a 2 in 1 question really, I'll start with the easy one 1) What HDD do you recommend for a Sony FZ190 laptop, (SATAII, 3gbps) with a high storage capacity (250GB+ desired, hybrid tech optional, must be reliable) 2) the laptop currently has an 80GB drive in it at the moment and works fine; is there any way to copy the operating system and all files (since its an OEM installation) over to the new drive without reinstalling the operating system from scratch? preferably without reinstallation of any kind. Help much appreciated. also, since I rarely post in the forums anymore, if this is the wrong forum, please move it rather than deleting it. ty all!
To answer the second part, Acronis True Image does a good job of imaging one drive to another, plus it lets you resize the partition to whatever you want.
Unfortunetely, even if you managed to clone the disk to the new one, it wouldn't work as the partition table and the MBR wouldn't be copied. But a Windows repair install (not a complete reinstall) should repair or redo the MBR.
Sorry, but that is nonsense. Any of the cloning programs copies everything over, otherwise what use would they be? Just to prove it, before I posted this I just used Acronis to clone a 40GB PATA XP drive onto a new 250 GB SATA drive, works flawlessly.
Seconded. Any cloning software that isn't terrible will clone the entire disk, MBR and partition table included. I'm normally pretty good on disks, but I'm afraid I don't keep up on laptop sized performance, so I can't give you an answer for the first part of the OP. Storage Review says the Hitachi Travelstar 7K200 though, and that site knows what it's talking about.
Thanks guys. is True Image included in Disk Director 10 or is it a separate buy, and where might I get it? my friend will be doing the clone himself, so will an external enclosure work with it? (usb interface)
I've been looking for a drive myself. The 60gb Hitachi in my laptop is way too cramped and I find its performance lacking. Personally, I want to bump up to a 7200RPM drive as I run on battery very rarely. I know Arconis True Image will do what you want with copying the drives, Ive used it a few times in the past. It's very easy. Since you are dealing with SATA drives, they will use the standard SATA cables and SATA power connector, so if you have another machine with SATA, you can use it to dupe the drive. That's what I'm planning to do.
You get a 5 year warranty with their drives, so I'd suggest a Seagate Momentus - i.e. their 200GB 7200.2 'G-Force' (SATA II/7200rpm/16MB cache) There are a few cheaper, larger capacity drives available of course - i.e. the 250GB WD Scorpio, 250 Samsung Spinpoint M, and the 250GB Fujitsu MHY2250BH... but they're slower 5400rpm/8MB cache drives. The 200GB Seagate mentioned above offers excellent VFM (IMO), with it's greater speed, and long warranty Hence why I bought one myself not too long ago
Forget 5 year warrenties. It's false economy. A 200GB drive failing in four years time will be something akin to an 80GB drive failing now. Most people will already have far far larger disks by that point. As for speed, the seagate momentus is beaten in every test by the HD Travelstar. Simple as that really. Not a bad drive, but I'd go for the hitatchi over it any day.
Place I'm buying from only sells the hitachi anyway (the seagate is out of stock eta 1 month) so that wraps up that decision. as for the imaging, the boot CD is amazing, and is staying in my bag of electronics repair kit now, in a 2 cd box along with Backtrack 2
and to the OP: the gparted livecd should do what you want from a friendly graphical interface without stealing any commercial software.
as Stated is a Sony Vaio FZ190, serial 3000002 actually (mine was 3000001, first two full retail ones off the production line, arrived a week before official release ) unfortunately the drive is simply getting a bit confining and my friend wanted to upgrade it. I already checked and a hard drive change does not void the on-site 5 year warranty.
Is the forum suddenly full of very thick people? Is a free collection of commercial software from a dubious source legal? Please obey the rules on warez promotion and linkage.
How did my post contain anything on warez edit: I'm also not sure how having people talking about that boot CD you don't want us talking about is any different from people saying "I pirated XY or Z" or similar which happens all the time.
I have not actually downloaded or used said CD, I did use it as a list of useful tools to look into. and I do agree with cpemma, warez are not good, and while occaisionally necessary for abandonware, if the software is currently supported and has a current version, use that.
