Ghosting existing HDD to new WD 500GB

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sdelliott31

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Like a few on here I have decided to upgrade my existing hard drive to a WD 500GB to achieve more space and a little better response time. However, I am running into a mental jam while waiting for the hard drive to get here.

My existing drive has one C: Partition with Win XP SP 3 and the recovery partition. I have installed Norton Ghost on this drive. I have a couple 500gb external hard drive and a Dell XPS desktop and HP desktop. I guess I am trying to figure out the logical steps.

I would initiate the backup on the existing installed AAO drive with Norton and pick one of the external drives as a back up point. Then when I get the new WD drive take the old hdd out and put the new in.

This is where I'm hung up. This is a new drive, unless there is some imaging software on the drive how will it know to take the image from he external drive and restore it? As well Norton Ghost will be on the drive that is disconnected. I am assuming I'm missing something. Can someone fill in that gap? Thank you!
 
Make a USB bootable drive with Ghost or Acronis True Image and use the bootable drive to swap images.

I mount the new SATA drive to a USB SATA adapter, boot with the bootable USB drive, attach the new drive, copy the image, and then physically swap the drives.
 
Ok, I guess I'm going to need more detail. I have Norton Ghost 14 and have formatted a USB stick. I have looked through the Norton Ghost folder and see bcdedit and many other files and folders. What do I need to copy to the USB to make it bootable to recognize the backup image on the external drive. I'm sorry for needing more help on this.
 
This link show you how to prepare a USB drive. It is the same for whatever image you want on the USB drive.

http://www.acronis.com/r/support/en/kb/388/flash.html

(EDIT I posted the wrong name) The tool (image) I use all the time is "WinSetupFromUSB-0.1.1", google it, download, and it contain step by step instructions on creating a bootable USB drive. This image has both Acronis and Ghost on it.
 
Ok, the Cruzer USB drive is formatted and I used acronis to make a bootable disk, but it saved it as an *.iso file. Is that correct when booting the new drive. I am using Norton Ghost to back up my existing hard drive to my external, will replace with the new WD 500 and I guess boot up with the USB and hope it will find the image of the back up on the external drive and reinstall.

Thanks,
 
I'm not sure why, I'm reading online still but I'm not having any luck creating a USB boot drive so that I can ghost my old hdd to my new hdd. Any help is appreciated. Thanks,
 
Ok, so, I have ghosted my c: partition with windows to an external hard drive (duh, I didn't realize it would wipe out what was on the drive already, buh bye UFC events) I have downloaded the HP USP Utility, formated and downloaded Bart PE (the links did not work, so I just did a general search and brought me to the site) I downloaded the program and it installed to the C: drive. I reopened HP USP and clicked the check mark for BartPE and linked it to the downloaded folder and voila, it installed to the USB. I restarted the AAO, and selected it to boot from USB and booted right up to the BartPE program. So, it looks like it will work. I don't quite understand it I admit, but am just waiting for my HDD and will go from there. Should be this weekend. Thanks for getting me this far. When it boots with the new drive, will it let me then select the external drive to restore the data from? Will I have to extend the partition first before putting the ghosted image back on. Still a little stuck but getting closer. Thanks again all.
 
This all sounds like hard work. Here's what I would do:

1. Buy a cheap USB to SATA adapter or 2.5" enclosure from somewhere like dealextreme
2. Buy a small USB flash drive (sounds like you already have this)
3. Make a GParted Live USB
4. Install the WD500 in the USB enclosure
5. Boot from the GParted Live USB and clone your current HD to the WD500
6. Use GParted to resize the partitions on the WD500 if required
7. Remove the WD500 from the enclosure and install it in the AA1.

Alternatively download and install a free version of Acronis TrueImage or one of the Paragon disk tools on your current HD and use this to clone your HD to the WD500 attached via USB.
 
Well I guess I'm at the waiting period. I have done all the prepping for now. I'll just wait and get the new hard drive. If then I get stuck then I'll go the above route. Sounds much simpler. Or just go buy and external DVD drive (I'm just trying to be lazy lol) and install a fresh copy of windows and install my programs and then copy files over. Either way, I'll get there and I'll post.
 
With the working BartPE USB drive there are a couple of ways to swap out the Hard Drive.

1) Copy the existing AAO150's image to a back up recovery image on a USB hard drive, this would include all partitions and would allow you to restore the computer in the future to this image. I use Acronis True Image for this. Swap the drive and copy the image back to the new drive.

2) Make a disk to disk image from the AAO150 to the new 500gb drive (attached with a SATA to USB adapter), Ghost is very easy to use for this task. Swap drives.
 
Well I copied the image or actually used norton ghost and made an image on an external USB hard drive. When I install the new hard drive and plug in the external usb hard drive that has the image on it and boot from the Bart USB stick, will this move the image back? Or do I need to use Acronis to move the image? Right now I have an image on my external USB hard drive of the AOA 150 waiting for the new HDD.
 
If you created the image with Ghost then you have to use Ghost to copy it back. Ghost and Acronis do not have interchangable images.

Even different versions of Ghost and Acronis can not interchange images. So make sure you create the image with the same software (BartPE USB Drive) you intend to restore it with.
 
Well then I have to redo the image, which makes sense to me using this Bart PE Builder. However I don't see where it allows me to make an image. I'm going to do some internet reading, but I know I have a bootable USB but if it wont do the Norton Ghost, then I'm going to have to create an image. Any help with this would be great. Thanks,
 
Are you booting into the screens I posted pictures of?

If so, you right click on the desktop and select the program you want to run from the menu, Ghost.
 
Well just to update. I did get the HDD. I did get the USB boot but didn't get all the programs. The WD 500GB installed smoothly and was no problem and recognized by the Bios. I ghosted to and external hard drive before the install so I just decided to do a fresh install of XP Pro. I got all my programs off the external and things are running smooth. The HDD is nice and quiet and runs pretty quick and I love the storage. I would recommend taking the time to update.
 
I have a similar, but different, problem. AA1 150, 160 HDD with Windows XP. As an experiment, I have successfully installed Ubuntu 9.04 desktop version on an 8gb SDHC card, but it's only got 2.5gb of space left. A 16gb SDHC card would last me for a long time, OR I could install Ubuntu on the HDD, and create, say, a 32gb partition for Linux, leaving the rest for XP, OR I could replace the HDD with a 32gb 2.5" SATA SDD.

How best to transfer the current install of Ubuntu to larger media? I can simply re-install, and configure, but I've done that a lot in the past 24 hours as a result of experimentation. Since I have 2.5gb of free space, I can wait quite a while for a solution. If I go the HDD partition route, I want to be 100% certain that I won't screw up XP -- in my view, XP is a lot more fragile than Linux. I have a 1tb external drive that I use for Mac backup, and I have created a Linux partition on it -- could I backup/restore with it?
 
Hiya,

New to the forum, but not really to messing with pc's.
In my own case I cloned the original disk (120gb) to a USB external drive 500 Gb with one of the acronis tools (disk clone thing), free to test for 15 days which is plenty of time to clone and replace a disk. You can even do it within windows.
Simply clone the disk and repartition as you like on the destination disk.
Open up the AA1 and exchange disks, you can put the old one in the USB enclosure as backup or whatever.

Quite an easy operation once you have your AA1 opened up for mods.

Mine is now at;
1.5Gb RAM/500 Gb HD/Intel Wireless Card/GTM380/7200mAh battery, works like a charm.

Cheers,
Albert
 
Hi there guys,

I'm coming back on here after picking the brains of all you clued-up folk when it came to setting up my AAO150 and changing over to XP. The thing worked like a charm while I was travelling in India but that was only a 6 week holiday. I've got a longer one coming up to SE Asia and I'm doubting that the standard 120gb is going to be enough for me.

I'm not amazingly gifted when it comes to taking the covers off and delving inside netbooks, or maybe that should read, "I've no idea what I'm doing having never done it :oops: ", but I'm willing to have a go and try and swap to a 500gb drive. Is it something that you'd recommend a newbie to try? With regards to the actual drive to swap for, do those of you with the 500gb all have the same drive and if so, what is it?

Size and weight is a major factor as I'll be taking a bit of photography gear too so I'd rather not go down the external HDD option, but if it would prove to be more trouble than it's worth with me rummaging around inside my prized AAO, what external drive would you recommend? If I'm going to go "external" then I'd like to have something which is a little more robust and durable.


Thanks for taking the time to read through my post and to those of you who take a second to remember what it's like to start out on these things and opt to pop me a reply, you have my sincerest gratitude! :D
 
After a couple of hours of forum scanning I think it seems like the WD Scorpio Blue WD5000BEVT 500GB seems to be my best option, and ebuyer have it for £63.91 (inc. shipping) how does that sound? Are there any other options out there that people have experience of?

It's time for me to leave the t'internet for tonight as I'm starting to go bog-eyed, but as mentioned before, any advice will be warmly welcomed. :D
 
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