It's 2018, why can't a clone a large HDD to smaller SSD??
I needed to clone a Win10 1tb HDD to 256gb SSD, I realized I would have to make an image and restore to do this.
I set up all the goofy HP partitions and tried several times, no boot, just errors.
I tried both Linux and Win10 PE boot CDs. Acronis 2018 latest version.
I ended up using Macrium Reflect and that worked. still had to make an image and manually align all the partitions the best I could.
I also tried Easeus Todo backup home (not the free version) and no boot with that either after the partition align process.
I tried to clone several times with both Linux and Win10 PE boot CD and no go. I can't be installing on all my PCs/laptops. it also has so many processes running.
Using the boot media is fine. The process is the same in either case. Select Tools, Clone disk, and automatic. Select source disk and target disk. Proceed. Works every time for me!
yes, works if both disk same size. if smaller SSD will not clone.
If that is the case then the smaller disk must lack sufficient capacity for the amount of data to transfer.
there was plenty of room. all data was copied, it just wouldn't boot.
it worked with macrium free.
Had another poster with a similar problem. Solution was to use an earlier version of the product which worked.
This seems to be issue for a small number of users at this point. My question to you would be, in your case were you, like the user in the link, working with a Legacy boot MBR disk (no UEFI)? If yes that would be a common denominator in the problem.
In any case you should report this to Acronis Support and when you do, you should reference both this Forum thread and the one I am linking to HERE
yes, MBR. I saw that post also. thanks for the reply.
IMO SSD's do not like to be cloned to. Can't really explain it. They can go into protection mode and block the process. I always make an image of the source drive instead. Then restore the image to the new SSD, adjust the partition sizes if needed before the restore. Works every time for me.
Good luck
Bill
That is the only way I was able to complete the job, it's just wouldn't boot. this is the second time that happened to me. both HDDs were MBR.
My last experience with cloning an MBR disk was with ATI 2014 Linux media which worked fine. After that I moved to UEFI GPT and have cloned numerous disks with both Linux and WinPE based media without a failure. I only clone Windows OS disks and I always run my OS installs on SSD's.
Why MBR disks are exhibiting this behavior is a mystery and should be investigated by Support. Please open support tickets if you experience this issue.
Just to balance this topic, I do not have any UEFI / GPT drives and only do cloning of MBR drives. I did such a clone over the weekend using the latest ATI 2018 build 10640 rescue media (using the option to start the clone from within Windows but restarting to actually perform the clone). This went fine and both the original and the cloned drive were able to boot into Windows 10 with no problem. This was for a triple-boot OS drive with Windows 10 Insiders / 1709 Fall Creators Update and Ubuntu 16.04 OS's, all of which booted fine from the cloned drive.
This suggests that there is something else at play here than just a MBR drive and opening a Support Case to let Acronis help investigate would be good advice.
It has worked fine for me if both drives are the exact same size. when the SSD is smaller than the HDD it has not been able to boot after making an image and restoring to the smaller drive, adjusting things manually to fit.
Right now I am trying to uninstall Acronis form my PC and it does nothing. I get the UAC prompt and that's it. I have created a ticket with Acronis and really hope I will be able to uninstall it.
Tim, to uninstall ATI, if trying to do this via the normal Control Panel > Programs & Features option, then make sure that there are no active Acronis Services or Processes - stop any Services first before ending any Processes.
After doing the above, then use the Acronis Cleanup Tool to remove any residue left behind (link in my signature).
I disabled all the Acronis services I could find, rebooted. didn't see anything in the processes. still, no go on uninstall.
I get the UAC prompt and nothing.
Did you run the Cleanup tool https://kb.acronis.com/content/48668 as Steve suggested. It should work even if the standard windows installer does not.
I downloaded the install file and that uninstalled it. running the cleanup tool doesn't hurt? thanks
Cleanup tool should not be an issue - i've run it several times in the past to help ensure I have a "fresh" install of Acronis when migrating to new "major" version which seemed necessary in some of the versions going from pre-2015 up to 2015 and newer versions.
Sometimes, clone will not boot if the old drive and new drive are both connected at the same time - the bios has to be able to identify each drive independently or it views them as the same and that can cause issues. Also, on some motherboards, you still have to go into the bios and re-pick the boot order because it may appear differently to the bios itself.
In an old version of Acronis, when I cloned from SSD to NVME PCIE it would not boot either because the drive was "locked" by the OS due to hibernation (Windows fastboot). To get around that, I had to boot that particular system to safemode first (F8). ON newer windows 10 systems, F8 is not available by default, it may have to fail to boot 3 times in a row before it becomes an option to boot in recovery mode.
cleanup tool seemed to work well.
what is the option "remove extended capacity disks" about? I said no for now.
thanks
Extended capacity disks is a throw back to a time before Windows 7 and above included support for larger capacity drives, when additional device drivers were needed to support such drives.
Acronis included such drive support in earlier versions of the product but this was removed some years ago, so most users will never need this option of the cleanup tool.
Running into this as well. 2014 version auto resized the partitions appropriately, 2018 won't clone without forcing me to remove files. Guess I'll see if I can try an older version
Ran into this today trying to clone 48GB of data on a 500GB HDD to a 120GB SSD. I swear I've done this many, many times and Acronis would just resize the partitions accordingly. So then I thought, maybe I've only done this with image backup and restores. So I do an image backup and still can't recover it to the smaller SSD.
So I'm wondering if this is a bug. Also using MBR disks as I almost always do for OS drives.
I just switched over to the competitor software and its cloning it as I write this. Got part way through then says there are File System errors and offers to fix them for me and then continues on.
So this looks like there could be a physical issue with the source drive causing problems. Prior to all this, I've ran the HDD through Seagate twice on long hdd tests and did not have errors. But Win7 was SOOOO slow (hence the move to SSD), that I can believe there is something else wrong with the drive.
tl;dr: If you are having problems cloning to smaller drive that has the space for the actual data, then you may have filesystem errors and you need to do a chkdsk on it first.
File system errors can be present on any partition on the source drive and will impact any clone operation when encountered. CHKDSK will help for partitions with an allocated drive letter but not for those partitions which are Hidden or System with no drive letters unless manual action is taken to give drive letters to them.
That's good to mention, but the takeway was really for Acronis to do better checking, validating and error handling. They have ALWAYS been very poor at handling errors than other software.
Tons of posts . . . .Acronis can't clone from a 1TB (old spinning drive) to a 500GB SSD. The ENTIRE reason I purchased Acronis was to do one job. . . . .and it is failing EPICALLY!!!!!
How Epically? Source 1TB (using 200gb of space total) Target 500GB blank drive.
Acronis tells me I need 14.4TB of more space to clone this disk.
Hey Acronis. . . .get you stuff fixed. IF not your reputation is going to crash as fast as your company.
@James Green This is a user forum, it is not a means of making your views known to Acronis. Please use in app feedback or contact technical support for assistance (although if you are using ATI 2018 - as indicated by posting in this forum area - it is out of support; you would have to pay.
I have successfully cloned to both smaller and larger drives, so it is possible.
One question, have you tried doing backup then doing a restore to the new drive. When cloning a system drive it is always best to do so using the recovery media. While I have successfully done live clones there is always the possibility of something going wrong (particularly if Acronis decides it is necessary to boot into the recovery media which means it uses a temporary Linux installation which can result in very odd things happening). Things a less likely to go wrong cloning using the recovery media, but in all cases I would make a backup before cloning.
Ian
I simply downloaded the free Aoemi Backupper and told it to clone and BOOM. . .off it goes. One click, two click three click done. I only have a few hundred pcs to upgrade so of course I want the most painful solution possible right? Acronis used to be that way.
Given that you have a large number of PCs to upgrade it is possible that Acronis Snap Deploy 5 may be a better solution. However do not know if it will cope with upgrading HDD to SSD. Logically it should be able to do so. It will also offer many other advantages. May I suggest you try the trial version and see if it is the solution for you.
Ian
@James Green
You probably don't want to be telling them how you're using the home licensed product in a commercial setting. And if you really had several hundred PC's to upgrade, you'd be silly not to use software that could restore to multiple PC's at once.
Also, from previous experience when something like that happens, your source disk likely is corrupt/broken in some way.
That being said, yes, their cloning code has only gotten worse, IMO. The estimated times are nonsensical and regularly wants me to reboot to finish cloning a disk when other software doesn't require reboots (for years, now). Last night, I had one where it wanted to reboot at the very end of a clone (at the END?! request it at the start or don't at all), and I cancelled and it still booted properly.
I have run into this issue from time to time. The only workaround (if the clone tool gives you the error) is to make an image of the larger drive, and then restore that image to the smaller drive.