How to Suppress de-Activating the Primary HDD when Cloning a Drive

Can someone advise me how I can stop the Clone Disk function from making the Source HDD "InActive" at the end of the clone process. (Is there an option I can select?)

Currently the procedure guide says that the Clone Disk process will make the "target" HDD ACTIVE at the end of the disk copy steps - in preparation for becoming the new Primary Drive. In the process, the Clone routine Deactivates the "Source" HDD so that its Partition Table no longer carries the "ACTIVE" Flag indicating Primary Partition; i.e. Changes the Flag from Hex "80" to Hex "00".

This current default makes my system inoperative after I use the Clone Disk function just for backing up my PC's HDD to an external HDD. In fact, on two ocassions when I have used virgin new target HDDs, the "deActivate" process has somehow corrupted my MBR / Partition table. (As I said, this happened twice, but fortunately I had backups of my Track 0 for bothe systems that got corrupted.)

To be honest, I imagine many, many Users would want to use the Clone function this way - so there must me an option I have missed somewhere. In the meantime I shall continue reverting to my Norton's Ghost which has an identical Clone function, AND offers a clear option whether to reset the Active Flag on the source drive after cloning completes.

 

Hello Andrew_Sea,

Without assuming wrongly and to place this thread in a proper forum for assistance....does this have to do with Acronis software ?

Bubba

 

Correct!

I'm busy trying to figure out how to redirect this "trial" posting to the Acronis Forum without having to cut&paste the text and subject heading.

However I also got side-tracked reading the WISH-LIST to check that my request wasn't previously an enhancement request by someone.

Appreciatively, Andrew. C

 

No worries....I have now moved this thread to the Acronis Forum.

Good luck,
Bubba

 

I don't believe TI has what you are asking about. However, if you did not disconnect the old drive before rebooting or disconnect the external then windows will be confused and the result will be what you have described. I personally prefer to create an image to my external drive and then restore the image to a corrupted old drive or a larger new drive. I have also cloned drives but always disconnected the old drive before rebooting with the new drive. What version and build number are you running?

 

I appreciate your response but feel that there must be another explanation / solution.

Lets face it, if I can perform the exact same Cloning process using Ghost v9.0 without confusing Win XP SP2 then TI v9.0 (b:2,323) should offer the same. Moreover, without intending to beat Norton's drum, Ghost's Clone function offers several other discrete options for controlling the cloning process, which I assumed TI could match when I read reviews about its rich functionality.

Your suggested approach assumes the Active Flag/s are not copied/reset during the Cloning/copy process. (I believe they are, otherwise the new external HDD wouldn't work after you rebooted. I see on 1/15/05 that Acronis' Aleksandr Isakov explains why not to reboot with two "Active" HDD connected. However, this also doesn't make sense if the Cloning process, by default, de-activates the "source" HDD being cloned.)

Maybe someone else can offer a perspective or other settings which I may have missed, or advise of newer feature in TI v10?

Andrew.C

 

Since you know everything about how it works you obviously will stick with Ghost. I've cloned several times and while I'm no expert I do know that the option your looking for is not something you can control in TI.

 

My apologies Tom if my reply offended you. However, you misunderstand my statement of facts by suggesting I'm being a know-it-all about TI. Quite the opposite - I genuinely wish to learn more about it's functionality (as I bought two copies of the $49.95 homeuser package on the strength of numerous glowing reviews.)

On the other hand, I do understand a little about MBRs, Partition Tables, and Track 0 data, as you too can learn - from Svend Olaf Mikkelsen at his website www.partitionsupport.com ;-)

Based on this knowledge of the way the "primary partition" is made "Active" for Booting, I can comment on the simplistic implementation of this function in TI compared with the more flexible implementation in Ghost's Cloning function. In the absence of further replies about how TI manages this feature I will conclude you are correct, and I will post a Wish-List Enhancement request.