Laptop HDD upgrade - how?

[rfisher]

Got a 40Gb laptop HDD.

Want to transfer my entire system including operating system and data files to it so bought a USB HDD box also. Current drive is 10Gb.

Is there a way to do this so that I get all the files and system but on my 40Gb drive?

If I make a disk image the partition will be 10Gb won't it?

OS is Windows ME.

Thanks.

[Kinky]

Can your machine boot up with a USB drive?

Need to check that first - as this might determine what you do.

If not, then it's possible there's a BIOS update which will support booting from USB.

K

[stuh]

Symantec "Ghost" software is an option.

I've just used it to upgrade the HDD in my mums laptop from 30gb to 80gb.

[rfisher]

Thanks - just bought Ghost 2003 on Ebay for £8.99.

[scared but happy]

Ghost - only one I found that works correctly!

I find the other best kit to use is a 2.5 to 3.5 (laptop to IDE converter) and use that to create a partition on your hard drive (using Ghost) of your old drive and then build a new partition on the 'new' harddrive.
added: Also a good method to backup the entire contents of the original drive incase it all goes tits up.

>> Edited by scared but happy on Monday 19th September 20:57

[stuh]

rfisher said:

Thanks - just bought Ghost 2003 on Ebay for £8.99.

Bargain!

[rfisher]

Right. Got Ghost, installed it and tried to clone my HDD to the 40Gb drive which is in a USB box.

Unfortunately, as soon as Ghost tries to shutdown my computer to start the cloning I get

"GhostStart Error File
Version: 2003.793
Program terminated due to an unknown exception."

Whadythink? I reckon in all fairness I'm up poo creak without a paddle.

[stuh]

Hmmm

Ghost should have generated a file, ghosterr.txt

Can you locate this file and show us the contents. It should contain a more detailed error log in order to diagnose the problem.

[rfisher]

Here we go. Only 1 other text file generated;

Processor exception
Generated at E:2003srcTrunkWin32HardExceptionHandlerWin32.cpp:268

Program Call Stack
DiskDriveAccessAspi::testReadAccess
DiskDriveNormal::constructor
DiskManagerWin95::constructor

Call Stack
Address Frame Logical Addr Module
0x00000000302d3530 0x000000000066e184 0x0000:0x0000000000000000
0x0000000001e81c40 0x0000000053435441 0x0000:0x0000000000000000
End Call Stack

Exception code: 0xc0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
Registers:
EAX=0x20202020 CS=0x0177 EIP=0x302d3530 EFLGS=0x00010207
EBX=0x00000001 SS=0x017f ESP=0x0066e188 EBP=0x53435441
ECX=0x0066e1a0 DS=0x017f ESI=0x01e81db0 FS=0x277f
EDX=0x01e806e8 ES=0x017f EDI=0x000000a0 GS=0x0000

I think it's a problem with the 40Gb drive being USB. I may need to use peer to peer if I can get hold of another laptop.

[aldi]

You could allways stick the '40 in the laptop, run your restore CD then copy your data back using the USB box?

[stuh]

rfisher said:

Here we go. Only 1 other text file generated; Processor exception Generated at E:2003srcTrunkWin32HardExceptionHandlerWin32.cpp:268 Program Call Stack DiskDriveAccessAspi::testReadAccess DiskDriveNormal::constructor DiskManagerWin95::constructor Call Stack Address Frame Logical Addr Module 0x00000000302d3530 0x000000000066e184 0x0000:0x0000000000000000 0x0000000001e81c40 0x0000000053435441 0x0000:0x0000000000000000 End Call Stack Exception code: 0xc0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION Registers: EAX=0x20202020 CS=0x0177 EIP=0x302d3530 EFLGS=0x00010207 EBX=0x00000001 SS=0x017f ESP=0x0066e188 EBP=0x53435441 ECX=0x0066e1a0 DS=0x017f ESI=0x01e81db0 FS=0x277f EDX=0x01e806e8 ES=0x017f EDI=0x000000a0 GS=0x0000 I think it's a problem with the 40Gb drive being USB. I may need to use peer to peer if I can get hold of another laptop.

Yep. Looks like the OS isn't seeing your USB disk when it drops to DOS.

As you say, might have to go P2P