ATI2009, X61 laptop, Vista 32. Cloning successful?

Hey folks,

I am on the fence about rebuilding or cloning my laptop. I am a big Acronis fan, having used the product for many years. I am a little unsure from the forums whether 2009 can clone Vista from disk-to-disk w/o the need for a startup repair.

Additionally, my laptop has a service partition. It's a Thinkpad X61. I saw the note in the KB about a different model Thinkpad that DOES have problems cloning the service partition.

Will I have the same problem here?

I don't really care if I lose the service partition. In fact, if there's a way to clone the disk without the service partition and without the need to repair Vista after the clone, that would be just fine. I much rather Acronis manage my recovery. Are there steps to perform this?

Thanks!!

-m

 

To do the Clone, you have to have the "new" drive in an enclosure of some sort. Do you have an external enclosure or is this laptop one that can take two drives?
The safest way to do the clone is to use what is called a reverse clone - put the new drive in place of the original and put the original in the external case or the second drive bay. Then use the bootable True Image Rescue CD to perform the Clone - be careful to choose the correct Source and Destination drives otherwise you will end up with two blank drives.

You should keep the "service" partition if it is the Factory Restore files, in case you ever want to sell the laptop.

 

I did it last night. I bought ATI 2009, put the new HDD in an enclosure, ran the clone and it worked. Just like it's alwasy been before, no muss/fuss.

I did try this on another system with 8.0 and I got the winload.exe issue others have seen, but it wasn't critical I resolve it.

 

Can you explain how you resolved it?
I got the error using backup/restore approach. I think I would use the reverse cloning and see if it works.

 

Hello nosnoop,

Thank you for your interesting in Acronis True Image

To resolve “winload.exe” error message you need to repair Vista Boot Configuration Data in the following way:

1. Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the CD\DVD disc drive, and then (re)start the computer;
2. Press a key when you are prompted;
3. Select language, time, currency, keyboard or input method, and then click Next;
4. Click Repair your computer;
5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next;
6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box click Command Prompt;
7. Type the following:
Bootrec.exe /FixMbr
Bootrec.exe /FixBoot

If the issue persists contact Acronis support department and submit support request or contact Live Chat

Best regards,
--
Dmitry Nikolaev