Upgrade to larger drive / restore image from external usb drive

I have a laptop with a 60gb drive (single C: partition) that I'm trying to upgrade to a 120gb drive through a psuedo-cloning process.

I purchased TI 10 yesterday and did a "computer" backup from within Windows XP Pro to an image file on a locally attached, external usb 2.0 drive. I then verified the image after the backup was complete.

I removed the 60gb drive and installed the raw 120gb drive into the laptop. I then booted into the Acronis recovery CD and selected Full (not safe mode) TI. So good so far. Next, I selected Recovery and was asked to specify the location of the image file. The USB drive no longer shows up. Only the optical drive appears (as drive C. How retarded is that? Are usb drives supposed to appear when booted into the TI recovery CD?

Per this forum, I saw a thread that mentioned Acronis can see network resources. Acronis didn't load my wireless network, but I plugged in the network wire and rebooted and Acronis TI could then see the other computers on my network. I plugged the USB drive into one of the other computers and shared it out in order to allow the recovery CD software to see my image file. I could then attempt to restore the image to the new drive.

It's much slower reading the image file across the network (appears to be twice as slow at least). I also see a message that Acronis is restoring "Drive letter C: -> D:" Is that going to be a problem? THe new HD must be drive C: when the restore is complete.

I'm wondering whether I did this correctly or not. I didn't see any step-by- step instructions in the manual for cloning (upgrading) a laptop HD, which has only one drive connection available. I would think this a pretty common task.

I appreciate any feedback or help you can provide. I'll post the results of my cloning/upgrade when the restore is complete.

 

Let's clear up one thing first. The process you are going through, in TI speak, is Backup and Recovery. Cloning is reserved for making an instantly bootable drive as when you want to upgrade - in a desktop - from one drive to another directly. You can actually clone the 120 if you put it in the external usb enclosure, and afterwards install it in the laptop.
As to why the usb drive can be seen across the network but not when connected directly to the laptop I haven't a clue. .... TI is strange ... the slightest hint of a curve ball can make it falter. But when it works for you it works well.

 

Thanks for the info. I assume you mean that if I were to put the 120gb drive in the usb enclosure, I could choose to clone the existing 60gb drive to it directly from within TI running under Windows XP.

Would I need to do something to the drive first in XP? Like format it or something? If this backup/restore scenario doesn't work right, I'll try to do it via the cloning process you mentioned.

 

Arghhh. True Image restored the image volume on top of the raw 120gb drive fine. But it didn't automagically stretch the partition to fill the drive. The old C: partition was 60gb so it created a 60gb partition on the new drive and left 60gb unallocated. WinXP has no "merge" or resize function that I can find, and I don't want a D: drive. And I don't want to spend more $$ just for a utility to manage the drive partitions.

I re-ran the rescue CD restore function to see if I missed anything regarding stretching the volume on the new drive. I didn't see anything. I was prepared to do a clone to the 120gb drive by putting it in the usb enclosure, only I found after disassembly that the enclosure had a 3.5" drive in it and I couldn't connect the 120gb 2.5" drive.

I then returned to the forums and found my salvation.

A post by Menorcaman on 6/7/2006 explains that in order to resize the destination partition upon restore, you can't select an entire drive, you must select partition by partition:

" Yes. In fact, you use an entire disk image, a blank new larger drive and you resize each partition within the restore process.

See these step-by-step instructions by Menorcaman:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=769388&postcount=5

Not only that, after booting to the True Image rescue CD, my usb drive could miraculously be seen. So I was able to specify that the restore stretch to the size of the new 120gb disk, and was able to access the drive image from a locally attached usb drive.

I had to spend too much time on this simple job. Acronis should provide step by step instructions for common tasks like this. Not being able to contact a human being at Acronis for what would have been a simple answer is very frustrating.

Thanks to you forum members who provided the real info needed to tackle this upgrade.

Regards

 

If you used the Clone function instead it would use the whole drive and not just the 60 gig. But I understand that in this case you could not. For future though, if you think you'll be in this situation again, you could get a 3.5 to 2.5 adapter to let you hook up a 2.5 drive in the 3.5 enclosure. They're around $10 or less.

If that link to get back the missing part of the drive involves making a Secure Zone then immediately deleting it, yes, that is a good workaround for that situation.

As the saying goes, "you live and learn".

 

What is the full link you provided above - get an error when I try to use what you have posted. Do need this information!!

 

The link shows up incorrectly, but it should work now:
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=769388&postcount=5


Here is the text in case the link doesn't work:

"Assuming you are using True Image 9.0 Home Build 3567 or higher, you can resize the partitions during a restore. Unfortunately, it's not quite as intuative as it could be:

1. When you get to the screen asking which partition or whole hard drive you want to restore make sure you only tick the checkbox adjacent to a Partition rather than the Disk Number.
2. Later in the restore process you will be able to drag the partition size slider to the size you want.
3. When you are then asked whether you want to restore another partition or hard drive, select "Yes, I want to restore another partition or hard drive". You can then select another partition (if the original hard drive contained more than one) and resize that if required.
4. Repeat step #3 for all partitions in the image, finishing off by ticking the MBR & Track 0 checkbox.
5. When done, commit the combined restore via the "Proceed" button. You should then end up with a bootable system drive where the partition(s) fills all the available space on the new drive.

Sounds a bit long winded I know but it's really just a case of selecting the individual partition(s), resizing it/them accordingly and then finally including the MBR & Track 0 before committing the restore."

Good luck

 

Many thanks, the lik worked. I had been unable to get a computer to boot after doing a restore - will try it now with these directions. Thanks Again!

 

ScottV,
I am just about to do the same task as you did.
Wasn't clear from your posts why the external USB drive suddenly
became visible.

Could you be kind enough to put down the bullet point steps of the
procedure to follow - would be much appreciated by myself
and probably many others searching for some simple guidance
(and reassurance !) that this will work.
Unlike yourself I don't have a local network to plug my USB drive into,
just a standalone laptop.

Thanks.

 

The correct link for the posting by Menorcaman referenced in post #7 above is below:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=769388&postcount=5

For more help on this topic, click this sub-menu of Product Links, FAQs & Useful Forum Threads

 

(GroverH) - does your beginners guide cover how to replace
a disk in a stand alon laptop with an extenral USB drive available for
storing the image ?

I can't seem to download the .pdf files - for some reason they come
down corrupted

 

struthers,
The links appear to be working correctly. Listed below is an alternate link but contains the same files. Check it out.

http://206.128.27.80/gh-misc/gh-acronis-backup1.pdf
http://206.128.27.80/gh-misc/gh-acronis-recovery1.pdf

Remove the old drive and install the new drive and restore the full disk archive by using the Rescue CD. My method is creating an archive and restoring it to a drive of the same size--with alternate choices. My guides do not touch upon cloning. Be sure you have validated your archive from the Rescue CD. Protect your original drive from damage so you can always re-install if needed.

Read the guides and ask any follow-up questions.