Cant clone HDD to SSD Aconis True Image fails every time
So my original HHD is getting slower and slower so before it dies completely I'm moving to a Samsung 850 SSD. Before starting I created the copy above and ran Disk Checks on both drives. ALL good.
Acronis came highly recommended so I dropped the $50 and watched the HOW TO Clone your dive videos on Youtube. ALL looks to be in order so let's begin.
I bought a new Sandisk 32BG 3.0 thumb drive. I open Acronis and go to Rescue Media Builder, I click the Advanced button, next I've tried both WinPE based Media and Linux. Linux nearly crashed everything but I'll get back to that. So let's start with the WinPe. On the next screen, I select USE Windows ADK as all the YT videos suggest. I don't add any drivers since I don't think I have any to add so I click next. Next, I select the new Sandisk drive and create the media. I've also tried it with the DVD but back to that later.
OK all should be good. I do a hard shutdown but holding Shift and Reboot. I then boot the Sandisk and all seems fine. Acronis opens and I go to tools then Clone then selects the drive to clone. It's at this point that everything goes wrong.
No matter if the SSD is connected to the Sata or by a USB adapter all I get is this error. Unable to Lock the disk. Noot your computer from a Linux based bootable media and then try again. I click OK and it gives me an error 3 times. I then go to the option to select the destination disk panel but all the discs are grayed out. At this point I can't do anything else but Exit from the CMD panel and reboot to the original drive.
Now a few things about the destination disk (SSD) Its been Diskpart cleaned and tried unallocated, It been set to MBR with a simple partition, it's been completely formatted, it's set to simple. I think I've tried just about every option and nothing works.
Now as mentioned above. I tried using the Linux option but when it reboots I get 3 option. Number 1and 2 just reboot to my desktop and Acronis doesn't come up. The third one marked C completely killed my boot and I had to use my original Recovery CD just to get back to Windows. FYI I ran SFC /scannow from admin/CMD when I did to try and make sure the startup files were back to normal and I think they are since I've rebooted a few times since then.
Now about the Disc boot. I also used the WinPE option and when I go to boot from it it gives me the same D**M Linux option as before even when I specifically set it up as WinPE.
And I think I mentioned this above but I've tried connecting the SSD directly to the SATA and used a self-powered USB adapter that I've used many times for external drives and my results are always the same. Either the Linux kills my Boot or the WinPE gives an error.
I guess I should give my PC info.
Win 10/64 on a Lenovo H50-55
Original drive: Seagate Desktop HDD ST2000DM001 2TB 64MB Cache SATA 6.0
New SSD: is a Samsung 850 EVO 2TB SATA III 3D NAND
Last thing. Im, not a tech god so please outline what to try next. I know I added a lot of tech info above but I'm just following what Ive read online. Any help would be great. Thanks.
Ok it finally worked. I did the active clone and it after about 4 hours everything transferred over. Thanks.
Awesome news! What I'd like to learn is what is causing the locking behavior and is it saying the source is locked or the destination in the Winpe rescue media.
There are a handful of threads on this and seems to be growing. If the new disk is initialized, formatted as NTFS and given a volume letter... and if it does not contain any previous OS or partitions from a previous OS install, it should be ready for cloning.
Additionally ,if the source OS drive has had a full shutdown (hold shift and reboot or use shutdown /p /f) it should be ready too.
So, if these are both prepped as stated above, and still showing locked, then why? Could either or both of the drives have bitlocker active, but not be enabled, causing Acronis to think one or both is a locked volume? Or was the original OS drive actually not fully shutdown and has a lock on it to preserve the hibernation file used by Windows fast boot /fast start?
If we could at least verify which disk is showing locked, that would be a place to start.
After the restart using Shift & Shutdown it would load from the USB recovery as it should. Acronis would start and I could go to the tools and select Clone. Again keep in mind this was all being done of the WinPe boot of the flash drive. That was a Sandisk 32BG USB 3.0 brand new and it was already formatted.
Ok after opening the Disk clone tool I could select the Origin (C:) drive. It would open a small processing window and after about 30+ seconds it would give the error "Unable to Lock the disk. Boot your computer from a Linux based bootable media and then try again" I click OK then it gives the error again 2 more times until it eventually lets me close Acronis and then Type Exit in the CMD window that it opened automatically.
For the destination disk, it was used (barely) but had been fully formatted and did not have an OS on it, I also used CMD diskpart and did a full disk clean on it. I tried partitioned and not partitioned. initialized and not initialized I tried NTFS, exFat, MBR, and GPT. I tried full shutdown, full reboot, Shift & Reboot, Shift & Shutdown & shutdown /p /f. I unplugged the computer entirely and help the power down to clear out the capacitors and I even tried moving SATA positions just in case even though it knew it wouldn't make any difference. I make sure there was no Bitlock on my original drive and its not even an option on my version of Windows 10. Again the destination drive was FULLY wiped and from a new system so I can't imagine it had Bitlock on it either. The only thing that I can even remotely think that might have had any bearing, in this case, is that my original Windows was 7 and my PC is just over 3 years old and basically why I needed to upgrade the drive.
What ultimately did work.
I plugged in the new drive and initialize it with a single simple partition. The computer could see it as a healthy drive. I used Shift & Shutdown. Once booted to regular windows (NO RECOVERY USB) I opened Acronis and did an Active Clone. Once starting the tool it gave me the option to select the Origin drive. I click the Original drive and it took about 3-5 minutes to then finally allow me the option to select the Destination drive. After that everything seemed to work as it should.
I think that covers your questions. Now, how about a refund or at least a Starbucks gift card. This was a complete pain in the a**, but it did eventually work...
Hey, we're users like you just helping out in our spare time. Feel free to contact customer support though :)
Yeah, I'm glad the active clone worked.
I'm still concerned with why the WinPE couldn't lock the disk in your case. Either there is a potential bug and some are experiencing it, or there is a key element being missed that is preventing the source disk (that's what it sounds like in this case) from being locked.
Usually, this is due to bitlocker enabled or active (which is not an issue when the full Windows OS is booted up and using Acronis from there as the disk is "unlocked" at that time), or the system was shutdown but using fast boot / fast start which leaves a "locked" hibernation file on the disk that is detected and prevents VSS from being able to take a snapshot of the disk.
New problem maybe I should start a new thread but here goes anyway.
I ran Disk Clean for the old HDD and after 10 hours it's been stuck at 7 minutes for over 3 hours. I don't want to cancel and start over or damage the disk. Any clue what I can do to get it to finish?
SC ticket opened. I'm actually pretty shocked because the software came highly recommended by several IT friends of mine. But honestly its been nothing but buggy since starting. I definitely wouldn't recommend it to anyone else.
Acronis Drive Cleanser can take an extended time depending on the options you choose for the algorithm to be used in cleaning / destroying data to prevent any forensic recovery as warned in the ATI 2019 User Guide section on this tool:
Be aware that, depending on the total size of selected partitions and the selected data destruction algorithm, the data destruction may take many hours.
I'm at about 14 hours now and it's been stuck at 7minutes for almost 4 of those hours. That's why I checked the Task Manager to see if it was working or not and it's not. It's just sitting there doing a bunch of nothing.
I also checked Disk Management and I can still see all the partitions just as it was when I started last night.
If I cancel does it damage the drive? Will the (formatted/destroyed) files get reverted or will I just have to format it again with whatever is left on the drive?
I have a suspicion that on systems running Windows Fast Start the locking of the source disk might require a complete system restart from the Windows GUI using the "Hold down Shift key while clicking on restart" then select Use Device, then Hard Disk from the options that appear. Make sure that the Recovery Media is attached to the PC prior to doing this.
Your machine should then boot to the Recovery Media upon restart and allow you to perform your desired task.
Enchantech wrote:I have a suspicion that on systems running Windows Fast Start the locking of the source disk might require a complete system restart from the Windows GUI using the "Hold down Shift key while clicking on restart" then select Use Device, then Hard Disk from the options that appear. Make sure that the Recovery Media is attached to the PC prior to doing this.
Your machine should then boot to the Recovery Media upon restart and allow you to perform your desired task.
Is this regarding the new problem or the old one? The clone finely worked but not Im trying to Clean the old HDD and the Disk Clean has been stuck at 7 minutes all mornings. Its been running for over 14 hours now. I checked Task Manager and the program is just sitting there doing nothing. How long can 7 minutes really take to finalize the formatting? If I cancel what happens to the disk. I would like to still use it.
I'm at about 14 hours now and it's been stuck at 7minutes for almost 4 of those hours. That's why I checked the Task Manager to see if it was working or not and it's not. It's just sitting there doing a bunch of nothing.
I also checked Disk Management and I can still see all the partitions just as it was when I started last night.
If I cancel does it damage the drive? Will the (formatted/destroyed) files get reverted or will I just have to format it again with whatever is left on the drive?
Daniel, you may want to check for any hidden windows or pop-up panels asking for a reply from you for this Disk Cleanser action. If you can still see your partitions in Disk Management, then the process is only partially complete as confirmed by one of your screen images too:
The image shows you are only on step 1 of 2 in this disk cleaning process. Estimated times are notoriously inaccurate.
If you decide to cancel the wipe action, then impossible to tell you what state the drive will be left in with regards to reusing the drive. You may want to wait on your Acronis Support Case for an answer to this question.
No, I checked for the hidden windows and all that's open is the main Acronis panel and the progress panel. I can move the progress panel but not the main one so I also hovered the cursor over the taskbar to see if there was anything else and there isn't. Still stuck at 7 minutes, no changes to Disk Management, no reply yet from the CS ticket.
Daniel,
My response was aimed at your original problem. As for the Drive Cleaner I would cancel the operation as it obviously has stopped to function. That could be to disk corruption which may have been at fault for your original problem as well.
You will still be able to use the disk once you cancel the Drive Cleaner operation. If it were me and I had plans to reuse the disk myself I would use Windows Diskpart - Clean all command to clean the disk of all formatting and partitioning information then use Windows Disk Manager to initialize the disk at which point it would be unallocated, then re-partition it for use.
I never wipe of drive using continual overwrites of the disk unless I plan to give the drive to someone else or sell it.
could someone explain in simple terms
bazi bozo, welcome to these public User Forums.
What exactly do you want explaining in simple terms here?
It may be best if you clicked on 'Create New Topic' and opened a new discussion stating what it is you are wanting to do, what disk drives are involved, what Windows OS version etc?