the share. Then put in the other/new drive and ghost the image back from the network onto the drive.

Not the easiest, simplest or quickest though.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by IAmATeaf

The way I normally clone laptop drives is to make up a network boot floppy, boot up, connect to a network share, ghost the drive to the share. Then put in the other/new drive and ghost the image back from the network onto the drive.

Not the easiest, simplest or quickest though.

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Acronis True Image will do it all off a CD. Similar technique, but better for those who don't have floppies any more. Love True Image. Universal Restore is a Godsend too if you get that with it.