My personal Acer laptop – 2.5 yrs old – with a pre-installed Windows XP Home.
The HDD has a restore partition (I:\) from which I have re-installed twice (once due to my own ‘gung-ho’ stupidity and more recently due to a start-up system crash.
The laptop has a TSST L-532A slimline DVD-Dual drive which presented with problems within 6 months of use. After one warranty replacement it died again (just outside warranty cover!) and I never replaced it, opting to network the Acer with my old Tower unit, using the tower to install to the laptop whenever required.
————-
End of preamble!
————-
The primary boot partition is showing signs of imminent demise (read errors, slow loading, stalling, inability to return from hibernation) and it is sensible to assume that after two and a half years the hard drive has seen a reasonable life ~including P2P transfers~ and should be replaced forthwith.
[b]PROBLEM![/b]
Since my only means of re-install is from the ‘recovery partition’ (which is part of the existing hard drive); HOW can I put said partition onto a NEW hard drive ????
I’ve experienced situations where the recovery partition was in fact a Ghost image, and if the ‘new’ hard drive did not PERFECTLY copy the old drive, then the ‘recovery’ partition would not perform properly.
Replacing the hard drive is not a problem but losing my installation is!
I’ll copy the entire partition onto my tower for future use on the Acer – BUT – any thoughts on whether I can replace the existing HDD with a larger HDD or am I forced to replace with the same total volume capacity ??
I’VE HAD PLENTY OF TIME TO THINK ABOUT THIS – BUT NOW I’VE GOT TO DO IT!
Thoughts please – the more the merrier (Chrimbo spirit and all that!)
