Changing harddisk

[sanctus]

I have a small problem with my harddisk, the guarantee changes it freely for me. Problem is they give it (actually they mount it in my laptop) as bought that means with only windows on it.

 

Now, I have a dual boot (linux fedora) and would like not to have to install all again (also in order to keep all my settings). I wanted to buy a external harddisk and try to copy everything there (actually I don't even now if this is possible), but they told me that you can't boot from an external... So what is the best way to do this?

[C1ay]

Use ghost or dd to make an image of your drive then you can restore the new drive with it. You will need enough external storage to put the image file on....

[Tormod]

I can recommend Acronis Trueimage:

 

Hard disk drive cloning and image backup software: computer files and disk copy

 

It's affordable and has worked well for me in the past.

[sanctus]

C1ay, what is ghost and dd? Is it running on linux? do external harddisks not have enough place usually. And really stupid question, where do I see exactly how much memory would be needed?

 

Tormod, I will look if they have it around here.

 

thanks to both

[alexander]

I hate Acronis, DO NOT give into what they say on their website, their crap is a waste of your time, and they don't even refund, even though they "claim" that they will give you back your money, no questiones asked. First of all they asked me a shitload of questions, second of all as i already said, they then never refunded me mah money!

 

READ their licensing, its speciffically aimed at draining your resource (aka money). You pay not for the ability to image a certain amount f machines, but you pay to image ONE particular machine, which is sooooo dumb.

 

Honestly, sanctus, you are better off downloading the System Rescue CD, and running partimage, it is not as graphical, but will manage any of your personal imaging needs...

 

Ghost is old and antiquated, the multicast versions only have the ability to image ide drives

 

Partimage is a gui interface to the gnu dd, and it will also run through the compression util.

 

Also, i use Partimage a lot, infact i have written nifty scripts for imaging windows images onto Precision 650s 670s and 690s by just saying ./restore 650 and it will partition and restore the images from the smb server. If you want, start a thread, there's many ways you can go about imaging stuff with it :)

[Theory5]

wait...i thought u could boot from an external....

doesnt the USB port show up in BIOS? or cant you add it? (i doubt what i just said is true) :-P

[alexander]

yes you can, if your bios supports it ;)

[LaurieAG]

Hello Sanctus,

 

If one of the drives is a Maxtor you can use this free software to copy your drive.

 

Freeware Maxtor MaxBlast 3 v 3.6 at DirFile - Drivers > Storage Systems

[alexander]

yes, but if you want your data to be there on a drive for a while, you shouldn't get a maxtor drive to begin with, so you are back at square one...

[freeztar]

yes, but if you want your data to be there on a drive for a while, you shouldn't get a maxtor drive to begin with, so you are back at square one...

 

hehe...so true...

 

Seagate is the way to go imo.

[alexander]

[sanctus]

Now I have to decide who I trust most...probably Alex since you gave me always good help in the past, only your propositions seem to imply a little geekiness with linux I don't have so I don't know yet.

 

What is all this story about booting from external? Where can I see if it works for me? Because this would solve everything once I figured out how to copy everything there...

 

Thanks to all so far

[freeztar]

What is all this story about booting from external? Where can I see if it works for me? Because this would solve everything once I figured out how to copy everything there...

 

I think you are referring to a usb boot. Check your BIOS for the option (it will be under "boot order", or something similar). Some have it, some don't.

[LaurieAG]

yes, but if you want your data to be there on a drive for a while, you shouldn't get a maxtor drive to begin with, so you are back at square one...

 

Hi Alexander,

 

It's funny really, the oldest working drives that I have are 2 x 2G Maxtors, all the rest died a long time ago.

[sanctus]

Freez, when you say to check under boot order is it on windows, linux or the screen you get to when you press F12 when starting up?

[C1ay]

Freez, when you say to check under boot order is it on windows, linux or the screen you get to when you press F12 when starting up?

 

The startup menu you get on power up, usually <F12> or <delete>...

[alexander]

The startup menu you get on power up, usually <F12> or <delete>...

also seen F2 and F8 :phones: but yeah F12 is about 95% of the time.

 

It's funny really, the oldest working drives that I have are 2 x 2G Maxtors, all the rest died a long time ago.

wow, the oldest drive i have working is a 350MB Toshiba drive.... lol i should dig around school, i bet they have like a 40MB drive working somewhere.... Well hell, they have the like 5Mb disk stacks that have a case and all to carry them around. Dunno if its working.

 

Besides, the fact that the old drive is still good, does not speak for the product now. i mean back in time Made In China used to be a quality mark. look at it now, its now the opposite :rolleyes:

 

I can still find working 1 and 4x CDROMs, but i can not find any working 32x CDROMs because of quality standards changes over the years with the progression of computing, i think they used to put a lot more work at making long-lasting products years ago, now, they just have to last a few years. :rolleyes: