Momentus XT, Momentus, Momentus Thin, MobileMax, and other notebook drives

[WatsaScreenName]

The 640GB HDD in my Toshiba Satellite came with 4 partitions. I am trying to clone them to a smaller 500GB Momentus XT HDD all using Norton Ghost 15.  I will have to shrink partition 2, which is the mostly-empty C-drive (and the overwhelmingly largest partition).  Ghost's Copy Drive can do this in the cloning so I don't have adjust partitions in the source HDD.  However, I assume that I need to partition the target HDD with partition sizes equal to the source HDD except for the smaller partition 2, then clone one partition at a time.  I will use Disk Management (diskmgmt.msc) to do this.

In partitioning the target HDD, however I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to find the precise partition sizes of the partitions on the source HDD.  Diskmgmt.msc only shows the 4 partition sizes on the source HDD to a limited precision, (2 decimal places in GiB).  I used PowerQuest Partition Table Editor (PTEDIT32.EXE) to show a whole bunch of data about the partitions, and one field is "Sectors", which seems like the number of sectors in each partition.  As a sanity check, partition 2 has 1,173,360,640 sectors.  At 512 bytes/sector, that's 600.76 GB.  This compares well with diskmgmt.msc's 559.5 GiB (Windows's "GB" is actually a GiB, or 2 to the power of 30, which multiples with 559.5 to give 600.76 GB actual).

1) Is this the right way to determine the precise partition sizes in the source HDD so that I can replicate their sizes in the target HDD (with the exception of partition 2)?  

2) Since I want partition 2 to fill up the remaining space, can I somehow define partition 2 last (and still have it as partition 2)?

3) If I have can't do #2, then I have to explicitly calculate the smaller size of partition 2 based on the unallocated space and the yet-to-be-defined partitions 1,3,4.  Does of partition of some size "x" use up precisely "x" amount of unallocated space, or is there some overhead?

4) Can anyone explain the following discrepancy between the target HDD capacity shown on diskmgmt.msc and PTEDIT32.EXE?  Diskmgmt.msc shows 465.76 GiB (limited precision), which is about 500.11 GB, which makes sense for a 500 GB HDD.  However, PTEDIT32.EXE shows 476,937 MB.

Thanks!

P.S. I'm running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

[lselbach]

(SEAGATE TECHNICIANS, pls read this message and give some help)

Hi Watsa,

Sorry, I will not help you, since I´m having almost the same problem.

Tried to clone my 750Gb Toshiba to Momentus XT 500, resizing partitions to fit content.

Tried first with Seagate Disc Wizard. Got errors. Restarted windows.

Downloaded EASEUS Todo Backup Free Edition. Got errors again. Restarted Windows.

Downloaded MACRIUM Reflect Free (excellent). Got erros again. Restarted Windows.

Downloaded and ran SEA TOOLS. Got the 1st report (attached, 1st part).

Ran windows HD test / repair utility (my computer / right click hd / properties / tools)

No error messages.

Tried Cloning again with Macrium Reflect. Errors again. (oh my gosh)

Ran Sea Tools again. Got 2nd report (attached, 2nd part).

Then I contacted the reseler and he told me that this hibrid drives are different, the best way is to start over with a clean installation.

But should I do this or I will lose my time??

Seagate support, please help.

Cheers

Lucas Selbach

Brazil

[KrypteX]

Hi,

You tried everything, but Acronis True Image Home... That one works well.

Ah... and you have bad sectors (LBAs).

Give us a SMART report of the Momentus XT drive. And do a full scan + full erase on it beforehand.

[WatsaScreenName]

I used Ghost 15 for partitions 1 & 2.  Haven't verified it yet.  Will try partitions 3 & 4 at some point (after shrinking partition 2, which is mostly-empty C-drive).  Partitions 3 & 4 are for creating recovery discs and restoring to factory settings without recovery discs.  It may or may not work since shrinking partition 2 shifts partitions 3 & 4 down.

[lselbach]

I just sent the hard drive to the reseller and he´s sending me a new one.

Watsa,

the softwares I tried just make the adjustment process automatically - no need to make separate processes for each partition (should this be the problem?!?!?)

Kryptex,

Thanks for the ACRONIS hint, I´m going to try it (just downloaded).

Thanks folks

Lucas

[WatsaScreenName]

You could be right.  I surfed the web to decide between the two.  Many vocal advocates and detractors for each.  Since one of the advocates was a friend, I went with Ghost.  However, I'd like very much to stick to a path until either I do what is needed or find that it is too complicated.  Based on suggestions from online, I tried two previous apps, and I have to stop flipping apps and spending time trying to get refunds (and polluting the registry).

By the way, cloning partitions 1 and 2 was pretty easy using Ghost (resizing was automatic).  However, Toshibas come with four partitions.  So I will downsize the dominant partition in the clone (the mostly-empty C-drive) to clone partitions 3 and 4.  Did you have just 2 partitions to clone (the more common scenario)?

[lselbach]

Hi Watsa,

Sorry by the delay.

My hd has 4 partitions also (it's a Toshiba HD in a LG A530 notebook).

The new hd has arrived (but the reseler just put in a bad package again).

Tried to run Seagate Disc Wizard to clone. Just choose Automatic, rebooted and then started the operation.

On the second partition copying, I´ve had some problems again, now I´m running the base test of Sea Tools to see if everything is ok with the HD.

(about the fact that the second C: partition is smaller then I need, I´ll adjust it later with some resizing partition tool)

Maybe I´ll do a fresh reinstall of windows and drivers, but now I´m quite busy, just going to keep the momentus for backup.

ps: Do you know how to receive a new message warning from this forum via email??

Cheers

Lucas

[Cantbecanit]

Guys do you not think you are expecting a bit too much, to have 4 partitions and then want to transfer them to a drive that is almost 25% smaller and then wonder why it isn't happening?

No doubt a full paid Acronis or Partition Magic program will achieve the result, but bottom line is you are looking to do it for free, the best free option is Diskwizard as it's a stripped out variant of Acronis, if that isn't working you will have to get the folding out and go for a pro program, why not simply set up 4 new partitions and then transfer any data over, and why oh why 4 partitions on a 500GB drive anyway?, personally I would look at 3 max, 1 Win 7/Vista, 2 XP if it's still a requirement, and 3 - Ubuntu, other than that a folder structure negates the need to partition anyway. hth.

[lselbach]

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Cantbecanit wrote:

Guys do you not think you are expecting a bit too much, to have 4 partitions and then want to transfer them to a drive that is almost 25% smaller and then wonder why it isn't happening?

No doubt a full paid Acronis or Partition Magic program will achieve the result, but bottom line is you are looking to do it for free, the best free option is Diskwizard as it's a stripped out variant of Acronis, if that isn't working you will have to get the folding out and go for a pro program, why not simply set up 4 new partitions and then transfer any data over, and why oh why 4 partitions on a 500GB drive anyway?, personally I would look at 3 max, 1 Win 7/Vista, 2 XP if it's still a requirement, and 3 - Ubuntu, other than that a folder structure negates the need to partition anyway. hth.

---

Hi there!

Actually, DiscWizard was working fine, but then I found another error in this new disk. 

Tired of the reseler, I will return to Seagate (just made the RMA steps, will post on mail tomorrow).

Thanks for feedback.

Cheers

Lucas

[Cantbecanit]

Lucas, if they test it and find nothing wrong with it you will simply get it back as it was and postage costs to you, I think you have O/S troubles myself, to be sure and to check use HD Sentinal to get a health rating, hth.