SV650.org - SV650 & Gladius 650 Forum - View Single Post

Seeker · 01-12-18, 08:30 AM

I have an old Toshiba Satellite laptop, 2nd gen iCore3, 320Gb hard drive, 3Gb RAM, DVD etc which has proved reliable. The only issue I've had is with the hinge supports breaking away from the case requiring extra screws/glue. I decided to replace the drive with a 250Gb SSD since I was only using 104Gb anyway, this proved to be trap 1. Toshiba don't give you any disks, you make rescue backups yourself on initial startup, this was trap 2.

When I was working, we used pc's running DOS, Win3.1, XP and also computers running AIX (IBM's unix) but were never formally trained on any of it. We could use the dos command fdisk to partition the drive, make active partitions and then format c:/s which would add system files and make the drive bootable. The good old days.
The drives used fat32 (format structure) which has many limitations, all of which I'd forgotten.

Anyway, I discovered that Win7 Home Prof won't allow you to image a disk to a network drive so I found Macrium Reflect which will. This program is probably very powerful in the right hands which excludes mine. If I have to google words and error codes I don't believe the program is intuitive.
I eventually store an image on my network and then find an old 140Gb IDE drive, so I buy an adaptor to make it a USB drive and fall into another trap. I assumed "clone" means exact copy (it does) so I had 104Gb used on my 320Gb drive I should be able to clone it to the 140Gb drive, yes? No, because it clones the partitions too, it won't (automatically) reduce a partition size (Trap1). My 320 Gb drive had 3 partitions (system, main active and hidden restore), why the first 2 were not just one I have no idea. Macrium allows you to clone partitions, so I cloned the first 2 and thought I was done. On SSD boot up, the pc announced it was attempting to repair the system but appeared stuck (I'm guessing because the hidden partition was not there). I then used Win7 on the original drive to make an image on the 140Gb but when I tried to restore it using my Toshiberised rescue disks it said it was corrupt, not only that but my Toshiberised rescue disks wouldn't see the network. (Trap2). The Toshiba disks try to be helpful and automate everything but won't allow you to break in and stop them, so if they get stuck, you're up the proverbial creek, sans paddle.

4 hours have elapsed in this quick job. Did I mention, I'm not a patient man? Although, to be fair, I haven't thrown anything (yet).

I notice that my Macrium image on my network drive is only 44Gb, so I could transfer it to my 64Gb usb stick. Remember fat32? USB sticks are usually in that format and they only support 4Gb max file size so you have to format them in NTFS - this took 55 minutes - I have no idea why, I could have written it out in cursive in less time. Meanwhile I find a Macrium Reflect Win7 iso CD (yay!) only to discover it wouldn't boot because of a software bug on the version I had (now fixed), I also find a Macrium Rescue disk which I'd forgotten about and it has the restore software on it (on a roll now). I copy the networked image onto the usb stick, another 45 minutes (for a 44 Gb file!) - there is something wrong here, still, it finished. Must be in Southern Rail format.
Finally, I have the Macrium Rescue cd running and the usb stick plus the SSD in my laptop but still I have the partition problem. Macrium does allow partition size changes but I found it so difficult to navigate/understand I abandoned it and only copied the first two partitions and...it worked.

7 hours later and I've done the quick swap.

Lessons: you can't clone to a smaller drive without reducing parition size. If you use Macrium, read up on it first - looking at the number of people that had googled the same error message, I wasn't alone in my stupidity. You can't directly boot an "image", it is packed so it has to be unpacked first (obvious really, but when I'm ready to throw things, not so much). If I'd bought a 350Gb SSD I wouldn't have had these problems.

One last thing, the drive is a Samsung and I tried to download their "magician" software only to be told (sorry but) they had reached the maximum number of downloads for that day, try again in 24 hours.WTF?

Yes, my laptop is quicker. Was it worth 7 hours? Probably not.

01-12-18, 08:30 AM	#1
Seeker Member Mega Poster Join Date: Jun 2016 Location: NE Lincs Posts: 1,069	How not to install an SSD drive I have an old Toshiba Satellite laptop, 2nd gen iCore3, 320Gb hard drive, 3Gb RAM, DVD etc which has proved reliable. The only issue I've had is with the hinge supports breaking away from the case requiring extra screws/glue. I decided to replace the drive with a 250Gb SSD since I was only using 104Gb anyway, this proved to be trap 1. Toshiba don't give you any disks, you make rescue backups yourself on initial startup, this was trap 2. When I was working, we used pc's running DOS, Win3.1, XP and also computers running AIX (IBM's unix) but were never formally trained on any of it. We could use the dos command fdisk to partition the drive, make active partitions and then format c:/s which would add system files and make the drive bootable. The good old days. The drives used fat32 (format structure) which has many limitations, all of which I'd forgotten. Anyway, I discovered that Win7 Home Prof won't allow you to image a disk to a network drive so I found Macrium Reflect which will. This program is probably very powerful in the right hands which excludes mine. If I have to google words and error codes I don't believe the program is intuitive. I eventually store an image on my network and then find an old 140Gb IDE drive, so I buy an adaptor to make it a USB drive and fall into another trap. I assumed "clone" means exact copy (it does) so I had 104Gb used on my 320Gb drive I should be able to clone it to the 140Gb drive, yes? No, because it clones the partitions too, it won't (automatically) reduce a partition size (Trap1). My 320 Gb drive had 3 partitions (system, main active and hidden restore), why the first 2 were not just one I have no idea. Macrium allows you to clone partitions, so I cloned the first 2 and thought I was done. On SSD boot up, the pc announced it was attempting to repair the system but appeared stuck (I'm guessing because the hidden partition was not there). I then used Win7 on the original drive to make an image on the 140Gb but when I tried to restore it using my Toshiberised rescue disks it said it was corrupt, not only that but my Toshiberised rescue disks wouldn't see the network. (Trap2). The Toshiba disks try to be helpful and automate everything but won't allow you to break in and stop them, so if they get stuck, you're up the proverbial creek, sans paddle. 4 hours have elapsed in this quick job. Did I mention, I'm not a patient man? Although, to be fair, I haven't thrown anything (yet). I notice that my Macrium image on my network drive is only 44Gb, so I could transfer it to my 64Gb usb stick. Remember fat32? USB sticks are usually in that format and they only support 4Gb max file size so you have to format them in NTFS - this took 55 minutes - I have no idea why, I could have written it out in cursive in less time. Meanwhile I find a Macrium Reflect Win7 iso CD (yay!) only to discover it wouldn't boot because of a software bug on the version I had (now fixed), I also find a Macrium Rescue disk which I'd forgotten about and it has the restore software on it (on a roll now). I copy the networked image onto the usb stick, another 45 minutes (for a 44 Gb file!) - there is something wrong here, still, it finished. Must be in Southern Rail format. Finally, I have the Macrium Rescue cd running and the usb stick plus the SSD in my laptop but still I have the partition problem. Macrium does allow partition size changes but I found it so difficult to navigate/understand I abandoned it and only copied the first two partitions and...it worked. 7 hours later and I've done the quick swap. Lessons: you can't clone to a smaller drive without reducing parition size. If you use Macrium, read up on it first - looking at the number of people that had googled the same error message, I wasn't alone in my stupidity. You can't directly boot an "image", it is packed so it has to be unpacked first (obvious really, but when I'm ready to throw things, not so much). If I'd bought a 350Gb SSD I wouldn't have had these problems. One last thing, the drive is a Samsung and I tried to download their "magician" software only to be told (sorry but) they had reached the maximum number of downloads for that day, try again in 24 hours.WTF? Yes, my laptop is quicker. Was it worth 7 hours? Probably not.