Acer Ferrari 3400 Upgrading from 80 Gb to 250 Gb HDD

I am currently happy with how this laptop is performing, the HDD is just quite full. I'm looking for advise on the partitions: Currently it's the standard 80gb with two partitions. I did buy cloning software, but that raises questions as opposed to answering them. Will this software give me the same 40gig partitions? or will it split the disc in two as is currently the case (not including the hidden recovery partition if it's applicable)? I have been contemplating simply installing the new drive, installing the OS (XP Pro, 32bit) from the recovery discs then installing my programs from there. Would this be advisable? Thank you for your patience.

 

Most disk clone software will let you expand the partion

like nortron ghost when look clone screen it automaticly adjust size to file new disk am sure you find acronis or most other util same

it will most like keep disk two parts but will expand partions

 

I used GigaBit software to try and clone the disk. It tried and I guess succeeded in cloning the 80 gig drive to the 250gig drive but for some reason, when I tried to open some of the folders on the D: drive the dreaded "disk is not formatted, would you like to format it now?" message came up. Apparently I've run into the 137gig barrier. When I try to run WD's Data Lifeguard tools in Windows, it won't let me even select the disk to try and enable large drives. When I run it in DOS, it won't allow me to partition it larger than 137gig. I've searched the internet, and found since I'm running XP Pro SP3, windows isn't the problem. I've upgraded the BIOS to 3C25 and searching has shown even the 3C23 isn't the problem I'm not sure what size BIOS thinks the disk is because entering setup via F2 doesn't give anything other than the drive's part number and serial number. I downloaded Driver Detective to try and update all the chipset drivers and ATA/IDE drivers. I have used the recovery disks to try and get windows to recognize the disk to no avail. I only have my recovery discs, so I'm not sure which one I should "slipstream" SP3 into or if that will even help. I hate being a newb in these situations because it seems I need a step-by-step in this. Can someone point me in the correct direction?

 

Limit the partition to 120GB ... you will become more compatible with Windows and hardware .

 

At the moment, there are only two partitions on the drive: the "boot" partition at 3Gb and the "c:" drive at 112 or so. Windows reports only 8Gb of unalocated space. I know there is a way for Windows to recognize the rest of the drive, whether it be through enabling large drive in the registry (which from what I gather should'nt be necessary in SP3) or through re-installing windows with a "slipstreamed" SP3 recovery disk. I have read other threads on the web where this same disk has been installed and worked, but when I follow the instructions in those threads, WD's Data Lifeguard Tools allowed them to format the disk. For whatever reason, mine won't.

 

Wait a minute Zak .

The large disk support its a double game .

Bios and operating system , are the basic players.

You can not force the large disk support only by software .

I am on your path to upgrade hard disk to 250GB .

The older's in knowledge ( At NBR) , told me that its a bit of lotto , to get support for that large hard disk on laptops.

But i am eager to try too.

Practically the IDE controller it does support the large drive ,
but the dark spot are what ACER had in mind , when they made the Bios for it .

In my scenario , i got all ready one nice, and a bit expensive , USB external HD 2.5" case (250GB support tested ) , i will make my partitions with it, on the new HD , three at the number , and i will try to rebuild it by the same way , as the ACER does.
2.5" IDE to USB 2.0 Hard Disk Drive Caddy HDD Enclosure

3GB PQSERVICE 120GB ACER & 120GB ACERDATA .

I have an image of the D2D partition , so it will be installed .

And then , the ready Hard drive will be transfered to the laptop.

And i will boot from the PQSERVICE , and start the erecovery , so to set the OS on it .

I believe that it will work that way , if not .. i will be lost like you.

.

 

Thanks for the update.

 

You are welcome ..

If you get any success story , its now your obligation to post it ..


Keep as informed ..

( Unofficial member of the ACER team )

 

I'm sorry it took so long, but I've finaly got it working and at least it seems stable so far. I know DDO's are anathema here but that's what it took in my case. Using Western Digital's Data Lifeguard Tools, against all their recomendations, I formatted the whole disk, C: New Acer, D: New Data and E: iTunes. Respective sizes are 66.7Gb, 66.7Gb and 99.3Gb (I have a lot of discs to convert). I let the recovery disks that came with the computer take care of the recovery partition. After loading the OS with the recovery disks, updated Windows and manualy installed the programs I wanted to keep. I kept the old disk as it was but used another computer to delete the old disk's recovery partition and removed the OS files as best as I could.

Just so others don't make my mistake, if you take this route, DO NOT format only 137Gb of the disk then let Windows format the rest. This may be common knowledge here, but I somehow missed it. I'm guessing Windows gains access the disk directly cutting through the DDO and that leads to instability, in my case the "windows did not start propperly..." and it would not start using latest settings that worked or even in "safe" mode, no start at all.

If someone figures out if this can be done without the DDO, using updated drivers and such, I'd like to hear it, because I'm all about things running on as few background programs as possible but so far the DDO seems to work for what I use this thing for.

 

while DDO's are evil... some times they are a required evil... and they tend to work well,,, i'm like you in respect to the minimum # of background or un-needed programs..

 

ZAK

From your words looks that you are a bit confused of how the all story works .

Any way , as long you made it to boot , there is no worries.


I got for my self one 160GB, as most cost effective solution, and it works fantastic .
WD Scorpio blue .

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=284607&page=4


.

 

I wish I could claim enough knowledge to be confused. What I meant was that I didn't set up a partition specificaly for the recovery. I used the WD software to set up C:, D:, and E: only.

 

I got the same problem with my Ferrari 3400 and my new 250 GB hdd.
What should i do, to get it working? What´s DDO?
Is it to make 2 partition on 60 GB and the install windows with the recovery disk or?