laptop with 2 hard drives?

[Eugene]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Timothy Daniels wrote:

> (Ben Myers)> wrote:
>> You've laid out some stringent requirements which may be difficult to
>> meet given
>> current and near-future notebook technology. The best you can do is
>> either an UltraBay device or a USB2-IDE converter kit, the latter
>> consisting of a small drive enclosure and the necessary cables and
>> adapters to attach the drive to a
>> USB 2.0 port, which I hope your notebook computer has. USB 2.0 will
>> sustain
>> disk transfer rates comparable to those of a drive inside the notebook.
>> USB 1.1
>> and earlier definitely will not. You can use the USB2-IDE converter kit
>> to
>> clone the drive. If you need to boot the system from the clone accessed
>> thru a USB port, your notebook must also be capable of booting from the
>> USB drive.
>>
>> Swapping of drives in the field is not difficult at all, provided you
>> carry the
>> right tools. Most notebook computer drives can be accessed with a small
>> Philips
>> head screwdriver. Examine yours to see what tools you need. Swapping
>> drives is quicker and easier if you have an extra drive caddy for the
>> second drive. Otherwise you have to remove the drive/caddy from the
>> system, remove the drive from the caddy (usually 4 screws), put the
>> replacement drive in the caddy, and put the replacement drive/caddy back
>> inside the notebook.
>>
>> Firewire is an acceptable alternative to USB, tho not as popular on Intel
>> computers as on Macs. Firewire is just as fast or faster than USB,
>> depending on
>> the devices hooked up to it. If your notebook can boot from a hard drive
>> attached to its presumed firewire port, then you can do everything with
>> Firewire that can be done with a notebook bootable from USB...
>
> Thanks for the info, Ben. For the record, I don't have a laptop now,
> but I shall be in the market for two (2) identical laptops in a few
> months,
> and I was investigating the HD backup availabilities. I know that there
> may be no system that meets my entire list of "druthers", but it's good to
> learn
> what devices come closest. Thanks, again.
>
> *TimDaniels*
I've swapped the drives in mine a few times. I have a Dell Latitude C400
and its drive slides out the side after removal of a single screw. Most
business line laptops are built to have the drive swapped easily as
corporations will standardize on a model so user calls helpdesk with a
broken laptop, they bring the spare, swap the drives and hand it back to
the user. I picked up a spare tray from a parted out laptop for $7 and put
a 60G drive in it and pulled out the 20g and slid in the 60g. If i were
ever to need to go back to the original drive (say I had to send it in for
warranty service) I could just swap the drives back. The original drive I
popped back in a used the cd's that came with the laptop and loaded a clean
blank install of windows. The 60G I run normally boots Linux and has all
my files. I kept the old drive with windows in case I would ever be
somewhere and need to boot a windows system for whatever reason.

 

[sparky]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Timothy Daniels wrote:

> <William P.N. Smith> wrote:
>
>>I'm a bit confused as to what you want. If your laptop drive fails,
>>do you want to be able to boot off the spare, replace the main drive
>>and copy your image back, or what? All of these options and more have
>>been suggested, but you don't seem to like any of them...
>
>
>
> Ideally, I'd like to boot up from a 2nd internal HD, just as I can
> do now with my desktop. Absent a 2nd internal HD, I'd like to
> swap HDs using a spare that I can easily reach. To keep cloning
> an easy and fast process and to not slow down the system if it's
> running off a clone, I'd prefer a straight IDE transfer without
> going through a USB or FireWire conversion. I do NOT want to
> have to re-copy a system from an archive HD floating about in an
> external enclosure with wires trailing out of it that run to an adapter.
> I do NOT want to have to use the booted system with an external
> HD connected by wires, etc. In other words, I'd like to be able
> travel light and clean, and if a HD should fail, do a swap and
> maintain the ease of demo-ing software that communicates between
> apps running on two different laptops without the confusion and
> delay of untangling and laying out wires and external peripherals,
> all the while maintaining a client or a job interview rap.
>
> As I see it, the closest I might be able to get is to have an
> Ultrabay-like device for making clones, and accept having to
> open the laptop in the field to swap HDs in the event of a failure.
> BTW, how hard is swapping laptop HDs in the field?

Dead bang simple - less work than opening up a desktop (for ThinkPads -
no experience with Dells).

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Sparky" wrote:
> Timothy Daniels wrote:
> > As I see it, the closest I might be able to get is to have an
> > Ultrabay-like device for making clones, and accept having to
> > open the laptop in the field to swap HDs in the event of a failure.
> > BTW, how hard is swapping laptop HDs in the field?
>
> Dead bang simple - less work than opening up a desktop (for
> ThinkPads - no experience with Dells).

That's encouraging to hear - nothing simpler than a dead bang,
I guess.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Timothy Daniels" <TDaniels@NoSpamDot.com> wrote:
> Ideally, I'd like to boot up from a 2nd internal HD, just as I can
>do now with my desktop.

You can boot from a Dell D-Bay hard drive. If it's an image of your
system drive, and your system drive dies, you're back up and running
without any swapping, though you will use the use of any other D-Bay
(optical, floppy, etc) drives.

10 minutes with a small Phillips screwdriver to swap the drives around
and regain the use of your other D-by devices, FWIW.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

<William P.N. Smith> wrote:
> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:
> > Ideally, I'd like to boot up from a 2nd internal HD, just as I can
> >do now with my desktop.
>
> You can boot from a Dell D-Bay hard drive. If it's an image of your
> system drive, and your system drive dies, you're back up and running
> without any swapping, though you will use the use of any other D-Bay
> (optical, floppy, etc) drives.
>
> 10 minutes with a small Phillips screwdriver to swap the drives around
> and regain the use of your other D-by devices, FWIW.


` It's nice to know that a Dell laptop affords two quick
recovery options. Thanks for the info.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I don't suppose anyone here has simply *networked* a laptop together with a
desktop?
By sharing a folder (on a drive of ANY size) on the desktop (say, 70 gig?)
you can simply map a network drive on the laptop to that folder, and call it
"E:" (as your CD-type device will certainly be D: already).

From here, you can swap data at 10/100/1Gig speeds across the network.
I use a wireless card in my laptop. No connection cables on this end
whatsoever (duh).

R.C. Silk -- The Computer Tutor
*Help for Humans in Need*
http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcsilk/
http://dicksilk.chatango.com/ (for live chat)

--A pessimist is never disappointed.

 

[Eugene]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Dick Silk wrote:

> I don't suppose anyone here has simply *networked* a laptop together with
> a desktop?
> By sharing a folder (on a drive of ANY size) on the desktop (say, 70 gig?)
> you can simply map a network drive on the laptop to that folder, and call
> it "E:" (as your CD-type device will certainly be D: already).
>
> From here, you can swap data at 10/100/1Gig speeds across the network.
> I use a wireless card in my laptop. No connection cables on this end
> whatsoever (duh).
>
> R.C. Silk -- The Computer Tutor
> *Help for Humans in Need*
> http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcsilk/
> http://dicksilk.chatango.com/ (for live chat)
>
> --A pessimist is never disappointed.
Don't have to map a drive, you can simply browse to \\servername\sharename,
mapped drives are unly for backward compatibility and won't exist it you
try to copy data as an automated task.
Copying data over a network is fine, but this instance he wants to have a
copy of the installed programs on both machines.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Agreed, but the problem as originally stated by the OP was to "clone" a hard
drive. Unless one uses the version of Ghost which supports networked cloning of
drives, networking two computers seems to complicate matters. Much easier to
use external USB 2.0 gear attached to the notebook... Ben Myers

On Tue, 21 Sep 2004 15:59:31 -0500, "Dick Silk" <dick_silk@anti-spam.net> wrote:

>I don't suppose anyone here has simply *networked* a laptop together with a
>desktop?
>By sharing a folder (on a drive of ANY size) on the desktop (say, 70 gig?)
>you can simply map a network drive on the laptop to that folder, and call it
>"E:" (as your CD-type device will certainly be D: already).
>
>From here, you can swap data at 10/100/1Gig speeds across the network.
>I use a wireless card in my laptop. No connection cables on this end
>whatsoever (duh).
>
>R.C. Silk -- The Computer Tutor
>*Help for Humans in Need*
>http://personalpages.tds.net/~rcsilk/
>http://dicksilk.chatango.com/ (for live chat)
>
>--A pessimist is never disappointed.
>
>

 

[sparky]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Dick Silk wrote:

> I don't suppose anyone here has simply *networked* a laptop together with a
> desktop?

HUH? This has come up many times. I'm sure many posters here network a
laptop with their desktop - I sure do & got advice from this NG on how
to make it work.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Sparky" wrote:
> Dick Silk wrote:
>
> > I don't suppose anyone here has simply *networked*
> > a laptop together with a desktop?
>
> HUH? This has come up many times. I'm sure many
> posters here network a laptop with their desktop -
> I sure do & got advice from this NG on how to make
> it work.


I think he meant making a clone of a laptop hard drive
onto a drive in a desktop using a network connection rather
than having both hard drives in the same machine. And,
presumably because the clone wouldn't recognize its
environment in the desktop, the same procedure would
have to done in reverse back to the laptop when it gets a
new hard drive. That *does* come up many times, but I
don't see too many answers that say how (and with what
utility software) it can be done.

*TimDaniels*

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Dick Silk" <dick_silk@anti-spam.net> wrote:
>I don't suppose anyone here has simply *networked* a laptop together with a
>desktop?

How does this help the OP clone his hard drive? [Yes, some versions
of Ghost will use TCP/IP either natively or in a client/server mode to
image drives, but that's either slow, expensive, or both, and doesn't
help the OP with his "it died on the road" scenario.]

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

using a network to backup a drive is relatively easy EXCEPT for the drive
with the OS on it, which is a bit trickier:

This would require wiping / reloading the OS to the boot sectors, then
copying everything else back over. *It *should* work* in non-critical
installations.

True, this does NOT work in every situation.


<William P.N. Smith> wrote in message
news:8vq2l0d6ldjnt0nilbk6e9er2km9mq6qp9@4ax.com...
> "Dick Silk" <dick_silk@anti-spam.net> wrote:
>>I don't suppose anyone here has simply *networked* a laptop together with
>>a
>>desktop?
>
> How does this help the OP clone his hard drive? [Yes, some versions
> of Ghost will use TCP/IP either natively or in a client/server mode to
> image drives, but that's either slow, expensive, or both, and doesn't
> help the OP with his "it died on the road" scenario.]
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Dick Silk" <dick_silk@anti-spam.net> wrote:
>using a network to backup a drive is relatively easy EXCEPT for the drive
>with the OS on it, which is a bit trickier:

Not with Ghost. It boots DOS, and images your drive. Network options
are TCP/IP master/slave in Personal Edition, plus client/server mode
in Enterprise Edition (10-client minimum). Works well if not terribly
quickly, and doesn't require rebuilding the machine to some
intermediate state before restoring the system disk.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

<William P.N. Smith> wrote:
> "Dick Silk" wrote:
> >using a network to backup a drive is relatively easy
> EXCEPT for the drive with the OS on it, which is a bit trickier:
>
> Not with Ghost. It boots DOS, and images your drive. Network options
> are TCP/IP master/slave in Personal Edition, plus client/server mode
> in Enterprise Edition (10-client minimum). Works well if not terribly
> quickly, and doesn't require rebuilding the machine to some
> intermediate state before restoring the system disk.


Have you any ideal if cloning and booting via Ethernet are
part of Ghost v.9?

*TimDaniels*

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Timothy Daniels" <TDaniels@NoSpamDot.com> wrote:
>Have you any ideal if cloning and booting via Ethernet are
>part of Ghost v.9?

Can't say for sure, I use the Enterprise Edition. I know the previous
Personal Editions did, and their WWWebsite isn't very helpful, maybe
try the knowledge base?

 

[sparky]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Timothy Daniels wrote:

> <William P.N. Smith> wrote:
>
>>"Dick Silk" wrote:
>>
>>>using a network to backup a drive is relatively easy
>>
>>EXCEPT for the drive with the OS on it, which is a bit trickier:
>>
>>Not with Ghost. It boots DOS, and images your drive. Network options
>>are TCP/IP master/slave in Personal Edition, plus client/server mode
>>in Enterprise Edition (10-client minimum). Works well if not terribly
>>quickly, and doesn't require rebuilding the machine to some
>>intermediate state before restoring the system disk.
>
> Have you any ideal if cloning and booting via Ethernet are
> part of Ghost v.9?

I have Ghost 2003 and it supports cloning peer-to-peer. You have to
specify USB/TCP/LPT. Hard to imagine you could boot one peer from another.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Sparky <nemo@moon.sun.edu> wrote:
>I have Ghost 2003 and it supports cloning peer-to-peer. You have to
>specify USB/TCP/LPT. Hard to imagine you could boot one peer from another.

You boot them both to DOS and then clone one from the other. In
general you'd probably make an image file on one machine that was the
image of the system disk on the other system, but you could probably
clone one identical machine to another (though you'd have to fiddle
with network name and such afterwards...)

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

<William P.N. Smith> wrote:
> Sparky wrote:
> >I have Ghost 2003 and it supports cloning peer-to-peer.
> >You have to specify USB/TCP/LPT. Hard to imagine you
> >could boot one peer from another.
>
> You boot them both to DOS and then clone one from the other.
> In general you'd probably make an image file on one machine
> that was the image of the system disk on the other system,
> but you could probably clone one identical machine to another
> (though you'd have to fiddle with network name and such
> afterwards...)

To be explicit, could the following be done? -

Clone the HD from one laptop to another laptop
using an Ethernet connection, remove the HD from
the 2nd laptop and put it into the 1st laptop and boot
it up without having to do an "image restore"? IOW,
is the image made with Ghost through an Ethernet
connection bootable?

*TimDaniels*

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Timothy Daniels" <TDaniels@NoSpamDot.com> wrote:
> To be explicit, could the following be done? -

>Clone the HD from one laptop to another laptop
>using an Ethernet connection, remove the HD from
>the 2nd laptop and put it into the 1st laptop and boot
>it up without having to do an "image restore"? IOW,
>is the image made with Ghost through an Ethernet
>connection bootable?

Dunno for sure, you'd have to check with someone who has the Personal
Edition or who has done the peer-to-peer network thing. I tried it
once, and it was so slow I stopped it and went back to putting two
laptop drives in my desktop machine.

Why would you want to? I thought you wanted immediate recovery at a
client site of a failed laptop?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

<William P.N. Smith> wrote:
> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:
> > To be explicit, could the following be done? -
>
> >Clone the HD from one laptop to another laptop
> >using an Ethernet connection, remove the HD from
> >the 2nd laptop and put it into the 1st laptop and boot
> >it up without having to do an "image restore"? IOW,
> >is the image made with Ghost through an Ethernet
> >connection bootable?
>
> Dunno for sure, you'd have to check with someone who
> has the Personal Edition or who has done the peer-to-peer
> network thing. I tried it once, and it was so slow I stopped it
> and went back to putting two laptop drives in my desktop
> machine.
>
> Why would you want to? I thought you wanted immediate
> recovery at a client site of a failed laptop?


The copy, of course, would be done beforehand for use
as a backup, and the elapsed time for a copy wouldn't be
of as much concern. Current laptops have FireWire and/or
USB2 for doing copy's. Older laptops would only have
Ethernet. I may have to settle for 2 older laptops.

*TimDaniels*

 

[sparky]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

Timothy Daniels wrote:

> <William P.N. Smith> wrote:
>
>>Sparky wrote:
>>
>>>I have Ghost 2003 and it supports cloning peer-to-peer.
>>>You have to specify USB/TCP/LPT. Hard to imagine you
>>>could boot one peer from another.
>>
>>You boot them both to DOS and then clone one from the other.
>>In general you'd probably make an image file on one machine
>>that was the image of the system disk on the other system,
>>but you could probably clone one identical machine to another
>>(though you'd have to fiddle with network name and such
>>afterwards...)
>
> To be explicit, could the following be done? -
>
> Clone the HD from one laptop to another laptop
> using an Ethernet connection, remove the HD from
> the 2nd laptop and put it into the 1st laptop and boot
> it up without having to do an "image restore"? IOW,
> is the image made with Ghost through an Ethernet
> connection bootable?

Yes, I think that's exactly what you could do. Clones of bootable
partitions I have made have been bootable themselves. It's not
necessary, BTW, to clone from one laptop HDD to a 2nd laptop, any
external HDD (including over a network) works fine. If your HDD gets
trashed, you can restore it or load a fresh HDD by booting from a Ghost
boot disk and cloning from the good one (external HDD) to the HDD in the
laptop. FWIW, I generally clone partition to partition (as opposed to
disk to disk), gives more flexibility.

To reply to William's post - I thought Tim was asking about cloning a
HDD over an Ethernet connection, then booting from the cloned HDD on the
other laptop *over* the Ethernet connection - 'don't see how you could
do that. His current post makes it clear he would move the cloned HDD to
his originating laptop, which works fine.