Hello all!
Thank you in advance for any help you can give. Here is what I want to do:
Copy/Clone my IBM X61 Tablet (also a T61) 250GB HD to a new 500GB HD. I just want to be able to have the 500GB have everything I have on the 250GB... Here is what I did:

1) Hooked up my 500GB SATA HD via USB to my X61 Tablet.
2) Laptop saw the HD but I didn't give it a drive letter
3) Opened up Norton Ghost and selected Copy Drive
4) Selected C: Drive as source and :\ as destination (had no letter assigned)
5) Checked source and destination for file system errors
    Resize was greyed out
    Set drive active was checked but always returned an error because only one drive can be active at a time (I ended up unchecking it)
    Didn't check disable Smartsector copying
    Didn't check Ignore Bad Sectors during copy
    Checked Copy MBR
    Destination was greyed out and could only make primary
    Drive letter I choose NONE
6) Drive copied succesfully after about a half hour
7) Shut down and replaced 250GB drive in computer with 500GB that was the destination
8) On boot up the drive can't be found by the Windows boot so I put in the Norton Recovery Disk and make the drive bootable.
9) Upon startup it says that it can't find an operating system (Operating System Missing). I enter the recovery disk again and try to edit my boot.ini file but it does not exist. It says NO BOOT.INI FILES FOUND.

I can see all my files and the operating system but I can't get it to boot properly.
1)Has anyone else experienced this? What do you recommend to fix?
2) I heard that I can make a recovery point with the 250GB drive to an external HD (not the 500GB just an external). Install the 500GB into the laptop and recover the computer from the external recovery point (on external HD). Do you think this will work and be easier than what I was doing? Does the 500GB HD need to have an operating system installed.

Thank you again in advance but I have not had much success to date with Norton 15.

Diggs

@ Diggs

Nice post. Are you using WinXP?

Thanks! This was done with Vista Business but I will also need to do it with Windows 7 Ultimate.

OK. Vista explains the absence of boot.ini.

IBM uses 240 heads CHS geometry in the BIOS. USB HDs are seen as 255 heads and IBMs are notorious for producing failed clones to a USB HD.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1128609708/0

One thought. Missing OS is often due to the partition not being Active. Boot from the Ghost CD and set the partition Active. Any luck?

How can I set the partition as active with the boot cd installed? I assumed it was active but maybe it wasn't.

Boot from the Ghost 15 CD

Utilities
Change Active Partition
Enter ID:
Press ENTER

It comes up with an error... I then enter the screen and enter 0 as the id and exit. It is active now but still does not boot... MISSING OPERATING SYSTEM. Still no BOOT.INI Files found.

Vista doesn't have a boot.ini

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=270

It looks like you have a geometry issue.


Diggs wrote on Sep 21^st, 2010 at 1:15pm:

I heard that I can make a recovery point with the 250GB drive to an external HD (not the 500GB just an external). Install the 500GB into the laptop and recover the computer from the external recovery point (on external HD). Do you think this will work and be easier than what I was doing? Does the 500GB HD need to have an operating system installed.

That is what I do. I only use Copy Drive for testing.

Delete all partitions from your 500 GB HD and follow your own instructions. Restore the image to the unallocated space on the 500 GB HD. Here are some fine tuning tips from Red...

http://community.norton.com/t5/Other-Norton-Products/New-Hard-drice/m-p/253329#M24922

Any questions?

Brian,
You put a link in post/reply#3. I went through that link/post and found a solution in post/reply#25. The link doesn't work. Do you have any idea where that solution may be?

Also, do you think it is easier just creating an image (backup point of the 250GB HD) to an external Hard Drive, inserting a new 500GB Hard Drive into the laptop and restoring my computer with the restore point from the 250Gb HD? Thanks!

Diggs wrote on Sep 21^st, 2010 at 3:10pm:

Also, do you think it is easier just creating an image (backup point of the 250GB HD) to an external Hard Drive, inserting a new 500GB Hard Drive into the laptop and restoring my computer with the restore point from the 250Gb HD?

Far easier. I don't use Copy Drive except for tests.

I am sorry, I didn't read your post before I posted the latest one. It looks like just putting a recovery point will be much easier. I will let you know if it works. Thank you for all of your knowledge and help!

Diggs

Here is the updated link you requested.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1095438251

I just want to be sure... I am going to do this:

1) Hook up the 500GB HD via USB and go under disk management and delete all partitions. Eject HD.
2) Hook up external drive via USB and create a recovery point to backup everything from the 250GB HD to the external HD.
3) Shut down computer and replace 250GB HD for the 500GB HD.
4) Insert Norton Recovery Disk and start up. Recover my computer from the external drive and overwrite the 500GB using some pointers from Red.

Does this sound right? Thanks!

Perfect.

In Disk Management, do you only have 1 partition on your HD? Vista?

This will be Windows 7 Ultimate. I think the are 2 partitions with one being a recovery drive.

OK. Win7 is slightly more complicated. You had better describe what you see in Disk Management.

What do you mean more complicated? Which part? Should I do something else in Disk Management?

After more research it seems like IBM/Norton Ghost compatability is lacking. Everybody recommend Acronis True Image. Has anyone tried Acronic/IBM which much success? Thanks!

Diggs wrote on Sep 22^nd, 2010 at 10:14am:

What do you mean more complicated? Which part? Should I do something else in Disk Management?

You need to know which partition contains the Win7 booting files. It may not be the Win7 partition. They are in the System, Active partition. The restore options will be different if the booting files aren't in Win7.

Acronis TI is a love it or hate it app. It used to be very hardware dependent. I haven't looked at the Acronis forum much recently so I don't know if it is more loved or more hated.

Let's say you had a HD with two partitions. The SRP and Win7. You want to upgrade to a larger HD using the image/restore method. Here are the Ghost restore options...

For the SRP

Verify recovery point before restore
Partition type : Primary
Check for file system errors after recovery
Set drive active (for booting OS)
Restore original disk signature
Restore master boot record

For Win7

Verify recovery point before restore
Resize drive after recover (only if restoring into unallocated space) (ONLY if you want to)
Partition type : Primary
Check for file system errors after recovery

Thanks a lot Brian. It looks like I am going to try with Norton again but this time using DOS and line command of -IB switch. Are you familiar with this at all? I know how to get to the DOS command prompt in the boot cd but not sure which drive to use for the command line.

@ Diggs

You are fortunate. There is a thread on this topic.

http://radified.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1265924057

Diggs,

The easiest way to clone an IBM laptop HD is to do a reverse clone using CopyWipe for DOS. A free app. You have the old HD in the USB enclosure and the new HD mounted internally. This avoids the geometry issue.

You can run CopyWipe for DOS from a CD or a USB flash drive.

I tried CopyWipe last night exactly like you said but when I removed the old hard drive (USB) and booted up it asked me to insert the Windows 7 install CD and repair start up. I am not sure what is going on...

Did you use Straight Copy or Scale Size?

I did a straight copy I believe.

I tried Acronis True Image and got the same result as the copywipe program but realized it was a hardware error on the boot up so it most likely had to do with the New Hard Drive's drivers. Everything is up and running. Thank you very much for the time you used to help me out.