Re: Replacing hard drive in Dell notebook

"Joe Starin" <joespamawaystarin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:CfWCe.274$9k7.2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
My daughter has a Dell 8600 notebook less than a year old with Windows XP
Pro operating system. The HD is making a strange, very infrequent mechanical
noise. Dell sent us a new HD and suggested that she (1) back up the existing
HD, (2) install the new HD, and (3)re-install all of the software. Crap!

Q. Can she simply ghost the existing HD and transfer everything to the new
HD? (The notebook, although noisey at times, is still fully functional.)

Q. Would/should Dell do all of this for me?

Thanks for any and all replies.
Joe Starin

(And Joe later writes...)
Thanks for your reply, P. McCarty. I do not have a ghosting program of any
kind, although it might be a good idea to have one so I can also back up my
other PCs. Suggestions? Joe Starin


Dave Lipman responds...
Ghosting is a good idea *if* the old hard disk is still working and
accessible. Notebooks can be difficult. However if it is Ghost 2003, and
updated to build 793, you can Ghost to CD, DVD or tape drives via FireWire
or USB v2.0 or if the drive on the notebook has a writeable CD or DVD drive.

Otherwise you can do a TCP/IP over-the-wire backup to another PC.

Dell doesn't do this for you under warranty and I don't know if they will do
it or not if
you pay them to do it.
--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm


> From: "Joe Starin" <joespamawaystarin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> | Thanks, Dave. I do not have Ghost 2003 or any other ghosting program.
> Would
> | this program copy everything to, say, an external hard drive if I
> purchased
> | one? What software would I need to do a TCP/IP over-the-wire backup to
> | another PC? Yes, the laptop has a writable CD drive, but is not a DVD
> | burner. I'm asking a million questions so this whole process might be
> way
> | out of my league. Your answers are appreciated.
Joe Starin


"David H. Lipman" <DLipman~nospam~@Verizon.Net> wrote in message
news:eAocRGIjFHA.3608@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> |
>
> No problem Joe.
>
> If you had an external USB or FireWire hard disk, you would create an
> image of the enite hard disk as a series of 2GB disk files. The first
> being a GHO file and then subsequent GHS files each no more than 2GB.
>
> Assuming the failed hard disk was 20GB with 10GB of free space and the
> replacement was 30GB, the non-formatted 30GB hard disk can be installed in
> the notebook, you would boot off a created Ghost Boot Disk and you would
> restore the image to the new hard disk. Now the system will be exactly as
> it was (a clone) except that it will be on a 30GB hard disk with 20GB of
> free space.
>
> When you create a Ghost Boot Disk you have options on how the disk(s) are
> to be created. TCP/IP is one of theose options. You create a Boot Disk
> associated to the Network Interface Card (or chip-set) and you would
> communicate with another PC also booted from a Ghost Boot Disk associated
> with its Network Interface Card (or chip-set) and using a master-slave
> relation ship you cpuld then image one PC to another over Ethernet and
> then restore said image over Ethernet. Obviously the external USB or
> FireWire hard disk process would be easier.
>
> You can do it with CD but... You would need many CD's. There is only
> ~700MB per CD while there is approx. 4.7GB per DVD. Just like you were
> getting a an External USB or FireWire
> hard disk, you could get an External DVD writer. This way not only can
> you backup and retore the system but you will now be able to b\play DVDs
> and if you have a notebook and a desktop, you can place this external DVD
> on the desktop further enhancing its value.
> --
> Dave
> http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
> http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm


Joe:
I wonder if all this is getting a bit more complicated than it needs to
be...

1. You plan to install a new Dell HD in your daughter's laptop to replace
what appears to be a failing HD.
2. We'll assume that for the moment the *contents* of the old drive are
sound in that the current drive boots to a Desktop without any problem and
the operating system functions without any known system files corruption.
Fair assumption?
3. You mention purchasing an external HD, presumably a USB one. A fine idea.
4. While the present laptop's HD is functional and you're reasonably assured
there's no problem with the operating system, you can use a disk imaging
program such as the ones mentioned, i.e., Symantec's Norton Ghost 9 (or
Ghost 2003 which is bundled with Ghost 9) or Acronis True Image 8 to "clone"
the contents of the present laptop's drive to the USB EHD. For all practical
purposes, the EHD is now a duplicate of the source disk (although it is not
bootable).
5. Now you remove the old drive and install the new one.
6. Again using your disk imaging program, you then re:clone the contents of
your USBEHD to the new HD you just installed in the laptop.
7. And that's it.

You (your daughter) can now routinely use the USBEHD as a backup device by
systematically cloning the contents of her internal drive to the external
one. It's an ideal backup system for a laptop. I think you also mentioned
you have other PCs, so that you can use the disk imaging program to create &
maintain similar backup systems involving those machines.

I trust I have correctly understood your problem & objective. If not, please
correct me. If I did correctly understand you, and you need step-by-step
instructions re using Ghost 2003 or Acronis True Image, please so indicate
that.
Anna


.

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