Aside from downing my only currently working desktop while I do it, that'd require a lot of digging around inside the box. Also, with Drive Copy, it might require booting from floppy which I don't know if that box will do anymore.
Unless you particularly need anything that's on the old hard disk a clean install may be the easiest way to go. Bearing in mind, of course, that many laptops need special drivers for one thing and another, and that you will need to spend some time updating Windows to the current service packs etc. after installation.
This isn't much use if there is other software on the hard disk you want to keep, of course, but it's one way to be sure that you end up with a clean operating system without the remnants of old software installs, drivers for accessories you don't have, etc.
Well, in this case, being an old HP, I'd really rather not deal with the likely results of a "clean" install. It's got a bunch of stuf on the HD that's stuff for the laptop, that specific model, so...
The only thing worse than a "dirty" install is a "clean" one that won't work. :-(
First attempt failed, so I'm running the changes one at a time. Got the bigger drive's existing (empty) partition removed, and the "hidden" one that likely has the HP stuff copied (only 25 meg). Now it's copying the main partition (about 15 gig) over. Given that the external drive is on a USB 1.1 port, this will take a while.
For such things I've used Acronis True Image. It has a full-featured free trial version and it doesn't mind external USB drives. I was sufficiently impressed with it after several unrelated uses that I bought it.
It can generate a bootable CD/DVD image and I recommend it be used in that way as you get a clean cloning process.
Argh. I downloaded the trial, *then* went to check the requirement. It needs 512 meg of RAM. Tbe laptop only has 384. Guess I'll have to dig up a RAM upgrade sooner than I'd thought.
Oh, I didn't think to check specific resource requirements. I'm hoping for you that just means it will run maybe more slowly, rather than be unstable or just not run at all.
FWIW it seems pretty lightweight, I haven't noticed any slowdowns while running it directly under Windows (I do other backup tasks that don't require full disk cloning under Windows rather than through the bootable CD), and for that matter in bootable mode I expect it to be pretty lean.
Oh, I can upgrade the RAM. In fact I'm planning on it. Worst case, there's a website offering the chips for $18 each. So for $36 plus shipping, I can get it to the max of 1 gig.
It's also possible that a dead laptop I have in storage has compatible RAM which will also bring it to 1 gig.
So it's just a matter of taking a few days more to try things.
Meanwhile, since Parted Magic had a write error, I'm going to go ahead and get the bigger drive. I Since PM runs from RAM after booting from CD, I'll try swapping in the new drive and sticking the old drive in the USB enclosure. That way there's only *reading* from the enclosure.
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fayanora
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kengr
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fayanora
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kengr
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ffutures
This isn't much use if there is other software on the hard disk you want to keep, of course, but it's one way to be sure that you end up with a clean operating system without the remnants of old software installs, drivers for accessories you don't have, etc.
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kengr
The only thing worse than a "dirty" install is a "clean" one that won't work. :-(
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ink_13
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kengr
First attempt failed, so I'm running the changes one at a time. Got the bigger drive's existing (empty) partition removed, and the "hidden" one that likely has the HP stuff copied (only 25 meg). Now it's copying the main partition (about 15 gig) over. Given that the external drive is on a USB 1.1 port, this will take a while.
But as long as it works.
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australian_joe
It can generate a bootable CD/DVD image and I recommend it be used in that way as you get a clean cloning process.
Never had an attempt fail yet.
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kengr
Argh. I downloaded the trial, *then* went to check the requirement. It needs 512 meg of RAM. Tbe laptop only has 384. Guess I'll have to dig up a RAM upgrade sooner than I'd thought.
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australian_joe
FWIW it seems pretty lightweight, I haven't noticed any slowdowns while running it directly under Windows (I do other backup tasks that don't require full disk cloning under Windows rather than through the bootable CD), and for that matter in bootable mode I expect it to be pretty lean.
Good luck!
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kengr
It's also possible that a dead laptop I have in storage has compatible RAM which will also bring it to 1 gig.
So it's just a matter of taking a few days more to try things.
Meanwhile, since Parted Magic had a write error, I'm going to go ahead and get the bigger drive. I Since PM runs from RAM after booting from CD, I'll try swapping in the new drive and sticking the old drive in the USB enclosure. That way there's only *reading* from the enclosure.
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