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Installing a new hard drive in
a laptop can be a real pain in the neck. What's more, moving
your data from the old hard drive to the new one is a juggling
act if you don't know what to do.
Laptops unlike desktop PCs don't
have an extra IDE port to help you copy your data from old drive
to the new one. That means you have to remove your old hard drive
from your laptop. This is the most painful part because you need
to be mindful of all those tiny screws and delicate parts that
laptops are built from.
In a nutshell, this process involves
removing your old laptop hard drive, connecting it to a desktop
PC, then using Symantec's Ghost software to duplicate the old
hard drive to the new one, then installing the new drive in your
system.
Things you'll need:
Contact the manufacturer of the
laptop to find out the largest size hard drive your laptop can
handle.
Look on the internet for a reseller for your new hard drive.
I recommend PriceScan.com
or Copernic.com (IBM Travelstar
laptop drives are the best).
Buy/Get a laptop
hard drive to EIDE adapter. You'll need 2 of these to transfer
all your data from one drive to the next. They'll run you about
7$ - 10$ each.
Now you're ready to start...
Step 1:
Get a copy of Norton Ghost
(see fig 2)
Probably the best tool for the PC enthusiast on the planet, Norton
will save your bacon more times than you care to admit to your
tech buddies...
Step 2:
Make or get a Windows 98 Boot Diskette
Follow the direction here to make a Windows
98 Boot Diskette, you'll need it later in the instructions.
Step 3:
Making your Ghost diskette
You'll need to install your Norton Ghost software now on your
laptop hard drive, and go to 
Programs / Norton Ghost and make the Norton Ghost CDROM Boot
diskette for later...
Step 4:
Removing the laptop drive
Remove the old laptop drive from your laptop. Check with your
manufacturer for details. Some can be a pain. You might need
a set of those jewelers
tools screwdrivers. Compaq laptops use a special torx screwdriver.
You can get this at any good hardware store. Most hard drives
can be accessed from the bottom of the laptop through a panel
or through the keyboard by popping up a small cover. Again, check
with your laptop maker.
Step 5:
Installing the adapters to the laptop drives
Connect the new and old laptop hard drives to the adapters (fig
3). Make sure to line up Pin 1 correctly. Generally, if the adapter
is aligned properly, it won't be off center from the laptop drive.
Like in Fig 3. If you put it on wrong, it'll be shifted over
to the right or the left of the center of the laptop drive.
Step 6:
Connecting the laptop drives to a Desktop PC
This scenario assumes that
you have a standard PC setup where the desktop PC has just one
hard drive and one CDROM. Each on it's own cable, at the end
of each cable.
Ready your Desktop PC by opening
the case and locating the Primary and Secondary IDE cables. There
should be a separate cable for the Primary hard drive and a separate
cable for the CDROM. Each one at the end of the cables on separate
cables.
You can use just the Primary
Desktop cable, installing the two laptop drives on each connector
of that one cable, but that involves setting the jumper on one
of the laptop drives to be Slave and some laptop drives don't
have a jumper or instructions on how to jumper it. So, the easiest
way I know is to use the Primary and Secondary cables of the
desktop computer, installing a laptop on each Master connection,
generally the end position of each cable.
Disconnect the desktop PCs hard
drive and connect the OLD laptop hard drive to this cable.
Disconnect the desktop PCs CDROM
and connect the new laptop drive to that cable.
MAKE SURE YOU DO THIS RIGHT!
Step 7:
Copying your old laptop drive data to the new laptop drive.
Once you have the drives properly
connected, you'll need to boot up with your Norton Ghost Boot
Diskette.
You'll see some errors go by,
that's okay because it's just a startup program looking for the
appropriate driver for the CDROM in your Desktop system.
In a few moments you'll get to
a A:\ prompt.
Step 8:
Using Norton Ghost
WARNING!!!
 IF YOU HAVE ANY RESERVATIONS
ABOUT DOING THIS PROJECT AT ALL I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU BACK OUT
RIGHT NOW, BECAUSE YOU COULD REALLY SCREW YOURSELF ROYALLY HERE
FELLA IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!! YOU WON'T HURT THE
HARDWARE, BUT YOU COULD LOOSE ALL YOUR DATA!
If you followed the direction
above EXACTLY, having the OLD laptop hard drive on the Primary
Master position where the desktop's hard drive was and the NEW
laptop hard drive on the Secondary Master position where the
CDROM was connected, then enter the following command:
ghostpe.exe -clone,mode=copy,src=1,dst=2
Ghost will start and you may
see a screen asking to confirm the operation or continue depending
on if you have Ghost 2001 or Ghost 2002.
When Ghost has finished, you
simply reassemble everything back the way you had it. Install
your new laptop and enjoy.
Sell your old hard drive on Yahoo
Classified Ads.
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