Guest gus Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 I want to upgrade to a larger hard drive on my Dell E1505 Laptop. I have questions regarding the software transfer (not the physical installation of the drive). The system was purchased with WinXP and subsequently upgraded to Vista Ultimate and Office 2007. I see Dell places four partitions on the drive: Utilities, Windows C:\ drive, Backup and something called "CP/M, Concurrent DOS, CTOS". Questions are: -Is there a way to clone the old drive to the new drive, which is larger (Presumeably this involves physical hookup of the two drives, and a cloning ultility which works with Windows Vista). -Or can I use my Dell (Windows XP) reinstall CD's onto the new drive, and then reinstall Vista and everything else ... -Or should I ditch the Dell stuff entirely and do a scratch install? Given that Vista and Office 2007 are activated on the old drive, what's involved in re- activating them on the new drive? BTW I have my own backup methods and utilities, so I don't really need the Dell stuff ..... I assume lots of other people have done this, so if there's a pointer to a how-to I'd appreciate the link .....
Guest Rich Barry Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Upgrade Hard Drive, Dell E1505 Laptop Gus, I don't know if your Dell is still under warranty. If it is I would clone everything to the new drive. You can go to the manufacturer's website of the drive you purchase or it may come with a CD with the software to clone your old drive. Most have the software you will need. Having said that I would at some point like to start fresh and dump the Dell stuff and just reinstall Vista and Office 7. Since it's just a hard drive change reactivation should be no problem. "gus" <gus_zernial@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:1184000401.111458.218670@e16g2000pri.googlegroups.com... >I want to upgrade to a larger hard drive on my Dell E1505 Laptop. I > have questions > regarding the software transfer (not the physical installation of the > drive). The system > was purchased with WinXP and subsequently upgraded to Vista Ultimate > and Office > 2007. I see Dell places four partitions on the drive: Utilities, > Windows C:\ drive, Backup > and something called "CP/M, Concurrent DOS, CTOS". Questions are: > > -Is there a way to clone the old drive to the new drive, which is > larger (Presumeably > this involves physical hookup of the two drives, and a cloning > ultility which works > with Windows Vista). > > -Or can I use my Dell (Windows XP) reinstall CD's onto the new drive, > and then reinstall > Vista and everything else ... > > -Or should I ditch the Dell stuff entirely and do a scratch install? > Given that Vista and > Office 2007 are activated on the old drive, what's involved in re- > activating them on the > new drive? BTW I have my own backup methods and utilities, so I don't > really need > the Dell stuff ..... > > I assume lots of other people have done this, so if there's a pointer > to a how-to I'd > appreciate the link ..... >
Guest HDRDTD Posted July 9, 2007 Posted July 9, 2007 Re: Upgrade Hard Drive, Dell E1505 Laptop "Rich Barry" <rbarry@socal.rr.com> wrote in message news:46928f0e$0$4857$4c368faf@roadrunner.com... > Gus, I don't know if your Dell is still under warranty. If it is I would > clone everything to the new drive. You can go to the > manufacturer's website of the drive you purchase or it may come with a > CD with the software to clone your old drive. > Most have the software you will need. > Having said that I would at some point like to start fresh and > dump the Dell stuff and just reinstall Vista and Office 7. Since it's just > a hard > drive change reactivation should be no problem. > > > "gus" <gus_zernial@yahoo.com> wrote in message > news:1184000401.111458.218670@e16g2000pri.googlegroups.com... >>I want to upgrade to a larger hard drive on my Dell E1505 Laptop. I >> have questions >> regarding the software transfer (not the physical installation of the >> drive). The system >> was purchased with WinXP and subsequently upgraded to Vista Ultimate >> and Office >> 2007. I see Dell places four partitions on the drive: Utilities, >> Windows C:\ drive, Backup >> and something called "CP/M, Concurrent DOS, CTOS". Questions are: >> >> -Is there a way to clone the old drive to the new drive, which is >> larger (Presumeably >> this involves physical hookup of the two drives, and a cloning >> ultility which works >> with Windows Vista). >> >> -Or can I use my Dell (Windows XP) reinstall CD's onto the new drive, >> and then reinstall >> Vista and everything else ... >> >> -Or should I ditch the Dell stuff entirely and do a scratch install? >> Given that Vista and >> Office 2007 are activated on the old drive, what's involved in re- >> activating them on the >> new drive? BTW I have my own backup methods and utilities, so I don't >> really need >> the Dell stuff ..... >> >> I assume lots of other people have done this, so if there's a pointer >> to a how-to I'd >> appreciate the link ..... >> > > If you have another PC that you can install the laptop drive in, preferrably BOTH the new and the old laptop drives, then I would try something like Acronis TrueImage to clone the smaller drive to the larger drive. I believe TrueImage will allow you to choose an 'automatic' resize option, or if not you can manually choose the partition sizes for the new drive. Either way, if you clone the drive or just do a new install, be prepared to have to activate Vista/Office by phone with Microsoft. Normally just changing a HD should not invoke a re-activation, but..... re-activateing by phone is from what I hear, a pretty painless 5min phone call. BTW, the partitions you see might be.... A partition for Dell's Media Direct option A small partition for Dell's diagnostics Your main Windows partition another last partition for system restore or backup.
Guest Star@*.* Posted July 10, 2007 Posted July 10, 2007 Re: Upgrade Hard Drive, Dell E1505 Laptop On Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:00:01 -0000, gus <gus_zernial@yahoo.com> wrote: >I want to upgrade to a larger hard drive on my Dell E1505 Laptop. I >have questions >regarding the software transfer (not the physical installation of the >drive). The system >was purchased with WinXP and subsequently upgraded to Vista Ultimate >and Office >2007. I see Dell places four partitions on the drive: Utilities, >Windows C:\ drive, Backup >and something called "CP/M, Concurrent DOS, CTOS". Questions are: > >-Is there a way to clone the old drive to the new drive, which is >larger (Presumeably >this involves physical hookup of the two drives, and a cloning >ultility which works >with Windows Vista). > Gus If your E1505 has the Media Direct feature as installed by Dell and you are going to a larger drive be prepared for a problem. The following was posted by a Brian K who post to this group. Before you make the change over please read the info and the links. I've posted a "5 minute fix". Well, maybe 10 minutes. http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=167401&page=2#27 This is a procedure to fix your HD so that it shows full size. Don't worry about trashing your HD. If you do mess up this procedure you just need to repeat the clone and start again. You will need to download two files. The first is Roadkil's Sector Editor. http://www.roadkil.net/diskutils.html Unzip the file and copy sectedit.exe to a folder in your HD. The second file to download is Magic Boot Disk http://hddguru.com/download/software...k_ISO_v2.0.zip The main page is http://hddguru.com/content/en/softwa...gic-Boot-Disk/ but you needn't look at this page . Unzip the file and burn the .iso as an image. Not as a data CD. For example, in Nero close the initial window and choose Recorder, Burn Image. Double click sectedit.exe. In the Select Disk box choose Physical 0 and click Open. (DON'T choose any of the drive letters). Use the arrows at the bottom right to find LBA-3. It should take 3 clicks. Here is mine which is already zeroed. Your sector should have code. (Image removed from this post by me) Click Edit, Zero Data. Now you should see all zeroes. Click File, Save Sector. Close Roadkil. Double click sectedit.exe again and confirm that LBA-3 has been zeroed. Now shutdown Windows and boot to the Magic Boot Disk CD. Accept the defaults. At C:\MHDD> type MHDD and press Enter. Type the number of your HD (it should be 1) and press Enter. Now the prompt is MHDD> Type RHPA and press Enter. Make a note of your Native Maximum LBA address. You will also see your reduced HD size. Type NHPA and press Enter. Type Y for "Do you want to set Native LBA address". Type Y for "Continue". Type RHPA and press Enter. Your HD should be full size. Type exit Remove the CD and boot to Windows. The HD should be fixed. >-Or can I use my Dell (Windows XP) reinstall CD's onto the new drive, >and then reinstall >Vista and everything else ... > >-Or should I ditch the Dell stuff entirely and do a scratch install? >Given that Vista and >Office 2007 are activated on the old drive, what's involved in re- >activating them on the >new drive? BTW I have my own backup methods and utilities, so I don't >really need >the Dell stuff ..... If you reinstall Vista or Office 2007 and they are not Dell supplied software you *will* have to call MS and reactivate, you will not be able to activate over the net. > >I assume lots of other people have done this, so if there's a pointer >to a how-to I'd >appreciate the link ..... See the info and links I have pasted in above. Art PS It doesn't matter what software you use to perform the Clone (Ghost, True Image or the HDD manufacture) you will have the same problem going to a larger drive because of the Media Direct feature on the Dell laptops.
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