Hi. I’m buying a refurbished base unit that I intend to install Mint or Peppermint along side. My question is Windows related… Sorry.
I want to fit a larger hard drive to it but the unit comes with windows preinstalled and not with a disk how can I transfer the Windows recovery partition onto the newer drive. Thanks.
Adam
Hi Toonman
I’m not 100% sure about this but couldn’t you just clone the entire drive with something like Clonezilla or Redo then restore on to the new drive
Graeme
Thanks Graeme.
Never thought of that.
Can’t get Clonezilla in the PM4 software manager.
You need to burn a Clonezilla LiveCD … boot to it … then clone the drive
Download:
http://clonezilla.org/downloads.php
get the “stable releases - 2.2.2-32” version.
more info here:
http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live.php
If your PC can boot a USB stick, you can put Clonezilla on a LiveUSB:
http://clonezilla.org/liveusb.php
using unetbootin in either Windows or Linux
Thanks for that. 
For my part, you’re welcome
If Clonezilla gives you any issues you can try Redo http://redobackup.org/
I have it installed on a USB drive and it’s dead simple to understand and use
Good luck
Graeme
Fit a second drive. Simples
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted - Aesop
Hi jamieb158, and welcome to the forum
Yeah, that’s also a possible solution (unless you want the old drive for something else)
Just have 2 drives leaving the original “as is” … and installing Linux on the second drive.
Thats what I meant id fit a second drive. Install linux on that leaving the master windows drive alone with the exception of sticking grub boot loader on it to choose os when booting
No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted - Aesop
Could he not just install grub on the second drive along with Linux and set the bios to boot from that drive, that way he wouldn’t have to touch the Windows drive at all
Graeme
Theoretically Toonman could add the new drive as the primary boot device, install Linux and GRUB to it, then chainload Windows from the second HDD.
(again the Windows drive never gets touched, including GRUB … and no need to use the3 BIOS to switch OS).
There’s lots of ways to do this … all depends on what his goals are, and if the Windows drive staying the same is important
I get the feeling he may want to copy the original to the larger HDD, then stick the old HDD into storage “just in case” … but I could be wrong.
It’s much simpler.
Ideally I would not want to go near Windows with a barge pole. However, Linux of any flavour will not recognise my Wife’s Foot pedals for dictating. Even Mark PCNet gave up! Also I still use some RAW photo conversion software…and bizarrely it’s easier to put a live distro on a USB stick using Windows than Linux. 
Something simple would do. I like the idea of putting Linux on a different drive, even a small USB drive. don’t know how to install grub though.
Linux can handle RAW image conversion here’s a few examples http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-great-tools-editing-raw-photos-linux/,
I wouldn’t agree creating a live USB distro is any easier in Windows than it is in Linux, USB Live creator couldn’t be easier I don’t think.
if you decided on installing onto a second drive GRUB would install as part of the installation process so you wouldn’t have to do anything, your Windows drive would be completely untouched.
You just have to decide what you want to do
Graeme
You fit the new HDD
You select “something else” at the partitioning part of the installer
You elect to partition and install Linux to whatever drive is the new one … say /dev/sdb … then you make sure (in this example) /dev/sdb is set as the target for the GRUB installation … then once installed, you select that hard drive as the first boot device in the BIOS.
Probably the safest way to do this is to -
a) physically disconnect the Windows HDD
b) Add your new HDD
c) Install Linux in the normal way … just accepting the defaults during installation
d) when finished installing Linux, shut down, reconnect the Windows HDD
e) Turn on the PC and enter the BIOS, and make sure the Linux drive is set as the first boot device
f) When Linux boots, open a terminal and run:
sudo update-grub
which should find the Windows installation and add it to the GRUB menu
(leaving the Windows HDD completely unchanged)
That way if at any time you need to remove the Linux drive, Windows will still boot.
Did that make sense ?
Probably the safest way to do this is to -a) physically disconnect the Windows HDD
b) Add your new HDD
c) Install Linux in the normal way … just accepting the defaults during installation
d) when finished installing Linux, shut down, reconnect the Windows
e) Turn on the PC and enter the BIOS, and make sure the Linux drive is set as the first boot device
f) When Linux boots, open a terminal and run:
Code: [Select]
sudo update-grub
That’s exactly the way I always do it that partitioner scares the hell outta me
Have faith and be confident! (and brave!)
As long as you triple-check before you commit it (including going for a walk before checking & comitting!), you’ll be fine.
It’s trickier if the HDDs are the same size, but the partitioner (GParted) is pretty good at spotting what partitions are on which HDDs before you start.
As chemicalfan suggests, it’s rarely the partitioner that gets it wrong … it’s nearly always human error, like forgetting to put GRUB in the right place so it overwrites the Windows one.
The above method just minimises the risk of human error
–
Thanks. I shall be doing this at the weekend.