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General discussion

Using Ghost 12 to copy hard drive on notebook

Jan 15, 2008 3:02AM PST

I am trying to upgrade my 100GB SATA notebook hard drive to a 200GB drive. I am trying to use Norton Ghost version 12.

First attempt details;

Did a full system back up to an external hard drive.
I replaced my internal hard drive with the new larger drive.
I booted with Norton disc.
I recovered my new drive from external.
This worked however the new larger drive showed up the same size as the previous smaller drive. I couldn't ever get the new drive to show as its true size. The drive did boot and all software was copied and functioned.

Second attempt details,

Using another new 200GB internal notebook drive, I placed the drive in a notebook hard drive enclosure with USB connection. I initialized the drive and installed primary partition. The drive showed as true size and healthy, on line.
I did a copy drive in Ghost this time.
Copy ran, my computer showed all files present and proper size.
I took out the smaller internal hard drive, put in the new larger one and the computer would not boot.
Further, after swapping drives again, I put the new 200GB drive back into the enclosure and plugged in the USB. The drive shows that it needs to be formatted, and size only shows as 91GB.

1. How can I get the new drive back to the actual size?
2. How can I use Ghost to perform what I am trying to do?

Thanks, Paul.

Discussion is locked

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This sounds like the old 127GB limitations.
Jan 15, 2008 5:46AM PST

I read your post twice and couldn't find what ORIGINAL OS was used or the make and model of the laptop. When you get this issue sometimes you find that 91 + 127 is too close to the 200GB but I'm at a loss here since all the make and models are not in your post.

-> Call the laptop's maker and ask if the BIOS supports this drive.

Bob

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Should work
Jan 15, 2008 6:59AM PST

According to Dell, any 2.5" SATA drive should work no problem.
As for the Original OS, I don't know what that means as I am not too computer literate. The laptop is a Dell Inspiron E1405, XP Professional.
Still lost though, maybe it is a Ghost problem or incompatibility problem with Ghost. I don't know.
Thanks!
Paul.

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XP Pro (you supplied this) does not support over 127GB drive
Jan 15, 2008 7:15AM PST
http://www.48bitlba.com has all the details why this is so.

You'll need a spiffy new XP SP2 CD to get this to work.

And again, I can't find the make and model numbers in your posts to see if it should work but at least we know this OS won't do.

Bob
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Clarify please
Jan 15, 2008 7:30AM PST

Hello, thanks for everything.
What make and model numbers are you looking for ?

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Anything that is "in play."
Jan 15, 2008 8:32AM PST

If you can't supply such, that's fine. We've already found a good reason for this to fail.

Bob

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Extending to full HDD size
Jan 20, 2008 12:03PM PST

You may also find that your first attempt was almost successful.
It appears that you succeeded in ghosting to the new drive but despite the physical size of the new drive its formatted size was the same as the old one.
This would have been corrected if you selected the option in the copy software that allows Ghost to 'fill out' the capacity of the new drive.

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Grey
Jan 21, 2008 10:13AM PST

For some reason that checkbox is greyed out and I cannot select it. I will call Norton again, thanks. Maybe there is a bug in my Ghost.

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Delete the Partition
Jan 25, 2008 6:16AM PST

I have run into the same problem with the same issue, trying to upgrade my notebook hard drive with the same software. I have tried countless times within the last week. However, in my persistent search I ran across a post which which provided me the solution and solved the greyed out options:

The solution pointed toward deleting the partition on the larger 250GB external hard drive that I was replacing with my smaller 80GB hard drive.

1. I ensured the BIOS and Windows XP Pro had the most recent updates.

2. The post recommended turning off autoplay on the external drive. So before I deleted the drive partition I set the autoplay to "Take no Action".

3. I then went to Disk Management I deleted the external drive's partition. (Note: At this point I was not able to see the drive in Windows)

4. I then went to Norton Ghost 12 and went thorough the process of copying my hard drive. To my surprise the options which were once greyed out where now able to be selected and changed. I used the following settings:

Check Destination drive for file system errors
Resize drive to fill unallocated
Set drive to Active
Drive Letter "None Selected" (I believe it is key to leave this Blank)
Copy MBR

5. Once complete, I swapped the hard drives and booted the notebook.

6. The notebook booted slower than usual but once Windows sorted out the drivers for the hard drive the result has resulted in a SUCCESSFUL upgrade.

I appreciate the many posts that let me to this solution.

Thanks.

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THANKS
Jan 27, 2008 12:43AM PST

Thank-you. I will try this once I figure out how to make this new drive show its true size. Since the Norton Ghost attempts, the drive only shows that it is 93GB. I don't know how this happened but even after a format and deleting partition, it still shows smaller.
Thanks, Paul.

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Do you know how?
Jan 27, 2008 2:38AM PST

Do you know how to rewrite the header (that probably isn't the correct terminology) of my new 200GB drive so it will once again be its true size? After the copy, the drive only shows as 93GB, even in disc management. Did you have this problem and if so, do you know the magic remedy????

Thanks, Paul.

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I had a very similar experiance. I upgraded an 80GB to 500GB
Aug 22, 2012 12:02PM PDT

I had a free copy of Partition Magic and was able to easily expand the new drive to use all available space, even the unused area, all into one C: drive partition.