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Better to clone or restore ?

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I installed windows 10 2004 clean on another 500GB SSD disk n.6 (Z) and then I installed all the apps that interest me. Then I backup this disk
Now I would like to clone or restore the Z disk on the (C) 1000GB disk n. 7 NVMe PCIe M.2
Is it better to use the clone function or use F11 and restore the Z backup to C?

I enclosed image of the actual situation where in this moment i boot on disk n.6 and therefore this is C

Thank you

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Hispa, I will always recommend using Backup & Recovery over clone as it is far more forgiving, especially if your remove the original disk drive before doing the Recovery.

Cloning is always more dangerous as seen very recently in these forums where another user picked the wrong target disk and wiped out a video collection by accident.

Also when changing from SATA to NVMe drives, recovery is better and the original drive should be removed before recovery and when booting into Windows for the first time to avoid any issues with the location of the BCD files and signature clashes.

So i am correct if i follow this procedure ?

start from Acronis Recovery with F11

From recovery select backup of 500GB SSD disk n.6 (Z) with "new" windows installed, with all partition (full)

Restore on old windows on C disk n. 7 NVMe PCIe M.2 

Reboot

 

Thank again

Hispa

Hispa, yes but check that when you use F11 to launch the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager (ASRM) that you can see the NVMe M.2 drive as else you will need to use WinPE rescue media instead of the Linux based media used by ASRM.

Also, after making the backup, remove the 500GB SSD, then restore to the NVMe M.2 SSD then test booting into Windows from that restored drive before you put back the 500GB SSD.

Note: check you are also using UEFI Boot mode in the BIOS as required to boot NVMe drives.

Regular Poster
Posts: 198
Comments: 120

I agree with Steve,

Cloning to a NVMe, SSD's or HDD's always seemed to turn into a mess/disaster for me.

My preferred method is to: Create Backup, Remove Original Disk, Restore to New or Used Disk, Boot.

.

 

I recommend backup and recover for the reasons give by Steve Smith.

Steve THANK ALL OK following your instructions

1 - Backup new SSD with new windows

2 - I boot in (C) 1000GB disk n. 7 NVMe PCIe M.2 and activate Startup Recovery .

3 - Deteach new SSD and reboot with Startup recovery...that see my NVMe (so no need winpe)

4 - Restore backup of point 1 on NVMe

5 - After restore i boot in NVMe, to verify if all ok

6 - Re-connect SSD to motherboard and boot

 

Hispanico

 

Regular Poster
Posts: 198
Comments: 120

Sounds like you have it all set but one thing bothers me...

Your last step, Reconnect the SSD and boot.  If you boot a computer with 2 copies of Win10 (One on each disk) it may boot correctly, It may boot to the correct disk if it is properly selected in BIOS but things may get messed up.  I say that from experience.  I have a NVMe Win10 and a couple of Hot Swap slots.  A couple of times, I accidentally put in a Win10 disk in my hot swap slot and booted.  Now I was booting with 2 Win 10 OS's available.  Never a good idea.  I was rewarded with my computer booting to a SSD and corrupting my NVMe.

Bottom Line: Never a good idea to boot with 2 bootable OS's  available on separate drives..

Steve S. or some of the other MVP's can get more technical with any questions you have.

Regards,

Steve F.

Pleaseeeee help me... i repeat my old procedure, with which I have been successful:

1 - Backup new SSD with new windows

2 - I boot in (C) 1000GB disk n. 7 NVMe PCIe M.2 and activate Startup Recovery .

3 - Deteach new SSD and reboot with Startup recovery

4 - Restore backup of point 1 on NVMe

5 - After restore i boot in NVMe, to verify if all ok

6 - Re-connect SSD to motherboard and boot

 

but this time my motherboard ROG MAXIMUS XI HERO after boot come back to bios not finding boot disk ?!?!?

Please suggest me

 

Thank

Hispanico

Make certain that your bios is set to boot from the correct disk.  If you have UEFI boot then your boot order should show Windows Boot Manager as the 1st boot device in the bios boot order.

Enchantech wrote:

Make certain that your bios is set to boot from the correct disk.  If you have UEFI boot then your boot order should show Windows Boot Manager as the 1st boot device in the bios boot order.

Thank Ench but going on my bios no boot disk are showed in boot option

Before operaions i go in boot option and select disk...but now no ore ! while going in system informatino of bios i can see alll disks

 

Hispanico 

Hispanico, when you have an NVMe M.2 SSD as the OS boot drive, then this requires that the PC boots using UEFI mode and as Bob has already stated above, UEFI means that you should have 'Windows Boot Manager' as the boot option.  You cannot / should not attempt to set the NVMe M.2 SSD as the boot device - it has to be Windows Boot Manager from that SSD.

Steve Smith wrote:

Hispanico, when you have an NVMe M.2 SSD as the OS boot drive, then this requires that the PC boots using UEFI mode and as Bob has already stated above, UEFI means that you should have 'Windows Boot Manager' as the boot option.  You cannot / should not attempt to set the NVMe M.2 SSD as the boot device - it has to be Windows Boot Manager from that SSD.

Ok undesrtand but i following same procedure... 

Ok i set uefi mode but bios at start not find on NVMe M.2 windows boot manager.

So at this point i have copy of my old NVMe M.2 and also of SSD that i restore on NVMe M.2.

Please suggest which ic better way to solve this situation

 

Big thank

Hispanico

If you are replacing your OS drive then you really should be using the Acronis WinPE rescue media to boot your PC and perform a restore of the backup of the OS drive to your new drive, ensuring that the WinPE rescue media is also booted in UEFI boot mode.

After doing the restore to the new NVMe M.2 SSD using the rescue media, you should not reinstall any other internal drives until after you have confirmed that the PC will boot correctly from the new SSD.

Can you confirm which version of ATI you are using here please?  Your signature says ATI 2019 but this topic was opened in the ATI 2020 Forum?

KB 59877: Acronis True Image: how to distinguish between UEFI and Legacy BIOS boot modes of Acronis Bootable Media

KB 61632: Acronis True Image 2019: how to create bootable media
KB 61621: Acronis True Image 2019: How to restore your computer with WinPE-based or WinRE-based media

Ok but starting Acronis WinPE rescue media on pc and select restore afetr select backup is show in which partition but are show all disks but not NVMe M.2 SSD ??

 

Thank

Hispanico

Update solve with creating a new partition on NVMe M.2 SSD ...now i have launch restore of backup of ssd to NVMe M.2 SSD ...awaiting and hope (ati 2021 i update my signature :-) ) 

No luck..is mad this situation.

I repeat,I seem to be a fool...

I have 2 windows installation

one on NVMe M.2 SSD and one on SSD Crucial

Startup on SSD Crucial and make a backup of disk also with validation.

Deteach SSD Crucial and reboot with Startup recovery

After reboot and with F11 i go to Acronis, select backup and like destination i give NVMe M.2 SSD

All process go well...finish restart computer but bios not find any disk boot

 

What am I doing wrong or what's wrong?

 

Thank again

Hispanico

Marco,

Booting from an NVMe drive is not as straight forward as booting from an SATA SSD.  Your issue I believe is that your PC bios is not configured properly to boot from the NVMe drive.

Answering a few questions I may be able to help you solve this:

  1. Brand, model number of PC or motherboard?
  2. Bios Version number?
  3. Is your NVMe drive attached via an M.2 socket on the motherboard or via an expansion card?
  4. What is the current boot mode of your PC, UEFI or Legacy/CSM?

You will probably have to change some other settings in your bios so that the NVMe drive is recognized as a bootable device.

Enchantech wrote:

Marco,

Booting from an NVMe drive is not as straight forward as booting from an SATA SSD.  Your issue I believe is that your PC bios is not configured properly to boot from the NVMe drive.

Answering a few questions I may be able to help you solve this:

  1. Brand, model number of PC or motherboard?
  2. Bios Version number?
  3. Is your NVMe drive attached via an M.2 socket on the motherboard or via an expansion card?
  4. What is the current boot mode of your PC, UEFI or Legacy/CSM?

You will probably have to change some other settings in your bios so that the NVMe drive is recognized as a bootable device.

1- ROG MAXIMUS XI HERO

2 - 1704 (last)

3 -  attached via an M.2 socket

4 - Before i try UEFI and after also Other Ios

Marco

Ok first step...with Media Rescue i restore backup of NVMe M.2 SSD on same disk and now pc boot ok finally.

Ok now i would know why with same procedure but restoring SSD Crucial on NVMe M.2 SSD no disk boot found.

 

Marco

Marco,

What model is your Maximus XI Hero?  I found one called Code and another Formula.

There is little info on the ROG forums about using the NVMe M.2 drives.  It appears that basically you need to use the Advanced tab to setup the M.2 for use.

PCIe should be set to X 4

SATA mode should be set to PCIe

In Boot options the OS setting should be set to Other

UEFI should be set to boot first or Only if CSM is disabled.

I have found that on some boards it is necessary to reboot the PC into the bios a second time after making the change in SATA mode to PCIe for that change to take effect and therefore show the M.2 drive in the other bios settings.

Does your PC boot correctly from the original NVMe SSD when it is the only disk drive installed?  If not, then I suspect that the Windows BCD is not stored on the OS disk drive but on the second drive!