Cloning fails with error, original disk will no longer boot
The system is Toshiba Z930 ultrabook with 500Gb SSD, Windows 7. Updated TI to 2016 build 6571, ie the latest. Created Acronis bootable on a new 32Gb Sandisk USB stick. Successfully used this media to clone a 128Gb SSD to a new 250Gb SSD on a different computer, running Windows 10. So I know the media works fine.
Back to my laptop. Removed existing 500Gb SSD drive, installed it in USB caddy. Installed brand new 500Gb SSD drive in laptop. Connected old drive and 32G bootable media, booted Acronis, selected TI2016 64bit, selected Clone Disk, Automated mode.
I was very careful to select the correct source and destination disk. For several minutes the cloning process went as normal. then an error - Unable to read from disk - so I selected Cancel. This repeated about 5 times, then 'Clone Disk failed'.
I closed down, swapped the disks back, intending to run Check Disk on the original. But it does not boot. It keeps rebooting.
I ran Report generator, which said no system volumes found. I then ran Disk Director 12, which found the four partitions as before. I tried 'browse files' and all my files appear to be still there.
At this point I thought best to ask advice. Any ideas? Has the MBR gone? What can I do?


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Thanks for the fast response. I was trying to be extra careful, before upgrading from win7 to win10. buy new disk, clone disk, upgrade clone, check for problems. I did not appreciate the fragile nature of the clone process. Lesson learned, hopefully not the hard way. I will try windows recovery to restore the boot stuff, but have low confidence in that. Can I use Acronis boot media to image the old disk onto the new disk? What is the safest method.
For the record, after the failed clone attempt, I removed both disks (internal disk and external USB case) and reinstalled the original, with no other disk or media connected. Sadly, it failed to boot, as described.
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Tom, have you checked your BIOS / UEFI boot settings are still correct to allow your original OS drive to boot?
Some systems require that you select the specific disk drive while others need you to select the Windows Boot Manager instead.
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Can I use Acronis boot media to image the old disk onto the new disk? What is the safest method.
Yes. Use the offline bootable recovery media and do a full disk backup of the original disk. Save the backup somewhere else (another drive or network share). Restore the full disk image using the recovery media to the new disk (NOTE: please see this post about booting the recovery media to match your OS intsall type to ensure a bootable system afterwards - if you have a Legacy installed OS, boot recovery media in legacy mode, if you have a UEFI installed OS, boot the recovery media in UEFI mode).
Once recovery is complete, I would remove the original, place the recovered drive where the original was, then run the Windows installer or repair disk on that drive and attempt to boot to it afterwrds (leaving the original alone until this is verified to work or not). If it works, then you can do this on the original as well, if desired. Once you have one of the disks working, I would take another full offline image of it again so you can just recover straight to it if you need to at some point.
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Bobbo, thanks for advice, that sounds like a plan. Will get new ext hard disk (all others nearly full) and take image before proceeding.
Steve, thanks, I'll do backup then try settings.
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