Disc cloning via USB drives

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by pbates, Jan 24, 2006.

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  1. pbates

    pbates Registered Member

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    My IBM-PC ThinkCentre has two internal hard drives: disk 1 (my system disk), and disk 2 (my 3-partition data disk). They take up my two available internal slots. I need to replace disk 2 with a larger disk I've purchased (disc 2a). Please tell me if this would work.

    1. Using Acronis True Image Clone Disk feature, clone disk 2 to an attached, blank, capacious USB hard drive. I assume this would preserve the partitions.

    2. Remove disk 2 and install disk 2a.

    3. Clone the USB disk to disk 2a.

    4. Remove the USB disk.

    Please let me know if I'm leaving something out or if I should use a separate wizard, like Add New Disk.
     
  2. Chutsman

    Chutsman Registered Member

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    In theory that should work. Cloning seems to have its own set of problems though and you will only know if you try.

    Doing an Image instead of Clone will also work and, for me, I have more success with Images.

    Be aware though, that if the USB drive has never been formatted the Add New Disk will do this - in fact you must do this first otherwise TI will not see it. Then when you start the Clone process, TI will "see" that the usb drive has partitions and ask if you want to delete it - you have to do so, if you want to procede with the cloning.
     
  3. pbates

    pbates Registered Member

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    Thanks for your response. So you recommend this "Image" procedure:

    1. Bring up the Create Backup Wizard.

    2. Select "The entire disk contents . . ." radio button.

    3. Make sure all three partitions are selected, then backup to the USB drive.

    But prior to restoring the three partitions to the new internal hard drive from the USB drive, don't you have to partition the new hard drive first? Or will the restore process see that and automatically create three partitions on the new internal hard drive before restoring to it?
     
  4. Chutsman

    Chutsman Registered Member

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    I actually have not tried it so I'm guessing that you do not have to create the three partitions on the new drive.

    But as the Nike commercial says: "Just Do It". :D Since you have the resources to experiment with, without messing up your original drive.
     
  5. pbates

    pbates Registered Member

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    That would be great. Thanks for your help.
     
  6. Acronis Support

    Acronis Support Acronis Support Staff

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    Hello pbates,

    Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Backup Software.

    Besides of yours and Chutsman's approaches, I would also like to suggest you another method which does not require the external USB hard drive to be involved:

    - Turn off your PC and temporarily replace disk 1 with disk 2a;

    - Boot your PC from Acronis True Image 9.0 Bootable Rescue CD and clone disk 2 to disk 2a;

    - Turn off the PC, install disk 1 back in it's place and swap disk 2 for disk 2a;

    - Boot into Windows;

    You can find the detailed instructions on how to use Acronis True Image 9.0 in the respective User's Guide.

    You may also find Acronis True Image 9.0 FAQ page helpful.

    If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

    Thank you.
    --
    Alexey Popov
     
  7. pbates

    pbates Registered Member

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    Thlank you for your suggestion. I may just try it.
     
  8. ohdonger

    ohdonger Guest

    I recently used the restore image method to replicate a SuSE 9.3 installation from one identical Dell PC to another via external USB drive and was quite pleased with the results. If you've got an extra drive and you might need to roll out add'l systems, this is a sweet way to save a lot of time.

    Cloning a drive internally might be a little faster (haven't tried that recently), but I wouldn't have any reservations about recommending the disk image -> image restore over USB drive method. Only took 30-40 minutes to clone the 40GB USB disk image to the blank formatted destination drive. Writing the image to the USB drive took 2-3 times as long - which didn't seem unreasonable.
     
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