Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge

Quad core which will allow you to use your notebook while doing (lots) of video conversions.
If video files are large then RAID O would be much faster, but see RAID discussion for the last 2 days on this thread to think about what suits your needs.

 

Looks like clean install is more prudent.

ths61, thanks for the followup and welcome to the forum.

 

Does the LED keyboard has spill-resistant for M6400?

 

NO!.............so no using it for p0rn surfing

 

Also people need to keep in mind that with Windows 7 and beyond they are going to start utilizing more and more of the additional cores both in the OS and the API's used by other applications. Vista, and to a lesser extent XP, already does this however more and more Windows will start utilizing these additional cores.
To give you an idea Windows 7 will be loading drivers up in parallel during start-up instead of one after another after another like they have done in the past. A quad core, and RAID 0 should drastically help with such a thing. I'm going to be blunt. I'm REALLY looking forward to Windows 7 on this laptop. It is going to fly like a bat out of heck.

 

Where there is a will there is a wwwDOTprotectcoversDOTcom/dell.htm

Grated there isn't one for the M6400 yet, but you could always wrap your laptop in saran wrap.

 

A keyboard condom?

 

ths61,
Any problems with the clean install?
Was everything you needed on the Dell CD?
What is the noise like with the RAID 0, 320GB, 7200rpm Seagate drives?
Read/write speeds?

 

ths21,
The model you bought does not have g-force support. I believe if it did, the model name would end in a G, ex., ST9320421ASG.

 

How to transfer your factory hard drive image to a new drive, with free software, using your M6400 and a friend's CD burner:

Note:
This method might not work if your new drive is smaller than the shipped factory drive.

Use a live boot linux CD. I recommend Kubuntu as it's pretty friendly and most stuff "just works." You can just download it and burn from kubuntu.org. I guess the need for the CD suggests the need for a second computer, but there's got to be somewhere you can burn it...

Start out with one hard drive in your system and one drive in an external enclosure. (You can start out with both drives in the system too, but see below for slightly different instructions.)

Which drive is in your laptop and which is in the enclosure, doesn't matter. All that matters is that you figure out which letter is the factory drive and which is the new one. (sda -> sdb, vs sdb -> sda.)

After boot, use these commands to work your way through making the image:

ls /dev |grep sd

This will list the hard drives on your system. they are named sd [letter] [partition number].
My linux system here has these drives:
sda (big storage drive)
sdb (OS drive)
sdb1 is my boot partition.

Just make note of what drive letters are present. Then plug in the other hard drive. Let's say the drive you plug in USB now is the destination drive, the one you want to transfer the image to, and use from then on as the OS.

Now type 'ls /dev |grep sd' again. A new drive letter will be present. For me it would be 'sdc' since sda and sdb were already there.

Now you know the drive letters, but you need the program first. Type these lines:

sudo su -
apt-get install gddrescue

Now you're ready to transfer the image:

ddrescue [source] [destination]

EXAMPLE - (DON'T RUN THIS BLINDLY): ddrescue /dev/sda /dev/sdb

When this finishes, turn off the computer, take out the factory drive, and replace it with the new one.


Example:

New M6400 arrives. Get your newer, cheaper, better drive in an enclosure.

Put in the Kubuntu boot CD and turn it on. Make sure to press a key to boot from CD. It takes a minute because loading from CD is slow.

Launch a terminal window. It will be in the button on the bottom left that works like a start menu. If there's a search box, type "terminal" and it will find it.

ls /dev |grep sd
sda

Plug your new drive into USB now.

ls /dev |grep sd
sda
sdb

OK. The factory drive is sda, the new drive is sdb.

sudo su - (all this does, is makes you become the administrator. The '-' is supposed to be there.)
apt-get install gddrescue

Answer yes to any prompts.

With this next command, make sure you have the FACTORY DRIVE FIRST, and the destination drive second.

ddrescue /dev/sda /dev/sdb

And now you wait for it to finish the image.

When it finishes, put the new drive in your Dell.


Alternative example: both drives inside the system.

You just have to use a different method to figure out which is which. Instead of the 'ls /dev |grep sd' thing, do this:

sudo su -
fdisk -l

(that's a lowercase L)

You will see information about the disks including their sizes. I get these lines:
Disk /dev/sda: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
...
Disk /dev/sdb: 203.9 GB, 203928109056 bytes
...

Looks to me like sdb was the factory drive, and sda is the new one:
ddrescue /dev/sdb /dev/sda


Note that I have not tried this on my Dell yet since it hasn't arrived. I would imagine the image would work fine. This exact method worked perfectly on my HP 8710. If it doesn't work, no harm done, you haven't done anything to your original disk.

I have successfully imaged fully installed, configured, and software-loaded Vista Business 64 workstations at school with this technique, and it worked perfectly. But, the drive sizes were identical, and we did not have goofy recovery partitions.

If Dell ships a fully installed Vista 64 and not a preinstall image, you might have to increase your partition size with a utility later. (the difference is, with a preinstall image, the first time you turn on the laptop you go through some basic steps like setting your user name etc., and then you wait for the system to "finish installing".)


Note again:
This method might not work if your new drive is smaller than the shipped factory drive. (Haven't tried!)