Acronis TI 10 - Disk Cloning failure?

I tried clone the HD in my laptop to another HD in an enclosure using a registered version of TI 10. The entire process completes with no problems and says it was successful. I then remove the HD from the laptop and install the cloned disk (no jumpers required) and the computer continually cycles on the first screen of the startup.. over and over again... What might be wrong? Several months ago I used the trial version of TI 10 to clone the original laptop factory disk to another larger HD successfully, and now when I try to clone the installed disk back to the original HD using a purchased version of TI 10, it doesn't work. Plenty of free space on both disks.. Any ideas?

 

Have you tried doing a reverse clone? Place the destination drive (the "new" drive) in the laptop and the source drive (the "old" drive) in the enclosure. This is required on some laptops due to the drive geometry they use.

 

I haven't tried the reverse clone as the normal way worked the first time I cloned the disk when it was new. But what I did notice today that on the original disk (in machine being cloned) the C was the OS and the D was the Recovery and on the clone that was made, the D was the Recovery and F was the OS. Maybe the system was trying to boot from the recovery sector as D comes before F. ?

 

If this is windows xp that you are cloning, use the free "boot corrector" (rescue kit 9.0 express bootcd) and just change your "partition ID" drive letters. This will usually fix the problem. that's the easy way to fix the problem.

You are correct to suspect that the drive letters are causing the clone drive to reboot. If windows is looking for the startup files in the wrong partition it will cause an endless loop. I've seen this problem many times, but nothing to worry about it's a quick fix with the right utility.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=237785

 

Did you remove the old HD from your computer before the first boot from the new HD? But from your first post it looks like you did this.

Which screen are you viewing when the laptop reboots? Could you describe it?

What brand is your laptop? What size are the HDs? You are now cloning from large to small.

 

The system is Vista and not XP. The computer is a Dell laptop 1525.. and I am cloning from a larger to a smaller drive.. the smaller drive still has 50gb more space than I will need. Once I have a successful colone, I will put the larger drive back in and keep the smaller as a ready to go replacement.

 

If changing the drive letters will work, I will give that a try.. I can do that but should the clone also be C/D the same as the original or will F/G work on the clone as it will read them in order?

 

OK. Could you describe the boot process leading to the reboot? Your description of what happens is very important.


Edit: I guess you had the new HD in an enclosure when you were reading those drive letters. Forget those drive letters. They are meaningless as regards booting from the new HD.

 

I put the new (cloned) drive into the laptop and turn it on... The first screen that appears is the boot up screen with a graph that goes to 100% extremely quick, then it repeats, and repeats.. never gets to windows start up screen..

 

If you were asking the entire process.. the minute I see that the clone process was completed,the computer is shut down... I remove the original HD and then install the cloned HD and re-energize.. that is where the above post starts and repeats..

 

Ah, it reboots a few seconds into the POST. That's not a drive letter issue.

Cloning to a USB external HD is hit and miss. Even with Dells, although Dells do have 255 heads geometry. I suggest following MudCrab's recommendation and do a reverse clone. Boot from the TI CD.

Cloning from a large to a small HD concerns me, even though the data should fit. If the reverse clone doesn't work, doing the procedure with the image/restore method will certainly work.

Keep us informed. You will get there.

 

Hello all,

Thank you for using Acronis True Image

Pinger, please check from the source drive that the program transferred system files to the new hard drive. In this case you can try to repair BCD for the new system.

Thank you.

--
Oleg Lee