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Blue Screen when using the Clone Disk Utility

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Hi.  I am currently having problems running the Clone Disk Utility for Acronis True Image 2009 (builds 9079 and 9796).  I receive the Blue Screen either while the app is processing the c: drive, or right at the moment when the app starts processing the target drive.  The app also gives me the Blue Screen when I plug in the target drive with the USB port.  I have replaced memory and swapped out external hard drives (target source).  I have also had a company to test my machine's hardware.  Also, while running ATI's Clone Disk Utility, if I try to open up another program I receive the Blue Screen.

I believe the app is okay if I ran the system in safe mode.  I was able to process both the c: drive and the target drive with no problems.  Whether or not the system will crash during the clone process has not been determined.

Please let me know what the problem could be.  I have been able to image my drive, but apparently the Clone Disk Utility may be the problem.  One more thing, the Clone Disk Utility worked fine on another pc I own a ATI license to.

Thank you in advance.

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Cloning of the system disk works best when performed when booted from an Acronis Rescue CD.

Your best chance of success is to also have the new target disk in its intended boot position; and locate the source master disk in an alternate location such as an internal slot or external enclosure, etc. 

After cloning, be sure and detach the master before booting the clone.

Thanks, Grover.  I should have posted here a week ago.  So why didn't I have problems using the Clone Disk Utility on the other pc running Windows XP in normal mode?  Is my experience just the luck of the draw?

You can use Windows to clone a non-bootable data disk but Acronis has stated they recommend using the Rescue CD when cloning a system disk. Ths gets Windows out of the picture since the Rescue CD is Linux based.

My suggestion was for the best chance of success. I did not state my suggestion was the only way.  If your computer is a laptop, particularly a Thinkpad or Lenova and some other brands, they have special geometry for their drives and you need to use the Reverse clone procedure as I have suggested above. My suggestion will work on all drives.

If you have a desktop and no special disk characteristics, then you can have success cloning from computer to an alternate location.

Whether you clone to or from, etc, you still need to remove the master source disk before first bootup following a cloning procedure of your system disk.  After all is working properly, then you can reattach the original drive as a additional drive.

Hello Coltrane,

Thank you for using Acronis Products
Please note that this issue usually takes place if the original hard drive is not removed from the computer before the first boot from the target drive. This happens because Windows gets somehow "confused" while trying to mount the letter for the system partition because it is already associated with the original hard drive.
In this case, please make sure you disconnect the original hard drive while performing the first boot from the target one.

Well, I'll be.  I used the Acronis Rescue CD and the clone utility processed without any problems.  Thank you both for chiming in to help.

Coltrane,

If you have the time, check item 7D in my signature link. Many of us do not feel that cloning is the preferred method when moving to a new or larger drive.  Read and make your own choice but be aware of the risk factor. Most systems have more than one partition which may include a diagnostic or recovery partition. When cloning, the manual method works better than the other methods so the user can control the partition sizes.