hard drive replacement

See: http://www.goodells.net/dellutility/index.htm
http://forums.techarena.in/operating...ms/1161018.htm


--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com



"Jo-Anne" Jo-AnneATnowhere.com wrote in message
...
"Daave" wrote in message
...
Jo-Anne wrote:
"JS" @ wrote in message
...
snipped

Thank you, JS! How do I make sure that Acronis assigns the new
drive as C:/? Also, I don't partition the C:/ drive myself, but I
noticed when Acronis did its first backup (and all subsequent ones)
that Dell apparently has put some information in a FAT32 partition,
which Acronis recognizes and presumably copies properly.

Jo-Anne

That Dell partition is most likely the system restore partition
used to do a fresh install (no a repair) of XP.

It effectively returns your PC back to the way it was when
you first opened the box and turned on your PC.
This may be a clue that you have no recovery or full copy of XP
when you purchased the computer.

To make a long story shot this small partition is usually hidden.
If you check your owners manual there should be
a section about how to use this special/hidden partition
to restore XP. For more information about this feature
(F11 key) see: http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm

Since you are replacing the old drive with a new drive
and you have an Acronis Image backup, if you have
time on your hands you can try the F11 trick (but only after
the new drive is up and running) to see if it works (just remove
the new drive and only have the old drive installed).
Note: If the old drive is too far gone than this partition may also
be corrupted and the F11 will fail. If the partition is good your
drive will be restored but all you existing data will be lost.

How do I make sure that Acronis assigns the new drive as C:/?

That's the rub, I normally use Ghost but I also recently purchased
Acronis and the one and only time I used it the drive letters got
messed up, but this was with a preformatted drive. I would hope
that with a new unformatted drive Acronis will offer to partition
and format the drive and assign the correct drive letter so may not
be an issue (with luck) as you walk through the recovery/rescue
procedure. Also the Dell 8250 is a vintage 2002/2003 PC and depending
on the
specific options you ordered may or may not support a 160GB drive.
If this is the case the BIOS may only report the drive as 137GB in
size. Not to worry however as I had the same problem with an old
Dell so I just partitioned and formatted the first 135GB.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com

Thank you again, JS! Actually, Dell did supply a CD with the operating
system on it.

I'll bet that that FAT32 partition is the diagnostic one, which can be
very helpful.
I wouldn't be surprised--but how does one access it?

Thank you, JS! I think I understand something about it now, and I've
bookmarked both websites for reference (I back up my bookmarks regularly).

Jo-Anne

"JS" @ wrote in message ...
See: http://www.goodells.net/dellutility/index.htm
http://forums.techarena.in/operating...ms/1161018.htm


--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com



"Jo-Anne" Jo-AnneATnowhere.com wrote in message
...
"Daave" wrote in message
...
Jo-Anne wrote:
"JS" @ wrote in message
...
snipped

Thank you, JS! How do I make sure that Acronis assigns the new
drive as C:/? Also, I don't partition the C:/ drive myself, but I
noticed when Acronis did its first backup (and all subsequent ones)
that Dell apparently has put some information in a FAT32 partition,
which Acronis recognizes and presumably copies properly.

Jo-Anne

That Dell partition is most likely the system restore partition
used to do a fresh install (no a repair) of XP.

It effectively returns your PC back to the way it was when
you first opened the box and turned on your PC.
This may be a clue that you have no recovery or full copy of XP
when you purchased the computer.

To make a long story shot this small partition is usually hidden.
If you check your owners manual there should be
a section about how to use this special/hidden partition
to restore XP. For more information about this feature
(F11 key) see: http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm

Since you are replacing the old drive with a new drive
and you have an Acronis Image backup, if you have
time on your hands you can try the F11 trick (but only after
the new drive is up and running) to see if it works (just remove
the new drive and only have the old drive installed).
Note: If the old drive is too far gone than this partition may also
be corrupted and the F11 will fail. If the partition is good your
drive will be restored but all you existing data will be lost.

How do I make sure that Acronis assigns the new drive as C:/?

That's the rub, I normally use Ghost but I also recently purchased
Acronis and the one and only time I used it the drive letters got
messed up, but this was with a preformatted drive. I would hope
that with a new unformatted drive Acronis will offer to partition
and format the drive and assign the correct drive letter so may not
be an issue (with luck) as you walk through the recovery/rescue
procedure. Also the Dell 8250 is a vintage 2002/2003 PC and depending
on the
specific options you ordered may or may not support a 160GB drive.
If this is the case the BIOS may only report the drive as 137GB in
size. Not to worry however as I had the same problem with an old
Dell so I just partitioned and formatted the first 135GB.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com

Thank you again, JS! Actually, Dell did supply a CD with the operating
system on it.

I'll bet that that FAT32 partition is the diagnostic one, which can be
very helpful.
I wouldn't be surprised--but how does one access it?

Thank you, JS! I think I understand something about it now, and I've
bookmarked both websites for reference (I back up my bookmarks regularly).

Jo-Anne

"JS" @ wrote in message ...
See: http://www.goodells.net/dellutility/index.htm
http://forums.techarena.in/operating...ms/1161018.htm


--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com



"Jo-Anne" Jo-AnneATnowhere.com wrote in message
...
"Daave" wrote in message
...
Jo-Anne wrote:
"JS" @ wrote in message
...
snipped

Thank you, JS! How do I make sure that Acronis assigns the new
drive as C:/? Also, I don't partition the C:/ drive myself, but I
noticed when Acronis did its first backup (and all subsequent ones)
that Dell apparently has put some information in a FAT32 partition,
which Acronis recognizes and presumably copies properly.

Jo-Anne

That Dell partition is most likely the system restore partition
used to do a fresh install (no a repair) of XP.

It effectively returns your PC back to the way it was when
you first opened the box and turned on your PC.
This may be a clue that you have no recovery or full copy of XP
when you purchased the computer.

To make a long story shot this small partition is usually hidden.
If you check your owners manual there should be
a section about how to use this special/hidden partition
to restore XP. For more information about this feature
(F11 key) see: http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm

Since you are replacing the old drive with a new drive
and you have an Acronis Image backup, if you have
time on your hands you can try the F11 trick (but only after
the new drive is up and running) to see if it works (just remove
the new drive and only have the old drive installed).
Note: If the old drive is too far gone than this partition may also
be corrupted and the F11 will fail. If the partition is good your
drive will be restored but all you existing data will be lost.

How do I make sure that Acronis assigns the new drive as C:/?

That's the rub, I normally use Ghost but I also recently purchased
Acronis and the one and only time I used it the drive letters got
messed up, but this was with a preformatted drive. I would hope
that with a new unformatted drive Acronis will offer to partition
and format the drive and assign the correct drive letter so may not
be an issue (with luck) as you walk through the recovery/rescue
procedure. Also the Dell 8250 is a vintage 2002/2003 PC and depending
on the
specific options you ordered may or may not support a 160GB drive.
If this is the case the BIOS may only report the drive as 137GB in
size. Not to worry however as I had the same problem with an old
Dell so I just partitioned and formatted the first 135GB.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com

Thank you again, JS! Actually, Dell did supply a CD with the operating
system on it.

I'll bet that that FAT32 partition is the diagnostic one, which can be
very helpful.
I wouldn't be surprised--but how does one access it?

You're welcome.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com



"Jo-Anne" Jo-AnneATnowhere.com wrote in message
...
Thank you, JS! I think I understand something about it now, and I've
bookmarked both websites for reference (I back up my bookmarks regularly).

Jo-Anne

"JS" @ wrote in message ...
See: http://www.goodells.net/dellutility/index.htm
http://forums.techarena.in/operating...ms/1161018.htm


--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com



"Jo-Anne" Jo-AnneATnowhere.com wrote in message
...
"Daave" wrote in message
...
Jo-Anne wrote:
"JS" @ wrote in message
...
snipped

Thank you, JS! How do I make sure that Acronis assigns the new
drive as C:/? Also, I don't partition the C:/ drive myself, but I
noticed when Acronis did its first backup (and all subsequent ones)
that Dell apparently has put some information in a FAT32 partition,
which Acronis recognizes and presumably copies properly.

Jo-Anne

That Dell partition is most likely the system restore partition
used to do a fresh install (no a repair) of XP.

It effectively returns your PC back to the way it was when
you first opened the box and turned on your PC.
This may be a clue that you have no recovery or full copy of XP
when you purchased the computer.

To make a long story shot this small partition is usually hidden.
If you check your owners manual there should be
a section about how to use this special/hidden partition
to restore XP. For more information about this feature
(F11 key) see: http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm

Since you are replacing the old drive with a new drive
and you have an Acronis Image backup, if you have
time on your hands you can try the F11 trick (but only after
the new drive is up and running) to see if it works (just remove
the new drive and only have the old drive installed).
Note: If the old drive is too far gone than this partition may also
be corrupted and the F11 will fail. If the partition is good your
drive will be restored but all you existing data will be lost.

How do I make sure that Acronis assigns the new drive as C:/?

That's the rub, I normally use Ghost but I also recently purchased
Acronis and the one and only time I used it the drive letters got
messed up, but this was with a preformatted drive. I would hope
that with a new unformatted drive Acronis will offer to partition
and format the drive and assign the correct drive letter so may not
be an issue (with luck) as you walk through the recovery/rescue
procedure. Also the Dell 8250 is a vintage 2002/2003 PC and depending
on the
specific options you ordered may or may not support a 160GB drive.
If this is the case the BIOS may only report the drive as 137GB in
size. Not to worry however as I had the same problem with an old
Dell so I just partitioned and formatted the first 135GB.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com

Thank you again, JS! Actually, Dell did supply a CD with the operating
system on it.

I'll bet that that FAT32 partition is the diagnostic one, which can be
very helpful.
I wouldn't be surprised--but how does one access it?

You're welcome.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com



"Jo-Anne" Jo-AnneATnowhere.com wrote in message
...
Thank you, JS! I think I understand something about it now, and I've
bookmarked both websites for reference (I back up my bookmarks regularly).

Jo-Anne

"JS" @ wrote in message ...
See: http://www.goodells.net/dellutility/index.htm
http://forums.techarena.in/operating...ms/1161018.htm


--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com



"Jo-Anne" Jo-AnneATnowhere.com wrote in message
...
"Daave" wrote in message
...
Jo-Anne wrote:
"JS" @ wrote in message
...
snipped

Thank you, JS! How do I make sure that Acronis assigns the new
drive as C:/? Also, I don't partition the C:/ drive myself, but I
noticed when Acronis did its first backup (and all subsequent ones)
that Dell apparently has put some information in a FAT32 partition,
which Acronis recognizes and presumably copies properly.

Jo-Anne

That Dell partition is most likely the system restore partition
used to do a fresh install (no a repair) of XP.

It effectively returns your PC back to the way it was when
you first opened the box and turned on your PC.
This may be a clue that you have no recovery or full copy of XP
when you purchased the computer.

To make a long story shot this small partition is usually hidden.
If you check your owners manual there should be
a section about how to use this special/hidden partition
to restore XP. For more information about this feature
(F11 key) see: http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/fixes.htm

Since you are replacing the old drive with a new drive
and you have an Acronis Image backup, if you have
time on your hands you can try the F11 trick (but only after
the new drive is up and running) to see if it works (just remove
the new drive and only have the old drive installed).
Note: If the old drive is too far gone than this partition may also
be corrupted and the F11 will fail. If the partition is good your
drive will be restored but all you existing data will be lost.

How do I make sure that Acronis assigns the new drive as C:/?

That's the rub, I normally use Ghost but I also recently purchased
Acronis and the one and only time I used it the drive letters got
messed up, but this was with a preformatted drive. I would hope
that with a new unformatted drive Acronis will offer to partition
and format the drive and assign the correct drive letter so may not
be an issue (with luck) as you walk through the recovery/rescue
procedure. Also the Dell 8250 is a vintage 2002/2003 PC and depending
on the
specific options you ordered may or may not support a 160GB drive.
If this is the case the BIOS may only report the drive as 137GB in
size. Not to worry however as I had the same problem with an old
Dell so I just partitioned and formatted the first 135GB.

--
JS
http://www.pagestart.com

Thank you again, JS! Actually, Dell did supply a CD with the operating
system on it.

I'll bet that that FAT32 partition is the diagnostic one, which can be
very helpful.
I wouldn't be surprised--but how does one access it?