USB Hard Disk Drive Not Found

I have a USB hard disk drive that I used previously with another back up software, but which I have reformatted. Windows XP Home recognizes the drive, to which I have assigned the drive letter F using the diskmgmt.msc tool. When I start Acronis True Image Workstation 9.1, I get the error message: "E100010F4: Acronis True Image Workstation has not found any hard disk drive. "

Help!?

 

First thing to do is to uninstall TI, reboot and then reinstall it. That may result in your hard drive being recognized.

 

I did as suggested and Acronis then saw my USB hard drive with teh letter designation F.

Next, I cloned my main C drive to the F drive, telling Acronis to delete the old partitions. I have tried doing this twice, but when I try to view the cloned disk there is nothing there except two folders: "recycler" and "system volume information." Help"?

 

Obviously, something is not going correctly if nothing is recorded on the USB drive, but first let's clarify some points.

Why are you "cloning" your main drive to the USB drive?

When you clone, you can only make one backup, and you don't want to connect that drive under Windows because it confuses Windows to see two identical drives.

What I think you want to do is to Backup your C drive to the USB drive. That way you can make several images and store them on the single USB drive.

 

I use CMS's BounceBack software for the kind of backup you mention. I find it very reliable and have been using various versions of it nightly. It offers a few tweaks that are not available with Acronis.

I want to use the Acronis cloning function as a safety valve in case something happens to my BounceBack backup. I intend to create a clone once a week to serve that purpose.

 

Your misinterpreting the Clone function. Cloning is normally used to migrate to a new hard drive. Choosing Backup instead of Clone will allow you to create a snapshot image each week of your hard drive that can be restored in the event of a catastrophe. This appears to be the same function as Bounceback provides. If you clone, and you can, you will only be able to use the drive once because its an exact copy of your boot system. Each time you clone you will need to disconnect the drive you cloned to to avoid having to boot drives in your system. Certainly doable.

 

As I pointed out, iI use BounceBack for my backup needs. I want the clone as a "belt and suspenders" alternative in case of a failure of my main C:\ dirve and corruption of the USB drive with the BounceBack backup.

 

I have no knowledge of Bounceback software but as it presumably use some form of imaging and locking of drives it may not play well together with True image. Best check for compatability before any problems.

 

From other people discussing here, I have been put under the impression that the cloning is meant to only be done from an internal drive to another internal drive ?

Could this cause a problem ?

 

Just as RockyCore said, I believe I also read something somewhere that both drives involved in a cloning process need to be internal drives. Can the original poster clarify if both drives are internal?

 

My guess is that ATI is incompatible with BounceBack. It is definitely incompatible with the Symantec product called GoBack.

Belt and suspenders sounds like a good idea, but in this case the belt is around your neck which may not be wise.

 

Yes, the destination HDU to which the clone is made is meant to replace the source HDU. If the USB drive is composed of a removable HDU that can be taken out of its USB enclosure and can be inserted as an internal HDU on the system, then this is a workable cloning solution. I myself use such a USB drive but have not as yet nor do I plan on using the clone feature with this USB drive. I backup partitions to the USB drive (.tib files) and restore, if needed, to an already present spare internal drive. As a matter of fact, I'm testing a restore right now, as I'm using the spare.

Doug

 

Hello cehjr43,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

We are very sorry for the delay with the response.

Please note that there are two approaches available:

Clone Disk - copies\moves the entire contents of one disk drive to another;

Backup - creates a special archive file having '.tib' extension for backup and disaster recovery purposes.

Please take a look at this FAQ article explaining the difference between the Clone Disk and Backup approaches in more details.

The Clone Disk approach is meant for upgrading the hard drive (e.g. installing a larger disk), while the Backup approach is basically intended for the complete data backup and disaster recovery purposes.

If you are interested in backing up your hard drive for the disaster recovery purposes, we recommend that you follow the Backup approach.

Moreover, there are several advantages of creating a disk\partition image over the disk cloning procedure such as that you can create an image without rebooting your computer, image creation can be scheduled for a particular point in time, Acronis True Image allows you to create incremental and differential images, image archive contains only the actual data and so it has a smaller size, images are ordinary files and can be stored on any type of the supported media (e.g. any internal, external or networked drives, CD, DVD, ZIP, etc.), etc. However, the final choice is always up to your needs.

Please also note that Acronis True Image allows cloning an internal hard drive to the external USB disk and vice versa. However, as it is mentioned in this Microsoft Knowledge Base Article, none of the currently available Windows versions supports booting from USB storage devices.

As for the problem you experience, please make sure you use the latest build (3677) of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home which is available for downloading in the Product Updates section of your account at Acronis web site.

You can find the full version name and build number by going to Help -> About... menu in the main program window.

To get access to updates you should create an account then log in and use your serial number to register the software.

Please uninstall the previously installed build by following Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs -> Acronis True Image prior to installing build 3677.

Note that you should create a new Bootable Rescue CD after installing the update.

Please also note that after the disk cloning is finished you should unplug one of the hard drives prior to booting into Windows for the first time. The point is that keeping two identical hard drives (hard drives having identical digital signatures) connected at the same time is "unpleasant" for Windows and might cause a number of boot and\or drive letter assignment problems. After you boot into Windows from one of the hard drives at least once, please feel free to turn off the computer and connect another disk.

If the problem still persists with the latest build (3677) of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home then please check each partition of both the source and destination hard drives by Windows utility: use Windows menu Start\Run, then enter the command "chkdsk c: /r" "chkdsk d: /r" for every partition of your hard drive. Note that you will need to reboot your computer in order to scan the system partition.

Please also download the latest version of Acronis drivers, install it with disabled logging, try to perform the disk cloning once more and see if the problem still persists.

If the problem still persists after checking the hard drives and updating the drivers then please try to perform the disk cloning when your computer is booted from the Bootable Rescue CD created with the latest build (3677) of Acronis True Image 9.0 Home. In such a way you will exclude the possibility of some third party software interfering with Acronis True Image not allowing it to clone the hard drive, as no operating system or any other applications are running when computer is booted from the Bootable Rescue CD.

If that does not help either then please connect both hard drives, boot into Windows and create Acronis Report as it is described in Acronis Help Post.

Then please submit a request for technical support. Provide the report.txt file collected in your request along with the step-by-step description of the actions taken before the problem appears and the link to this thread. We will investigate the problem and try to provide you with a solution.

Thank you.
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Alexey Popov