Cloned drive, then restored to same drive. Won't Boot.
I had to send my laptop in for service. To be safe, I cloned the drive (removed it, plugged it into desktop, made clone, replaced it.) Sure enough, the service center "re-imaged" the drive. So I pulled it, stuck it in my desktop, and restored it using the "Backup & Recovery" tab, finding the backup, and selecting RECOVER.
The short answer is that all of the partitions were created and the files were copied over. Everything seemed to be good. But when I put it back into my laptop, it wouldn't boot. I put it back into my desktop and made the Windows partition active. Put it back and it now it tried to boot but failed. I was able to run Windows start up repair on it and that ALMOST got it to boot. But now it's stuck.
Clearly, I'm doing something wrong. This is exactly what Clone Disk was meant for. Please tell me what I'm missing.
Just to be clear, the drive was fully functional when the clone was made. It was also functional before I tried to restore the cloned image.
Thanks in advance!
If you clone or backup a disk on another computer, do it from the recovery CD. The host computer behaves like an expensive pipe and there is no OS in the way, and less chance there are errors with drive letter, active partitions etc.
If you clone on the same computer, do it also from the recovery CD.
From my experience, the only operation that reliably works from Windows is a disk and partition backup.
Thank you, Tuttle. How is what I did different from what you described as the purpose of the CLONE feature?
Specifically, I cloned the drive, then ended up reformatting it and trying to put the cloned .tib file back onto the very same, now blank, drive. What you described differs only in that I didn't use a different piece of hardware.
I'm sorry if I sound frustrated (I am!) but not with you. I've read dozens of posts here about what CLONE is not intended for and how Backup is better. (Unfortunately, I read them too late.) But that leaves me with 2 questions:
1) Why is CLONE even included if everyone seems to hate it?
2) Is there any way I can get this to work?
How would you suggest I proceed if I were putting the clone on a different drive?
As I said, the files and partitions all go over. Is there something special that has to be done to make the new drive bootable?
Thanks, again. I appreciate your help.
Thanks, Pat. You response leaves me with similar questions to those I had for Tuttle.
1) If the program is only reliable from a recovery CD, then why even have the Windows app at all?
2) Can you conceive of anything I might try to get the cloning to work?
Thank you, again.
Thank you, Tuttle. How is what I did different from what you described as the purpose of the CLONE feature?
Clone creates an exact duplicate of the hard drive. You end up with the original drive and another drive that is identical.
Backup creates an image of the original disk, but stores it as a compressed .tib file. As such, you may store many successive .tib images on a single backup drive.
I cloned the drive, then ended up reformatting it and trying to put the cloned .tib file back onto the very same, now blank, drive.
If you have a .tib file, then that suggests that you used the Backup function. Why do you say that you used Clone?
The only answer I have is because that's what I did. What is the file extension for a clone file? Does it being a .tib file change anything?
When I Google "Acronis File Extension" the only one that shows up is .tib.
But going back to the idea that I did make a clone of the drive, is there anything special I have to do to make the new drive bootable? Have you ever tried that?
Thanks for sticking with this.
I have done full disk restores from backup many times. If the drive was bootable when the image was made, the the new drive to which the image is restored will be bootable.
]The only answer I have is because that's what I did. What is the file extension for a clone file? Does it being a .tib file change anything?
There is no file extension for a clone because there is no file created via the Acronis clone process. The clone function is a direct copy from the source to the disk with no file created.
If you have a *.tib file, then you used the backup function and created a backup or image file--which has a *.tib file extension.
So, if you have a *.tib file, this file can be restored or recovered via the TI bootable media Recovery CD. If you performed such a restore and the target disk was not bootable, this would lead to the possibility that the backup was not a backup of the entire disk. Maybe you had non-lettered partitions which were not included in the backup.
Using the TrueImage (TI) bootable recovery CD, you can simulate the restore and when you get to the screen which displays the partitions available to be restored, whatever partitions are displayed will be the contents of your backup. You can compare what you see with the new repaired disk and see if the same partitions are the same in both comparisons.
You may be able to restore only the windows system partition from the *.tib backup file onto the new repaired disk--assuming that the new repaired disk had the same install as the original.
If the computer was a Thinkpad, this would change all the procedures.
I want to thank you both for your help. I have managed to get the drive working with the image file.
When I originally restored the file to the drive, it re-created the 3 partitions that DELL had shipped with the laptop. All files seemed to in their places in all partitions but it wouldn't boot. "MISSING BOOTMGR." So I booted to the Windows install disk and told it to do a start up repair. It did and said everything was good. The machine tried to boot windows but eventually died then tried to repair itself. That eventually failed. That's when I posted here.
Since then, I re-restored only the main partition, reinstalled the drive, told the Windows install disk to repair it, rebooted to the windows install disk and told it to repair it a second time (without ever trying to boot), and then it booted.
The disk has always been operational and the windows installation has always been operational. I am glad that I was able to get it going again, but I'm discouraged that I had to do it this way.
As for clone versus backup, I have to defer to your wisdom. I made the file in Acronis 2010 which has a very different interface. It's entirely possible that I thought I was cloning but instead was backing up but since Acronis 2012 liked the file, I didn't mention the 2010 version. Maybe I should have.
Thank you both again.
Thank you for posting your results. When using the Windows repair, it only does 1 repair per pass. If you have several things wrong or if changing the boot location, it may take multiple instances of using the repair option.
You may find this link of interest.
http://forum.acronis.com/sites/default/files/mvp/user285/guides/2010-ti…
Also, if you click on the first line of my signature below or my guides along left margin, you may find an interest in some of the items in index item 3.
Dear Thread People! :-)
I'm a PC "newbie" with 30 years of Macintosh experience, as a tech-support person and software trainer. Doesn't help all that much, after switching to a PC for financial reasons (and NVIDIA accelerated graphics/rendering support! :o}
Anyhow, I'm used to CLONING a Mac drive onto another blank drive (either internal and/or external drive!) Double-backups are a LOT safer! :-)
---using a Mac-utility package called "Carbon Copy Cloner" (from Bomich Software)---then doing an incremental re-clone onto that target drive, every 24 hours (or whatever suitable interval.... I do an incremental update to my SECONDARY backup, once a MONTH--like stepping back in time one month... usually well before whatever "crash" crisis started building up... :0) Incremental backups are VERY fast, once the initial clone has completed for the first time.... Only "changed or added" files are copied over into the target drive...
Also, and perhaps most important when a "crash" occurs and wipes out the "Bootability" of your main boot-drive....When restarting a Mac, you can hold down the OPTION key and have a row of icons---all the BOOTABLE drives presently attached to your system.... Select the clone backup-drive (from yesterday) in that row of icons, and then IT takes over the booting process....
---Typical downtime for a "meltdown" of your boot drive???? About 2 minutes...
Well THAT was what I thought/hoped that this Acronis package of software could accomplish.
More generally, I do NOT understand how to EASILY choose either my "incremental slices" (.TIB files...) which do NOT seem to be bootable... The recent grief I've had, to get Win.7 install-dvd to boot my PC, and then be unable to access all these .TIB files is VERY frustrating.... THREE DAYS of struggling with the problem to get a simple "wipe out everything and start over from scratch" sort of Win.7-64-bit-professional install to FINALLY be able to boot my PC
I would have like to have had (hypothetically???) a full and EXACT clone of my main internal boot drive....that I could "simply" switch to, reboot the PC, and then "nuke" the original boot-drive, and reclone the clone, back onto the (now) empty and NTFS formatted drive (or it's new physicalreplacement if it's totally "dead"......
So I have the full package of Acronis 2015...... Is there a "secret key command" inside it, or maybe in Windows 7-64-bit that will do what the OPTION key does at boot-up time on a Mac?
HELLLLP.... ;o??
Please Advise, and meanwhile,,,,, Happy Holidays to One and All! :-)))
Hi and Happy Holidays :)
It sounds like I have a similar backup routine to your's so perhaps I can help with some info.
I'm using Acronis TI 2011 but the 2015 version should be identical regarding basic Cloning and full-HDD Imaging processes.
From reading your post, it appears you're talking about both Cloning and Imaging. The terminology is often used interchangeably although the process are not identical.
Cloning is the process that copies the HDD to another HDD, resulting in an exact bootable redundant HDD. The requirement is that a Source and Target HDD are necessary for Cloning.
Cloning's advantage is having a complete bootable spare HDD on the shelf as a recovery method from numerous events and also provides a fast restoration method in the event of a failed Source HDD.
Imaging (full-HDD Images) can achieve the same result by processing the Source HDD into a (.tib) file that's usually compressed which can be stored on another HDD, in most cases, the user's non-OS external USB HD.
Imaging provides the ability to maintain "chain" backups, with Incremental or Differential backups, with a "parent" (initial full-HDD Image file) at the beginning of the file chain that's usually stored on an external HDD.
My primary reason for (full-disk) Imaging is to provide redundant HDD-recovery options in the event that I encounter a rare Cloning problem.
Cloning with Acronis is best done by booting into the Acronis media (CD or Flash Stick). Some problems seem to be more prevalent when Cloning within Windows (starting the Cloning process from the Windows OS HDD).
I have no Mac experience but from reading your post and what you'd like to accomplish, Acronis will provide a similar recovery plan for your PC with the possible exception of the Options function that you mentioned with Mac.
Regarding Incremental (or Differential) Imaging chains, I don't have experience with those as I only maintain full-HDD Image files but I believe the restore process steps are similar.
To restore my PC to one of my (full-HDD) Images, here's what I do. I've test-restored a few of my Images this way, all resulting in bootable HDD's.
- Connect the storage device where my Image files are located to my PC. I use an external USB HDD to store Image files.
- Insert my Acronis bootable media (CD, Flash Stick) into my PC. Insure that the media is recognized/mounted by Windows before proceeding.
- Shut down my PC.
- Install my blank/unallocated Target HDD.
- Boot up onto the Acronis media (changing the BIOS or UEFI Boot Priority Menu settings may be required for the PC to boot into the CD drive or the desired Flash Stick USB port).
- After the Acronis Recovery environment has completed loading and launching, select the "Restore" menu from the Acronis program.
- Navigate to the desired TIB Image file that's stored on your previously-connected Storage device where all of the Image files are located.
- Select the Target HDD from the Acronis Restore menu options.
- Start the Recovery process.
When it's completed, you'll have complete bootable HDD that's identical to the point in time when the Image file was processed.
Cloning: My routine is similar:
- Insert my Acronis bootable media (CD, Flash Stick) into my PC.
- Shut down my PC.
- Install my blank/unallocated Target HDD. I'm using SATA Hot-Swap racks in my Desktop PC tower so it's easy and fast to Clone. With my Laptop, I'm using a SATA/USB Adapter ("Enclosure").
- Boot up onto the Acronis media (changing the BIOS or UEFI Boot Priority Menu settings may be required for the PC to boot into the CD drive or the desired Flash Stick USB port).
- Select the Source and Target HDD's from the Acronis Cloning setup dialog screens.
- When the Cloning process completes, shut down PC.
- Important -> Remove one of the 2 HDD's before restarting the PC. This avoids the possibility of HDD signature collisions where Windows can render both HDD's unbootable. Windows doesn't like to see identical OS HDD's on the same PC.
- Restart PC. PC should boot up on the OS HDD, either the original Source HDD or the newly-Cloned Target HDD.
I've been using the Cloning routine my 2 Win 7x64 PC's for about 3 years with only 1 Cloning failure encountered during that time.
My overall backup routine is:
- Clone my Desktop PC every 2 weeks. This is my primary full-HDD backup preference. I clone my Laptop about every 6-8 weeks as it's not used as my primary PC.
- Image occasionally on both PC's. I usually try to Image every 2 months. These are all full-HDD Images and not Incremental chain Images. I prefer to go with full Images, just a personal preference.
- I also run a twice-daily unattended specific-item backup process using Acronis. This will backup my "must-have" items that I need backed up in near real-time. I'm using a portable external USB HDD as the Target storage device for the automated Acronis backup job.
- I backup the same must-have items manually once a day with a script file. I do this to provide redundant backup copies to a couple of Flash Sticks that are connected only during the backup process. This provides protection against the encryption-malware that's been affecting a lot of PC's during the past year (ie "Cryptolocker", "CryptoWall", "CoinVault", and other ransomware variants that have been appearing around the 'net recently).
Regarding your question about a boot option that you had similar to your Mac Option Key, I'm not familiar with that so perhaps someone else can provide an answer this question for you.
When you referred to your Win 7 Install DVD, are you referring to the Acronis bootable CD or an actual Windows 7 Install DVD?
In order to access your TIB files and restore from them, you'd need to boot up onto your Acronis CD.