Unbootable after clone

The version of Aronis True Image Worlstation w/ Univeral Restore is 9.1b3854.
The HDs are SATA 80GB and SATA 160GB.

It is not booting up to Windows XP Pro., I am not even seeing the XP logo and only see a flashing _ symbole on very top left croner.
I gave up and using Backup & Restore instead of Clone, then it work just fine.
Any idea of the clone function?

 

Hello charlih,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are sorry for delayed response.

Could you please describe your actions during the cloning process and the system setup in more details?

Thank you.
--
Marat Setdikov

 

I am using bootable Rescure Media CD to boot it up from IBM ThinkPad T61 Laptop PC with 80GB SATA HD. The PC connect with external 160GB SATA HD from USB2.0 port. Both HD are detected and the Acronis True Image is running OK. Then I select clone Wizard to clone from 80GB HD to 160GB HD.
The clone process was showing "Complete". I shutdown PC, replaced its HD to the 160GB, boot it up. The black screen only has the "_" letter flashing on the very top left corner.

BTW, the Acronis True Image Workstation version is 9.1b3854

 

charlih,

I understand IBM laptops have 240 head disk geometry and an external HD has 255 head geometry. When you clone or restore an image, the target HD needs to be seen in the correct geometry. It's a BIOS issue.

The solution is to do a reverse clone. Put your 160 GB HD internally and your 80 GB HD in the enclosure. Then perform the clone using the CD as you did before.

Does it work?

 

You are right. It is working fine this way.
Thank you so much.

 

Wow, what a strange solution. I'm having the same problem with a ThinkPad Z61m (SATA internal to larger SATA clone in enclosure won't boot regardless of whether installed internally or in an enclosure), but the solution isn't working for me. I can't boot from the smaller, old internal when it's in the enclosure. I have both changed the boot order in the BIOS and used F12 to call up a boot list to select the drive. It does spin, but Windows never boots. I get stuck on a black screen with a blinking white cursor. The old internal drive works fine when installed internally (which is how I'm booted as I type this). Any ideas? Could this be related to the IBM security chip? If so, any thoughts on how to address it? I realize this goes well beyond the job Acronis is doing, but appreciate any insight anyone on these boards can offer since it's the only place I've found even a hint about what's probably going on.

 

cfh:

You can't boot Windows from a drive in a USB enclosure (well, not without jumping through many hoops).

To do what you want, boot your PC from the Acronis recovery CD with your original drive in the USB enclosure and your new drive installed in the ThinkPad. Then do the clone. Watch the default settings; you do not want to erase the old drive so don't do that. Keeping the old drive intact is your safety net; you can always just reinstall it in the internal drive bay to go back to square one.

When the clone process has finished, shut down. Remove the external drive and boot from the newly-cloned internal drive. This should work.

 

Thanks. Since the trial version won't let you clone from a CD, I need to buy the software before finding out if it will work, right?

 

Someone else may have to correct me on the details, but I think that the trial version CD is capable of restoring a saved image, but not creating one. And the Windows version of the program is capable of creating/restoring for a limited time; I think 30 days.

That suggests two approaches using imaging instead of cloning:

1. If you have enough room on your current hard drive to store a full backup image, do that from the Windows version of the program. The backup will be roughly 70% of the size of the currently-used space on the drive, so be sure that you have enough free space on the drive for it. Then put your new drive in the ThinkPad and old drive in the external enclosure. Boot from the recovery CD and restore the backup image to the internal, resizing as needed.

2. If you have a second external USB drive, or can borrow one, store a full backup of your current drive on the external. Then put your new drive in the ThinkPad, boot from the recovery CD and restore the image from the external to the internal drive.

Doing this will let you test the software to see if it functions correctly with your hardware. But if it does the job then out of fairness you should probably purchase a copy of the software. Once you experience the "magic" of completely restoring your PC from a backup image you will definitely want to own the software.

 

Nice ideas, k0lo, thanks, but I don't have the available disk space or know where to borrow it from to try either. I do appreciate your help though. FYI, Acronis True Image Home Trial version 11.0 (build 8,053) works for 15 days. The splash screen says it's fully operational, which suggests the imaging solutions would work for somebody with ample drive capacity, but obviously the create bootable media restriction is one unnamed exclusion. I'm not sure what others there might be, and seeing that this trial isn't quite as advertised increases my hesitancy about buying without trying. But thanks so much for the help you provided. I'm glad to understand what was probably going wrong.

 

Thanks to the nice folks at Acronis customer service, I got an ISO image of the boot CD and the tip in this thread worked perfectly. I'll be buying a copy for ongoing use.