Acronis 2013 HDD Clone Corrupted Source Drive
I just bought TI 2013 and was using the default settings to clone my new laptop HDD to a USB hdd. In the very early steps it said I had to restart the laptop and it did so automatically. On startup I got the MBR error 1 and error 3 and asked for a floppy. I tried to go to the Windows XP (SP3) install CD and it now gives me a BSOD with STOP: 0x0000007B. I googled and it adviced I go to my system BIOS and set the HDD to IDE. Doing so allows the XP Install CD to start Windows and on the HDD their is an unpartitioned 8MB and the rest of the HDD space is an unknown partition. What gives? With a mature product like TI if the partition on the laptop was unusual or atypical it should have caught that and notified me rather than take me to a corrupted state. I searched the Aconis forum and found a bootable iso file to restore the MBR but that now says it cannot find the operating system! I hope it was not just a fixmbr type program because on Google it seems that destroys the partition table. Again for a mature product there should be checks and warnings, eg if cloning can be destructive to the source drive there should be a warning to first back up your files, etc. Seems like a bad situation for me now. Any advice to recover?
thanks for the warning for future backups. Any advice how to make the drive bootable again while recognizing the existing partition?
You could restore a full disk backup you made prior to the clone (which you should have done, and both we and Acronis recommend prior to any clone).
You can use a Windows repair disk, or Windows installation disk to repair the installation.
I guess you read my two sentences of 'rant' but not the 7 sentences where I described that I tried your suggestions already. SO let me go back to a rant - IMHO any mature cloning product that can disrupt the source drive without lots of warning flags is a not a mature product . TI 2013 should have warned me to disconnect the USB drive before asking to Restart, rather than leave it mentioned in some obscure sentence in a long help file. You can be defensive about it but that doesn't change the facts. I am sure that TI 2013 is an excellent file/image backup product but it gets a Zero from me on the Cloning part even though I am sure a highly experienced MVP user like yourself would have achieved a perfect result.
I guess you read my two sentences of 'rant' but not the...
I guess that can happen when you bury everything in one dense, long paragraph. If you want us to read it, make it readable.
TI 2013 should have warned me to disconnect the USB drive before asking to Restart, rather than leave it mentioned in some obscure sentence in a long help file.
Good idea. However, it's covered in the manual, the many tutorials, and virtually every help thread here where we discuss cloning.
You can be defensive about it
I'm not defensive. Nothing to defend. It's not my product and I don't work for Acronis. I'm just advising you that you chose a risky path without checking into best practice.
it gets a Zero from me on the Cloning part even though I am sure a highly experienced MVP user like yourself would have achieved a perfect result.
As a highly experienced user, I choose backup and restore rather than the risky one-shot clone process. So, even though I know the best way to perform a clone, I also know that there are better methods than cloning.
The manual section on cloning starts with a warning and follows with a clear statement:
"Warning! If you clone a disk with Windows to an external USB hard drive, you will not be able to boot from it. Windows does not support booting from external USB hard drives. Please clone to internal SSD or HDD instead."
"No data will be lost because the original disk is only being read (no partitions are changed or resized). The system transfer procedure does not alter the original disk at all. After the procedure finishes, you might want to format the old disk or securely wipe the data it contains. Use Windows tools or Acronis DriveCleanser for these tasks."
So please explain where is the warning to disconnect the USB drive during the Acronis prompts for the cloning steps? More importantly, if TI 2013 is a read only process why did my source become unbootable? I still don't see anything in the User Guide that addresses this issue.
if TI 2013 is a read only process why did my source become unbootable?
As I said, it's probably that the source drive was rendered unbootable by Windows (not by Acronis). This happens to many users who inadvisedly leave both drives connected when Windows reboots. The key is to remove one drive prior to letting Windows boot. If you did a backup and restore, there's be no such risk.
Mr. Tuttle... What are you smoking? "...(not by Acronis)" I refuse to believe you don't have some interest in Acronis - they probably deliver the software free to your door by courier. USB drives, bootable or not, on cold boot don't cause Windows to corrupt a PC/laptops IDE/ACHI hdd UNLESS the cloning software did something to alter the MBR or boot partition of the source drive. TI 2013 User Manual says they don't do that but clearly it does something to the source HDD which leaves it in an altered susceptible state. Instead of blaming Windows (which has enough reasons to be blamed for other issues), Acronis should make the cloning steps, particularly in automatic mode, more bullet proof.
You're not listening to me. You can reproduce the issue even without Acronis involved. Install or connect two Windows OS drives in the PC, boot into Windows. One of the drives will be rendered unbootable. Windows does it. That's why we tell users not to allow Windows to boot with two OS drives concurrently.
As you refuse to accept an MVP's statements and advice, I see little reason for you to be here. You might as well just contact Acronis directly.
Please believe me I am not trying to be obstinate but I don't think you are listening to me. This was not two bootable drives in a desktop. It was a unformatted external HDD attached via USB to a laptop. Furthermore, in the 50,000+ company I work for with an IT group of >100, we routinely attach "bootable"external USB HDD drives to a laptop without ANY such problem that you describe. If I want to boot from the USB I either invoke the multiboot F key on powerup or change the boot sequence in the BIOS. I dont understand why you are so extremely defensive over TI 2013... it seems easier for you to blame me or Windows.