Newbie in need of help

Hey all,

I have AI 8.0 and I would like to image my laptop before I return it back to the manufacture. I want to back up my c drive so I can restore it on my new laptop which will be the same model. Currently I have 4 partitions on my laptop. I have 2 drives for back ups, one for apps and of course the c drive.

1) What would be the best process for imaging my c drive so I can reinstall on it my new laptop?

2) Would it be ok to back up the image of the c drive to one of my other back up partitions on the laptop?

3) Once I have the imaged backed up, how do I restore my c image back to the new laptop?

Thanks!

 

Hello wboo,

A slightly confusing mix of the term "drive" and "partition". From what I can gather, your old laptop has 1 drive that contains 4 partitions. Namely, the Primary/Active partition (C containing the Operating System (OS) plus 3 Logical partitions, 2 of which are used for backup and 1 for your applications.

You haven't made it clear whether you currently have access to both the old laptop and the new one. Either way, you will need to create a "whole disk" (tick the box next to Disk 1) image of your old laptop to CDs/DVDs or an external USB hard drive. After that, boot the new laptop from the True Image rescue CD (full version) and restore the "whole disk" image from the CDs/DVDs or USB HD to the new hard drive. There is no need to partition or reformat the new drive first.

You also haven't advised which OS you are using. BE WARNED that if moving a Windows XP installation to new hardware, albeit an identical model, you will almost certainly need to reactivate Windows XP. If it's an OEM version of Windows XP rather than the full retail version then reactivation wont possible.

Regards

 

Sorry for the confusion, I have one drive split into 4 partitions on my laptop. I would like to image the partitions so I can restore to my new laptop which will be the same model. I am using Xp pro for my OS. I am returning my laptop back to the manufacture and will be getting the same model reconfigure with different specs.

 

Hello again wboo,

You have confirmed what I thought to be the case. Therefore what I said about imaging to CD/DVD or external HD and the warning about Windows XP activation still applies.

Regards

 

Will I be able to save the image of my primary c drive to my other partition and then burn it to a dvd?

 

If you only image the C: partition then there is no guarantee that your new laptop will boot up after you restore the image to it. As I said, you will need to create a "whole disk" image otherwise True Image will not include the Master Boot Record (MBR). Alternatively, you can image and restore only the C: partition and then either run fixmbr from the Windows XP Recovery Console or download and use the special mbrautowrite file as detailed in the Acronis Support Sticky titled <Please Read Before You Post>.

As far as imaging the C: partition to another partition on the same HD and copying it to DVD, the answer is "Yes". I recommend you set TI to manually split the image at 1492MB (ignore TI's dropdown list and just type the figure in) and then burn up to 3 .tib files per DVD-ROM (ISO) compilation.

If you want to image the whole of your hard drive as explained above then, believe it or not, due to TI's special "snapshot" technology you can save the "whole disk" image to any one of the partitions included in the image. You will obtain a warning about saving the image to the same partition being imaged but just ignore this and continue. The only proviso is that the size of the total used space on your hard drive must be less than the free space on the partition that the image is being created to.

Regards

 

It would be a very rare laptop that didn't have the OEM version of the OS pre-installed. Thus, unless the laptop is an OEM replacement from the manurfacturer, an attempt at moving Win XP would be a violation for the OEM EULA. But then, one would think a replacement laptop would come with an OS, since without that it is just an expensive paper weight. To add light at the end of the tunnel, it seems like the calls to re-activate go to India, and the exchange of 60 digit numbers may just be an act to make things cumbersome and difficult to discourage priacy, not prevent OEM duplication. The girl in India just might not know you are activating an OEM version unless you tell her. The license number does not appear to be part of the exchange, but the number you give her may be indexed to a license number in their database. She will ask you if this is a boxed version or OEM version (which seems strange to me that she doesn't know). I have 4 licenses and 4 computers, but after all the disk swapping I have done in the past 4 months, I have no idea which license is on which computer. And I have not discovered a way to tell. One is an OEM version, and I think (but am not sure) that is the version I had to re-activate 3 times last week since I kept swapping parts in association with a new machine build up. I am an extreme fiddler that swaps CPUs, graphics cards, drives, and power supplies quite often in pursuit of the un-achievable "perfect" machine. Win XP re-activation has become a significant anoyance, but so far has only been an anoyance.

 

Whether the new laptop comes with an OEM version of Windows or not doesn't really matter. When restoring the image of the old laptop to the new one the old activation code will overwrite the new one. Hence when restarting Windows the old code will see the new hardware signatures and throw a wobbly. Hence my warning in #2 above about Windows XP activation.

Regards

 

The laptop that I am returning had an OEM xp home, but I removed and upgraded to Xp pro. I am using coperate xp edition of Xp pro. Since I am getting the same laptop reconfigured with different specs I did not want to go through the hassle of reformating the laptop again.

 

Could I just use a wipe utility and clean off the new laptop before restoring the image.

 

All laptops that I have encountered use an oem version of xp (home or pro) that does not require activation as long as it is used on that same brand. The install skips the "provide cd key" step. In most cases it will cross models and hard drives with no problems or requirement for activation. Note that this is not usually the same cd key that is labelled on your computer. If you have to install with that cd key it will require installation.

This is different than the driver/hardware issue across models.


wboo

If you are using a corporate license, then the activation is also not a consideration, it will not ask, but hopefully you do have a legal license for that.

You don't have to wipe out the new hardrive to restore the image. If your image won't work properly, just do a repair install over the old image.

I don't know why you are returning it, but check with the manufacturer, I never even send in the hard drive with the laptop for warranty work and they understand why.

 

I am taking adavantage of my 6 months return policy with Costco. I have up until the end of March to return my laptop for a full refund. I want to get my laptop reconfigured, but it will be the same model. I have an hp dv1000 I want to image so I can restore to my new dv1000.

 

Hey Meno

I've made an image of my c drive, it has been split into 2 parts. The first image being 4 gb and second being 1.75gb. Do I need to burn the images to the dvd as an ISO or just burn them a regular data file?

 

wboo

Costco's return policy is great, but I thought they had reduced it more than that for computers.

The easiest way I have found to transfer to a new laptop.

Boot with Ti boot disc
Create a complete image of your hard drive over a network to a shared folder making your tib files 650 or 700mb in size. If you do not have your own network connect at work or to a friend's network via cat5 cable.
If you want you can burn each tib file to a cd or multiples to dvd, but keep the files on the network share if possible.
Connect the new laptop to the network.
Boot the new laptop with the Ti boot cd, look for the tib files on the network share folder and restore to the new laptop.
Reboot from laptop.
Should take a little over an hour.

There are other ways, but I have found this to be the easiest and most reliable.

If you have problems with MS's xp update, then don't use it manually and it will work just fine. Withe the corporate version, activation is not required.

I just finished doing this to a new 80gig drivethis evening in a thinkpad.

 

Do I have to burn the images to the dvd as an ISO or do I burn the image as an data file?

 

Not iso.

The easist I have found is to download and install a simple burning prog called Deepburner (free).
Disable in startup or uninstall all other burn progs. Disable xp burn.
In essence what you will do is drag and drop the tib files to dvd in the prog until the bar fills closest to 4.3 gig and burn as a data file. You can later play with the tib file sizes to get the max on a dvd, but I don't bother. At 700mb I am more concerned about filling a cd than a dvd, if needed.

Deepburner is very reliable, but it's best attribute is that it is it small and does not reside in memory when exited.

Be sure to have the latest firmware for your burner. This will increase your disc compatability.

I always copy back to a drive before a restore, rather than trying it from the dvd directly.

 

I plan on using alcohol to burn the data to the dvd.

 

Just for testing purposes I wanted to test the restore image from my dvd. I booted up with the rescue cd clicked on restore image browsed to the dvd and I get the following error " This is not the last create volume of the image archive Please insert the last created volume to start with this archive" I click next and get "image archive is currupt please choose another file" When I put in the 2nd dvd it does see the 2nd part of the image. My first is image is 4gb and the 2nd dvd image is 1.74gb

Any suggestions?

 

When restoring or verifiying an image spanned over several CDs/DVDs you need to insert the last disk first and then follow TI's prompts for subsequent disk insertions.

Regards