Upgrading the CF-30 Harddrive

I have a CF-30 with the original 80g harddrive. Works fine, but it looks like I will need to have more space available for the mapping programs and satellite imagery I'd like to keep loaded 24/7.

Is there a way to install a 160-320g harddrive, and mirror the current drive info onto it, or will I need to reload everything from scratch (registry issues, I've heard...)?

Does anyone have a recommendation for a specific harddrive in that size that works best with the toughbook CF-30 harddrive holder, and is it something I can do on my own ? If not, are there recommendations for a service that can perform the installation for me ?

TIA, as always, for your help...

 

I have two caddys c/w hard drives on my main cf-30
Any sata notebook hard drive will fit and its easy to install in the caddy
I paid $100 for the caddy + $60 for the hard drive
For a simple upgrade to a larger drive I would recomend a fresh load from your restore disks and either save info from your old instalation on cd/dvd or on a usb storage stick




Alex

 

You can pick up a 160-320 Hitachi or WD SATA HD (7200 rpm) for a good price at either Newegg or Tiger Direct, get it along with an external enclosure. Use Acronis or Clonezilla to do the imaging and you're done. Cloning is the least painful way to get an exact copy of the original HD.

 

I bought a 200GB SATA HD from Newegg right after I got mine. I typically use Acronis to clone but I would recommend reinstallation using your Recovery Disks. Unless your CF-30 is fairy new.

If you want a kick in performance... Maybe trade a little space for speed. Get a 7200 RPM drive instead of the stock 5400... I would recommend the Hitachi. They are pretty much bullet-proof.

You can go onto Newegg.com and check out their stuff... And read the reviews of each drive you are considering.

 

More hard drive space is always good. I'm not suggesting that you not do this. Your mention of mapping programs caught my eye. But, I use an alternative to keeping the maps on the hard drive that might interest you. I use my CF-29 as a navigation computer for back country trips. My mapping software is Terrain Navigator by Maptech. These topo maps are provided in three scales including 1:24,000 (7 1/2 minute topo's), 1:100,000, and 1:250,000 including 3D views at all map scales. They are purchased by either state or region. I have a full set of maps for four states: New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. Of course, these are all large states.

As I collected maps it was pretty obvious that I was going to use a lot of drive space. Last year I decided to try to off-load my maps from the hard drive to a thumbdrive. Maptech said it could not be done. They were wrong. Right now, I have all four states installed on one 32 GB thumbdrive interfaced via a USB 2.0 port. The maps plus the Terrain Navigator software take up a little over 19 GB. So, I have room to expand a little if I need to. Also, 64 GB thumbdrives are available but the price is still high. 32 gigs seems to be a good compromise depending on your needs.

This experiment worked extremely well. Of course, I had to call Maptech and crow about it. They now suggest thumbdrives as an alternative to hard drives. It's nice to win one once in a while.

While thumbdrives, in an absolute sense, are not very fast, for map displays and real time vehicle GPS tracking, they are very fast. I don't sense any delay when the software is switching from one map to the next. It's very smooth. It's as good as if I were using a hard drive.

Another good reason to use a thumbdrive is reducing the load from the hard drive under high vibration and shock such as is common when driving off road. This is hard on a disk especially when it is performing an access.

My Toughbook, Garmin GPS, Kingston thumbdrive, and Terrain Navigator make a awesome tool. Oh, I can't forget my little Jeep YJ Wrangler, without which, this execise would have no meaning

What mapping software are you using? How do like it? Do you use real time tracking? Do you have a link?

Sparky

 

Well, I don't see any wings or sparkley dust, so it's probably not "fairy" new

Seriously, though, its about 3 months old...does cloning the software from an 80G drive to a larger dirve reek havoc with the Windows registry, or should all the stuff function properly ?

Also, if I purchase a second case for the new drive, can swap drives and have both work properly ? What I mean is, will my current drive boot up and work as it does now, and then if I reboot the machine with the new larger drive, will that work without being affected by the previous drive ? That would be the best of both worlds - one drive for normal stuff, and a second drive when I need to run all the large data intensive mapping programs...

 

I use several programs - National Geographic Topo 4.5with 3-D state maps, UI-View 32 with Precision Map 8.1 (a 2 meter radio APRS tracking system), Microsoft Streets and Trips, Overland Navigator with Topo and satellite imagery, Travelplus repaeter site location mapping (for ham radio), and a few others...so my internal GPS stays busy. If you need to run multiple programs at the same time with GPS data input, check out GPSGate from Franson; it allows you to split the GPS output to multiple programs at the same time live.
Work great...

 

Thats what I have
Two caddies and I just swap when needed
Vista on one, and for compatability xp on the other
btw what cf30 do you have , is it a mk1 or mk2 ?


Alex

 

I believe a Mk2 - model #CF-30FC8RCAM...

 

Where can I order the hard drive caddy by itself ?

All I've found is complete hard drive and caddy assemblies...

If anyone has a complete CF-30 caddy for sale, pm me

 

Ebay or Heartland....

 

As TB and TC have stated already, yes you can run with two separate drives. Just last week I upgraded my CF19 80gb 5400rpm drive to a 100gb Hitachi 7200rpm drive using Acronis' software and have had zero problems. I have the old drive in an external case right now just in case, but have already booted to it to make sure it still works. I had to change nothing on the new drive, it was plug and play. Acronis has a function for cloning that states to use specifically for upgrading to a larger drive. It really is painless.

 

Once I set up the new cradle and drive, how do I connect both drives to clone one to the other ? Is there a special cable to connect the old drive so that I can perform the cloning process ? Sorry for being ignorant, but I've only swapped drives in desktop units with accessible multidrive controllers...

 

LOL... well, no...

You install the new drive in a standard USB external HDD enclosure or adapter (I believe the CF-30 uses a SATA drive, so you'll need one for SATA interface - you should be able to find one at Newegg for $15-$25).

Then, with the original HDD still installed in the laptop, you run your disc clone software either from within Windows or from a bootable CDROM (Depending on the version you are using). After that, you just pop the HDD in a new cage and you're ready to roll!

mnem
Now if we could just clone MY internal HDD...

 

You can also find the interfaces on ebay for CHEAP! Look for two "2.5" SATA External Enclosures" or similar. They will allow you to use a PC with at least 4 powered USB ports (Desktop unit usually) to be the "go-between" to clone the drives.

The only reason I asked how old your original drive was because if it was older it makes more sense to just install XP from scratch or recvery. That is the only way I do it unless I have a brand new drive I need to clone. Then you are assured that there are no Registry entry issues, spyware, viruses, or just general issues that may slow your system down. The last thing you want to do is to take a old, slow, bogged-down hard drive and clone it.

Just my too scents....

 

Thanks, TB. I actually ordered an external SATA drive case for $7.23 on Ebay, along with a new CF-30 HD caddy for the new drive (Hitachi 7200rpm 320Gb 2.5" SATA, as suggested here ).

My confusion - will I have to set up both drives externally and clone them through a desktop w/ 4 USB ports (2 for each drive enclosure), or can I run the Acronis software on the CF-30, leave the existing drive installed, and hook up the new drive through the CF-30s USB ports to clone it, as suggested by Mnementh ?

I also remember seeing a thread here regarding the installation of a HD into the HD caddy, but I can't seem to get a hit with search...any help / tips are appreciated.

 

I believe that you can install Acronis onto the laptop and clone the drive from there. (Somone slap me if I am wrong!) But I think you can. I do a lot of cloning so I installed mine on my office desktop with a ton of USBs and I have 2 IDE laptop HD enclosures as well as 2 SATA laptop HD enclosures.
This makes it EASY to clone any laptop drive!

 

I'd recommend to boot up on the Acronis CD and clone that way - so that your boot drive isn't the one getting cloned so that pagefiles and swap files are closed correctly in the image.

AND.. if anyone has a source for the CF-30 optical caddy by itself, I'm interested in one!!

 

If you try to clone the boot drive with Acronis from within Windows, then Acronis will shut down Windows, restart the machine, pause the Windows booting and do the cloning before the desktop appears. This has worked fine for me so far.

 

Hi,
I just want to understand all of this most interesting discussion. It seems like this is the procedure you all are talking about. Please critique me in gruesome detail.

1. Buy your desired laptop drive in an outboard USB interfaced package. Plug it into a USB port on the laptop.

2. From here there are two ways to go. Either boot the computer then run the Acronis CD which reboots and takes over the system. Or, boot directly from the Acronis CD. Either way, Acronis is in total charge of the computer. Is one way better than the other?

3. Then tell Acronis to clone the main drive (by drive letter??) to the USB interfaced outboard drive. Does Acronis format the new disk? Can the user select the NTFS file format? Or, does the formatting need to be done in XP?

4. When this is finished, remove the outboard cloned drive from its enclosure, remove the main disk from the laptop and then from the caddy.

5. Mount the new drive in the caddy and remount the caddy in the laptop.

Then test and pray. The newly cloned drive should boot and work perfectly with no additional work. Please correct me if I have it wrong. Have I missed any steps? Have I not asked the right questions?

I have Norton Ghost which I have used when building new desktops. Is there some reason nobody is using Ghost? I'm no expert with Ghost but it did do a good job of duplicating a disk.

I have never removed the disk from my CF-29. From what I have gathered in this thread, I assume it is mounted in a carrier (the caddy) and the entire assembly (caddy plus drive) is mounted in the laptop. And the drive can be removed from the caddy and replaced with another drive with no trouble. Is the caddy removed when the drive is removed? Does the bottom cover need to be removed to accomplish this surgery? Or do I only need to remove the external drive cover?

Thanks, Sparky

 

Sparky

1 Thats an option, or buy them separate, just make sure the hard drive has the right interface for the laptop, sata for the latest models or pata ide for you cf29

3 If you plug the usb drive in your computer in windows ,if not formatted it will ask and format for you, and all large drives get ntfs file system,or the progam will see the drive when cloning and format for you

Norton costs money, other options are free

Read the cf29 threads , you remove your caddy from the toughbook from the side cover, and take it apart to remove and replace the hard drive

btw; I don't clone very often, I prefer to reload with recovery disks, run updates,load software applications,transfer files and settings from the old hard drive
This way is time consuming, but software tweaking can be as much fun for me as hardware modding is for some of you

As my grandfather used to say

If everyone liked the same things ...Everyone would be after your grandmother




Alex

 

To add to what Tomcat57 wrote:

No, both are fine. You do not need an Acronis CD if you have Acronis installed and start the cloning from within Windows - and it is useful to have Acronis installed, because its main purpose is for making backups, for which it has plenty of options. But it is also very useful to have/create an Acronis boot CD (or bootable USB key), because you will need it for some cases of recovery.

Acronis will provide enough information about the drives hooked up to the computer to help you select the correct source and target drives: manufacturer, size, model number, interface etc. The target drive will be formatted automatically during the cloning, it will receive the same file system(s) as the source drive. This does not have to be NTFS. I have cloned drives which have multiple partitions for both Windows and Linux, and the target will end up with the same mix of partitions, NTFS, FAT, EXT3 etc.

No idea, maybe Ghost is fine too. The free trial versions of Acronis are fairly capable, so that's what I started with, and then I stuck with it for making regular backups etc. Now I'm familiar with it, and when I need to recover a broken system I prefer something familiar where I don't screw up even more.

It's not like Acronis is without its flaws. Last week I wanted to restore my little Shuttle desktop machine which had been messed up by Adobe. The computer has a SATA drive and relies on USB for keyboard/mouse input. The Acronis boot CD gives a choice between a full mode and a safe mode. It turned out the full mode would not see the internal SATA drive, and the safe mode had no USB support, leaving me no way to talk to the machine. Had to take it apart and do everything via USB enclosures over a different computer.

 

There's nothing wrong with Ghost except that it's part of Symantec now, so it costs money. It's the utility that first made Disc cloning easily available to the NON-UNIX/LINUX set; I've been using it since the '90s. It's still the disc cloning software of ch0ice for me; of course, that's cuz I know how to use it.

If you've bought a Soyo mainboard any time in the last 5 years it came with a version of Ghost that's NTFS compatible; they haven't tied it down to a single PC or Windows install yet as far s I know. I just used that version to clone a Win7RC HDD for a laptop, so it should work for you too.

mnem
Ghosties & ghoulies? Naaaahh... That's just uncle Murray...

 

HI mnem,
Using Ghost, I copied C: to an external USB drive. The operation seems successful. Unfortunately, my Bios does not seem to let me boot from a USB port so I don't know if the copy will boot. I did copy the Master Boot Record. This was just for practice.

Still, the process went well, I guess.

Sparky

 

Ghost has several options; I will usually make a binary copy of the entire HDD if all I'm doing is upgrading to a larger drive. What you need to do now is remove the HDD from the external enclosure & install it in your laptop to see if it copied the entire drive; it should boot up and seem exactly the same as the original HDD, only with storage capacity appropriate to the new drive.

mnem
Ooooh... shiny!!!

 

HI Mnen,
Well, removing the cloned drive from its enclosure is not so easy. It is not intended to be removed. The drive is one made by LaCie. It has a soft plastic shock absorbing case which I removed with some effort. Inside, the drive is firmly mounted and it is not clear how to remove it. It appears to be soldered in. I decided that I did not want to chance damaging it, so I put it back together.

I have ordered an Hitachi Travelstar 100GB IDE drive and an external USB case. I guess I will wait until it arrives before I take this exercise further.

During the cloning proces, I discovered something that may be of use. The first time I cloned the C: drive, Ghost gave me several error messages that indicated the clone process did not complete properly. In examining the error messages, which were pretty unintelligible, one said that access to a file was denied. Usually this happens when a program is running and you try to modify its files. Access will be denied. I only had one process running in the background. It was Full Shot, a screen capture program. I exited Full Shot and ran the clone process again. It completed with no error messages.

So, it seems that one must be careful to exit all processes that show up in the Device Manager's Applications window before cloning can be successful. Makes sense.

Sparky

 

Yeah, this is why we usually recommend running Ghost from a bootable disc - there is no chance of having unclosed files or processes interfering with the job; this is why I keep it handy in both Floppy & CDROM formats.

mnem
If we can clone a hard drive and we can clone a sheep, can we clone a sheep and store it on a hard drive?

 

A very nice chuckle before I head of to bed... THAT was a good one!

I always like the abbreviated, "Different Strokes for different people!" Then someone always pipes up and asks, "Don't you mean Different strokes for different folks?"

I just say... "Exactly!"

 

Question regarding the Acronis software.

I downloaded the program, got my new drive and external case, and set up to clone the drive; however, I haven't received my new TB caddy yet, so I thought I'd clone the new drive while I was waiting for the caddy to arrive. When I went to the cloning menu, Acronis says the you will need to remove your original drive when finished cloning. I stopped, because I thought, from what I read here, that the original drive would remain usable just as it is now, and that I could, in fact swap between drives if necessary. I didn't want to disable my main drive since I can't install the new one w/o the caddy.

What's up ? Does the cloning process prevent the original drive from being used as it was prior to the cloning process...that low key message kinda scared me from procedding....

 

They're REQUIRED BY LAW (Or at least under threat of severe beating by Microsoft's legions of EX-BABY-SEAL-CLUBBERS) to say that; you aren't supposed to clone your hard drive and keep the original lying around due to copyright.

mnem
I gotcher Copy-Right HEEEAHHH!

 

So, technically, the software doesn't disable / block the original drive - it just "notifies" you to make sure "legally" you aren't making copies for distribution / sale with copyrighted program materials...is that correct ?

I'm not trying to skirt the law, just trying to save some time when I finally get the new case and can swap the drives. I just don't want to be left with a dead drive and an unusable computer for several days...

 

People would be lining up outside their offices with burning torches and pitchforks if they did something that stupid; the entire point is to be able to upgrade hardware without losing your old drive. I've NEVER heard of any disc cloning software doing such a thing; besides, you're supposed to be able to verify data integrity against the original - how could you do that if they damaged it somehow?

mnem
GigaBYTE ME, MicroSoft...

 

Thanks for alleviating my disk duplicating trauma...now back to cloning !!!

 

Well, next headache...I must have missed something along the way....

I set up Acronis to clone my C drive to the new drive, which is connected via 2 USB ports on the CF-30. The software lets me set up the drives for cloning, no problem - but when it starts to perform the operations, it stops and says "Operation Failed" with no explanation. Tried it 4 times - same result. Does the new drive have to be formatted first ? I thought I read here that Acronis takes care of formatting the new drive when you use the clone function...

 

I'll have to let those on the forum who are more familiar with Acronis than I field this one; there are a host of potential causes for this; however, I've never had to FORMAT the drive as long as it has a valid partition table...

mnem
Great... now we have TWO 12-year-old sheep...

 

Hi Larry, I have ran into this before.
I had to assign a drive letter and format in windows Disk Manager before Acronis would work for me.

Chuck

 

I agree. I have used Acronis for years and have only had to format the new drive in windows first 3 times. Give that a try, the resume cloning. Another thing to check if it fails again is the usb port itself. I know from others here that the 30 only uses one of its USB ports from boot, the others are activated after the OS comes up. It could be thats the problem as well. Other than that, what you are doing is 100% correct and should work as you think.

 

Thats a good idea, Doobi
That is common on all the newer Toughbooks that have the ability to boot from a usb device
All usb ports work in windows, but for booting only one usb works



Alex

 

I was using the rear USB ports. I'd guess, if I was designing the system, that the single side USB port is the "primary" port then, and the rear 2 are "secondary", so I'll try it with the main drive plug in the side first. (Acronis sees the drive now, and Windows shows it in the "remove Hardware" list, but it doesn't show in the system list, if that makes a difference).

Also, pardon my computer ignorance, but I couldn't find the Disk Manager. I went through System (no additional drive shown), through Device Manager (the only place the USB drive is actually visible, but no way to format it there), and couldn't figure how to assign the drive a drive letter...so any directions would be appreciated..

 

Going from memory...

For XP
I had to make sure it was added thru Start menu Properties first.
Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Storage>Disk Management
Once there...
Highlite or right click on un-named new drive. Its the one of the new size you want, it'l be a drop-down menu, assign a drive letter there.
To format, just go back to file explorer and you should be able to do it from there.

73

Chuck

 

Your directions to Disk Management are correct...Got there, drive was listed, but drop down menu does not offer to set up drive letter, only to initialize the disk. Tried that , but get a system error, drive unreadable (?), and then I restart DM, and the drive is gone from the list. Same thing 3 times. It's a brand new Hitachi SATA 2.5" 7200rpm 320Gb, out of a sealed foil wrapper, so I'd guess the drive is good and I'm still missing something...what am I messing up here ?

 

For all the time you have spent on this, the fresh load using the restore disks would of been a better option lol

Sorry.... I just had to say that

Now to getting your drive working

You have to get this drive mounted with a drive letter, and you have to format it

Is it a power issue?
Some drives use more power tham the usb port can deliver
Does the drive except a power source other than the single usb plug

Try in your desktop or other laptop and consider an aux power supply

Report back



Alex

 

Alex - No worries, I earned that comment...

The drive has a double USB cable that's plugged in to 2 USB ports, so I don't think it's a power issue...I can see the drive light from boot up, and the color changes after XP is loaded, so it's running. If I can get it to format on another laptop, will it still be OK to clone on the CF-30 ?

If it doesn't work by tomorrow, I'll load it into the caddy (received it today) and try a fresh load of XP (instead of the load of sh*t I'm getting from my cloning attempts )

I appreciate everyone's patience and help here -

 

If the usb second power cable is long enough, try different combinations using the two back usb and the one usb on the side
Wiggle the cable a bit
Yes for sure try mounting and formating in a different computer if possible


Alex

 

Same issue on second laptop - same error message in Disk Management when I try to initialize the disk...I'm going to mount it in the caddy, and see if it will load XP when installed in the CF-30...if it does (fingers crossed), is it still possible to try the cloning or just stick with a complete reload ?

 

I would just do a complete reload
You will see if you have an issue when you boot with the replacement hard drive



Alex

 

Here is a link for more info
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=368710




Alex

 

Update:

I was able to do a fresh install of XP with no problem...

Now the tedious task of reinstalling all the old stuff and resetting everything as I had it....

 

Thats great
Its time consuming,but a good learning experiance


Alex

 

Well, I've got the new hard drive loaded up and working fine - but no without an issue (I think I'm cursed ). Since setting up the new drive, the internal GPS does not work on any of the programs on either new or old drive. I've checked the device mgr, port is fine, settings are good. I've checked the bios- no changes, either. In fact, I didn't make any system changes of any type that I know of, and didn't touch the original drive. When I boot up Virtual GPS, or WinFast, the GPS shows a data stream that appears good, and shows 7-9 satellites with good signals, so it seems the GPS is working. The com port 3 shows OK in the device driver; but the CF-30 doesn't have any other indicator of the GPS or it's function that I can find. I use Franson GPSGATE (allows multiple applications to access the GPS at the same time, and gives you specific info on the datastream) on the original hardrive, and it shows unreadable data coming in from the GPS, despite the good data stream I see on Virtual GPS, so I'm not sure what I did to create any issue - the GPS worked on the original hard drive for several days after I loaded XP on the new drive and removed it, so I can't figure out what just changed - only one drive is in the CF-30 at a time, same programs, same computer, and now, no GPS registering properly with programs, even though I know it's working. Yes, I checked the configuration files on each and every program, and they weren't changed (especially on the original drive that just gets removed from it's bay). And to make sure, I didn't load GPSGATE on the new drive until I figure out whats up, leaving the GPS data to com port 3 exclusively...

Any ideas ???