Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I used this kit + their EZ Gig 8.1.9 software in the past (2006) to clone the PATA drive in an older Toshiba Satellite laptop. Back then, it worked great and their customer support was responsive and helpful. There was only one minor hiccup: the manual is not clear at all that the target drive must be pre-formatted before use! But it did produce a perfect, bootable clone. Superb for peace of mind and making backups!
Recently, I upgraded my laptop to a new Toshiba Tecra and, naturally, wanted to clone its HDD, too. It has 160 GB SATA Hitachi drive. I got Apricorn's EZ-UP for SATA drives and an identical, blank 160 GB Hitachi. At least I knew to format it beforehand :) I tried cloning with EZ Gig 8.1.9 CD - it didn't work. Apparently, it didn't have the recent USB drivers since it couldn't see the target drive. I sent 3 e-mails to their tech support (also through their website) that were completely ignored. Finally, I found a phone number to one of their Project Managers and asked for help. Thanks to his intervention, the support finally responded with a link to EZ Gig upgrade.
The new EZ Gig version 10.0.5,114 recognized USB, worked, and I got the desired clone... Or so I thought. When I put the clone into the laptop to verify it, it didn't boot. It's visible from running Windows, but it's not bootable. I verified that the target drive was mechanically OK. I reformatted, made it bootable and repeated the cloning. Again, it wasn't booting. I tried and retried all possible options, settings, etc. Apparently, EZ Gig is screwing up the MBR in this case.
After some web searching, I found out I'm not the only one with this problem. Try this search phrase: Apricorn "won't boot" to convince yourself.
It's been 3 weeks since I started and I still cannot achieve my objective. I sent another e-mail to Apricorn's support. So far, I am getting ignored again...
---------------
Added on 08/29/08:
This a follow up to my first review posted on August 12th. I got response from Apricorn support (finally!) after resending my e-mail. It's so pathetic that I am quoting it below in its entirety:
"If you've tried all the options and still cannot get it to boot I would
suggest looking at your bios and making sure it's up to date with the
latest firmware. You could also try using a windows repair cd to run
FIXMBR, doing that will go through and rewrite a standard boot record."
So it's like this: "We screwed up, now *you* fix it", right? Plus a worthless filler-up message about "BIOS version". I already wrote it's a *brand new* laptop, right?
The main problem is: "windows repair cd" (i.e., Windows XP CD from 2003) does not work with SATA hard drives, so I'm stuck again. I wrote my response to Apricorn 20 days ago and didn't get any feedback at all - as expected from Apricorn, unfortunately :(
Click Here to see more reviews about: Apricorn Universal EZ 2.5" Hard Drive Upgrade Kit for All Notebook Computers - EZUPUNIVERSAL / EZ-UP-UNIVERSAL
The EZ Upgrade Kit from Apricorn makes upgrading your PATA/IDE or SATA laptop hard drive as easy at 1-2-3. This kit includes all the hardware and software needed to painlessly transfer all the data from an old PATA/IDE or SATA laptop hard drive to a new hard drive in three easy steps. EZ Upgrade includes: Apricorn's Upgrade Suite CD, a Hi-Speed USB 2.0 hard drive enclosure (USB 1.1 compatible) USB cable. EZ Upgrade is all you will need to easily transfer everything - data, applications, documents, address books, e-mail, settings, OS, and preferences - from the old laptop hard drive to a new drive, in three easy steps. First, connect the hardware by sliding the new hard drive into the EZ Upgrade enclosure and connecting to the laptop's USB port. Second, run EZ Gig II's cloning option by booting to the CD. Lastly, install the new hard drive into the laptop. That's it -you're finished! Once the new drive is installed, the old drive can be used in EZ Upgrade's Hi-Speed USB 2.0 enclosure for external storage. The EZ Upgrade enclosure connects to both SATA and PATA 9.5 mm 2.5-inch hard drives. Just use the appropriate connector on the enclosure tray, slide the tray into the enclosure and connect to your computer via the USB port. When used with EZ Gig II, the external drive becomes a state-of-the-art backup solution. The included EZ Gig II data transfer utility is comprised of two modules - Disk Clone and Image to clone or backup your data with minimal hassle. With easy install with plug-n-play capability, this EZ Upgrade laptop Hard Dr
0 comments:
Post a Comment