[ltp] One More Question: Drivelink

Ross Patterson linux-thinkpad@www.bm-soft.com
Sun, 4 Aug 2002 19:08:36 -0400


On Thursday 01 August 2002 05:28 am, surferjeff@excite.com wrote:
> Has anyone tried using drivelink to upgrade hard disks?

No, but I'm searching for something like it.  I'm aware of one alternative, 
from a company called Apricorn.  Anybody out there know of any others?  I'm 
interested in both Windows (98) and Linux (ext2/ext3) filesystem support.

> It looks like it's supposed to copy the contents of your hard disk to your
> new hard disk.  Does it copy the boot sector and all the core Windows stuff
> too?  

Both Apricorn and Simple Tech (DriveLink's manufacturer) claim to only 
support Windows drives (FAT 16 and FAT 32).  Simple Tech claims "A wide array 
of Operating Systems", and then lists a bunch of Windows levels and OS/2 (but 
only for FAT 16).  Their FAQ says DriveLink doesn't even support NTFS.  I'm 
betting there's no chance at all of copying my Linux ext2 filesystem :-(

>         If my laptop only has room for one hard drive, how does it copy to
> the other drive?

All these products come as a PCMCIA card with a cable that hooks up to the 
edge-connector on your new hard drive, and a bootable floppy that contains 
the copying program.  So for a brief period of time, you've got a 2-drive 
machine.  Apricorn also sells a variation on their copier that lets you use 
the external drive in addition to the internal one, but of course it eats up 
one of your PCMCIA sockets.

-- 
Ross A. Patterson
CatchFIRE Systems, Inc.
5885 Trinity Parkway, Suite 220
Centreville, VA  20120
(703) 563-4164

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