Daniel:

Most likely QuickBooks uses a licensing scheme that is tied to the Disk Signature.

You can change the disk signature with built-in Windows 7 tools. First you would need to determine the disk signature of the old disk and write it down. Then you would change the disk signature of the clone to match the source. The procedure for doing this uses the command-line tool "Diskpart", as described in this article:
http://networkadminkb.com/KB/a471/how-to-view-and-change-the-disk-id-in…

One caution - you cannot have two disks installed in the same PC that have the same disk signature, or Windows will change one of the disk signatures when it boots up. Perhaps that is what happened in your case. So if you do the steps in the previous paragraph, have only one disk connected at a time.

I need True image to copy the disk and all partitions and the disk signature. Please advise.

Please describe how you produced the clones in your original post:
1. Was it by using the Windows version of TI or the boot CD (or flash drive)?
2. After cloning, when you tested the clone by booting from it, were both the source and the destination disks attached?

First I shut down windows. When off, I connect the target drive.
I used the Boot CD (linux version) to clone the partition, with the following settings; Manual, proportional, do not change partition to Win 8.

I had True image shut off the PC, and once off, I disconnected the source drive (which works perfectly). When I boot up, windows loads normally, but Quick books produces the following errors:
1. Fatal Error - Quickbooks has encountered a problem on start up. this may be due to an invalid software license....
2. Cannot initialize license properties - Error 3371, StatusCode 11118 - Quickbooks cannot load the license data. This is caused by missing or damaged files.

It seems to me that True image 2014 and 2013 also have this problem, as I tried all those. Other cloning programs do not have this issue, I have used Ghost, and copy commander, and other linux based programs.
-Daniel

Daniel:

Your procedure is correct, but I see that you have used proportional cloning. So the two disks are different sizes?

My comment about the Quick Books licensing is only conjecture on my part. Maybe it looks at the disk signature; maybe it looks at other things like partition sizes. I don't know.

First, let's try to verify that if the Disk Signatures are the problem. Could you read the disk signature on each drive using Diskpart? See reply#1 for a link to an illustrated procedure.

Are the two signatures the same?

Thanks, I have been cloning for many years, first time I have ever seen this issue. I will check the disk part at work in the am.
-Daniel

I also use QuickBooks. I did some experimenting. Cloning with TI 2015 does not work. As you have discovered, the cloned disk will boot into Windows, but QuickBooks will not run. I tried different cloning options including Automatic, Manual/Proportional and Manual/Manual. None of these methods worked. I'm not sure why, but I suspect in my case it was because TI puts the partitions in the wrong order. I have a Windows 8.1 system on UEFI with a GPT disk. It may be a different reason on your Windows 7 system.

I can tell you what does work. Don't clone. Backup the disk and restore it to the target disk while booted in the TI recovery environment. TI 2015 maintains the correct partition layout and QuickBooks runs properly.

If you're stuck on cloning, try a different software. You may even find a free alterative that works.

Here is an interesting link that talks about changed disk geometry https://community.intuit.com/questions/713328-i-installed-a-new-ssd-clo… it may help you fix the cloned drive.

So I confirmed that other cloning software works fine, and that multiple versions of True image 2013, 2014 and 2015 DO NOT WORK. Additionally, I contacted support and they were very un helpful. claiming that I needed to re activate my quick books and it was my responsibility to keep all my software activated.

I am kind of astounded at the POOR support, as not only was I not able to clone to a fully working new drive, but support actually told me that it was normal to need to re activate. NOT TRUE!

Additionally, I could not un install Quick Books, there was an error in the add remove program section that prevented any removal, and there was no way to repair, or reinstall which I tried several times.
I even removed the entries from the registry, and ran the Quick books clean up utility removing all files to no avail.

In short, True image is useless if you have Quick Books 2014.
i will try it with QB 2015.

BTW -

After a Google search I found that you can delete this file, qbregistration.dat
Then when you open QB it will walk you through the registration process, doesn't take long and is faster than reinstalling.

Might help someone else...

-Daniel

Daniel:

See the comment about QuickBooks in this post: https://forum.acronis.com/forum/86885#comment-265769

This is what I suspected and was asking you to investigate, but you never reported back if you did. So it appears to be as simple as checking the box to retain the disk signature when cloning.

I second Mark's response (although it appears he linked the wrong post lol), while it is unfortunate that your support experience sucked, it could have been avoided if you simply kept the disk signature.

And for the record, I am not guessing ... I have successfully migrated a system disk containing Quickbooks using Acronis 2014.

Back to the issue of the support experience ... shame on Acronis for not ensuring that tech support are trained to know about the Quickbooks issue. There are forum posts dating back to 2013 regarding this (for example https://forum.acronis.com/forum/42320)
This is not a minor item ... many companies cannot function without Quickbooks, and it certainly is not intuitively obvious that keeping the disk signature is necessary. Suddenly what was supposed to be 1 hour to clone their old clunker platter drive to a snappy SSD turns into a nightmare.
In my opinion, True Image should be updated to perform a check for installed software that is known to link licensing with the disk signature, and notify the user during the cloning process.

Anyone from Acronis staff want to weigh in?

SOLUTION (though painful)

It took five hours today to get to resolution, but here it is.

I suspect that Quickbooks (as mentioned earlier) was looking for a specific file in a specific location which broke due to the cloning, so ALL traces of the old Quickbook installation must be removed.

I used RevoUninstaller in Advanced mode for the first pass.

Then I went completely through the file system looking for any references to "Intuit" and/or "Quickbooks". Some of the locations were rather obscure like within .net Framework. Program Files, Program Files(x86), Program Data, anything in temp files located in USER\App Data\Roaming\Temp. As slow as it is, I did a search for "Intuit" on the entire C drive.

Next - clean out the registry with Regedit. First search on "Intuit" and delete any keys referencing it (you'll be pressing the F3 key a lot to continue searching) then search on "Quickbooks" because a few more will pop up.

Once ALL traces of a previous installation have been eradicated, THEN you can do a clean install and it will finally work. I spent probably 2-3 hours trying everything else first, so the good news for you is that hopefully it will take you only half as long.

I was never given the option to keep disk signature.

And the link, early on in this thread, is broken.

Anyone have a currently working link that shows how to change the disk signature?

Thanks....

That (Revo/Regedit, etc.) 'solution' did not work for me.  And I did it 3 times!  (Using Regedit to remove all mentions of Intuit and Quickbooks, is tedious and timer consuming.  (Thought Revo Uninstaller Pro was supposed to do that for me.  Guess not.  Just another half baked program, to get me to spend my money on.)

Fortunately, I kept the original hard drive and threw it back into the computer.  I was able to do all my QB work again.  A real pain, but, until I can finger out how to change the disk sig, it is what I will have to do.  :(

EASY SOLUTION (Finally)

Delete the EntitlementDataStore.ecml file

1. Close QuickBooks Desktop if it's open.
2. Ensure that all QuickBooks processes are no longer running.
   1. From the keyboard, press Ctrl+Shift+Esc. This opens the Task Manager.
      Win10: Click More Details to show Task Manager.
   2. Click the Processes tab.
   3. Sort the processes alphabetically by clicking the Process Name header.
   4. Search for all instances of QBW32.EXE and End Task.
3. Open the entitlement data folder for your operating system and version of QuickBooks.
   1. On your keyboard, press Windows + R to open the Run window.
   2. Enter (or copy and paste) C:\ProgramData\Intuit\Entitlement Client\v8 and then press Enter.
      Server 2003 SP2: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\Entitlement Client\v8
      Note: The folder location of the .ecml file is the same for all QuickBooks Desktop and QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise versions.
4. Right-click the EntitlementDataStore.ecml file and select Delete.
5. Click Yes to confirm you want to delete the file.
6. Open QuickBooks Desktop, open your company file, and follow the instructions to register the application.

Use the method I just posted, it works and is a heck of a lot simpler - quick and easy.

Except, I can't even get to the Quickbooks desktop.  I get the security failure popups and casn't get past them.

Don't worry about the desktop.  Make sure none of the Quickbooks services are running and delete the file.

I'll give it a go.

Intuit really frosted my cookies on this issue.  I bought 2015 from them, INTUIT!, 2 yearas ago.  Now, when I call for support on this issue, they tell me they no longer support 2015 and I need to upgrade to 2016 or 2017, for another 300 bucks.

That is just plain criminal.  As Intuit has a big administration facility here in Northern Nevada, my corporate attorney's tell me I should take action against them as they would have to respond, as they are doing buisness within Nevada.  I just may do that.  Federal law states our cars have to be support for up to 7 years after the model year is discontinued, that should really apply to software as well.

B interesting if I can get a 'class' started against Intuit.  I am sure there would be more than a few who would join.

Anywho...many thanks...I will ponder your suggestions in a day or two.  Going to go for a drive with the wife now....look at snow country up the road apiece!  :)  I need a break from my frustration!

OKDOKY!  That did it, sorta.  I was presented with the joy of having to set Quickbooks up, all over again.  Joy...

The 'new' setup didn't like my old company file, said it was read only.  HUH>  No it wasn't, I had opened up the file.  Finally just renamed it and then it integrated it and sll is good with my invoicing and customer data base.  WHEW!  Oh..and, heh, Intuit was giving me fits on registering the program...Out of Date they kept telling me.  Told them if they didn't let me in to reregister the program, I was going to hack a pirate version and that they could kiss my (their) software goodbye.  They registered me immediately.  Grrr..Idiots.  'Better than anyone' minded people just annoy me to no end!

Now I have to finger out how to get QB to stop looking for non-existant files.  I have to close a 'can't find' popup about 30 times to get into the program.  (All I use QB for is invoicing!)

So....Many, MANY thanks for the 'simple fix.  I'm sure Intuit isn't happy about the help..they were already licking their chops over another potentisal forced upgrade sale!

Joe

I also hit this problem with Quickbooks when cloning a disk.  I connected the new SSD using the SATA-to-USB cable, installed the cloning software, and chose the "automatic" cloning option.  Then removed the original HDD and installed the new SSD.  PC boots fine.  But Quickbooks fails as described above.  I try "diskpart" to change the SSD ID to match that of the previous HDD.   The SSD then fails to boot.  So I reinstall the HDD and try to run the Acronis software again, with a view to looking for a cloning option that will copy the disk ID.  But the software fails, telling me it needs to have a Crucial SSD connected. BUT IT HAS!  It is connected using the SATA-to-USB cable as initially! 

Why does the software not understand this?  Please explain.

So I repaired the SSD using the Windows install disk.  Later I used the last-mentioned solution: that of deleting the quickbooks EntitlementDataStore.ecml file and re-registering the product.

A warning about this on your website would be useful to help future users of your software.

Hello Graham,

Acronis True Image clones a source drive "as is" with all data that physically reside on the drive. Further activation of installed apps will depend on the way these apps are licensed and how activation of a particular app works. I'm not sure we can officially recommend deleting EntitlementDataStore.ecml file, as this potentially could violate the licensing policy of Quickbooks. 

Steps to resolve this error license error are as given below:

1. Turn off QuickBooks software.
2. Make sure that all the QuickBooks related processes are closed. 
3. Go the folder where the entitlement data folder.
4. Right click on the file and click on Delete from the drop-down list.
5. Click on Yes on the confirmation dialogue box.