Problems Cloning in Vista and True Image Home 10.0.4942

I am an owner of the True Image Home version 10.0.4942. I am running Vista Ultimate.

During these past few months, I have made a number of Vista HD Clones without any problems. The drive I am cloning [SOURCE HD] is 320GB and the [DESTINATION HD] is 250GB. I use the "boot from True Image CD" and bypass Windows Vista to run the program. I use Manual mode and do not erase the SOURCE HD after the clone.

Yesterday, I tried to make another clone. The job finished as usual and I got no errors. However, when I tried to boot the DESTINATION (the 250GB drive the clone made to), I got the following an error at the boot sequence "\Windows\system32\winload.exe was corrupted or missing".

I then went back to the SOURCE (320GB) drive and tried to boot into Vista and got the exactly same error!

Thankfully, Vista fixed the issue on my SOURCE HD, and when I tried to do the same clone again, I got the same result. I verified of course that my SOURCE was working properly beforeing re-trying the second clone.

Usually, when you re-start the system (after the Clone) from the SOURCE drive, it tells you that "Operation was Succesfully Completed" and goes on to start Vista. I never got that and saw that WINLOAD.EXE error.

If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

P.S. After reading the forum (trying to find a solution), I can add the following 4 comments:

1) I am running Full Vista Ultimate (not OEM or upgrade) - using only ONE PARTITION and ONE O/S (no dual boot or anything like that)
2) I have done 4 clones before between the SAME two drives without any problems. So the argument that you must "be cloning onto a blank hard drive" was not an issue the first 4 times.
4) I have not seen anyone say that their SOURCE hard drive was effected, as my was. The problems described were always related to the DESTINATION hard drive.
5) As I am doing a direct HARD DRIVE to HARD DRIVE clone (no HD image burning and then restoring)

 

Whatever you did to fix the Source drive the first time, wouldn't that work with the Destination drive?

 

<<Whatever you did to fix the Source drive the first time, wouldn't that work with the Destination drive?>>

Yes, of course it works -- but why is it suddenly doing it when it was working fine before?

And most importantly, why is my SOURCE drive being screwed-up too?

 

If you boot the clone with the source drive connected up then it will have its disk signature changed, which will give you the winload.exe error the next time you try to boot the source drive. If you boot the source with the clone connected then the clone will have its disk signature changed. You can’t have two identical drives, so you must never boot one hard drive while the other is connected. (This is assuming you are cloning the entire drive and not just the Vista partition).

 

Thanks for your reply. But I NEVER booted into Vista with BOTH of the drives connected. After the clone, I would disconnect the SATA connector from the SOURCE drive and try booting the system off the DESTINATION drive. If that would work (as it did the first 4 times), I would then disconnect the DESTINATION drive completelty (both SATA and power), and reconnect the SATA of the SOURCE drive for continued normal operation.

When I did this last clone (clone #5) and saw that the the DESTINATION had the WINLOAD.EXE error on it, I disconnected it, and tried booting up the SOURCE and found that it has somehow "inherited" this same error.

That's where I am puzzled. How did this happen. Remember that I run the True Image via the boot from CD. So although both drives are connected before the Clone takes place, they are never booted together into Vista at any time.

 

With the procedure you describe and if nothing has changed since your successful drive copies (you’ve not reinstalled or repaired Vista, or updated your version of True Image) then I can’t think of an obvious reason for your problem. Clearly True Image should not be altering anything on the source drive, but I would have to say we can’t completely rule this out. I gave up even testing Acronis products years ago because they had the bad habit of messing with things they should never be touching.

If I think of anything Mystiky I’ll come back with it. Perhaps just try a few more clones to see if the error repeats. You never know, it might just have been a one off problem.

 

Thanks again for your reply.

What other program would you then suggest I use for HD cloning, which is Vista compatible. Keep in mind that my drives are of different size, so I cannot just do a sector-to-sector copy. I looked at a demo of of Drive Copy 8.5 and Norton Ghost 12. Drive Copy looked a bit confusing, and Norton Ghost 12 does not allow for a CD-BOOT (must do all via Vista).

I clone my system once a month as means of backup. So in case something goes wrong with drive 1, I just hot-swap in the back-up drive and continue onwards.

All suggestions appreciated.

 

Sorry but I haven’t tested any Vista compatible cloners yet. It’s on my to do list and I hope to get to it quite shortly, but as yet I cannot recommend any. I tested many cloners 5-6 months ago and found XP compatible ones will still work with Vista under the right conditions. When copying entire hard drives they all work fine if you do a sector by sector (or Raw) copy with partition resize.

Paragon and Ghost are the class of the field and I would think you couldn’t go wrong with either one. The free DriveImage XML is also excellent and more trustworthy than True Image, just fewer fancy graphics and Wizards.

 

<<Paragon and Ghost are the class of the field and I would think you couldn’t go wrong with either one. The free DriveImage XML is also excellent and more trustworthy than True Image, just fewer fancy graphics and Wizards.>>

Thanks for the link. Problem is its not VISTA compatible.

 

It may very well be Vista compatible ... look towards the end of the page, under System Requirements.

 

I assume it won’t run inside Vista but it can be used from a BartPE CD. Like I said it’s been some months since I tested it and I wasn’t aware of all the implications of the new Vista partitioning rules at that time. Give me a few days and I’ll check it over again.

You do of course need a full XP or 2003 CD to build the BartPE disk. Not sure if you can then build the disk on a Vista system. I’ll check this out as well.

 

Its my understanding that BartPE can be built under Vista as long as you have an XP source.

 

Thank heavens I'm not crazy. I'm running an Intel iMac with Boot Camp 1.2 and Win Vista Home Premium, and every time I installed Acronis True Image 10 it corrupts or destroys winload.exe requiring that I boot off the Win Vista install disk and repair my Vista installation.

I have written a couple msgs about this and gotten the usual "you're nuts" stuff from the faithful here. So I, too, am looking for an alternative program to TrueImage.

Somewhere above a poster says that Acronis is known for sometimes essing with files and similar it has no business messing with, and I can only assume that's what's happening here. It's ridiculous to have this kind of a problem with new software from a reputable company.

I assume others have run into the same problem and I hope they inundate this msg board with complaints. Perhaps this Acronis will fix its software and keep its fingers out of proprietary Win files thereafter.

 

I answered your posting. I never said you were nuts. I asked some questions to try to help of which you answered one but ignored the other two pertinent ones and then you posted you had given up, requested your money back and that you were out a here. Obviously not.

This is a forum to try and help users who have problems with TI. I did have a problem with TI originally two versions ago TI8 but through help here got a workable solution which means I have a backup solution that works well with my configuration (and has with TI9 and TI10) and has saved my butt many times. I dual boot XP and Vista and backup and restore both with no problems.

There are a lot of people here who will try to help but a rant against Acronis may make you feel good but helps no one

Better luck on the forum of the other product you buy

 

Let us keep to the topic here - the Acronis support issues of the original poster. Since this is indeed the Acronis Support forum and whatnot, it is rather inappropriate to discuss/recommend alternative software here. As always, such discussion is more than welcome in Wilders' software & services forum. Regarding alternatives etc, there is plenty of reading material in that forum section.

 

OK, OK. Forgive me. I have since learned, via a Google search for Acronis and winload.exe, that my problem is a widely know problem with Acronis and Vista and that there isn't any solution at this time.

My problem was also the OP of this thread's problem, so I thought comment might be helpful, since it seems likely that anyone who runs Acronis True Image 10 on a Vista machine has a good chance of running into this problem.

Note that it is a frightening problem in that there is no reboot remedy, only rebooting with the install disk to make repairs to the original Vista installation that somehow gets clobbered when Acronis T.I. 10 is installed.

You'd think Acronis might've noticed, huh?

 

I thought iMacs were not supported under ATI? Why would problems with that hardware then be a surprise?

 

I am happy to hear from someone else with the EXACT SAME problem also. Now again, I would not mind if my DESTINATION drive to which the CLONE was made to) would need to get the MBR fixed (WINLOAD.EXE). But when it is hitting the SOURCE drive also -- that's kind of scary. But what's really wild is that I run a basic Windows Ultimate Vista version without any dual-boots or etc...

And for those who complained about discussion of OTHER softwaree, let me tell you that if not for this forum, I would had been going crazy. I sent an exact email describing my problem to ACRONIS, and here is the REPLY that I got from them. Nothing was mentioned there about that this is a PROBLEM which we are trying to solve and fix. Just a solution to I am experiencing:
------------------------------------------------
Thank you for using Acronis True Image 10.0 Home
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/

Thank you for the provided information.

Please plug your original drive and do the following.
Please repair Vista Boot Configuration Data in the following way:

1. Put the Windows Vista installation disc in the CD\DVD disc drive, and then
(re)start the computer;
2. Press a key when you are prompted;
3. Select language, time, currency, keyboard or input method, and then click
Next;
4. Click Repair your computer;
5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next;
6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box click Command Prompt;
7. Type the following:
Bootrec.exe /FixMbr
Bootrec.exe /FixBoot

Then please unplug your original drive, plug the new one and repeat the
procedure.

If the problem persists please contact us again.

Thank you.
---------------------------------

 

I find it unfortunate that I need to repeat this. I have removed continued such discussion from this thread in the Acronis Support forum and will now close this thread down.