Acronis TI v 8.0 Cloning

I am installing a new larger C: hard drive in my laptop. I have a cloned version of the current C: drive (NTFS) on an external USB drive.

I do not know if the new Western Digital drive is formatted.

If I start Acronis from the recovery CD and attempt to clone from the USB to the new internal drive what will happen?

Will Acronis format the drive for me if it is not already formatted?

Will I have to find a copy of DOS to format the drive to NTFS?

I sure would appreciate some advice on how to resolve this issue ASAP as the new drive will arrive in a few days.

Thanks in advance.

 

No you will not have to format the drive. When you boot the Recovery CD you may have to use the Add New Drive feature to create a partition on the new drive. Be aware though, that if this is needed for the Recovery process to "see" the new drive, in one of the recovery steps you will be asked to delete the partition that was just made in order for the recovery process to continue.

A question though, are you sure you made a clone or a backup image on that usb drive?

 

Clone or Restore using Resize comparison
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1299861&postcount=9

For cloning:
Manual Mode Cloning PDF

For Partition Restore with Resize
check line 3 of my signature below. Check page 11 for comments specific to Version 8. Page 11 does offer a way to restore but it is not cloning.

Note the guides are for versions later than version 8 but the procedures may be helpful but not necessarily specific to version 8.

 

There is no question that I made a Clone. I do this routinely in case I lose (or upgrade) my HD as it includes the operating system and everything else on the drive. I have never used Backup.

 

Grover:

So far no one has specifically answered my questions in the original post. Perhaps ypu can. DwnDrty said I didn't have to reformat the new drive but might have to partition it. WHY?? I understand his comment about the partition but if the drive isn't formatted NTFS why wouldn't I have to format or reformat it?

BTW, I've read your procedures on Cloning and Partition Resize and Restore and do agree about the potential for mistakes. I once was distracted during the MANUAL cloning process to the USB drive (I don't use Automatic) and selected the option to "wipe" the original drive (the internal C: drive in the PC). It took a LO-O-O-O-O-NG time and then I had no drive to boot from. I loaded the Acronis Recovery CD and cloned from the USB drive back to the PC's internal drive and afterwards it booted and ran with no issues. You can't be too careful when cloning so now I double check everything before finalizing to clone.

However, I don't see how you get the same result as Cloning when you do a Partition Resize and Restore. How do you get Windows and its related stuff?

If you could review and comment on my original questions I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks

 

The format of the drive describes the file system that is on the drive it has nothing to do with any underlying track and sector information on the physical platters. It's there but normally is not fooled with over the life of the drive.

When you clone or restore an image you are restoring the file system along with all of the information thus the drive is getting the original format back. If you use resize options then TI makes the necessary adjustments in the various tables to reflect that.

If you format a drive FAT32 and then restore an image or clone a drive that is NTFS the resulting drive will be NTFS since it overwrites the FAT32 information.

 

When a new drive is being cloned or restored, my recommendation (as listed in my guides) is that the drive be blank with no partitions. It does not have to be formatted nor partitioned. No disk preparation is required.

You do not indicate which operating system is being discussed. Nor, how many partitions you have, etc. This information is not necessarily relevant when cloning but could be important if you perform a disk restore.

Have you installed the cloned drive (removed from the external) into the boot position and have you verified that the clone you originally performed was successful and will boot? The success rate for cloning to an external drive has not been good--at least many have reported having problems.

Your odds of a cloning success are better if the original drive is removed and placed into another internal or external enclosure and perform the clone from the alternate position with the new blank disk in normal boot position during the cloning procedure. This is the same procedure you mentioned using in your last cloning success.

My guide indicates that the type of backup needed is the one where you checkmark the disk option. This means the backup will include all your partitions (both hidden or recovery or diagnostic). Thus, the information being placed on the new drive is the same amount via either methods.

With cloning, your original is still at risk but your risk is reduced since you are covered by having the full disk option backup. However, if our backup is not one where you checkmarked the disk option, then restoring an incomplete backup may not produce a bootable or matching drive. A cloning procedure does guarantee that you "get it all".

 

I do apologize for not giving more specifices. I have a Toshiba Satellite Laptop with a 30 GB HD running Win XP Home. I have cloning to a WD 40 GB 3 1/2" HD mounted in an external USB housing. I was given a WD 80 GB 3 1/2" HD for the external housing. I have bought a WD 80 GB HD for the Toshiba because I have suspicions that the 30 GB drive is getting flakey and almost full too. When the new drive arrives I plan to clone to both the 40 and 80 GB drives, replace the existing Toshiba HD with the new WD. Boot from the recovery disk and clone from the USB to the internal HD. I'll have at least 3 copies of the system to fall back on if things don't go right. I was just unsure about the new drive, partitioning and formating.

 

My suggestion is to revise your plans regarding the cloning to an external enclosure. You will have a better chance of success if you perform what is referred to as a "reverse clone". That is, cloning from an alternate location (external,network, drivebay, etc) with the target in its intended boot position.

1. Place the 30G original master inside the External.
2. Install the blank unallocated 40G into the normal boot position
3. Bootup using the TI Rescue CD or an Acronis bootable flash drive.

3a. If the 40G (80G) has been partitioned or formatted, I suggest you delete these partitions so the target is blank without partitions and unallocated as per this link.
How To Delete Disk Partitions Using TrueImage Home
https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=213446 ​

4. Perform the clone from the external master to the internal blank 40G.
5. After successful completion. Shutdown and disconnect the External.
6. Reboot with only the 40GB attached. The 40G should boot into Windows.
7. After you are comfortable that the 40G is working ok, then shutdown.

Afterwards:
Remove the 40G and install the 80G in its place in normal boot position.

Repeat steps 3-7 using the 80G instead of the 40G for the cloning.

 

A-a-a-h, that would work if the drives were the same physical size and dimensions! Unfortunately, the single laptop bay won't accomodate a normal 3 1/2" drive and the external USB will not accomodate the vastly smaller laptop drives. However, with the new WD 80 GB laptop drive installed in the Toshiba, I had planned to reverse clone from the 3 1/2" 80 GB drive in the external USB housing to the blank WS 80 GB drive in the laptop.

On another earlier occasion, I reverse cloned from an external USB drive to a partitioned & formatted internal HD in a Dell 8200 and everything worked smoothly with no issues. The drive in the external USB housing had been cloned from the original Dell 8200 internal drive.

 

Hopefully, you will be as successful in your next clone as we were in the past. Some laptops such as IBM and some others will not successfully clone except as when performed as suggested by my guides.

Good luck!

 

GroverH, the new WD drive arrived yesterday. I installed it and reverse Cloned from the USB drive to the new internal drive. Everything went well and I had no issues booting from it. The only thing I don't understand is that I ended up with 2 GB of unallocated space on the new drive. I had done the manual partition thing in allocation of space during the clone and the partition was indicated as having 80 GB. I know that Toshiba reserves some space on the drive and that's not a biggie but I just wonder why it ended up with unallocated space. If you have any ideas I'd appreciate them.

 

I'm not sure what might have have caused the unallocated space if you performed all the procedures correctly. An 80GB drive will allocate to about 74GB space after it has a file system.

Partition 1 ( Probably no drive letter)
You would have had to manually resize this partition to make it the same size as shown by the original Windows Disk Mangement display. The unallocated space after would have been the remaining balance of space--approximately 72 gb if the Toshiba partition was 2 gb (in this example).

Partition 2 (probably Drive C)
This partition would have been whatever the balance of unallocated space. The key would have been to make sure there was zero space before or after the partition as shown below.


_____________________________Partition 1___________Partition 2

Unallocated space before________0_______________________0

Partition Size__________________2 GB**_________________72 GB

Unallocated space after________72 GB____________________0

**Whatever size was shown in Disk Management for this special partition. 2 GB used for this example only.

Does your new Toshiba partition match the same size as the original Toshiba partition?