Clone SSD to PCI SSD

I believe that it should be possible to clone from your Samsung SSD drive to a new PCI SSD assuming that you satisfy the criteria for cloning as documented in KB document: 56634: Acronis True Image: Cloning Disks, i.e have same logical sector size, are basic disks etc.

Because you will be cloning to a drive connected to a different drive controller you will need to be able to change your BIOS or EFI boot settings to reflect the new boot drive and confirm that you can boot from the new drive in that position.

I would recommend disconnecting the original Samsung SSD when attempting to boot from the PCI SSD for the first time to avoid any conflict caused by have identical disk signatures etc.  You should be able to reconnect the drive once all is working OK, then you can format or re-use as needed.

Use the bootable recovery media to perform the clone.  Make sure that you have the latest bios revision installed on the motherboard as well.  You say that you want to boot to a PCI card, I assume you mean a card that will allow the use of an M.2 drive or a PCI based SSD.  Be adivised that the M.2 drives must be of NVME type as those that are SATA type cannot be used as boot devices.

Thanks again Steve

You helped me earlier today in a differnt thread...I wanted to setup 2 SSD's in RAID0

Do you think this is a better idea than to setup 2 SSD's in raid0?

Have a great day!

Please see the comments above from Paul (Enchantech) about the right type of PCI SSD drive - plus the earlier comments on the other thread about the need for support in BIOS for RAID if you still consider going that route.

Personally I only have RAID drives in my NAS where this is designed to be used in this mode for protection and ease of data recovery.  With modern SSD drives and a good backup strategy you are unlikely to get any real benefit from going down the RAID route or switching to a PCI SSD other than to increase the complexity of any recovery that might be needed in the future.  There is a lot to be said for the K.I.S.S. principle (Keep It Simple....)

@Enchantech:

Question about using the bootable recovery media to perform the clone, which is what you mention in one of your comments, does this mean that the desktop application (Acronis True Image 2017) cannot perform a clone?

I have attempted to create a clone from the desktop application via "Clone Disk" and "Manual" and "Proportional" and have received multiple errors (I've looked at the "service_2016-09-21-15-56-14" LOG file to make sense of the error, but there are many of them and the log just states almost the same thing over and over again "Failed to write the snapshot manager volume" "Unknown status" "Access is denied" "Failed to write data to the disk". I wrote from a 500GB WD to a 120GB SSD. Total size of files on source disk was less than 92GB, however the partition was for >400GB and the destination partition was <112GB.

The destination disk was uninitialized, brand new.

I have the source and destination disks attached to my PC via a USB3.0 docking station, hopefully they'd be supported by the bootable recovery media, but I'm not sure. Will give it a shot later, but I was hoping to still utilize my computer while the clone was happening.

Any suggestions?

IT,

The application will clone from the Windows installed program however, clone of a system OS disk requires that the source disk be in an offline state for the clone to take place.  To fullfil that requirement when a clone of an OS system disk is run from within the Windows app the program must restart the PC and then will boot into a Linux based recovery environment to perform the clone operation.  Thus my reason for stating that the recovery media be used to perform the operation.

It ssounds to me like this is where your problem lies in your failed attempts.  I think your PC for some reason cannot boot into the Linux based recovery environment,  Using just the boot media you should be able to figure out what the problem is in booting your machine.  Possibly your bios is not setup to boot from a Legacy/MBR source, could be set to UEFI only for example.  Figure out how to boot your machine from the recovery environment and you will be able to clone your machine.

It is entirely possible to clone from larger to smaller disk as long as the total amount of data on disk does not eceed available space on the destination disk,  I will say that you are close to the maximum limit in this but you still should br able to pull it off.  Using the proportion method will automayically adjust partition size of the destination disk.

In general it is advixed that the destination or target disk be installed in the PC in the same place as the source disk is/was installed and the source disk is attached to the machine via USB cable/dock or spare internal connector.

Because of the requiremnt that source disks in a clone procedure be offline to perform the clone than it goes that you csnnot use your PC during the procedure.  I would not worry about that to much as the entire operstion should finish in minutes rather than hours.

Once the clone completes shutdown the PC and disconnect the source disk then restart the PC so that boot is to the new disk.  After this is done you can then attach the source disk back to the PC for repurposing if desired.

@Enchantech:

Thanks for the information -- now I think I understand how Acronis True Image is supposed to work -- should make it a whole lot easier in the future.

Also, I was a bit premature in my posting on this site. Even though the software generated 80 of these errors (see attached photo -- not sure how to use the IMCE correctly) which also popped up in the log, the clone successfully completed, from the desktop application, albeit over the course of 1.5+ hrs. All I did was hit "Ignore All" and then it told me it successfully completed. I've since verified that the clone is in perfect working order.

However, I will (based on the information you have so generously provided) attempt to use the bootable recovery media for the next clone operation -- as time is a factor.

Thank you so much!

--IT

@Thread:

EDIT: I can now see this is not the case.

Is Acronis Recovery Media the same as Acronis Startup Recovery Manager?

--IT

For the most part yes.  However, ASRM tweaks the windows bootloader and replaces it with Acronis during the process.  Some users have reported that if it fails to launch properly, it may not revert the Windows bootloader correctly and can prevent Windows from launching.  IN those cases, a Windows startup repair may be necessary.  As a result, personally, I stick with offline recovery media since this situation is entirely avoidable by using the media.  It really boils down to personal preference and willingness to accept the possible risk associated with ASRM though. 

@Bobbo_3C0X1:

Didn't realize there was replacement of the boot loader failure risk attached to clicking that button in Acronis True Image... *sigh* Hope everything still boots properly xD

Yeah, motherboards and security changes (secureboot, disabling CSM by default, etc) have complicated this a bit more with newer UEFI systems.  Most people should work fine, but really depends on the bios configuration and how it's configured.  "Usually" if it fails to boot into the ASRM environment, it will just reboot back into Windows, but there are a handful of people who end up with a no OS detected message when they first go through this :(. 

The convenience is really nice, and it should remain active even if the hard drive dies (tied to the bios) which is also nice.  I just prefer to not take the risk since it's just as easy (for me) to pop in a USB recovery flash drive and boot to that instead.  Most of the MVPs will agree that using the offline recovery media for cloning and/or full system restores, is the best way to go, but it really comes down to personal preference and the positive or negative impression people have had with using ASRM. 

If it enabled without issue for you, you should be able to continue using it safely.  

The other issue that may get some people are those that use RAID (even if not an actual RAID 0 or 1, the SATA mode is set to RAID).  In those cases, the Linux offline bootable recovery and/or ASRM which is Linux based, may not have the necessary RAID controller (IRST) drivers and is often the problem.  This may be more of an issue as newer systems are being built with NVME PCIE hard drives and the SATA mode is set to RAID by default (even with a 1 drive setup).  In those cases, the only real option is to use WinPE based Acronis Recovery media. IF all is working on your system though and ASRM boots OK and sees your internal hard drive, then nothing to worry about. 

IT Department wrote:

@Thread:

EDIT: I can now see this is not the case.

Is Acronis Recovery Media the same as Acronis Startup Recovery Manager?

--IT

How or what is this not the case? 

Enchantech wrote:

IT Department wrote:

@Thread:

EDIT: I can now see this is not the case.

Is Acronis Recovery Media the same as Acronis Startup Recovery Manager?

--IT

 

How or what is this not the case? 

As in,  they're similar, but they're not the same. As in, I clicked on "Activate Acronis Startup Recovery Manager" w/in the Acronis True Image application and it reacted/acted differently than when I created a recovery media device using "Rescue Media Builder". I thought it would basically do the same thing (which it does) but it achieves it in different ways. And the former failed for me, so following all of your advice and the advice of this thread, I created the recovery media.

--IT

Ok, I understand now, sounds like you're on the right track.