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laptop with 2 hard drives?



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 14th 04, 06:29 PM
Timothy Daniels
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Default laptop with 2 hard drives?

Do any of the Dell laptops provide 2 bays for
hard drives like the desktops do? (I'm looking
for an easy way to clone a laptop hard drive.)

*TimDaniels*
  #2  
Old September 14th 04, 06:59 PM
William P.N. Smith
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"Timothy Daniels" wrote:
Do any of the Dell laptops provide 2 bays for
hard drives like the desktops do? (I'm looking
for an easy way to clone a laptop hard drive.)


Many Dell laptops support the D-Bay hard drive. I haven't tried
Ghosting my system disk to the D-Bay drive, but I'd imagine it would
work. The BIOS also supports booting from the D-Bay drive, FWIW.

  #3  
Old September 14th 04, 08:32 PM
Timothy Daniels
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William P.N. Smith wrote:
"Timothy Daniels" wrote:
Do any of the Dell laptops provide 2 bays for
hard drives like the desktops do? (I'm looking
for an easy way to clone a laptop hard drive.)


Many Dell laptops support the D-Bay hard drive. I haven't tried
Ghosting my system disk to the D-Bay drive, but I'd imagine it would
work. The BIOS also supports booting from the D-Bay drive, FWIW.



Sounds encouraging. Is the "D-bay" usually used by other
storage devices (perhaps optical), or is it meant just for hard drives?

*TimDaniels*
  #4  
Old September 14th 04, 09:11 PM
Ron Reaugh
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"Timothy Daniels" wrote in message
...
Do any of the Dell laptops provide 2 bays for
hard drives like the desktops do? (I'm looking
for an easy way to clone a laptop hard drive.)


Don't screw with that. The easy way to clone a laptop HD is on a desktop.
Just get an adapter(or two) and connect the laptop HD to a desktop's
standard EIDE cable.

FLT-3120
http://www.scsicablesource.com/images/flt-3120.jpg


  #5  
Old September 14th 04, 11:55 PM
Markeau
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Does it support USB2? (If not, easy to add a USB2 PC Card, etc) ... I
would try Drive Image 7 with a laptop drive in an external USB2
enclosure (I use ADS Dual Links) ... that *should* create a bootable
image, but I have not tried it. [I have, however, moved desktop
drives in the Dual Link to an IDE channel with no problems - all
partitions, data, etc, remained accessible]

Timothy Daniels wrote:
Do any of the Dell laptops provide 2 bays for
hard drives like the desktops do? (I'm looking
for an easy way to clone a laptop hard drive.)

*TimDaniels*


  #6  
Old September 15th 04, 02:10 AM
the yeti
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"Timothy Daniels" wrote in message ...
Do any of the Dell laptops provide 2 bays for
hard drives like the desktops do? (I'm looking
for an easy way to clone a laptop hard drive.)

*TimDaniels*



A]
1)remove hard drive from laptop
2)insert laptop hard drive into desktop with special adapter (easy and
cheap to find)
3)clone drive

B]
1) use Norton Ghost (or similar)
2) send image to CD-RW or accross network
3) clone drive

C]
PROFIT!!!!
  #8  
Old September 15th 04, 04:12 AM
Ben Myers
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Three comments:

1. To clone a laptop hard drive means to clone it. If the original laptop drive
is the usual 2.5" type, so is the clone. TWO desktop adapters are needed for
cloning.

2. Though unlikely in this era of highly standardized BIOSes, it is possible
that the drive geometry(s) supported by a desktop BIOS are different than the
one used by the laptop. This could lead to one screwed up clone drive.

3. There is a MUCH easier way to clone a laptop drive. I did it last week to
get all the data from a failing 60GB drive inside a 3GHz Dell laptop onto a
replacement drive sent out by Dell to my client. Use a USB-IDE converter, and
attach the drive to be cloned to the laptop via its USB port. (In the unlikely
event that the laptop lacks a USB port, the same can be done with a PC Card-IDE
converter.)

The USB-IDE converter I bought came in a box marked "ALL PURPOSES SMART IDE
CONVERTER." You can bet from the brilliant syntax that the kit came from
Taiwan, which is what the box says. But the converter worked even more
brilliantly than the syntax, perfectly in fact. I don't think I paid more than
$30 for the USB-IDE converter on eBay.

I also used Seagate's SEATOOLS, which will clone any standard partition type
(FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS), but not oddball or hidden diagnostic partitions.

.... Ben Myers

On 14 Sep 2004 18:10:22 -0700, (the yeti) wrote:

"Timothy Daniels" wrote in message ...
Do any of the Dell laptops provide 2 bays for
hard drives like the desktops do? (I'm looking
for an easy way to clone a laptop hard drive.)

*TimDaniels*



A]
1)remove hard drive from laptop
2)insert laptop hard drive into desktop with special adapter (easy and
cheap to find)
3)clone drive

B]
1) use Norton Ghost (or similar)
2) send image to CD-RW or accross network
3) clone drive

C]
PROFIT!!!!


  #9  
Old September 15th 04, 04:31 AM
Ron Reaugh
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Default


ben_myers_spam_me_not @ charter.net (Ben Myers) wrote in message
...
Three comments:

1. To clone a laptop hard drive means to clone it. If the original laptop

drive
is the usual 2.5" type, so is the clone. TWO desktop adapters are needed

for
cloning.


Right, just like I said possibly two. But that's the harder way. Make an
image file of the laptop drive on the desktop HD and then restore that image
file to another laptop drive inserted into the same adapter.

2. Though unlikely in this era of highly standardized BIOSes, it is

possible
that the drive geometry(s) supported by a desktop BIOS are different than

the
one used by the laptop. This could lead to one screwed up clone drive.


VERY unlikely today.

3. There is a MUCH easier way to clone a laptop drive. I did it last week

to
get all the data from a failing 60GB drive inside a 3GHz Dell laptop onto

a
replacement drive sent out by Dell to my client. Use a USB-IDE converter,

and
attach the drive to be cloned to the laptop via its USB port. (In the

unlikely
event that the laptop lacks a USB port, the same can be done with a PC

Card-IDE
converter.)


Although workable this technique is more likely to have some potholes than
the other.

The USB-IDE converter I bought came in a box marked "ALL PURPOSES SMART

IDE
CONVERTER." You can bet from the brilliant syntax that the kit came from
Taiwan, which is what the box says. But the converter worked even more
brilliantly than the syntax, perfectly in fact. I don't think I paid more

than
$30 for the USB-IDE converter on eBay.

I also used Seagate's SEATOOLS, which will clone any standard partition

type
(FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS), but not oddball or hidden diagnostic partitions.

... Ben Myers

On 14 Sep 2004 18:10:22 -0700, (the yeti) wrote:

"Timothy Daniels" wrote in message

...
Do any of the Dell laptops provide 2 bays for
hard drives like the desktops do? (I'm looking
for an easy way to clone a laptop hard drive.)

*TimDaniels*



A]
1)remove hard drive from laptop
2)insert laptop hard drive into desktop with special adapter (easy and
cheap to find)
3)clone drive

B]
1) use Norton Ghost (or similar)
2) send image to CD-RW or accross network
3) clone drive

C]
PROFIT!!!!




  #10  
Old September 15th 04, 05:50 AM
William P.N. Smith
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

"Timothy Daniels" wrote:
William P.N. Smith wrote:
"Timothy Daniels" wrote:
Do any of the Dell laptops provide 2 bays for
hard drives like the desktops do? (I'm looking
for an easy way to clone a laptop hard drive.)


Many Dell laptops support the D-Bay hard drive. I haven't tried
Ghosting my system disk to the D-Bay drive, but I'd imagine it would
work. The BIOS also supports booting from the D-Bay drive, FWIW.


Sounds encouraging. Is the "D-bay" usually used by other
storage devices (perhaps optical), or is it meant just for hard drives?


We've got nearly the full set of D-Bay peripherals, floppy, hard
drive, CD writer, DVD writer, and extended battery. I think they also
make a Zip drive and LS-120, but I don' t have much use for either of
those. 8*)

Yeah, if all you want is to clone a particular drive once, there are
easier ways, but if you want to be able to back up your system, the
D-Bay hard drive is wonderful. Since the latest versions of Ghost can
write image files to NTFS partitions, you can have multiple hard drive
images on your D-Bay drive and still store extra files and such. Just
make a (DOS) bootable partition, put Ghost on it, and you are ready
for complete destruction of your internal hard drive! 8*)

The housing (4P124) is about $30, it requires five screws (7M490) at
50 cents each. There are four optional screws (5X488) to hold the
hard drive in place, but they are $5 (yow!) each, and the compression
fit of the drive in the bay is pretty good. Add any 9.5mm laptop hard
drive and you are all set.

You can buy the whole thing assembled with a 40G drive for $104 from
Dell's Small Business sales, but a 40G drive isn't nearly big enough
for what we needed. I put a spare 60G in my wife's and a spare 80G in
mine, and I'm anxiously awaiting the 100s and 120s!

 




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