Upgrading to a new greater capacity Hard Disk (> 160 GB)

I presently have a Lenovo ThinkPad R61 14.1W laptop with a 160 GB drive. If I want to upgrade to a larger capacity Hard Disk, (more than 160 GB) how can I migrate to a new Hard Disk, migrating all the partitions including the hidden (recovery) partition?



PS:
The Hidden/Recovery Part. is the first one (unnamed) in the following images (you can d/l the picts from these links also
URL:
http://cid-f106e464b0b2d1e7.skydriv...5|_Hidden|_FAT32|_EISA|_Config|_Partition.jpg

http://cid-f106e464b0b2d1e7.skydriv...Back|_Msg|_Install Options|_TPR61|_062008.jpg

The hidden partition is outlined in red in the first picture.




Is there any way to do a partition copy of the Hard Disk to a new greater capacity Hard Disk, including the hidden (recovery) partition?

Thanks,

 

i've always used a program called Ghost, made by Symantec. Basically you need to plug in an additional hard drive (or, get an external enclosure for your new hard drive so you can dump a copy of the old hard drive to it).

There are other Image-making utilities that can dump a copy of your hard drive to a single image file, and then you put your new drive in, and dump the image back. There's more details needed to complete the operation, but thats the jist of it.

 

I use Ghost, Symantec Ghost 8.2 (older version) via bootable CD for image backups.
But will Ghost be able to detect the hidden (FAT32 EISA configured) partition (have used it to image the C: & D: (both NTFS as in above pics) and be able to image it correctly.

Or is there an option in SG to make a direct copy of the HD --> another HD (clone) (but for which the capacities of the 2 HD's would differ ... 160 GB vs >= 250 GB.

 

Put the new drive in, place rescue and recovery CD in optical drive, and follow the instructions.

 

Yes, it will work. Just make sure you have a later version of ghost that can read the partitions. I think on the R51 you are not running vista I assume, so you should be fine. Just do LOCAL---Disk---To Image. OR, LOCAL---Disk---To Disk (if you've got your new drive in a USB enclosure and it can see it)

 

Also, i've got what i now call my "Dos boot" CD that has Ghost, Drive Image, baktrak (wipe drives), partition magic, etc... that all runs from DOS.... and also gives the option to enable USB 2.0 support for an external hard drive if your bios doesn't do it for you. Very handy and I can get it to you if you need/want it.

 

Actually it's a TP R61 with Win XP Pro SP3. But I have used SG 8.2 (via DOS) successfully on this machine to image & backup partitions. As I never did Disk to Disk Imaging, not sure the Disk-->Disk option existed.

Same here, use SG 8.2 via DOS prompt & as I recall it can detect USB devices.

 

yeah, the USB device support is solely dependent on the bios of the notebook/desktop. Some allow USB devices to be detected properly in dos, most older ones do not which is why I added the option. If you can get both hard drives visible on the system by whatever means, you should be able to do the Local-->Disk---->To Disk option and do a direct clone. It should allow you to specify the partition sizes while doing this as well., if not, you can always adjust them afterwards using many 3rd party utilities.

 

Ghost is great, but more user friendly to the Enterprise croud,
DriveImage XML is free and really easy.
Acronis Home is not free but works excellent.

 

when ghosting lenovos you ned to go into optionson ghost and under the image/tape tab tick the radiobutton for image boot oredit the auto exec.bat file on your ghst disk with the switch -ib at the end tis will keep all the recovery partition

 

Acronis worked perfectly for me.

 

great, always does.

 

How about Acronis True Image . Will that work?

Sorry I did not see the second page.