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Cannot boot from recently cloned disk

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I just successfully cloned an USB 120G external hard drive from my 80G regular C drive, however the system will not boot from the cloned disk giving the error message "Error Loading Operating System." I am using a Dell Dimension 4600 with XP3 as the OS.

In attempting to boot from the cloned drive I first rebooted, then pressed f12 to choose the boot media, then chose USB Flash and got the error message.

Any help will be appreciated.

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I don't believe that Windows will allow you to boot from a Windows installation on an external drive.

Thanks for your response.

That may well be true. However, I thought I had read about such a boot or a work-around. I know there is a provision for a one-time boot (without changing the BIOS) from an "USB Flash" device by pressing F12 at the Windows logo. Maybe my USB hard drive doesn't qualify.

The error loading operating system could be that the computer is attempting to boot from the wrong disk--if if only 1 disk is attached. Recheck the what the bios is attempting to select.

While you can boot into a usb drive; you cannot boot into Windows via a usb drive--or at least not without lots of modifications--even if such is possible. Simply asking it to boot into the usb drive will not boot into Windows.

The bios (F2) is ordinarily set to boot first into a CD, then to the normal hard drive. However the "one time" boot (F12) was set to boot into an "USB Flash," but the computer didn't boot at all and gave the message "Error Loading Operating System."

My system is working fine. I just thought I would try to boot into Windows using the USB after I had cloned the main drive. If this is not possible how would you recover using the USB drive if the main hard drive failed? Apparently you can't. Of course the data on the USB can easily be recovered after a new OS is installed on a new main hard drive. I guess the clone feature is primarily applicable to a slave drive.

If you can boot into an USB drive, but not into Windows, what have you got?...anything more that just changing drives in Windows Explorer?

Thanks

Richard Sevier wrote:
I would try to boot into Windows using the USB after I had cloned the main drive.

As I have said, Windows does not allow itself to be booted from an external drive. This is a Windows limitation, not an Acronis issue. Setting a one-time boot or changing BIOS boot order allows booting from a USB device, and I do this frequently to use the Acronis True Image Recovery Media, bootable repair tools, etc. You just cannot boot a Windows OS that resides on an external drive.

Richard Sevier wrote:
If you can boot into an USB drive, but not into Windows, what have you got?...anything more that just changing drives in Windows Explorer?

I think you misunderstand the purpose of a backup. ATIH allows you to store multiple full disk images of your system to an external drive. If your OS drive fails, you can replace it with a fresh drive, then easily restore your latest ATIH image from the external drive to the fresh drive. In minutes you'll be back exactly where you were at the time of the last backup, before the drive failure. That is HUGE! No formatting of a new drive, no reinstalling Windows, no reinstalling applications, etc.

OK, I do understand the purpose of a backup. In fact I backup three ways and have for years. But I did not completely understand the purpose of an imaged drive.

Thanks for straightening me out!