Migrating Windows 8.1 to an SSD
I have Acronis TI Home 2014 installed on my desktop system (Windows 7). I have a Windows 8.1 ultrabook (no optical drive) with a 500GB HDD that I want to migrate to a 130GB SSD. I have physically pulled the HDD out of the laptop and connected it and the SSD to my desktop rig via SATA ports on my motherboard. What do I need to do to get this to work?
I have tried to do a backup of the HDD and restore it to the SSD, but the SSD isn't big enough (obviously). I re-sized the OS partition on the HDD so that the allocated space on the HDD (including the recovery partition and system partitions) would fit on the SSD. Then, I tried to clone the HDD to the SSD, but the SSD won't boot into Windows when I put it back in the ultrabook.
I created an Acronis bootable USB using the software and it works just fine on my desktop system. However, it won't boot properly on the ultrabook. It will start to load, takes me to the screen where I select the restore option, starts to load the option, but then the system restarts and the process just repeats.
What am I missing? How can I migrate my ultrabook HDD to the SSD?

- Anmelden, um Kommentare verfassen zu können

While booted in Windows.
I had a support chat session last night and he explained that I was doing that wrong. We tried to boot the laptop from the HDD and then clone to the SSD via USB. The problem I keep running into, though, is that the Acronis boot loader isn't working on the laptop. It is a Windows 8 system, so I have turned off UEFI and set to legacy boot, but it still doesn't work.
As I described before, when it boots into the Acronis loader, it takes me to the screen where I can choose the Acronis recovery option. After a few seconds, I get a black screen with an Acronis logo in the upper-left corner and a message that says, "Loading, please wait..." After a few seconds of that, the system restarts and the process just repeats all over again. It never loads into the Acronis recovery OS.
I know it's not a hardware issues because the system runs just fine with the original drive. It has to be an issue with either a BIOS setting that I'm missing or the boot loader. I just don't know what I'm missing here and it's very frustrating and wasting a ton of time.
- Anmelden, um Kommentare verfassen zu können

If you cannot get your Acronis recovery CD to boot on your Windows 8.1, you are stuck. One option is to upgrade to the Premium version and to produce a WinPE based recovery CD or, event better, a MustangPE-based recovery CD (better if you have your backups on the network).
- Anmelden, um Kommentare verfassen zu können

Josh, In addition to turning off UEFI most new laptops also have a Secure Boot feature that must be disabled as well. Check your documentation or do an online search for your machine, maybe that is causing your issue with the Acronis Boot Media not loading.
- Anmelden, um Kommentare verfassen zu können

I believe I turned off Secure Boot as well, but I will verify that tonight or tomorrow when I have a chance to work on this again. I believe if I didn't have it turned off, it wouldn't be able to boot into the USB at all like I am able to. It just doesn't want to finish loading and reboots instead.
I did the free upgrade to 2015 last night in hopes that it was a bug that was fixed in the new release, but that didn't help. How can I go about upgrading to premium now? I'll be honest, this is my first experience using Acronis and I'm not impressed. If I can't get this resolved by Monday, I will likely be turning to a competitor for a solution that works.
- Anmelden, um Kommentare verfassen zu können

You can upgrade to the premium version from the Support site. Some of the new ultrabooks are a bear to boot from bootable media. I own one and it took me several tries with switching on/off both UEFI and Secure Boot to get the right combination. In my case if I disabled Secure boot by itself the machine would boot to the USB drive. I will say that in most cases if your machine fails to boot to the USB on a first attempt it is wise to change whatever it was you disabled back to what it was to begin with and boot the machine back into the bios without the USB attached. Then reattach the USB, reboot into bios, make another change, reboot again and see what happens. USB is finicky that way sometimes. There have been users whom could not get a USB stick to boot period. The most fail safe way to boot bootable media is using a CD/DVD drive and yes I know your machine is not equipped with one.
- Anmelden, um Kommentare verfassen zu können

If you updated to 2015, you already have all of the functionality and more that was included in the Premium version of 2014.
https://kb.acronis.com/content/48152
The link above has instructions on creating WinPE in 2015. You'll need to download the Acronis media add-on and the Windows 8.1 ADK. The program will point you to the locations to download correct versions.
- Anmelden, um Kommentare verfassen zu können

not sure if you would consider this as an option, but after bashing my head against the wall that is USB booting with ultrabooks I decided to spend $25 on an external DVD drive. Heck, in your case you could simply use the drive to get things squared away and then return it /shrug
(I work on a LOT of different computers, and sometimes I even plug it in just to get around using an old drive that is making scary noises)
I wouldn't suggest that Acronis is to blame for the issue you are facing. Microsoft has failed HARD with their implementation of "security" to the boot methods of Windows 8 computers. Sad state of affairs to be certain ...
- Anmelden, um Kommentare verfassen zu können

Joey wrote:If you updated to 2015, you already have all of the functionality and more that was included in the Premium version of 2014.https://kb.acronis.com/content/48152
The link above has instructions on creating WinPE in 2015. You'll need to download the Acronis media add-on and the Windows 8.1 ADK. The program will point you to the locations to download correct versions.
I've followed all of the steps, but I can't find where I am able to select a USB drive for the bootable WinPE media. I can select an ISO, WMI or CD/DVD, but no USB. How can I put it on a USB?
- Anmelden, um Kommentare verfassen zu können

Create the iso. Then format a usb drive fat32 or fat. Then double click the iso file in windows 8.1 to mount it in windows explorer. Then just copy those files to the usb drive.
- Anmelden, um Kommentare verfassen zu können

I wound up using a freeware piece of software (ISOtoUSB) to do it and this process finally worked! Thank heavens! Thank you all for your help.
- Anmelden, um Kommentare verfassen zu können