Clone disk won't boot up.

Hi people,
I tried to clone my laptop's hard drive a few times it never worked.I am using Acronis version 11.
I cloned the full HDD manually and than once automatically,set my laptop to boot from the external HDD and than all I see is windows booting ,and after that ......... it restarts all over again.
Oh yeah ,by the way when it starts it would boot like windows was turned off unexpectedly,giving me the options for safe mode and such ...I tried the safe mode didn't work.
I tried a few times with the original HDD in place and didn't work than I pulled it out ,and the clone still didn't work.
I stayed till 2 am last night and today all day long making clones and tying to make it work.I feel hopeless.
Could someone help?

1000 thanks.

 

koti,

Do you want to backup or to upgrade to a larger HD?

"What is the difference between an "image" and a "clone"?"

http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/notes.htm#14

 

If you are cloning xp, check your drive letters. The clone system drive letter has to be the same as in your source hard drive.

 

Your OS?

Based on the information currently provided.....
Clone from the TI Rescue CD
After cloning and before rebooting, remove the original hard drive.
Windows will not boot from the external drive--it needs to be internal.

 

Thanks guys for the reply,especially GroverH,first thing this morning was a HDD swap,works great.

Everything is copied as it came from the original HDD,even the dive letters.

I tried to write at the forum but couldn't find my bookmark,totally forgot that i was using a new HDD.

Why doesn't Windows boot from an external HDD,i changed the BIOS settings it would start but than ...you know the story?