Radified Community Forums - Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition)

Hammerdown

Dude

Offline

Posts: 11
Sacramento, CA

Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition)
Mar 6^th, 2008 at 8:12pm

My dad has an IBM laptop that has two partitions. Partition one does not have a drive letter but can be seen in XP as EISA Configuration. It contains a special IBM "bootable backup" that allows you to restore the machine to factory fresh. Partition two is simply the C drive with WinXP.

We have Ghost 9 and want to copy the whole drive onto a new larger HDD, including the hidden EISA Configuration partition. There seems to be no option in Ghost 9 to copy a whole drive (all partitions) at once. The instructions say to copy each partition seperately. Taking the backup is easy, but the restore is where I am confused.

If I restore the EISA partition onto a new drive, will it retain it's size and special properties? If I then restore the C drive partition, will it still be partition two and still be the C drive, and expand to fill the extra space? Am I gonna run into master boot record problems because of this EISA partition?

I've played with Ghost 9 a few times, but I'm a little worried about this one. Just looking for some help on how best to get this done.

IP Logged

Brian

Demigod

Offline

Posts: 6345
NSW, Australia

Back to top

Re: Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition)
Reply #1 - Mar 6^th, 2008 at 8:39pm

Hammerdown,

Cloning to a USB external HD from an IBM laptop is a problem because IBM laptops have 240 head HD geometry and the external HD is seen with 255 head geometry. The clone seems to go well but it doesn't boot. A reverse clone does work where the old HD is in the USB enclosure and the new HD is installed in the laptop. This is because the target HD is seen in its correct geometry.

Unfortunately you can't do a reverse clone with Ghost 9 because it has to be done from a boot CD and the Ghost 9 boot CD doesn't support cloning. Cloning is called Copy Drive by Symantec.

You can do this with the Ghost 9 plugin on a BartPE CD but I'll bet you don't have it.

OK. It can be done with images. How large are the two laptop HDs? Do you have a large external HD? What size?

IP Logged

Hammerdown

Dude

Offline

Posts: 11
Sacramento, CA

Back to top

Re: Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition)
Reply #2 - Mar 6^th, 2008 at 9:31pm

Original drive is like 40GB total- partition one (hidden EISA Configuration) is less than 10GB. Partition two (C drive) is 30GB. Images are stored to USB external, space not a problem. Booting from CD not a problem... but-

We did in fact run into a problem after restoring the C drive from an image. It would boot through the XP logon, then just hang when trying to apply user settings/populate the desktop.... Ended up using the EISA backup, manually installing programs, then browsing ghost image to get data back.

Plan was:
Image both partitions seperately to usb external
Pull old drive & Install new drive
Boot from ghost CD
Restore partition one
Restore partition two

IP Logged

Brian

Demigod

Offline

Posts: 6345
NSW, Australia

Back to top

	Re: Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition) Reply #3 - Mar 6^th, 2008 at 9:42pm Hammerdown, What you did sounds good. I'm not sure why it didn't work. How far in the boot sequence did it get? Could you see some desktop icons? Did you restore the MBR?
	IP Logged

Rad

Radministrator

Offline

Sufferin' succotash

Posts: 4090
Newport Beach, California

Back to top

	Re: Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition) Reply #4 - Mar 7^th, 2008 at 12:07am Cool thread. I see you are in good hands .. with Mr. Brian.
	IP Logged

Hammerdown

Dude

Offline

Posts: 11
Sacramento, CA

Back to top

Re: Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition)
Reply #5 - Mar 7^th, 2008 at 8:45am

Sorry, I should have clarified. Here is what happened-

1. Two weeks ago my Dad's laptop would not boot past the WinXP logon screen, just hangs at applying personal settings, no desktop.

2. Tried to restore the C drive from a ghost image from 7 days prior it did NOT work (same symptom- hanging at XP logon).

3. Used the built-in IBM option to boot off hidden EISA config partition and restore to factory fresh, then manually re-install misc programs, & finally browse ghost image to get data back.

Now that the laptop is functioning again, we want to upgrade to a larger drive and keep both partitions in tact. This is where we are stuck and not sure how to procede. Will it work to simply:

Image both partitions seperately to usb external
Pull old drive & Install new drive
Boot from ghost CD
Restore partition one (EISA)
Restore partition two (C: )

The fact that the prior attempt to restore the C drive failed, leads me to beleive there's some special mbr action going on to facilitate the EISA partition. Is this going to be a problem, since Ghost 9 can't copy an entire drive? Or am I making it more difficult than it really is?

IP Logged

Brian

Demigod

Offline

Posts: 6345
NSW, Australia

Back to top

Re: Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition)
Reply #6 - Mar 7^th, 2008 at 1:38pm

Hammerdown,

I'm with you now. Your proposed scenario is exactly what I'd do. Here are some instructions for restoring Ghost 9 images.

Quote:

Boot to the Ghost CD
Set the Time Zone
Advanced Recovery Tasks
System Restore
dot in Restore drives ,Next
dot in Single drive ,Next
Browse to your image file ,Next
Select a destination ,Next
tick Verify backup
tick Check for file system errors after restore
tick Resize drive to fill unallocated space (Y or N) Will be greyed out if partition is correct size
tick Set drive active (for booting OS)
tick Restore MBR (for a new HD)
Next
tick Reboot after finish
Finish

Check computer clock after OS boots. May be out by an hour or two.

Start with a blank HD in the laptop. No partitions. Boot to the CD. For the first partition (the Restore partition), don't tick these..

Resize drive to fill unallocated space (you want the SAME sized partition)
Set drive active (for booting OS) (you don't want to boot from this partition)

For the second partition, do tick..

Resize drive to fill unallocated space (tick Yes)
Set drive active (for booting OS) (you need that)

Don't tick Restore MBR as you did that for the first partition but no damage is done if you tick it twice.

I don't know whether the Restore partition will still work. After any partition manipulation on a Dell laptop the Restore partition stops working. But the Dell partition can be repaired. I don't know about IBMs.

I'm interested in the failure to boot fully after the previous restore. It sounds like a drive letter issue and they are related to "unusual" image creation technique. Exactly how was the image created? Drive positions? Partitions on each HD?

IP Logged

Hammerdown

Dude

Offline

Posts: 11
Sacramento, CA

Back to top

Re: Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition)
Reply #7 - Mar 7^th, 2008 at 7:36pm

^^Ok, I'm with you on all that.

Quote:

...I don't know whether the Restore partition will still work. After any partition manipulation on a Dell laptop the Restore partition stops working. But the Dell partition can be repaired. I don't know about IBMs....

^^Errr, that's what I'm afraid of. Any other programs that would work better that ghost 9? I wonder if a WD drive copy utility CD could do the whole drive at once? Link to how to fix the Dell Restore partition?

Quote:

...I'm interested in the failure to boot fully after the previous restore. It sounds like a drive letter issue and they are related to "unusual" image creation technique. Exactly how was the image created? Drive positions? Partitions on each HD?

^^Sorry, I don't have all those details. It was an image of the C drive to/from an external usb HDD.

IP Logged

Brian

Demigod

Offline

Posts: 6345
NSW, Australia

Back to top

Re: Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition)
Reply #8 - Mar 7^th, 2008 at 8:10pm

Hammerdown wrote on Mar 7^th, 2008 at 7:36pm:

Any other programs that would work better that ghost 9?

It's not software specific. If one breaks it, they all will. With Dells, just resizing partitions will break the restore function. Dells have the restore partition after the OS partition whereas your restore partition is first on the HD. That could well be an advantage.

To fix Dells

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixmbr.htm

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/manual.htm

IP Logged

Hammerdown

Dude

Offline

Posts: 11
Sacramento, CA

Back to top

Re: Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition)
Reply #9 - Mar 8^th, 2008 at 3:21pm

Just did the image restore to the new drive. After reboot from ghost WinXP came up and everything looked good. Then rebooted again and now getting "NTLDR missing error" every time. I have no idea why it booted the first time and now won't... Booted from ghost CD, looked at C drive and NTLDR is there. Used ghost utility to reset mbr, but same error...

IP Logged

Rad

Radministrator

Offline

Sufferin' succotash

Posts: 4090
Newport Beach, California

Back to top

Re: Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition)
Reply #10 - Mar 8^th, 2008 at 3:58pm

Maybe some help:

http://www.google.com/search?q=NTLDR+missing+error

How are the drives configured now?

The boot sequence normally looks to the C drive to find NTLDR, cuz that's normally the active partition. If it's there, then the system might not know which drive is C, or which is active. Is that drive labeled "active"?

IP Logged

Hammerdown

Dude

Offline

Posts: 11
Sacramento, CA

Back to top

Re: Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition)
Reply #11 - Mar 8^th, 2008 at 4:46pm

Quote:

How are the drives configured now?

The boot sequence normally looks to the C drive to find NTLDR, cuz that's normally the active partition. If it's there, then the system might not know which drive is C, or which is active. Is that drive labeled "active"?

partition 1 = the hidden EISA config
partition 2 = C drive

NTLDR is on the C drive. Ghost partition info says C drive is bootable, and EISA is visible with no drive letter assigned. Already used Ghost to reset mbr, restore NTLDR & NTDetect, and edit Boot.ini. Can't get into XP Recovery console to run fixboot, fixmbr, or look for active drive using diskpart.

IP Logged

Rad

Radministrator

Offline

Sufferin' succotash

Posts: 4090
Newport Beach, California

Back to top

	Re: Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition) Reply #12 - Mar 8^th, 2008 at 7:25pm What about a Partition Magic boot disc/diskette, or FDISK? They might tell you something. http://fdisk.radified.com/ Wonder what would happen if you copied NTLDR to EISA. If it can't find NTLDR on the C, then it makes me think it's looking for it on the EISA.
	IP Logged

NightOwl

Radministrator

Offline

"I tought I saw a puddy
tat..."

Posts: 5826
Olympia, WA--Puget Sound--USA

Back to top

	Re: Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition) Reply #13 - Mar 8^th, 2008 at 11:53pm Hammerdown What does boot.ini content say: TeraByte Unlimited Freeware--See EditBini What partitions are listed and in what order are the partitions listed in the Master Partition Table: MBRWizard - The MBR Management Utility.
	____________________________________________________________________________________________ No question is stupid ... but, possibly the answers are ! IP Logged

Brian

Demigod

Offline

Posts: 6345
NSW, Australia

Back to top

Re: Upgrading IBM Laptop HDD (Hidden Partition)
Reply #14 - Mar 9^th, 2008 at 12:54am

Hammerdown,

As it booted on the first occasion your MBR, boot.ini and ntldr were OK. Something happened on the second boot.

Quote:

Can't get into XP Recovery console to run fixboot, fixmbr, or look for active drive using diskpart.

Strange.

I'd be interested in seeing answers to NightOwl's questions and perhaps you should remove and reseat the HD and run disk diagnostics on the drive.

IP Logged

	Welcome, Guest. Please Login