Cloning drives with hidden partition?

[GTS]

I want to clone and replace a drive in an HP Pavillion. HP use one of these
hidden partitions with all the original software & OS on.
I have cloned many drives - but not one like this before.
Will there be any problems with? Will the original software still be
available on the new drive once cloned?
TIA
Graham

 

[Peter]

I want to clone and replace a drive in an HP Pavillion. HP use one of
these

hidden partitions with all the original software & OS on.
I have cloned many drives - but not one like this before.
Will there be any problems with? Will the original software still be
available on the new drive once cloned?
TIA
Graham

What OS do you run on that PC?
What hard drive model do you have there?
How OS sees HD?
(for XP/2003 you can: Run | Cmd | Diskpart | List Disk )

 

[GTS]

What OS do you run on that PC?
What hard drive model do you have there?
How OS sees HD?
(for XP/2003 you can: Run | Cmd | Diskpart | List Disk )

The OS I believe is XP SP2.
Have'nt bought the new HDD yet - the 'old' drive is an ATA 120gb and is seen
by the OS as one partition.
I use my good old Ghost DOS executable to clone drives usually - all 600k of
it!
But have not cloned a drive with one of these hidden partitions on it. HP
pavillions have a BIOS that loads in all sorts of tools / recovery options
from the hidden partition if a certain function key is pressed when booting.
I should explain that I am replacing a drive for a friend as the drive
fitted to the quite new Pavillion is incredibly slow - I have not looked at
the make / model yet but it 'feels' like a 5400rpm 2mb cache model. Plan to
replace it with a raptor or any 7200rpm 8/16mb cache and keep the old drive
in as a 2nd drive for storage.

 

[Rod Speed]

Yes, if you clone it properly.

The OS I believe is XP SP2.
Have'nt bought the new HDD yet -
the 'old' drive is an ATA 120gb

It would be unusual for that to be a 5400 rpm drive.

and is seen by the OS as one partition.

I use my good old Ghost DOS executable
to clone drives usually - all 600k of it!

The main problem with using DOS Ghost is that its
rather crude with what it allows you to do when cloning.

You need to clone the physical drive, not individual partitions.
The default is to adjust the partition sizes proportionally onto
the new bigger drive. That isnt desirable with the hidden partition.

True Image can do the clone fine in that situation.

But have not cloned a drive with one of these hidden partitions
on it. HP pavillions have a BIOS that loads in all sorts of tools /
recovery options from the hidden partition if a certain function
key is pressed when booting. I should explain that I am
replacing a drive for a friend as the drive fitted to the
quite new Pavillion is incredibly slow

That sounds like a fault.

- I have not looked at the make / model yet
but it 'feels' like a 5400rpm 2mb cache model.

That shouldnt be 'incredibly slow'

 

[Peter]

The OS I believe is XP SP2.
Have'nt bought the new HDD yet - the 'old' drive is an ATA 120gb and is seen
by the OS as one partition.
I use my good old Ghost DOS executable to clone drives usually - all 600k of
it!
But have not cloned a drive with one of these hidden partitions on it. HP
pavillions have a BIOS that loads in all sorts of tools / recovery options
from the hidden partition if a certain function key is pressed when booting.
I should explain that I am replacing a drive for a friend as the drive
fitted to the quite new Pavillion is incredibly slow - I have not looked at
the make / model yet but it 'feels' like a 5400rpm 2mb cache model. Plan to
replace it with a raptor or any 7200rpm 8/16mb cache and keep the old drive
in as a 2nd drive for storage.

Can you get the information I have asked for?
Exact model number for the current disk (not a new one) and output from
diskpart list disk command.