Clone onto USB Flash Drive ?

Hi ... I am thinking of getting a 16gb USB Flash Drive . Will it work if I clone my only partition ( c drive ) hard drive which has windows xp using TI 11 onto a USB Flash Drive ? Then be able to load windows xp from the USB . I have in the bios the option to boot from usb . Thanks

 

Hi, TerryFox

A Microsoft Windows OS to my knowledge will only boot from a Fixed HDD.

Take Care,
TheQuest

 

MudCrab has instructions posted on how to create an Acronis bootable usb flash drive(link below).

While you cannot boot into Windows, you could store your backups on this same flashdrive. You could boot into Acronis True Image with this flashdrive; and perform your restore/recovery from the same flashdrive.

 

Hi ,

GroverH >>> Thanks for that info , though I am aware of that option

TheQuest >>> I guess only option is to try it out and see , though it would be really great if it does work . If it did work , I would load windows only to keep all my programs / drivers updated and then just use it for cloning purposes . Nice way of staying totally clean , huh ? With that bit of info I think I will wait a little longer for the prices to drop on those flash drive .

Thanks

 

Hi, TerryFox

Save your money.

Well when I said A Microsoft Windows OS to my knowledge will only boot from a Fixed HDD.

I was trying to ease the way to say, in fact a M$ OS will not Boot the way you ask about.

Now most Linux OS will do it, they will almost Boot off the back of a postage stamp.

But good luck in all you try


Take Care,
TheQuest

 

It is actually possible to boot from a USB device with Windows XP, quite a few users have been doing this on their Asus EeePC's. I myself am attempting to do it, however I need Acronis to allow me to clone from my internal solid state disk to the USB dongle I've attached. Acronis can see the dongle, however I'm not allowed to clone an image to it Is there any possible work around? I've got version 10 here at home, however at work we've started to use 11 if that is any help.

 

I just came back to report that I was successful in finding a work around. Its a bit convoluted so bear with me.

Since in my case all I really needed to do was clone the xp install I had created as per the instructions here http://www.ngine.de/index.jsp?pageid=4176 I simply created a .tib from the harddisk image and copied it over to my desktop, then using the acronis true image software I simply restored the TIB to the flash drive.

Thanks goes out to MudCrab for creating his guide to a bootable Acronis flash drive, instead of restoring an acronis restore disk tib, I restored my XP one

 

Hmmmm , Thanks for that link FH . So there is some hope

Thanks !

 

I created a WinXP Sp2 cd as per above link and tried an install on a brand new Acer Extensa 5420 laptop. First I used as my usb drive an old 3-gig in an external case. The installation couldn't find any hard drives (I removed the original so it wouldn't get mucked up). Next I tried a laptop drive I had in a 2.5 encl. This time the install process saw the drive but wouldn't proceed because of an error I didn't understand, and I didn't note it. I'll be getting a new laptop sata drive in a few days and will try again then.

 

The problem maybe that your laptop does not fully support booting from a USB device. The reason it works so well on the EeePC is because this device was built to be booted from non-traditional methods, mostly via usb (and on the 8g versions off of a Solid State Disk on the MiniPCIe port). While I don't think this is the proper place to discuss how to get this up and running, if you'd like I'd be happy to help you via PM's or even join a forum where this would be a more appropriate post.

It's also possible that you may have missed a step in the process, Drop me a line and I can give you a few hints.

 

I'm new to Acronis - but when I did this on my PC (restore the TIB file of my Asus EEEPC to a flash drive), my PC would reboot (said the restore would not be complete unless I rebooted) & got stuck in the Acronis Loader error (IOW, my MBR on my pc got mucked up by Acronis).

I keep hearing about people who are able to restore a TIB file of their Asus to a Flash drive, but I've not been able to do it. Should my PC need to reboot when I'm not restoring to the boot drive of my PC...?

 

If TI says it going to need to reboot to do any of the procedures, then it's best to boot to the TI CD (or BartPE/VistaPE CD) and do the restore from there. This avoids any potential "problems" with TI having to take over booting of the working system.

This can be more difficult when working with flashdrives because TI doesn't always see them correctly in either the Full or Safe Mode versions and BartPE/VistaPE may or may not also want a reboot (though I don't think I've ever had them ask).