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Groups > comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage > #2391

Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone

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AndyHancock wrote
> Rod Speed <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote
>> AndyHancock wrote
>>> Rod Speed <rod.speed....@gmail.com> wrote

>>>> The main question mark isnt so much because of the size
>>>> difference, its more whether the cloner will end up with fangs in
>>>> its bum because the new drive is a hybrid hard drive/SSD.

>>>> <...snip...>

>>>> You can obviously boot a linux live CD and do the comparison that way.

>>> Lord, I wasn't prepared to embark on yet another journey of ramping
>>> up in new territory yet.  I haven't yet finished cloning all 4 partition in
>>> my current problem.

>> Its not that bad when a basic compare and it booting fine on the new
>> cloned partition give you a good level of confidence that the clone
>> worked fine.  If the clone didnt work properly, you likely wont be
>> able to boot it.

>>> Also, the laptop is still running Windows 7 when the cloning is
>>> being done, so all the files are being altered in real time.

>> Yes, but if you are just running the cloner, not too much will have been changed.

>>> I had hoped that a kind of diff'ing utility (without having to get
>>> smart about Linux CD's) might reveal minimal differences that are
>>> easily to recognize as inconsequential.

>> I havent noticed any Win ute that will do that, but I dont bother to
>> do that sort of compare myself, I just see if it boots and
>> everything works fine.

>>> I will try booting off the clone once I've researched the safety
>>> measures against a hazard that exist when both source & clone
>>> partitions are visible to the machine during a reboot.

>> All you have to do is physically remove the original so the first
>> boot of the clone cant see the original.

>>> The restore ops won't work yet because they reside in partitions 3
>>> & 4, which I haven't yet cloned.  By the way, how would you
>>> recognize fangs in the bum?

>> <...snip...>

>> Normally it wont boot the clone with the original physically removed from the system.

> OK, running into a few complications that are complicating the picture a bit.

> Toshiba Canada says that changing the HDD doesn't void the warranty,

Yes, thats the legal situation.

> but they are not allowed to provide it in writing.  Seems fishy.

Nar, just some fool who doesnt allow the minions to put stuff like that in writing.

> So I'm seeking a way to verify the booting off the clone without removing the native HDD.

Thats very undesirable indeed with Win.

> I can change the boot sequence so that it boots off of
> eSATA-connected auxiliary drive (residing in an enclosure),
> but I'm told that unless I actually remove the native drive, there
> is a risk that the laptop will see both boot partitions and modify
> the registry so that one or both HDDs can't be booted from.

And that is correct. In fact its not only a risk its a certainty.

> I need to dig deeper so that I'm not gambling with my HDDs.

You arent gambling if you are careful about removing the original drive.

> Of course, if there is no other solution, I guess the
> only course of action is to remove the native HDD.  :(

Yes, that is your only option and legally unless you do something
really stupid mechanically, that will not void your warranty and they
wont even be able to work out that you have removed it in the very
unlikely situation where it does die coincidentally with you removing it.

> Now, about Linux, I have zero experience with it,

Its just another flavor of unix.

> so what I did was resort to my Cygwin install.  That requires that I
> mount the partitions as posix paths (I'm assuming), but the partitions
> are not letter drives.  Some people have suggested using fdisk or
> accessing the partitions through /dev/sda (a folder which doesn't
> exist for me).  Also, fdisk assumes that file systems are at /dev/sda.
> So I have a bit more of a journey determining if non-letter-drives
> partitions can be mounted.  I likely depends on the file system, but
> Toshiba doesn't actually provide any official info on their partitioning.
> There are vague educated guesses on forums.

I wouldnt bother with comparing the parttions myself, I would
just see if you can boot with the original drive physically removed.

The worst that can happen is that you find that you cant and you can just
put the original drive back in the laptop again and carry on regardless.

> All this to say that I may not try booting for some time, and I likely won't
> be diff'ing for significantly longer.  Ah well.  I feel myself getting smarter.

That usually results in tears before bedtime when it turns out to have been an illusion. 

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Thread

Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-01-06 22:57 -0800
  Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-01-08 07:18 +1100
    Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-01-08 16:17 -0800
      Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-01-09 13:53 +1100
        Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-01-11 22:22 -0800
          Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-01-12 19:34 +1100
            Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-01-13 21:08 -0800
              Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-01-14 16:32 +1100
          Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone Mike Tomlinson <mike@jasper.org.uk> - 2012-01-13 11:46 +0000
            Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone Arno <me@privacy.net> - 2012-01-13 17:08 +0000
              Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-01-13 21:14 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-01-14 16:41 +1100
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-01-14 21:38 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-01-15 20:37 +1100
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-01-15 21:23 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-01-16 20:14 +1100
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-01-16 20:57 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-01-17 19:44 +1100
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-02-15 20:48 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-02-16 16:10 +1100
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-02-16 20:50 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-02-17 04:26 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-02-18 00:58 +1100
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-02-19 15:04 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-02-20 10:55 +1100
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-02-19 21:27 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-02-20 20:12 +1100
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-02-20 22:50 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-02-21 20:20 +1100
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-02-21 22:08 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-02-22 19:34 +1100
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-02-23 05:09 +1100
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-02-22 20:26 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-02-22 20:46 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-02-23 20:04 +1100
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-02-23 18:49 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-02-24 15:58 +1100
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-02-23 21:09 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone "Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> - 2012-02-24 17:30 +1100
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-02-24 20:39 -0800
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone Winniethepooh@100acrewoods.net (GMAN) - 2012-02-22 15:48 +0000
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone Arno <me@privacy.net> - 2012-01-14 18:37 +0000
                Re: Initialize / format 500 GB Momentus XT to make bootable clone AndyHancock <andymhancock@gmail.com> - 2012-01-14 21:42 -0800

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