[Klaustrophobia]

absolutely everything.  what i really wanted was an image of the hard drive, but for that apparently windows XP needs a floppy disk, and lenovo's utility won't do that to another hard drive, only to cds or dvds.  which in my case means cds, as the laptop doesn't have a DVD writer.  after what happened with the data corruption on the new external i got, i'm really paranoid about data loss and want a complete backup before i start trying to clone to the laptop's new HDD.  especially now that it looks like weird stuff is happening when i hook it up to the desktop, which is how i'm going to need to do the cloning.  can't put both drives in the laptop.

[Ghostavo]

I'm not really sure, but GParted might be able to image partitions. It doesn't hurt to try.

And while I'm here.

[MP-Ryan]

I'm not really sure, but GParted might be able to image partitions. It doesn't hurt to try.

That rings a bell.  I know there are a couple open-source Ghost clones out there that should be able to do what Klaus wants.

EDIT:  D'oh, I've used this.  CloneZilla.  http://clonezilla.org/

[Klaustrophobia]

I'm not really sure, but GParted might be able to image partitions. It doesn't hurt to try.

And while I'm here.

a fresh install isn't an option.  i have XP and a SATA hard drive, with no floppy drive available to install the SATA drivers.  i once tried slipstreaming them into an install disk, but three disks later it still didn't work.  that aside, my laptop is a Lenovo that requires so many proprietary drivers i doubt the damn thing would even work enough to get to the website to install them, even if i did manage to get XP installed.

[Bob-san]

I'm not really sure, but GParted might be able to image partitions. It doesn't hurt to try.

And while I'm here.

a fresh install isn't an option.  i have XP and a SATA hard drive, with no floppy drive available to install the SATA drivers.  i once tried slipstreaming them into an install disk, but three disks later it still didn't work.  that aside, my laptop is a Lenovo that requires so many proprietary drivers i doubt the damn thing would even work enough to get to the website to install them, even if i did manage to get XP installed.

Slipstream all of Lenovo's drivers with the image? Otherwise, I still wouldn't install XP on a new system. Stick with Windows 7--reinstall with a 64-bit OEM disk but be prepared because the license key may not work. Also be wary of your source: there are plenty of modified EXEs but you can download the images direct from Microsoft.

[jr2]

driverpacks.net has the option to slipstream sata drivers (and all the other drivers in its repository) into a windows install disk.

Anywho, it may be that your desktop doesn't support over 1.5GB/s SATA operation (mine didn't, and I had to use a jumper to limit my hard disks to 1.5GB/s instead of 3.0GB/s or it locked up like you described).

Another option is using a USB-to-SATA dock or adapter ($20-550, Newegg) on the laptop.  Docks are nice because you can swap out internal SATA hard disks without disassembling a case.  The one I use supports 2.5" and 3.5" internal hard disks.