Upgrading the Gateway M275 Tablet PC Hard Disk
By Steve Sanchez
Created 2/4/04

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Here�s the info on the HDD upgrade on the Gateway M275 Tablet PC:

1. The Gateway M275 comes standard with a Toshiba 40GB Hard Disk Drive (HDD). In my case, it was a Toshiba HDD2182 MK4021GAS. You can also order one with a 60GB HDD.
2. I wanted to put the largest drive I could into the unit, so I opted for a Hitachi 80GB HDD (Model HTS548080M9AT00). I picked up mine from NewEgg.com for about $250. I�ve also seen it on MemoryLabs.net for $233 (although they are currently out of stock)
3. The hardest part of the upgrade is backing up the original drive. In my case, I was fortunate enough to have Symantec�s Ghost for the Enterprise (Editors Note: You can use the standard version of Ghost 2003 or later to do the same thing). I do not know if it is possible to use Ghost Personal and save your image on a CDR; I would assume there is too much data for CDROMs. If you don�t have Ghost Enterprise your alternative would be to install Windows for Table PC on the new drive and skip the old drive imaging steps and go to my step 8.
4. The trickiest part of the entire upgrade is actually making a bootable CD with the Ghost client that can also communicate with your network to save the image of your current HDD. Since this isn�t a doc on Ghost or network admin I�ll keep the steps brief and point out the potholes.
5. Symantec Ghost does NOT create a bootable CDROM. And you can�t just create a bootable floppy and copy the files to your favorite CD burner software (both of which I tried unsuccessfully). Here�s what you do:
   a. Create a bootable floppy disk
   b. Configure the floppy with drivers for an Intel PRO 100 NIC (this is the NIC that comes with the Gateway Tablet) and configure for your network.
   c. �Image� (don�t copy) the floppy and create a bootable CDROM with a burner program like Roxio or Nero and restore the floppy image on the CDROM. If you just copy the files you won�t see the Ghost or network directories.
6. Configure your Tablet in the Bios to boot to floppy first and boot up your Ghost client CD.
7. Run Ghost and take an image of your old HDD and save it to your network.
8. Shut down your Tablet and remove the old hard drive. Gateway has an excellent doc with photos illustrating this (very easy). The doc is here: http://support.gateway.com/s/Mobile/Gateway/M275/3501734faq42.shtml
9. Complete all the steps to physically remove the old HDD and install the new HDD.
10. Now, unless your new HDD is formatted you will need to format it. In my case I rebooted the Tablet with the Windows Install CD that came with the Tablet.
11. I started an installation of Windows, which first gives you the option of preparing the HDD.
12. Partition the HDD. In my case, I chose the maximum partition size.
13. When partitioning is done, you will need to format the partition. In my case, I formatted as NTFS.
14. The tricky part: as soon as the formatting is complete, the installer will automatically begin installing Windows on the new HDD. The only way to break out of this is to physically eject the CDROM. Windows setup will abort which is fine; your new HDD is now partitioned and formatted and ready for your image.
15. Power down your Tablet and replace the Windows Install CD with your Ghost Network Client CD.
16. Now you want to dump the image from your network to the client. There is some handshaking between the client and the server but once you�re done you will have your original installation on a HDD twice the size of your original.
    

In my case, I found I needed to reactivate Microsoft Office since my hardware had changed. But, other than this everything works fine and I am a happy, larger hard drive camper!