Clone/Restore 500GB seagate laptop HDD to Toshiba 256Gb SSD
I have an Asus Vivobook F200CA laptop, 500Gb 5400RPM Seagate HDD, 4DB Ram win 8.1 . Using ATI 2014, I have followed the instructions on https://forum.acronis.com/forum/38522#comment-120956 word for word (at lease I think I have, clearly I'm doing something wrong!!!) have performed the backup and restore at least 5-6 times (without any errors during the backup and restore process) but still cannot boot from the SSD after I get finished doing the restore. I get error code 0xc0000225 "You'll need to use recovery tools on....." I boot from the HDD and attached the "cloned" SDD to the laptop via USB to compare the two, the only difference that I can see, is that the C partition is marked as "boot" where the corresponding partition on the SSD is not (please see image attached file). It is a GPT drive, as far as I know (and according to the post) there is not any way to mark a partition as active. Any help would be greatly appropriated. I have seen other posts with the same exact issue, but have not seen any solutions yet. As much as I hate to (since just upgraded to 2014 in June), I be willing to upgrade to ATI 2015, if I was assured it would solve my problem. I'm fairly familiar with the functionality of ATI as i have been using it for awhile (going back to version 2009). I have cloned clients MBR HDD numerous times in the past without any problems, but this is the first time that I have tried to do GPT HDD to SSD "clone". I have also tried the actual cloning utility, by using a bootable flash drive on this laptop and also with the source and target drives in a different computer, and still no joy. I have worked on this for over a week now, and I don't know what else to try. Thank you in advance for any input on this.
I'll preface this reply with the caveat that I have very limited experience with UEFI systems, but it is obvious from your screenshot that the boot files are on Disk 0. To get Disk 2 to boot you need to have a BCD on the EFI system partition on Disk 2. I think that the tool you need is Microsoft's bcdboot command, which is available in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), in any Windows 7 or 8 WinPE build, or on a Windows installation DVD. I would try this:
1. Remove all disks from the machine except for the non-booting Disk 2. Install this disk in its intended location.
2. Boot the machine from a Windows DVD or a PE disk or a Windows Recovery Environment disk, like Echantech has recommended.
3. Go to a command prompt and find out the drive letter of the Windows partition. When booted to a recovery disk, this may not be C:, but it will be when you boot from the HDD once it is working. For the sake of this illustration, let's say that WinRE has assigned drive letter D: to the Windows partition.
4. Enter the command bcdboot D:\Windows (or substitute the correct drive letter as seen in WinRE). This should copy the boot files to and create a BCD on the EFI system partition, thus identifying the Windows partition as the "Boot (Microsoft's terminology), Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition".
Have a look at this article for the syntax of the bcdboot command: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh824874.aspx
Disclaimer: I haven't run a test to verify this, but at this point I don't think you have anything to lose by trying.
Thank you Enchantech and Mark Wharton for your replies. My problem seem to be repeated and similar to another posts here, and identical to post "50910: Cloning to a SSD started on Sun, 2013-12-29 02:24" by YenBee. Obviously this is not a unique problem and will not go away by itself without Acronis' help. It is clear that the software has work great in the past and has a great following. Now with the introduction of newer technologies it needs to adapt. I wish someone with Acronis software would give us some sort of guidance and solution, so that us dedicated and loyal followers would not have to get so damn frustrated by having to try to solve these issues by trial and error in complete dark. I understand that most issues could be solved via collaboration of others' experiences in the forums, but at some point all we are doing is banging our heads against the wall without getting closer to a solution. I think I'm done with Acronis and ATI software. It's time to find another imaging software that works flawlessly that I can "image" drives as it is one of my primary tasks that I do at least once or twice per week. I used Norton Ghost (back in windows 95 and 98 era) until Symantec/Norton decided not to keep up with technology, then found Acronis True Image (since ATI 2009), and now its clearly time to find a new software that works as it was intended to without me having to jump through hoops. OK I think I'm finished ranting now!!!