Cloning wiped out my hard drive!

Arnie,

Did you use the clone function of Acronis?

This is rarely used. TYpically, users want to have a way to restore their computer to a prior state in case of a disaster. To do this, you run a disk and partition backup of the system disk at a minimum (all partitions) and you store that backup on another disk (typically an external USB disk).

Now we have to repair this. Let's see what is left on your system disk.

First off, unplug any external disk, boot on the Win 7 DVD, select, install, repair, command prompt.
Enter DISKPART
Enter List disks
Do you see your system disk in the list?
Enter Select disk 0 (assuming this is the number of your system disk)
Enter List Partitions
What do you see listed there?

I put the original drive in with the Win7 OS and did what you said:

Partition ### Type Size Offset
----------------- ---------- -------- --------
Partition 1 Primary 465 GB 31 KB

OK.

Assuming you are still in DISKPART
Enter Select Partition 1
Enter Active
Enter List Volume
Verify C: is there, hopefully with the System Label
Enter Exit to exit diskpart. You are now back at the command prompt
Enter C:
Enter dir Boot*.*
Do you see the boot directory and the bootmgr files there?

If yes, we are in good shape.

Reboot without any external drives.
If it doesn't reboot, reboot on the Windows DVD
Select Install, Repair, Startup Repair.
Let it fix something.
Reboot. If it doesn't reboot, reboot on the Window DVD...
You might have to do it a few times as it fixes only one thing at a time.

When I looked on C: and typed in "dir boot *.*" it only found at Temp Directory and said free space of 499gb free (it's a 500gb drive), so I guess Acronis really did erase my hard drive AND didn't copy anything to the target drive. Am I screwed? Is there some kind of bootable undelete program somewhere? And why would this happen anyway? It seems that acronis is lethal.

Arnie,

Cloning is a risky operation... If you do not do it right, you can screw up your disks. Backing up is much much less dangerous.

Let's look at your clone disk.
Plug the USB disk in,
Boot on the Windows DVD, install, repair, command prompt as before
Enter Diskpart
Enter list disk. Let's assume you have your USB disk as disk 1
Enter Select disk 1
Enter List Partition
What do you see?

Enter List Volume
What do you see? Assume you see a volume D:

Enter Exit
Enter D:
Enter Dir Boot*.*
Do you see your boot file and folder?
Enter Dir *.*
Does it look like a full copy of your previous disk?

I plugged in the "cloned" disc and it's completely empty. So Acronis deleted my main drive and didn't even copy anything over.

All I wanted to do was make an exact copy of my main hard drive to another hard drive, essentially having two identical disks. Or at least have an "image" of the main disk so when it became messed up, I'd have a perfect copy to restore. So how would I do that with Acronis? And what would the cloning option be useful for? It seems nothing because it just deletes my whole drive.

Arnie,

It is likely that what happened is that you cloned your disk onto itself... That would explained why you have nothing on your target disk while your original disk has been wiped out.
You might have some luck salvaging some data with recovery software.
You will have to try various ones. Some have a free evaluation version that can show you what could be recovered, but you have to pay to be able to recover the data.

I think you're right about the cloning incident. I guess I'll reinstall my OS. Thanks for helping me though.

Arnie,
Sadly, as you have found, there is a risk to cloning. Perhaps some of my guides can help. Click on my signature below and looks at items #3-BB, 3-CC and 3-DD. My cloning guides always include a risk warning. Whether the guides can help will depend upon the type of cloning your are doing--such as whether going to a larger or smaller disk as well as how your partitions are arranged. The below is a little late but may be of some assistance.